Information + EMOTION => desired action!

Now that’s an awkward title for an article, and I believe most would agree with me, but symbols could be quite powerful and I’d like to “think outside the box” (or is without a box now!?) and do differently. So that’s my title!

STORY 1: There are over 5 million unemployed youths and graduates in Nigeria today, and we believe government, individuals and organizations have a compelling moral obligation to tackle this escalating economic predicament that threatens the persistence of the Nigerian state. We have many graduates that do not have jobs, and are wasting away by the millions. At the last count, over 5 million graduates were found to be unemployed. If nothing is done about this, then we are at risk of failing as a nation and branding ourselves as a classic reference for a failed state where nothing worked, most were downtrodden and remained perpetually at the rear of the social ladder with no hope of redemption.
END of STORY 1

You would agree with me that this is quite an interesting story (partly true and maybe worrying too), that warrants light-speed attention and planning and ought to jump-start all parties into instant action! If you would rightly observe, this story is quite familiar and does not seem to have the edge required to challenge the intended audience, by force-shifting their transmission from the deplorable “Parking” state to “Drive”, or better still “Turbo Drive +” (for those of us that drive Mercedes, and I’m not talking about v-boot here).
Many would probably sigh, think for a few minutes, discuss with a few friends, unanimously condemn the situation together and then utter the expected statement – God is working, things will get better by God’s grace – AMEN, and that’s it! We move on to the ‘real’ issues of life.

……but we’ve been using this same christianese phrase for donkey years, though I think it’s hypocritical and has yielded little or practically no result – infact, things have gotten worse, but we still keep saying the same thing. Maybe God should be held responsible, or what do you think? Or could it be that the responsibility is really ours, and that we’ve just found a convenient way to shift it to someone up there who we all know hardly speaks audibly, at least in physical terms). Now I’m starting to get emotional, and I’m digressing too.

Let’s get back to the main point! STORY 1 doesn’t linger, doesn’t stick in the memory of the intended audience, and definitely produces little action.

STORY 2: Chukwuemeka is a bright young student who read Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate at Ahmadu Bello University. He graduated with honors, completed his mandatory NYSC Youth Service program in Abuja, and subsequently returned to University of Jos because he was not retained where he served, and could not secure a job after several unsuccessful attempts at tests and interviews. He could not afford the fees for a Master’s degree and since he had no one to look to for help (His father is late and his mother sells vegetables in the village), he resorted to selling telephone recharge cards. The odds of him getting a good job are fast declining, given the fact that most employers have age limits and would always prefer to employ “fresh” minds.

Ladies and gentlemen, there were 2 million examples of Chuwuemeka in Nigeria in 2000, but today, we have at least 5 million. Chukwuemeka is your cousin, your neighbor, your recharge card vendor, and maybe your brother. Tunde had a similar experience as Chukwuemeka, but has since resorted to Fraud and armed robbery. I do not pray for this, but at this rate, there’s a good chance your son could grow up to become just like Chukwuemeka, or worse still Tunde. What we do right now will determine what happens next.
END of STORY 2

Wow! So this is what is really happening, and there’s a good chance my son can become like this??? The answer to that is………..well……………, YES!!!!

Those are the kinds of questions that would race through the minds of those in your audience, and I could almost guarantee that you’ve just successfully launched your “Network Marketing business”. People will talk even more, and many will certainly ACT. Remember what we really want is for people to

JUST DO IT!

Stories are real, personal and they stir up emotions, hence everyone can relate to them. Statistics and theories are real too, but they are impersonal and unemotional. At best, they make us exclaim WOW…...but that’s where it ends.
How we love to quote the stats and present data, but they seem to never work when they stand just by themselves.

Next time you want to communicate and get results, tell good stories and support them with the stats.

.

……AREN'T WE ALL BUSY!?

It’s now common place to hear people complain daily that “I’m very busy”. I theefore decided to take an in-depth look at this phenomenon, and ascertain whether it’s true that some folks are really busy and occupied, while others just merely observe time as it fleets never to return.I decided to look at my life (not in a narcissistic sense) over the years, and I basically discovered I haven’t actually gotten busier over the years. It’s just that some sort of displacement reaction has taken place.

