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Posts Tagged ‘strategic thinking’

Build Culture First, Google it Later

22 Mar

from google/culture

One of the weirdest conversations I have had recently was with a friend of mine who started the topic with something like this:

  • I am thinking about Googlizing the office!
  • Ohh … this sounds interesting … how are you going to do that?
  • I will equip some rooms with beds so the staff can rest and relax!

Maybe to put you in a better position to understand this conversation and give you a better chance to judge the situation, you need to know that this friend of mine is working in a crappy company; I knew it, he knew it!

The problem with his approach is that he is assuming that the whole culture of Google, or any other company with an empowering culture, is based upon these accessories. A big … big … mistake!

I do not think Google executives woke up one morning saying ‘let’s have fun offices so our employees could relax and play,’ no, there are subtle culture and internal values in Google that led to such open, fun environment. BBC once described it as “The unconventional design of the office represents what Google hopes is a free flow of information through all parts of the company.” In other words, Google would not be what it is now without its ‘values’ not its offices’ design.

In a tough market, Google wants its employees to be creative, to think different, to team up, to share ideas and resources, to distinguishably serve clients and users, and all that to be sustainable on the long run. Think about these elements of Google culture before thinking about their lave lamps, free food, firearms poles, and sleeping pods. Michal Lorenc, a Googler, commenting on their office design once said “[it] aids our culture. It doesn’t represent our culture.”

So you want to change, fine, it is a good idea, but think about change in its core, try to renovate your internal values and practices to match your strategic goals. Trespass the conventional thoughts to look beyond your current status, reshape your culture to suite your goals and environment.

New decorations won’t solve your problems buddy!!

What do you think?

p.s. to get a glimpse of the life inside Google offices, check out this link.

 
6 Comments

Posted in General Management, Human Resources

 

To be Fired Over the Phone

16 Sep

Image via The Atlantic/REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino

It is about 10 days since Carol Bartz, Yahoo former CEO, had been fired over the phone. And since then, there is something that is just not adding up or clicking in place to make this decision sounds acceptable to a lot of observers.

First of all, the way she was shown the way out is sooooo bizarre. It is against any managerial protocol to fire your top executive over the phone, or anyone for that matter (check this & this for comments on how rude that was). Maybe Yahoo’s board and its chairman did not expect this to happen and reach the public in the way it did, but that’s the digital age baby! And if Yahoo’s board cannot understand it, then that’s another point against the struggling company.

Secondly, the company put itself in a very awkward position because of what happened. It is like the board and the fired CEO are both playing a ball game of who is the true person to blame now. The way the board acted is stating that the CEO was behind all our mess. And the way the fired CEO responded by sending that ‘to all staff’ email is stating that ‘Yahoo staff, look at the idiots who are running the board, they just fired me over the phone.’ Such communication just show that the chemistry between the CEO and the board was lost. And this is a very devastating situation for any company, let alone a company that is trying to survive in a very competitive market (check this out).

Thirdly, what is the real reason behind the firing decision? Lack of of focus or strategic goal as the press release stated!! Shouldn’t this be taken as a point against the board because it was watching the top executive stumbling in the dark for three years without taking any action!! On a side note, it should be mentioned here that during her tenure as Yahoo’s CEO, Mrs. Bartz has been able increase net income of the company by about 52%, so it is not all about money!

What it could be then? Carol’s salty mouth as they say. How come that did not stop Jack Welch from being the superhero CEO of the century!! He was known for his salty mouth too, right?? And this discussion in particular would open the door for sexism debates. Is it acceptable of a male director to be ‘bossy’ and ‘having attitude’ in comparison to a female one?? That’s a looooooonge debate (for example, check this & this)!

From where I see it, Carol Bartz lacked the leadership charisma. She has not been seen, especially in her tenure as Yahoo CEO, as the leader who could lead and turn around the stumbling company. She could not communicate confidence in the company’s shareholders and staff. Her known salty mouth in interviews and conferences presented her as an arrogant, show-off person who like to talk rather than do.

Finally, Yahoo’s board of directors should also acknowledge that the lousy performance of the company is not only about its CEO. It is the company’s accumulated poor managerial performance over the years that led it to lose the market to tough competitors like Google and Facebook. The market will never wait for you to adjust and make progress.

It is a tough world!

 
4 Comments

Posted in General Management, Human Resources, Leadership

 

Jeddah Crisis and Disaster Management Center

17 Aug

via saudigazette.com.sa

It is like a beehive in Jeddah these days; it is occupied, literally, with so many projects. New roads, Corniche renovation, and most importantly, rains and floods control projects.
What have been expected since the first Jeddah disaster in 2009 is finally here; a crisis and disaster management center (CDMC- my abbreviation!).

