Let me take a few minutes to share lessons from an interesting interview with the founder of Amazon.com. A few minutes into the discussion at the Internet Association Gala 2017, Jeff Bezos, shares the secrets of Amazon’s success. The beauty behind the success of most great companies is that the reasons are so simple. The secrets are so obvious, you can hardly consider them secrets. Amazons secret sauce is the same.

Jeff outlined a few very simple principles behind Amazon’s success. These principles earned him the title of the richest man in America for the first-time.

1) Amazons culture does not simply focus on customer experience. They turn this statement into a passion with a focus on ‘Customer Obsession.’ There are different models that different companies use instead like; competitor obsession, product obsession, industry obsession and so on.

2) Even if customers are happy, they still want something better. It is Amazon’s job to constantly invent new things that provide an even better customer experience.

3) Don’t focus on the short term, have a long-term view. Have a five-year view. Don’t just look at having a good next Quarter. He mentioned that quarter results are already baked. Quarter results are based on management decisions years ago. Focusing on the future changes the way you plan and focus your energy.

4) Experimentation and failing is supported in Amazon. Innovation goes together with customer obsession.

5) Identify 2-3 big ideas and force great execution. For Amazon, it’s low prices, fast delivery, and vast selection. Ten years from today no customer in his right mind would go to Amazon and request a slower delivery. No customer will request for higher prices and less selection. These are obvious things. Big ideas are often so obvious that we don’t see them.

6) Most overnight success takes about ten years. Hard work and perseverance is needed to create an ‘overnight’ success.

Companies cannot claim that their Invention is disruptive. New products and services are not and cannot be disruptive. Only customer acceptance is disruptive. Why are customers going to like it? Why would customers buy your product or service?

Lots of people dispense advise and tips. However, when the tip comes from someone valued at $109 Billion running a 22-year-old company valued at $702.5 Billion then one thing is for certain. The tip may be worth thinking about from the perspective of our own companies.

Social media is a great tool to connect and remain connected with your friends and love ones. It is also a great source of current events. Social media, specifically Facebook or FB, has become part of our daily lives. We use it to keep tabs on what our friends and relatives are up to. We post events, thoughts and photos to share with our network. One fascinating benefit of using Facebook is being able to find and reach out to long lost classmates, colleagues and childhood friends. Friends that would be impossible to find if not for Facebook.

We check our Facebook account before we go to bed. For some of us, the first thing we pick-up after we wake-up is our smartphone to check the latest updates on FB. We have a nice dinner with friends and half the people around the table are hunched over swiping their FB account.

Like any other tool, FB can be good and bad for us. Bad, if used more than it should be. Too much use of FB can stifle social skills. When I was younger, my brothers and I used to run out of the house to get together with other kids in the neighborhood. This helped develop a few things; our social skills and ability to read body language, our communication skills, our body through physical activities with other kids. Today, the digital world has lessened the need for kids to physically interact with one another. I have encountered people in their 20’s that are socially awkward. They do not know how to carry themselves or interact with others.

Kids have less physical activities than before. Instead of being out of the house playing physical sports, they are stuck in front of iPads or big screen TV’s playing video games. The only muscle they develop are their fingers.

FB is also used as a sounding board for negative people that live to rant and complain. It is also used to make some people’s lives look more glamourous and exciting than it is. A huge percentage of photos are selfies. Some users are even obsessed over how many likes their selfies draw.

Facebook is neither good or bad. It’s simply a medium for expression and sharing. Like any tool, it is how we use it that makes it either good or bad.

You want to share a memorable moment? Go ahead and share the moment with your friends and love ones. I do this all the time. Just be conscious if your use of FB has become an addiction or obsession.

How can you tell if you are addicted? If Facebook is the first thing you regularly check when you wake up in the morning then there is a problem. If you get upset when your selfie does not get huge ‘likes’ then definitely something is wrong. If you constantly rant on Facebook about everything that irks you then you might need to abstain from logging in for a while.

Facebook is very useful if used properly. Use it properly.

