My people take precedence

"Brian is a very good staff," Winston pointed out before starting on his soju and beer. "He is very well connected and respected in Hana Tour in Korea."

I take people business very seriously. I truly realise that it's people, not capital investment nor automation that bring about quality improvements and productivity gains. I also know that people are the only true source of creativity, innovation and new ideas. As far as I am concerned, my people take precedence over everything else.

Appreciating the fact that people are my most important resource is not enough by itself to achieve extraordinary results.

I need to home in on the self-interests of my people if I expect to achieve extraordinary results.

Chloe (right)

Eliminate obstacles to success

"My father told me that my objective is not to get an MBA," Eu Khoon recounted. "It is to hire people with MBAs"

I obtained an MBA through distance learning so that no one could say I couldn't handle the job technically. I attended many seminars and read many books on managing people and adopted the techniques I could that would help me to better manage my people.

You, too, can eliminate obstacles to your success. Aspects of your job can be enhanced by night school and seminars.

Action speaks louder than words

The Hana Convention started yesterday. After all the planning, it is time for action.

Everybody is familiar with the cliche "action speaks louder than words."

It is important to say the right things. It is even more important to do the right thing.

Ultimately, our actions are of greater consequence than our words. I always say what needs to be said, then act accordingly. Temporary discomfort is better than temporary relief. Results, for me, are judge and jury.

Sustaining intensity in middle years

"I started going mountain biking," Alvin declared after a sip of his vodka sprite. "I have done it 3 times already. Twice with a friend, and once, recently, on my own."

I have come to realise that if a person sustained some of the intensity after his school days, he would be in better shape in his 40's.

If a man in his middle years does not sustain his conditioning with a certain intensity, he will not be able to counteract the effects of time; and after an injury, he will not be able to heal the way he once did. In fact,life for him will become one long quiet injury; he will begin to hear sounds in his body that belong in a car that is being recalled.

Young men dream dreams, old men see visions

ACE flew off to Shanghai and onwards to Suzhou yesterday with 67 others Primary 5-yers from his school yesterday. This is the 1st time he is travelling on his own. He has indeed growing up fast.

Adolescence is the short hour between the springtime and the summer of life. Before the teenage is reached, there is a very little individuality or personality but as soon as the teens begin, the emotional life is like water taking shape from the vessel into which it is poured.

Some youths, like some fruits, ripen too soon, and others never seem to ripen at all, but there are others who fulfill the best aspirations of an older generation.

"Young men dream dreams; old men see visions." The young look ahead, the aged look back.

me-1st-and-you-and-the-son-can-have-what's-left-over

May 29, 2010 has been set as Eat With your Family Day. This is a Singapore National movement serving as a reminder on the importance of having meals as a family.

Amazingly enough, many couples make time for just about everything - and everybody - but each other. I'll have to confess that I am possibly the most guilty person alive on this one, or at least I was very guilty. I still am to a degree, but not nearly as much as I was a few years ago.

In the past, when acquaintances or business associates would pass through town and say, "It's my only night here," or "I'm here for the next couple of days," I would expect my wife to "understand" that I had to see my friend or business associate.

Basically, it was a "me-1st-and-you-and-the-son-can-have-what's-left-over" approach to marriage.

I'm pleased to say that now, in most cases, I have my priorities in order and weigh the importance of the get together before accepting or turning it down.

Fear of looking foolish

"Please tell me how people perceive me," Clement asked. "I am not one to mince my words."

Almost everyone fears looking foolish. Everyone has refrained at least once from asking questions out of fear that someone would say, "You mean you don't know that?" We've all held back emotions - whether laughter or tears - for fear of being thought a fool, losing face, being humiliated, losing respect and position.

Middle age

"Paul, we have not met for 29 years, since 1981 when we were in from 5 together,"Joseph exclaimed as we shook hands.

One way of telling whether we are growing old is to revisit the school which we once attended. If the students seem "much younger"than when we were there, we are in middle age.

Life, as it says, goes on. Some of us may feel we have left our passions behind, when actually it is the passions that have left us behind. Some imagined that we have mastered life, when really habits which we cannot break have mastered and enchained us.

The goodfinder

"Germany captain Michael Ballack is out of World Cup" "Germany still strong without ballack" "Injured Ballack vows to make Germany return" All the sports news headlines recently.

It has been said that our biggest opportunities will probably come into our lives disguised as problems. Problems can jolt us out of our predictable routines but only to introduce us to a life of new possibilities. In the end, we will probably profit more from suffering than we do from success.

We must be ready to look for and find good in all the situations of life.

In giving to others, we could be disappointed

"What do you think about when you willingly help a friend and they always say you do things without a willing heart?" Nikki posted a message for me on FB. "Really breaks my heart."

Love exists not in isolation. Love is useless when alone, as in sleep or death. It is possessed only by giving to others. Yet in giving to others, we are often disappointed; some want to use us, others to possess us.

Appreciate and respect

"Recognize good things that the partner does," the sub-headline was written by Anja.

There isn't a human being alive who doesn't want to receive appreciation. Lack of expressing appreciation for good things causes one to lose touch with the reality of any good in another. Many mates destroy thri marriage/relationships out of ingratitude.

On the flip side, differences of opinions are not an excuse to drop respect. Disrespect inflames bad feelings. It makes a good situation bad and a bad situation worse. Treat your partner with dignity and, chances are, he or she will want to rise to a higher level of respect for you!

Rewards and education

"There's no such thing as loyalty anymore - after teaching employees the business, they leave you and join a competitor for a few bucks more," lamented Shou Dong.

The days of the "25th anniversary watch" being awarded are gone, with employees casually switching jobs and companies frequently changing ownership.

There are 2 variables, I feel that could make a difference - rewards and education. With education, I mean management development of our employees.