Although it will unfortunately miss the upcoming rain season, the contract to construct the new CDMC has just been signed by Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah region, last Monday. The project will go through two phases; the first was the one just signed and will cost SAR 49.85 million.

As I said earlier, such action was anticipated, if not demanded. The center is supposed to eventually enhance the communication between the different involved parties in order to mitigate losses of time and efforts and to eliminate any impediments that may occur because of bureaucracy. We have all seen the chaos during the second disaster!

These are some of the features of the CDMC:

-         450 square-meters center and to be located within the Makkah Emirate building in Jeddah.

-         First phase to be completed within 152 days from the date of signing the contract.

-         Linking about 25 civil and military sectors to the center.

-         Merging radio facilities used by all involved parties.

-         The ability to receive live video feeds from up to four helicopters.

-         Installing 150 monitoring cameras in different parts of Jeddah and linking them through microwave.

A certainly good step in the right direction …

 
6 Comments

Posted in General Management, Project Management, Saudi business

 

SCTA; Dreaming is Not Enough

30 Mar

I do not want to sound so harsh on the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), but I have to honestly say that I cannot relate to, or should I say believe, most of their advertising and PR campaigns!! I mean … come on people … are we using the same dictionary to understand what the word ‘tourism’ means? or you have your own definition of it?!! (check out this earlier post about SCTA.)

Now check out this piece of news with me, SCTA is saying that by the year of 2020, the tourism sector in the country will be creating more than 2 million jobs! Now seriously, 2 million jobs!! Where and how? Reading such news would leave you under the impression that the tourism is actually booming in the country, the question is, where? I cannot see it!!

On the other hand, read about these 44 graduates with tourism management diplomas who cannot find a job in the claimed to be booming sector!! I said 44, not 44 thousands or any thing!!!

What is the point of this post?

The point is that we want to see real improvements, we would really love to see our country filled with tourism facilities and activities, real ones! and would love to witness its heritage and mixed cultures put into appropriate presentation. And all this being surrounded with a true tourism culture and services.

What we do NOT want to see or hear is promises after promises without anything that could be seen or touched first hand. It is more than 10 years now since the start of SCTA, and I believe 10 years are enough to start witnessing something real. Dreams are good to start with, but they have to be realized sometime soon!

 
4 Comments

Posted in Culture, Public Relations, Saudi business

 

The Friday of Royal Decrees

18 Mar

Beside its religious importance for Muslims, Friday seems to be taking another level of significance for Arabs nowadays. It is the day of change or, at least, cries for change.

For Saudis, this Friday was the day of royal decrees. A series of decrees that touched down on most of the ‘operational’ hot topics currently discusses by Saudis everywhere. And I am saying ‘operational’ just to differentiate those topics from the ‘organizational’ ones that are also discussed especially on the more elite levels!

From where I stand, I see these decrees as another leap forward. They have been strategically thought through and have been designed to give immediate, short term, and long term returns.

These are the most important points which sopped me:

  • According to the analysis of Saudi-Fransi bank (mentioned in this tweet), this Friday’s decrees would need about SAR 350 Billion to be covered. Adding this to the measures taken less than one month ago, about SAR 485 Billion (about 29.7% of the last year’s GDP) is entering the Saudi Economical cycle. That is a huge amount of money that should be looked at by both enthusiasm and caution. Enthusiasm because this amount of money means new projects, stronger infrastructure, healthy flow of cash, new jobs, and new economical opportunities. Caution because such huge amount of money could lead to inflation and commodity prices increase. The Saudi financial authorities are certainly up for a challenge this year; let’s just not open the topic of budget and reserves now!
  • The most important decree, in my opinion, was the one dictating the creation of the governmental anti-corruption committee. It is the committee that is supposed to be fighting both administrative and financial corruption and misbehaving within the governments’ work. I would like to stress on the administrative part of this committee work. It’s just about time we truly think about our project management practices in contracts awarding, quality of work, and I hope they will add the principle of ‘citizen services’ to this committee’s list of duties. Let their slogan be ‘to modern management and less bureaucratic practices.’
  • The health care sector took a lion share of the incentives as well. Again, with the new hospitals and research centers, the principles of quality medical services should be integrated to the formula.
  • The 500,000 housing unites all over the country are a good start. I wish this move would prove itself worthy and can be generalized on a later stage to be a project of citizens housing similar to what is happening in UAE and Qatar.

Now the success of these points, and the rest mentioned in the remaining decrees, are subject to the sincere implementation of those entrusted with the work as ‘public servants.’ This is the time for innovative ideas and creative new ways of getting the job done. Saudi Arabia and Saudis have all potentials to positively change and catch up with the rest of the world.