My point is I’ve been pretty occupied over the years (high school, university, youth service and now work/volunteering/development consulting) and it’s just my priorities that have changed in sync with the demands of each stage of my life. I would hypothetically state that this is probably true for many people (perhaps everybody). If you ask me, I’d gladly tell you that the home-maker (21st century term for house-wife) who stays at home watching AfricaMagic has also got her hands full, and has the right to say she’s busy. In case you’re asking why?? I’d love to inform you that it takes work, i.e. a great degree of concentration to follow storylines for hours upon hours. Whether this sort of work adds value is another discussion entirely. (I’m not in any way endorsing compulsive habits that lead us nowhere!)

You see, there are demands placed upon us at every stage of our lives. There are activities that ought to be more strategic per season. We must not misplace activity for productivity, and we must be careful about equating the quantity of effort with the enormity of results. Our focus today is on the word busy and let’s not forget this has little to do with that heavy word called relevance. As some say, busyness doesn’t imply business!

I believe the most important thing for every one of us is to locate ourselves constantly (using some mental GPS positioning device) and recognize the activities that deserve allocation from our limited reserve of 24 hrs daily. In simple words, we ought to allocate time to the more noble, and more rewarding competing ends (whatever that means to you!). One man is very passionate about his career and therefore works very late on a daily basis, while another one places high priority on his family by refusing to take his laptop home. Yet another considers his ministry top priority, and gallivants around the globe ministering to the needs of others while neglecting some of the basic needs of his family. The amusing fact is that each man possibly has sufficient proof to justify his formula for allocating his time.

However, I would suggest that the keyword is balance. There’s something I learnt in high-school economics, called scale-of-preference. We must continually strive to maintain a balance between the numerous competing ends in our lives. This balancing act must be based on an ideology, or an established system of values. If you ask me, I’d gladly tell you that the WORD-of-GOD ought to be our compass at all times. (I’m a Christian, and would gladly tell you that only the Spirit of God can help a man attain the designation of a certified time resource-allocator, but that man must be willing to follow His lead).

I would recommend that we allocate more time to tasks that add more value, and less time to those tasks that are less important. Value is another subject that I would not delve into in this exposition, but judging the value-potential, or value-content of an activity in my opinion is a function of its persistence-attribute. In simple terms, are the rewards of such activity temporal, long-term, or eternal? (another quick one – I’d rather allocate more time to my primary area of calling, than to those things I’m just not gifted for!......even though I’m convinced I’ll be better than Roger Federer someday!)

Next time you say to yourself, I’m very busy, that could well be the perfect time to reassess, revalidate, reconfigure and re-scrutinize the tasks you’ve been dwelling on (just to be sure they are the right tasks, whatever right means to you!)

Here’s another one for us to watch out for – it’s called Temporal Intelligence (TI – measures our ability to master time and extract maximum value from time by applying ourselves optimally in the time dimension). TIME MASTERY by John Clemens & Scott Dalrymple highly recommended!

It’s an addition to the intelligence family (IQ – Intelligence Quotient, EQ – Emotional Intelligence, SI – Social Intelligence, EI – Ecological Intelligence)

Cheers to all busy folks out there!

...In Dire Need of Dimensionalist Leaders for National Reformation.

A Dimensionalist leader is one who dives into possibilities in time (temporal intelligence) and changes the current atmosphere before time catches up, so that the fullness of time merely provides a physical evidence of the visualized realities of his futuristic dwelling (Paraphrased from Tudor Bismark). True visionaries live constantly in the future. They often have to be alerted to present realities so that they can ‘descend’ from the heights, and help propel the ‘many’ that are locked in the realities of the present, into the limitless possibilities of the future.

A habitual critic is the anti-thesis of a dimensionalist. The critic has a penchant and skill for pinpointing inadequacies. The critic often relies on unproven ‘facts’ and even when the facts have been substantiated, he blows them out of proportion and beclouds his target with doom. He’s quick to pass judgment, and often delivers his verdict before the defendant is given an opportunity to express his opinion, or stage an appeal.