We have no other talent pool to take from. We have no other pool to select successors for key positions in your company. In the next few years, we will only have the Millennial pool to pick and develop talent from.

When it comes to Generation Y or Millennials, we have three choices:
1. We Villainize them. We choose to brand them as the corporate enemy refusing or incapable of doing things our way.
2. We Tolerate them. We choose to treat them as a necessary evil.
3. We Engage them. We adjust and develop them to be future leaders and managers.

Frankly, if we were to make sure that our company survives and even thrives after the Baby Boomers and Gen-X have left, then we only have option #3.

It is not easy and that is exactly why we developed a management development program called ‘Understanding and Managing Millennials”. The program, designed for supervisors and managers, is a combination of a one day classroom lecture with a 30 day on the job assignment and mentoring.

If your company has such Millennial challenges, then please have your assistant reach out to us. We will be more than happy to drop by and discuss the matter with you.

We also encourage you to read the article below.

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11 Tips for Managing Millennials BY SUSAN M. HEATHFIELD

The millennials joining your workforce now are employees born between 1980 and 2000, or 1981 and 1999, depending on the source. Unlike the Gen-Xers and the Baby Boomers, the Millennials have developed work characteristics and tendencies from doting parents, structured lives, and contact with diverse people.

Millennials are used to working in teams and want to make friends with people at work. Millennial employees work well with diverse coworkers.

They grew up in an environment in which diverse children were the norm.

Millennials have a can-do attitude about tasks at work and look for feedback about how they are doing frequently—even daily and certainly weekly. Millennials want a variety of tasks and expect that they will accomplish every one of them. Positive and confident, millennials are ready to take on the world.

They seek leadership, and even structure, from their older and managerial coworkers, but expect that you will draw out and respect their ideas. Millennials seek a challenge and do not want to experience boredom. Used to balancing many activities such as teams, friends, and philanthropic activities, millennials want flexibility in scheduling and a life away from work.

Millennials need to see where their career is going and they want to know exactly what they need to do to get there. Millennials await their next challenge—and there better be a next challenge.

Millennials are the most connected generation in history and they will network right out of their current workplace if these diverse needs are not met. Computer experts, millennials are connected all over the world by email, instant messages, text messages, and the internet. Job searching, business contacts, and friends are just a couple of key taps away.

Know this because it really matters to millennials.

11 Tips for Millennial Management

1. Provide structure. Reports have monthly due dates. Jobs have fairly regular hours. Certain activities are scheduled every day. Meetings have agendas and minutes. Goals are clearly stated and progress is assessed. Define assignments and success factors. Millennials don’t need to be boxed in but they do need banks on their pond.

2. Provide leadership and guidance. Millennials want to look up to you, learn from you, and receive daily feedback from you. They want in on the whole picture and to know the scoop. Plan to spend a lot of time teaching and coaching and be aware of this commitment to millennials when you hire them. They deserve and want your very best investment of time in their success.

3. Encourage the millennial’s self-assuredness, “can-do” attitude, and positive personal self-image. Millennials are ready to take on the world. Their parents told them they can do it—and they can. Encourage—don’t squash them or contain them. They’re always looking to provide input and ideas. Encourage them to voice their thoughts and opinions.

4. Take advantage of the millennial’s comfort level with teams. Encourage them to join teams and provide a work environment that stresses teamwork. They are used to working in groups and teams. In contrast to the lone ranger attitude of earlier generations, millennials actually believe a team can accomplish more and better—they’ve experienced team success. Not just related to age, watch who joins the volleyball match at the company picnic. Millennials gather in groups and play on teams; you can also mentor, coach, and train your millennials as a team.

5. Listen to the millennial employee. Your millennial employees are used to loving parents who have scheduled their lives around the activities and events of their children. These young adults have ideas and opinions and don’t take kindly to having their thoughts ignored. After all, they had the best listening, the most child-centric audience in history.

6. Millennial employees are up for a challenge and change. Boring is bad. They seek ever-changing tasks within their work. What’s happening next is their mantra. Don’t bore them, ignore them, or trivialize their contribution.