Let (right)

The Lie

"As a professional deception Management person (I teach in college now for 10 years!) I can say these methods of detecting lies are roughly correct but they lack any realusability," David Camp commented on blifaloo.

Detecting deception is no easy task.

Some people are good liars. Some people are pathological liars. Some people rehearse their story over and over so it comes naturally.

Typically most people can't figure out truth vs. lie more than 55% of the time, a recent research concluded.

The answer is that we're looking at the wrong things. I've just found out that eye contact isn't all that relevant in determining whether most people are lying or telling the truth.

A powerful strategy to improve odds of detecting deception is this: liars must contruct their stories in chronilogical order. People who tell the truth will be all over the place. So ask the person what happened in reverse chronological order. The liar won't be able to do it most of the time.

No one predetermined to be a superstar

ACE and I went to the Pixar Animation Exhibition today. Pixar was started by John Lasseter, George Lucas and Steve Jobs.

Even Steve Jobs or Bill Gates had to get from nowhere to the top of the mountain. They may appear to have it made; but they, too, face the same day-to-day obstacles we all do, at home and with their families, at work and with their colleagues.

As the saying goes...everybody puts on his or her pants one leg at a time.

Knowing their proposals

"Chapter 17: Negotiating at the Workplace." Stephie showed me the HRM textbook she is currently using.

Negotiation involve 2 solutions - ours and theirs - to the same problem.

Remember, there are 4 bits of information present in all negotiations. We know 2 of them - our entry offer and our walk away. We must find out where they will enter. If we don't, we will be negotiating with ourselves.

Not knowing their proposals is like being deaf at an auction - we keep bidding against ourselves.

May (centre), Margaret (right)

Building a market

"At the Sotheby's sale, a collector paid $442,000 for the first lunar rock ever to be sold," reported Business Week.

The balance of supply and demand is a dynamic process. What looked good will begin to look a lot less good when a dozen others join the party. That is the lesson the telecom bubble teaches us.

Here's a rule of business I once read: Don't fall in love with your product/service; that's the customers' job.

A lesson I learned all these years is to never underestimate how difficult it is to build a market. I don't lose sight of what counts; strategy, capabilities, customers and competitive advantage.

Look to give

"I broke up before I got posted to Dubai," Jason declared. "When my posting ends here soon, I have no one to go back to."

All of us to some extent are enduring agonies of loneliness and frustrations.

I once asked a psychiatrist friend of mine "How can you teach people to love?" His answer was mildly surprising, to say the least. He answered the question by asking one of his own: "Did you ever have a toothache? Of whom were you thinking during the distress of the toothache?" His point was clear. When we are in pain, even if it be only the passing discomforts of an aching tooth, we are thinking about ourselves.

This is a pain-filled world, and so, a loveless world that we live in.Most of us are so turned-in by our own pains that we cannot get enough out of ourselves to love to any great extent.

"Happiness depends on what we give, not what we get" - Gandhi

Give self recognition

"I learned so much about this business," BeRt glowed. "I am so proud of myself."

When I do something I am proud of, I dwell on it a little, praise myself for it, relish the experience, take it in.

It is up to us to give ourselves recognition. If we wait for it to come from others, we feel resentful when it doesn't and when it does, we may reject it.

Being best friends

"In 1 of the Hindu rites of marriage, the bride and groom make each other a solemn vow: you will be my best friend," Jaya shared with all of us.

People on drugs eventually come down and so do people in love. Romantic love can only last so long as a couple are "high" on one another. After that, things go downhill.

Love is very important, but being best friends is a must. Yet almost everywhere we turn in our culture - movies, books and TV shows - we find romantic love, rather than friendship held up as the Holy Grail of happiness.

With a best friend, we can talk freely with our partners, whine and gripe, if need be; really express ourselves and feel that we are being heard; expose our doubts and fears without fear that this will be used against us.

My young man turns 11

May 6. My small man, ACE, enters adolescence. That's a step nearer to teenage.

Talking to teenagers (or trying to), I heard, is an extreme case of differing worldviews 2 people in the family can have. Teens are beginning to go out into the world - and it's a different world from the one we, their parents know. Because of conflicting assumptions about the world and how it works, conversations, I was told, between teens and they adults they live with can spiral out of control.

I will do my best to ensure that doesn't happen between ACE and I.

Make happy customers happier

"My business in Kuala Lumpur wouldn't have started so well and become so big like it is today without Paul's help," recounted Hisham. "He have be great support and service."

Happy customers might not be happy forever. We can never take that status to the bank. Like spouses, customers can get the 7-year itch.

Even the needs of our happiest customers change as they move through the various stages of business : growth, maturity, decline, restructuring. We have to change with them. One way is to constantly ask "how can we make our customers happier." We should do that even if they are already happy. I let my customers define my business plan. The more contact we have with our customers, the more innovative we'll become.
Hisham (middle), Hawa (left)

Contribute in meetings

"Michelle was the only sales person in our team but when we had to do a sales presentation, she didn't volunteer nor suggested any ideas," Ms Tan gave her feedback.

If you attend a meeting and don't contribute you are wasting your time and everyone else's. Contribute as soon as you can in the meeting to show that you will be a player today.

Who to take?

The Arabian Travel Market starts today.

Since travel budget is limited, we can't take everybody to trade shows. Are we making the best staffing choice for the best return on our trade show investment?

Trade show selling is different than a normal sales call. Behaviour that is appropriate and effective in a traditionsla sales call may just kill sales a a trade show.

I choose associates who are committed (there to meet prospects and sell), knowledgeable, bold (must be able to reach out and talk to people who are initially reluctant to visit) and friendly (can meet strangers and turn him quickly into enthusiastic friends) and last but not least...persistent.

David (left)