The critic finds it virtually impossible to see the positives in a sequence of events. He’s quick to pick out and stress the inconsistencies in a system, and uses such as an excuse to discredit a process in its entirety. Critics abound, and are not difficult to find. You come across them every day. They are often self righteous and disillusioned folks who believe their prescription and point of view outlines the right course of action. In essence, the critic finds it a lot easier, to see the evil rather than the good, the risks rather than the opportunities, and a corrupt Nigeria, rather than a nation on the path to greatness. ARE YOU A CRITIC?

The demands of this age impose a condition that states that it is impossible to be effective and to deliver groundbreaking results without learning the rudiments of dimensionalist thinking and living. Many are held bound with the chains of the past. Jerry Savelle says that if your memories are bigger than your dreams, then you are in deep trouble! The average mind always thinks of the present, and focuses on meeting the immediate demands. He consistently fails to recognize that no matter how efficiently he reactively (rather than proactively) solves his problems, he’ll always remain a step behind. It’s about time to break free from the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.

The dimensionalist leader is pre-occupied with what could be, rather than what has been, or what currently is. Dimensionalist leaders go beyond rhetoric and oratory. They understand the “theory of flow” (every single activity, including formal, informal, planned and unplanned; constitutes a part of a coordinated system that can deliver massive results), and discard the concept of ‘discontinuities’. They are not just motivators or charismatic warheads and human engineers. They are what we would accurately label as STRATEGIC AGENTS AND DISCIPLINED EXECUTIONISTS THAT EMPLOY INNOVATIVE AND SYSTEMATIC MODELS FOR NATIONAL REFORMATION. In the word’s of Martin Luther king, They have been to the mountaintop and have seen the promised land. They are transformed non-conformists.

An example of a dimensionalist leader is our very own Fela Durotoye. He "has been to 2025", and has decided to live in the Nigeria that exists in 2025. It’s very different from today’s Nigeria. That’s why an average mind finds it hard to comprehend his message that says that Nigeria would be one of the most desirable nations to live in, in the world by 2025. He’s not bordered by the events and systems that currently prevail. There’s no place for criticisms and expression of doubts. The only thing that’s left to do is to get busy with implementation.

In the WORD, it’s called FAITH. Abraham (Father of FAITH) raised an army of 318 soldiers and defeated 5 kings. Dimensionalist leaders are preoccupied with raising vibrant armies, and building the critical mass of strategic change agents and value enforcers. You see, we don’t need very large numbers. The question is ARE YOU WILLING TO BE A PART OF THAT FEW? Thereafter, he met with Melchizedek, paid tithes to him and received bread (representing the doctrine of the kingdom) and wine (infilling of the Spirit) from Melchizedek. These were the ‘resources’ he needed to overcome the Sodomic systems in place. He received the blessings of elevation, dominion and possession. Kingdom resources are accessed by FAITH. The resources of the LAND OF PROMISE are accessed by FAITH.

For every corrupt world system founded on philosophical thinking and luciferian ideology, there’s a kingdom (apostolic) model and a prophetic process that counters and replaces it. Dimensionalist leaders have the ability to understand mysteries, access hidden architecture and receive revelation knowledge that sets them up for supernatural accomplishments. Corrupt systems were propagated into society by strategic agents. In the same vein, these evil and repressive systems must be replaced by kingdom models and kingdom thinking mechanisms for strategic infiltration into society. However, accessing kingdom keys isn’t achieved on a platter of Gold. It’s done through hard work and travailing. Gone are the days of pontificating, pretensive postulations and traditional ideologies.

The choice is yours. You could choose to be expert at identifying and complaining about the inadequacies of our current system, or you might just decide to become a solution to some of the problems we are currently facing. Money is the reward for solving problems. Those who walk by FAITH have understood that solutions can be ‘downloaded’ from above. There is A realm of problem solving that eclipses natural human reasoning ability. That’s the realm that dimensionalists walk in. They have understanding of the times, know what ought to be done, and get right down to executing it.