7. Millennial employees are multi-taskers on a scale you’ve never seen before. Multiple tasks don’t phase them. Talk on the phone while doing email and answering multiple instant messages—yes! This is a way of life. In fact, without many different tasks and goals to pursue within the week, the millennials will likely experience boredom.

8. Take advantage of your millennial employee’s computer, cell phone, and electronic literacy. Are you a Boomer or even an early Gen-Xer? The electronic capabilities of these employees are amazing. You have a salesman in China? How’s the trip going? Old timers call and leave a message in his hotel room. Or, you can have your millennial text message him in his meeting for an immediate response. The world is wide, if not yet deep, for your millennial employees.

9. Capitalize on the millennial’s affinity for networking. Not just comfortable with teams and group activities, your millennial employee likes to network around the world electronically. Keep this in mind because they are able to post their resume electronically as well on web job boards viewed by millions of employers. They intermingle on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn and rate your company at Glassdoor.com. Sought after employees, they are loyal, but they keep their options open—always.

10. Provide a life-work balanced workplace. Your millennials are used to cramming their lives with multiple activities. They may play on sports teams, walk for multiple causes, spend time as fans at company sports leagues, and spend lots of time with family and friends. They work hard, but they are not into the sixty hour work weeks defined by the Baby Boomers. Home, family, spending time with the children and families, are priorities. Don’t lose sight of this. Balance and multiple activities are important to these millennial employees. Ignore this at your peril.

11. Provide a fun, employee-centered workplace. Millennials want to enjoy their work. They want to enjoy their workplace. They want to make friends in their workplace. Worry if your millennial employees aren’t laughing, going out with workplace friends for lunch, and helping plan the next company event or committee. Help your long-term employees make room for the millennials.
By internet research counts, 75,000,000 millennials are joining the workforce—in 2015 they became the majority of your workers. These are desirable employees. Make your millennial employees happy in a fun, yet structured setting, and you are building the foundation for the superior workforce you desire. You are developing the workforce of your future.

As always, when characterizing a particular group of employees based on age, or any other special characteristic, some employees will fit this description; some employees will fit a part of this description; some employees will not fit this description at all.

Yet, if you heed these tips, you will steer your organization forward, more times than not, with a positive approach to managing your millennial employees.

https://www.thebalance.com/tips-for-managing-millennials-1918678

I guess, here in the Philippines, employees really find it difficult to separate their personal feelings from work. You hear stories about managers personally reacting to their staff. Once you are out of favor from your manager, you suddenly find yourself at the sideline of the career track watching colleagues pass by you.

It also works both ways. When you dislike your manager, you will find yourself internally disagreeing with everything he wants done. Of course, to his face, you agree to his instructions only to find your motivation drop as you try and execute his wishes.

We Filipinos, are quick to mix our personal and work life. When I was still working back here in Far East Bank and Trust, I thought that this way of work was simply the norm. I did not know at the time that there is a better approach to working. I did not know what I did not know.

That was my mind set until I was fortunate enough to work for the largest commercial Bank in the Middle East, The National Commercial Bank. I was also fortunate enough to report to western expats; British, American and even Swiss Managers. It was at that time I realized you can separate both work and personal feelings. I realized that separating the two produces a better working environment.

I remember reporting to a career executive from Barclays Bank, Mr. Dave Jones. It was under his management that I learned a lot about true professional management.

There was an instance, I could never forget, when one of my managers came to me for help. Abdullah’s mother was in the hospital due to a terrible illness. Due of her extensive hospital and medical needs, Abdullahs HMO coverage had been fully used up.

Abdullah came to my office seeking for a personal loan on top of his existing personal loan. The Bank had a policy against ‘top-up’ loans. To ensure that personal loans are properly paid up and employees don’t get buried under a ton of personal loans, a policy was released disallowing top-up loans.

However, should a Department head (me) and a Division head (Dave) approve the top-up loan, HR will process it.

Arabs like Filipinos, are very close to parents. I could relate to what Abdullah was going through. I decided to sign the request. Of course, Dave needed to countersign as well to make it official.