 
2 Comments

Posted in Culture, General Management, Saudi business

 

The Poor City Named Jeddah

27 Jan

Once upon a time, there was a city that its people loved to call it the ‘Bride of the Red Sea,’ a name it deserves no more.

Almost a year ago, Jeddah had woken up on a surprise, a deadly surprise to be more precise. The second largest city in the biggest oil exporter in the world had woken up to find itself drowning in two hours rain water. You’ve read it right, the second largest city in the biggest oil exporter could not handle two hours of rain!!

Notice that I said a year ago …

Today, the same city, yes, the same second largest city in the biggest oil exporter has woken up on the exactly same deadly surprise; it has drown in rain water, once again!!

For a whole year nothing happened, nothing changed!! After absorbing the shock of the last year surprise, and after the game of pointing fingers started and died because of the special commission formed to investigate the floods, I say after all that, not a single solution has been implemented to safe this poor city of its doomed relationship with rain! I cannot go as far and say a creative solution, I am sure ‘creative’ is a big word for Jeddah officials, they might need to check it up in a dictionary or something, not even a dumb solution has been implemented in this poor city.

There is nothing to say really; go ahead and have a glimpse in these photos from Arab News, or watch the below videos and get scared, or even go and read my last year posts about the same subject to see how we never learned from that disaster (here, here & here).

In all cases, pray for Jeddah people, pray for the used to be bride, pray for us … we need it!!

 
15 Comments

Posted in General Management, Project Management, Saudi business

 

Management of Saudi Youth and Sport Sector

12 Jan

The ultimate outcome of any management practices is to deliver on an agreed set of objectives. The failure to reach those objectives is an enough reason to start doubting the effectiveness and capabilities of those running the show. Yes, it is not that straight forward, but in ideal cases, when you have all the resources, the authority, and the suitable conditions and circumstances and you still fail to deliver, or at least fail to show some signs of progress, then, this is it, you should be shown the way out!

What I am trying to say could be exemplified in the organization running the Saudi youth and sports sector, namely the General Presidency of Youth Welfare (GPYW). Despite the fact that about half of the country population falls within the customers segment this organization should be serving, the youth and sports sector in Saudi looks like something that has been frozen in time!

Horrible statuses of sports clubs, sports venues, youth services, miserable international presence in almost all fields, and no international or continental achievements for some time now. The common denominator in all this mess is the crew steering the ship for some time now!

What bothers me most is not the failure itself, but the insistence of the people running GPYW that there is nothing wrong to begin with! Sometimes, it is the media attacking them and their scientific plans! Other times it is all about wrong consultations they’ve received (we could consider coaches as consultants in this situation!) And you know, sometimes it is just the damn luck!

What is needed in this organization is a whole new beginning. Fresh blood with fresh minds and new styles. A whole new culture of investing in people and having a long term vision of building infrastructure. Strategies to create and to innovate passionately without fear and with an optimistic look to the future.

 
No Comments

Posted in General Management, Leadership, Saudi business

 

If You Want To Reach Mars

20 Nov

If I came to you out of the sudden and told you that Saudi Arabia is preparing its first mission to Mars, there is a huge chance that you won’t believe me if you are a quite good person, or punch me in the face if you are into action movies!

It is not that Saudi does not have the financial resources to do it, we actually do, but we do not have the facilities, the will, the sought after rewards, in simpler words, we do not have the competitive advantage to do it!

That’s why nations, or companies working in nations, should carefully craft their strategical goals when attempting to start a certain industry in or import to its land! The environment any company works in usually plays a major role in determining how its future might turn to be Nations competitive advantages are built with long term plans; the environment that contains materials, technology, skilled manpower, suppliers, distributors, buyers, and eventually a reputable name takes decades to form. That’s why we know Japan for miniaturization of electronics industries, we know Italy for fashion and leather industries, we know the United states for technological industries. Michael Porter has a whole book that provide a lot of insights on this topic (here).

This is not meant to discourage nations of following their dreams and find a spot on the international scene. It is more of an indication that if you want to get bigger and better, you should plan it well. India and China have done that. India for example, invested a lot of time and money in technological education, and now its manpower is the best in anything related to IT and computer sciences. China realized that its competitive advantage is in its people, that’s why almost everything now is manufactured in China or at least part of it is! And they did not stop at that, after rooting certain industries very well in their environments, they are starting to innovate and be creative and come up with new products and services; they’ve got the competitive advantage in place. They are getting bigger, better, and their economies are in a race to take over the world!