Strategy of Subversive Rationalization for Development – More Science and Less Faith?

Here’s an extract from a rather lengthy but highly intellectual and engaging article on how to apply the afore-mentioned strategy for uniquely and uncontaminatedly modernizing Nigeria and Africa.

PS: You may need a dictionary to fully grasp the message of this short extract as the author utilized his full arsenal of words and expressions.

The strategy (of subversive rationalization) emphasizes the internalization of the scientific method and rational modes of thinking as well as the assimilation of key scientific knowledge, as the epistemological foundation of any kind of modernity. It also stresses the necessity of renovating conformist, traditionalist or totalizing belief and knowledge systems, worldviews and cultures, that stand in the way to essential changes on the road to modernity - a mega-project of autonomization, individuation, rationalization, demystification and feminization processes (less patriarchal forms). Modernity is also a project of democratization, liberalization, secularization, trans-nationalization, systematization, technocratization and humanization processes.

The strategy relies on scientific knowledge, which offers only incomplete and patchy theories of the real but nonetheless possibly the best models of reality, for reordering and reconstructing the African reality and for engaging it with up to date, robust and economically efficient technical know-how. More generally, it relies on calculative thinking and on the scientific tradition as the most viable civilizational horizon of a budding region, whose tortuous and uncertain transition to modernity may necessitate an imaginative strand of thinking.........................

In summary the strategy of Subversive Rationalization uses the power of scientific thought to launch a counter hegemonic offensive in order to subvert disabling traditional and repressive knowledge-power orders that stand in the way to a new realism, or to the rejuvenation and reconstruction of the African reality. The strategy may be valuable for bringing about a post-totemic, post-enchanted, post-Abrahamic, post-phallocratic, post-colonial and post-fragmented regional space and in moving Africa forward into a distinctive, creative, secular, democratic and authentic form of modernity.

You would concur that there are resounding, though unconventional truths in this discourse and the author certainly displayed advanced knowledge of theoretical development strategies for our continent. However, as much as I agree with the author that we need to apply proven methods and standard processes in accordance with logical procedures and empirical rationalizations, we would be critically mistaken to assume that total dependence on experiential and scientific knowledge would be effective as a panacea for our present challenges.

There is more than meets the eye to every occurrence and this is not superstition. How do we explain several instances of people (and societies) who seemingly ought to have completely lost hope based on prevailing circumstances, but still eventually came out victorious and later experienced such prosperity and peace that none could have predicted. If we were to solely depend on scientific methods to predict eventual outcomes, we would have been wrong on many occasions throughout human existence.

My view is that we ought to keep hope alive, have strong faith and display such defying confidence (not arrogance) that no matter how bad a situation might have been, there is still that possibility of experiencing victory and emancipation.

This realm is certainly above science and methods. Science, technology, formal methods and proven strategies are critical, but abstract ‘resources’ such as faith, confidence, tenacity, ethical traditions and constructive beliefs could prove even more decisive in making Nigeria and Africa uniquely and uncontaminatedly modern.

Branding or Unique Value Proposition?

It’s now all too easy to make quite a lot of noise about some new product or service offering using any of the powerful PR media available in the 21st century (Internet, satellite TV...e.t.c.). It’s also quite hard to distinguish at first glance amongst the numerous options available on the shelf today. Name it! Whatever service/product you need, you’ve got several options and sometimes, you simply get confused.

However, experienced customers seem to always know their way around. Offer them 20 000 different brands of the same generic product, but believe me, they’ll pick just the perfect one (that offers relatively the most value for money). How they do it might be confounding to a newbie, but like they say, experience certainly could have proven to be the best teacher.

I’ve posted an article here that clearly substantiates the fact that no matter how hard you try to market an inferior product/service, you eventually would loose out ‘cause your customers would always find out, and possibly never forgive you when they do!

Please check out what Dr. Harari (leading strategist) has to say in one of his thought provoking write-ups.