I walked into Dave’s office so confident that he would also sign off on the request. After all, Dave also has a mother I assumed. I sat down on the chair beside his office meeting table. Dave stood up and walked over. I handed him the request and explained the situation. After reading it in silence for a few minutes, he placed the request down on the meeting table. He took off his reading glasses and looked at me. One word came out of his mouth ‘no’.

I was surprised and asked ‘Sorry Dave, no? We cannot grant Adbdullahs top-up request?’ Dave said that what Abdullah was going through is very unfortunate. However, he cannot grant the request. He explained further that breaking policy is the biggest cause of demotivation in a company. People will talk and say, ‘how come his requested got approved and mine was not’. Employees will think there is favoritism. That is always counterproductive.

Dave said that just because we should not break policy (work) it does not mean we cannot help. He pulls out SR2,000 or P22,000 and puts inside a brown envelop (personal). Dave instructs me to pass the envelope around and raise money for Abdullahs mother.

We really need to be observant on separating personal feelings from work. Dave mentioned several times, throughout the years I was reporting to him, that he may not like someone personally but it does not mean he will not work with him.

You don’t have to bring your colleague out for coffee or drinks after work but if you need to work with him/her then you work with him/her. Period.

Separate personal and work life. Your day will be much better for it.

t is not a coincidence that influential leaders are great communicators. Great companies have leaders that are great communicators. They understand the importance of timely and transparent communication.

Transparency and alignment:

When I was still working for the largest commercial Bank in the Middle East, our CEO would hold townhall meetings with 200 or so Bank executives. Abdulkarim will meet us every quarter and walk us through the company performance of the previous quarter. He also carefully outlines his aspiration for the coming quarter and the rest of the year. This allowed us, the Banks executives, to sync our Division goals to the Company goals.

Learning from mistakes:

We learn more from mistakes than we do from our successes. It is no wonder that companies that do not learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat them. Not once, but repeatedly. The best companies in the world takes the time to assess projects and marketing campaigns post implementation. They learn from each experience and share this knowledge with others.

Know thyself and verify:

It is important that managers assess themselves honestly every now and then. We need to have the humility to assess their own performance and get feedback from the people we manage. That takes courage and wisdom. Not to mention, the tons of learning that can be achieved and improvements applied.

Some final tips on getting better at communicating in our organization:
Does our messages align to our core values? Do we walk the talk?
Am I saying something that’s new and exciting?
Are we authentic when we communicate?
Am I sending my message to the correct people using the right medium?
Am i keeping my humility in check as I have healthy discussions?

After all, effective communication is all about the recipient. Is my message clear and understood by my audience? That’s what matters.

The most important responsibility of a manager is finding and hiring the right talent. It is unfortunate that in today’s business world, this is sometimes perceived as a secondary responsibility. I even met a few managers that simply pass on this responsibility to their direct reports. These managers cannot even be bothered to interview job candidates. They do not see it as value added.

The biggest waste of a manager’s focus is not giving enough attention in selecting the right candidate. That is why these managers usually end-up with the wrong hire. They end up with mediocre employees that they will need to exit the company sometime down the road.

Alen, the young Philippine Country Manager of a huge Japanese conglomerate, does not leave hiring to chance. He makes sure that he interviews every potential candidate in his company regardless of rank.

Bringing in the right employee starts with having what we call a sourcing strategy. You simply cannot afford to leave finding the best candidate to luck. There are companies we came across in our consulting work that would focus purely on job ads. It is important to remember that great employees are mostly employed. Good employees are never out of employment. Good employees seldom check job ads. That is why good employees need a nudge or two from their friends to jump ship. Friends that hopefully work for you.

You need to be clear on the competencies you are looking for and where to find them. Another truly mistaken assumption is that recruitment is purely the job of HR. Wrong! Recruitment is the job of every employee. Most often, the best finds are candidates that were referred by someone in the company. In some companies, they even have recruitment as part of everyone’s KPI or Key Performance Indicator. Personally, the best employees I had the privilege to work with were often referred by someone else in the company.

