viaTom Peters Billy Bragg was coming through my car speakers singing, “A virtue never tested is no virtue at all.” That pretty much summed up the two coaching sessions I had just completed. Both of the leaders I have been coaching have been identified as high potential candidates for the executive team.
Category: Management
“You sux!” vs “You sux! :-)”
In an electronic text communication media, much of the facial and vocal expression are not immediately obvious. The way you say “You sux” with the appropriate facial expression could be meaning apart. It is not surprising that people dont communicate as well as they think on email. And if you do click on the link, […]
Rules of Business
I had dinner with Charles Lee* earlier this month when he is in Singapore. I considered Charles a mentor who has given me many valuable career advises, esp. at times when I need it most. Anyway, I have being thinking over something he said over dinner: “世上所有的事都讲情，讲理，讲法。”. Loosely translated “the rules are relationship, logic and […]
Managing CEOs for Programmers
I really like what Tom Evslin1 said about how to manage different type of CEO. As difficult as it is for a programmer to manage a non-technical CEO (yesterday’s post), managing a CEO who is technical or thinks he or she is technical is much harder. A CEO who knows programmer-speak can be very difficult […]
Old customers are blind
Here’s a story from APRICOT: The Hitachi-cable folks who made the wonderful WiFi SIP Phones originally didn’t believe this will work. They have been trying to sell the phones in Japan but their customers wasn’t really interested. “Who wants WiFi only phones?” “my i-mode/FOMA can do more things!” “I still need to install a SIP […]
Fight Goliath
One of the common phrase we hear often in tech business is ‘Competitive Advantage’ which usually means some sort of technology/patents and/or cheaper pricing, perhaps due to new disruptive technology. Many worship the ‘disruptive technology’ story and how it would kill the market goliath eventually. But I’m convienced we’re mixing up the cause-and-effect. A goliath […]
Evangelist CEO
One of the important skill CEO must have is the ability to talk. Not just normal talk but one that is passionate, powerful, slick and smooth: whether to motivate your staff, paint your vision to the customer or sell your company to the investors. Put him on the stage and he can just go on […]
Picking Management
“People don’t work for their organization. They work for their boss.” I can’t remember where I read about this but it is something that remains true so far I have seen. Don’t get me wrong: I am not saying the junior or middle management is more important then the senior management. Instead, I am suggesting […]
Microsoft without Bill Gates
At the Asia Open Source Symposium today, a friend asked me: “What do you think will happen to Microsoft if Bill Gate leaves?” After giving it some thought, I said “Probably nothing”. I mean, why would it be any difference? While Bill Gates is the icon for Microsoft, the real power of Microsoft, IMHO, are […]
What’s the manager role?
I’m sitting at my hotel louge drinking coffee waiting for my next appointment and started thinking about something that happened a month ago. I was having coffee with an old classmate. He has done pretty well too and now manages a team of people like I do. In the hour we sat in the lounge, […]