What makes brands great is not their visibility, nor their celebrity endorsements, nor the marketing pizzazz behind them. Remember, during the 1990’s Nike and McDonald’s lost a lot of their sheen (and stock value), despite their heavy promotional strategies and the ubiquity (and near 100% recognizability) of the swoosh and the Golden Arches. Only when both companies revamped their product lines did the swoosh and arches generate a positive halo. Don’t mistake presence and recognizability for corporate vitality.

Nowadays, Levi Strauss and Coke are struggling, and as I’ve explained elsewhere (see http://www.ftpress.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1180989), Starbucks' buzz and market cap have fallen—but everybody recognizes the brands. Regardless of whether you’re in the business-to-consumer or business-to-business space, a vendor’s brand flourishes when customers can trust the vendor to provide them with a special experience and constantly evolving great products. With that excellent foundation, judicious imaginative marketing can certainly fan the flames of exposure (think Toyota and Pixar, for example) , but on its own, marketing does not make a great profitable growing brand. (And think about the fact that there are many companies, like Google and retailer Zara and tube fitting manufacturer Swagelok, which build a healthy brand solely around their unique value proposition and do practically no conventional advertising).

Tom Peters says that a brand “is a promise of the value you’ll receive.” In that spirit, I sometimes urge my clients to think about a new “P/E multiple”, one that supplements the traditional “price/earnings” metric. Think about a “Promise/Experience” metric. If, in effect, you can implicitly (not via sexy ads, but in the way you run your business) promise the marketplace that you will churn out a cool, special value in products and services-- and then actually deliver it in a way that generates a really desirable experience for the customer--the payoff in customer and investor loyalty is a genuine multiple. That’s what they do at Toyota, Pixar, Google, Zara and Swagelok, among many others. Put simply, the way to build a break-from-the-pack brand is not by public relations campaigns, ad rollouts, logos, color schemes, viral marketing, etc. etc. Those can definitely help if you’ve got the basics down.

And what are the basics? The capacity to demonstrate to the marketplace that your organization will consistently, reliably, efficiently, authentically, and quickly deliver on great things that are implicitly promised in your business model. Retired Atlanticare CEO George Lynn used to tell me that from his perspective as a hospital CEO or an individual customer—the value of any organization he buys from must be “pervasive, relevant, and credible.” Once again, it all boils down to this: Can I count on this vendor to provide me with special value that truly matters to me?

……Still on Business Strategy and Achieving Competitive Advantage.

Gary Hamel (one of the world’s thought leaders on the Strategy theme) clearly stated that ‘Strategic Planning is different from Business Strategising’. ‘To plan is not to create something new’ (how true!). Try to read the next sentence carefully and think about it. The objective of the revolutionary is to free the process from the tyranny of the past.
This basically is in sync with the Excellence Man, Tom Peter’s top-notch consulting advice in one of his recent presentations (in Johannesburg, SA) where he declared that Managers ought to hire crazies and unconventional people. You know what guys? I’ll just replicate the content of one of his slides below:

1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…..

10. Avoid moderation!

Now, don't you take this out of context but if you are the nice, orderly gentleman (or lady) who loves to maintain order and do stuff the normal good way (with respect to business and pressing constructive change through), you might just as well ignore this piece cause this ain’t for the faint at heart!
See what these legends and thought leaders have to say:
Do one thing every day that scares you. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy. – Nicholas Negroponte

Creative strategising in the global capital marketplace requires revolutionary thinking.
You’ve got to realise that the corporations and businesses in our world today are definitely one of these:

• Rule makers (General Electric, IBM, General Motors, Intel….): They tend to get comfortable and gradually experience creativity drought. Their perceived success eventually becomes their greatest undoing.
  
• Rule breakers (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Apple…..): They come from no-where and rewrite the rules. They could be referred to as disruptive innovators and are usually architects of industry transformation. You’d better be here if you intend to lead a meaningful and impacting life.
  
• Rule takers (me don’t want no trouble! you can figure examples out yourselves!) They accept whatever is being offered. They are content like sheep.
  