Filtering candidates from the rest of the pack is an important skill for a company to possess. Filtering is best done through a series of interviews. Interviewing is a critical skill and should not be taken lightly. Interviewing should be approached as a dialogue with a great deal of respect for the candidate. Interviewing is best done looking backward by questioning a candidates past experience. It is best approached looking in the past to see how the candidate tackled challenges or circumstances. The interview process needs to check if the candidate already possesses the core values of the company. It is funny to see managers that hire people with beliefs opposing the company core values. You find them struggling later trying to force fit the new employees into the company culture.

There are three additional things I seek for, on top of the normal job required competencies, in a candidate. The first is leadership potential. I seek signs of a future leader. Someone who seems comfortable leading teams, taking accountability and delivering on commitment. Second, I seek for someone that is curious, enjoys learning and reading. Third, I make sure that all my hires are optimistic. Nothing drains a team as fast as a negative team member. Great skills can get overshadowed by pessimism.

Selecting who to hire is a group effort. A person making the decision would at times be biased. Deciding on a hire needs to be a team responsibility. Three views are better than one. Coming into a consensus as a result of a good debate is healthy.

We are only as good as the people we bring into our organizations. Let us make sure that every single person we hire makes a positive difference and adds value to the company.

After all, hiring the right person is the most important responsibility a manager has.

My 22 minute Uber ride yesterday was different from the rest of the dozens rides I took before. Yesterday, I had the opportunity meet a dignified senior named Thomas.

Thomas is a 76 year old Uber driver that studied in the prestigious school of Ateneo. After getting through the usual small talk, he shared his experience attending the Victory Church in Greenhills. Pastor Dennis was talking about an upcoming game between La Salle and Ateneo. Pastor Dennis, hailing from La Salle, prayed for his school to win. Thomas and six other Atenistas walked out he recounted. Thomas did not take it personally and went back to attend Victory Greenhills for the next few years.

Thomas spoke in impeccable english as he shared his experienced the leadership of former President Marcos. He recalled that the Philippines infrastructure was maintained much better during the Marcos regime. In the former Presidents time, we were the main exporter of rice in Asia. Thomas was saddened by the fact that we now import rice from Thailand.

What amazed me about Thomas is what gets him up in the morning to drive his car for Uber. At his age, I am sure he can take it easy. Thomas can choose to spend his time playing with his grandkids.

With great pride he told me the reason why he drives an Uber. Thomas is supporting six scholars from the REAL Life Foundation of Victory Church. Every single peso he earns goes into funding the education of six young Filipinos. That’s very admirable. A 76 year old man with perfect eye sight driving for Uber to help six students achieve their dream of getting an education.

What drives Thomas in the morning is his purpose. A purpose that is noble and unselfish. God bless Thomas. I only wish there are more Thomas in the world regardless of age.

What are you passionate about? What gets you up in the morning? What’s your purpose?

#peopleinmanila

#uber

Every year many companies struggle with the Execution of their Strategies. Dozens of entrepreneurs come up with great ideas and spend all their time creating and fine tuning detailed business and Strategic plans.

Don’t get me wrong. Carefully crafted Strategies and Plans are essential to business success. However, making plans and setting goals is the easy part of the process. The hard part comes in taking the necessary action to turn these plans into reality. The challenge comes in the form of execution.

Remember the Story of Belling the Cat? The Mice started brainstorming how to deal with the danger of the cat. They came up with a great plan. They would hang a bell around the cat’s neck. Whenever they hear the bell, they know that danger is nearby. One mouse asked “who is going to hang the bell around the cat’s neck”?

It can be easy to come up with great plans However, it’s not always easy to execute them.

If you are interested in finding out more about having a simple and template driven approach to an effective strategy execution, drop us an email. Let us come over and present the concept to your team for free. All it takes is 90 minutes or less.

Have a great day!

One thing common to our local companies and employees alike; there is a lack of urgency. Complacency has become our norm. When I was younger, I used to think that this would be true only for government agencies. Being back for four after working abroad for twenty years, I see that this is equally true to most of our local companies.