If we really want to ever check a spot on the new globalized world, we should really start planning for our competitive advantages!

 
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Posted in Entrepreneurship, General Management, Leadership, Saudi business

 

The Illusion of the Best Syndrome

09 Nov

‘We have the best working environment around here’ … ‘we changed the whole competition landscape, we are the best now and our competitors have to live with it’ … ‘Our products/services are not comparable to others, we are the best’

Once such kind of mentality starts flying around your organization, then it is in need for a serious therapy; it is going through the ‘illusion of the best’ syndrome! And once you have it, it is the downhill road thereafter.

There is no doubt that the marketplace is a competition arena. However, deciding who is the best should be left to stakeholders and unbiased observers, certainly not to the organization managers only!

And let’s give it some thought; in a business environment, what is the best? the best compared to what? and in which categories? And should we compare our products/services/practices to our competitors only? in our environment only? or should we do that globally? I am sure you can come up with endless series of question like these …

My argument is that the whole concept of being the best should have no place in a business environment. The ‘best in ….’ is a relative term even if based upon ground measurements, because, at the end, those measurements are based on agreements between a number of people.

The illusion of being the best could be damaging on the long run. It generates demotivation and kills innovation; why should we do more, we are the best?!

It happened that I have being sitting once with one of the so-called-managers of one of the biggest companies in the country and he was talking about how they are conducting some of their business. The strange thing is that he was referring to many managerial flaws in his talking, and he was acknowledging those flaws! I asked him ‘it is great that you can put your fingers on the wrong doings that are causing pressure on your staff and your productivity. So why don’t you solve these issues?’ His reply was ‘this is how we do business around here!’ I said ‘but there are many companies around the world that faced similar problems and there are many lessons that you can get advantage of.’ He replied ‘No No No … do not talk about companies around the world. Tell me about local companies. We are the best company in the area and this is how we are running our business’!!!!

I hope you got what I mean now!!

p.s. I think the ‘illusion of best’ syndrome fits Jim Collins’s stage number one of declining organizations; the stage he calls ‘Hubris Born of Success.’ Read more about it in his book ‘How the mighty Fall, and Why Some Companies Never Give in’ published in 2009.

 
8 Comments

Posted in Culture, General Management, Saudi business

 

If Saudi Women Are Allowed to Drive

13 May

For those not familiar with Saudi Arabia; It is unfortunate to say YES, Saudis are still debating the idea of allowing women to drive!

Anyway, this is not what this post is about, but I felt it was a mandatory introduction!

Now, let’s assume that the decision popped up and women are suddenly allowed to drive. From business and marketing points of view, what kind of change or new opportunities that could come up as a result of the new situation? Here are some points I thought of:

  • Automobiles Selling Tactics: Car dealers should really change, or at least introduce new selling tactics and marketing campaigns targeting women. Many researchers have argued that the way men and women approach the final purchasing decision is remarkably different. For that, ways to target segments divided based on gender should be different as well. And believe it or not, such studies have already started to take place in Saudi Arabia once the driving debate started to heat up few years ago, at least this is what a marketing manager in one of a prominent Saudi car dealer told me.
  • Car Accessories Shops: Women, at least of a younger age, will be definitely looking to have distinguished cars; exactly like their counterparts males. So I won’t be surprised to see car accessories shops opening whole sections specifically for ladies. Or even better, complete new accessories shops for ladies only, operated by ladies only!
  • Pimp-her-Ride: This could be related to the pervious point, but with those who have some extra cash to spoil themselves, and their cars!!
  • Segregated Car Service: Whether we are talking mechanic shops, car cleaning, oil change, etc, There is a huge opportunity to create women-only shops. If someone would argue here that allowing women to drive will ease the segregation between men and women we are currently seeing in the society, I would respond by saying yes but still. At least at the beginning, such women-only shops could flourish because it would give women a sense of freedom freedom they are enjoying in their closed communities. You know, taking off their Abbayas and enjoying chit-chat with friends in a closed area while their car is serviced. That will definitely be much better than waiting in line in most-of-the-time dirty oil change shops! So it could turn out to be a good idea after all! Even further, the existence of such shops could be a factor of helping some conservative families to make the decision of allowing their wives and daughters to drive. They will be dealing with women most of the time, right!

It does not matter how strange, funny, or shocking, these ideas might sound to some of you, because such a decision will definitely takes its toll on the society. New challenges, new obstacles, and new opportunities usually come out as results of change. Taking all that and blend it with the Saudi market status and the Saudi consumer behavior, I am sure interesting outcomes will be generated.

what do you think?

 
9 Comments

Posted in Culture, Marketing, Saudi business

 
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