You would think that complacency is the result of past success. Yes, that is true to most previous successful companies. After reaching a certain level of success, not matter how big or small, they hardly do anything anymore with a sense of urgency. A small start-up growing to a successful company can have its negative side effects. Such companies tend to rest on its laurels. They start focusing inward and on reliving their glory days. They neglect to scan the external horizon. They start dropping the ball on customer service, creeping competition & productivity.

How do you detect a complacent company? How can you say that a company lacks a sense of urgency? It’s quite easy really. These are companies that take forever to launch an important initiative. These are companies that constantly talk about improving products and services but never really start anything. These are companies that start an initiative and drags it to forever. These are companies with a huge number of busy bodies. These are managers and employees who act busy working late at night. How can you tell if these are “busy bodies” and not productive employees? It’s simple and check what they are working on. Are they working hard on tasks that are critical to a company’s growth or important customer service? If the answer is ‘no’ then these ‘spinning wheels’ are working on trivial matters just to look busy.

Complacent people are employees that love to shoot down ideas. A majority are passive resistant. Saying ‘yes’ to great ideas and not completing tasks assigned to them. These are employees that are habitually moving target deadlines. These are employees that are adamant to point fingers to colleagues when called out as complacent or busy bodies. These are employees that are quick to complain about everything yet they have no solid recommendation how to fix things. These are employees that come in late and start their real work near noon time and pretend to be so overworked they stay late.

The brother of complacency is lack of accountability. Every single complacent person lacks a sense of accountability. They do not hold themselves accountable for their lack of focused action on critical matters. They are not held accountable by management for consistently missing their deadlines. They focus on effort and not on result. Management does not reward employees on result.

How do you know if your company is headed for a massive storm? Check if your workforce if made up of a complacent majority. If this is the case then you better act quickly and turn things around.

How do you turn things around? Establish a burning platform or a reason for people to rapidly improve customer service or company products. Second, hold everyone accountable to deliver on commitment. Reflect this on their performance goals. Measure employees and reward accordingly. Constantly review the progress of your strategy. Constantly review the progress of your initiatives. Put in place important metrics. We don’t mean complicated KPIs. Identifying your Vital Few KPI’s is more than enough.

Take your busy bodies off their spinning wheels, give them a burning platform and make them accountable to delivering critical tasks and projects on time. Bring in the right people and develop your leadership. After all, a company’s sense of urgency starts and is maintained from the top.

If you have this challenge, we will be more than happy to share with you how some of our clients are managing complacency.

Often, when employees aspire for a leadership position, it’s usually related to rising in the ranks. Rising the corporate ladder is related to the word ‘leadership’. Such a view is common and sadly flawed. It’s a selfish and self-serving view of leadership.

Leadership is about helping the people around us to rise. It is about developing leaders. True leaders develop leaders. True leaders mean having followers who respect you enough to fight and achieve your vision.

True leadership is about serving, not being served. The adage that ‘there is no success without successors’ holds very true. An organization that does not develop their bench of leaders will eventually falter and fail. The organizations success cannot be sustained when the current leadership starts retiring.

Management guru Jack Welch mentioned in his book that a true leader’s main function is to find and develop potential leaders. Billionaire investor Warren Buffets carefully considers the management or leadership team of the company that he is considering to buy. Warren will only invest in companies that have a strong leadership team. A true leadership team that develops next in-line leaders. Warren’s investments are very long term. It will usually cut across various company leadership regimes. If the current leaders do not care to develop future leaders then it’s companies long term prospect will look weak. The company will not be a viable long term investment.

Great sustaining companies have a culture of leaders developing future leaders. This does not come by accident. Developing future leaders takes persistence, structure and it is intentional. It will not come by chance.

How are you at developing your leaders?

If you are interested in the competencies of leaders, feel free to reach out and schedule our ‘Anyone Can Lead’ 90-minute talk.

Have a great day.

Jordan

http://www.imutan.com http://www.jordansviews.ph http://www.axelgabe.com