  The primary agenda for a business that means business is to be the architect of industry transformation, not just corporate-level transformation.
  Incrementalism, what most of us find comfortable is not innovation.
  Gary Hamel clarifies that Re engineering the Corporation (Classic business improvement manual by James Champy and Michael Hammer) is more about incremental changes than paradigm breaking. (BPR, 6 Sigma, Value Chain Analysis……e.t.c certainly do result in improvements and costs savings, sometimes quite significant but seems like the bar has been raised in the current highly deregulated and technology driven international markets)
  

Companies, organizations and entities that view change as being an internal matter are liable to be left behind as the pace of external change in our world has, and is still catching many unprepared, forcing them into oblivion and irrelevance. The forward thinking individual or business wouldn’t aim to meet up with the pace, but rather dictate the pace. Now, you would agree with me that it takes foresight, cutting-edge business strategy and most importantly, spirited execution and impact assessment to do that today.
In short, you’ve got one option, and that is to re-invent your industry!

These are other critical elements that have a direct impact on your organization’s overall effectiveness:

• Values & Ethics: These are the communal foundation and basis for all socio-economic activity. i.e… the cohesive bonds that hold social order. When they aren’t sacred, assertive and shared, you tend to experience inconsistencies that check quality and organic growth.
  
• An Articulated Cause: You must be able to conceptualize and crystallize ideas. Your Cause is what underpins your existence. It reflects what you believe in and determines your relevance to society. It explains how you fit into the bigger dream of regional economic prosperity and development. Normally, it should leverage on your position, uniqueness and inherent design and capabilities.
  
• Research, Collaboration and Strategic Partnerships: which of you embarks on a project without counting the costs first? The mind ought to be engaged vigorously (ATP: Analytical Productive Thinking. We are what we think, not what we eat – Walter Anderson. We must have foresight, and the ability to chart a course indented by specific actions and executions that lead us to the projected future-state. High selectivity in collaboration and partnerships is also paramount. How many emerging companies and great ideas have gone under just because they got in the wrong train!
  
• Mentoring, Coaching and Succession Planning: We are way past the era of the superstars and untouchables. If you get so good that no one else could attempt taking on your responsibilities, and you become aware of this and do nothing about it, you are practically what I call a shooting star and in the process, set up your organization for extinction. Organizations are set-up with persistence in mind (let’s ignore SPVs – Special Purpose Vehicles) meaning that they are designed to live and continue to grow. This is compromised when superstars litter and thrive in your organization. Their exit becomes the organization’s exit.
  
• Control and leverage: Would you volunteer to drive a car without controls, or perhaps fly in an airplane with the slightest control faults? When an organization lacks effective controls that are in sync with its strategy, such organization is inadvertently bracing up itself to join the greats viz: Enron, WorldCom, Cadbury…the list goes on.

Excerpts from Leadership the Goran Eriksson way, a book about the contemporary leadership style of the ex-England manager provides us with some insight into the cornerstones of effective business leadership in our world today. Here are the main points and distinctions from what previously obtained.

Features of the Old: charismatic, action oriented, idealistic, top-down structure, motivate thru fear and intimidation, task focussed, IQ, self confident (examples are Jack Welch – General Electric & Rupert Murdoch – Newscorp )

New leaders: understated, reflective, pragmatic, bottom-up, motivate thru reason and inspiration, relationship focussed, EQ, self awareness (examples are Richard Branson, Goran-Eriksson)

That does it for now folks! I hope we all continue to learn and APPLY these truths in our daily business and personal engagements. We’ve all still got ground to cover on our mission to becoming highly effective people, but the journey of a sextillion miles starts with a step. That leads me to the concept of doing, acting, executing….whatever name you choose o call it! Without this, we could all just have remained within the walls of those classrooms and training centres.

Pitfalls and Threats to Business Leadership

In 2000, Fortune Magazine did a survey of American CEOs and business leaders who were forced out. Top reasons were:

• Bad earnings (Poor return on investments, faulty investment decisions)
• People problems (failure to get on with owners and other executives)
• Lifer syndrome (creativity drought resulting from being too long on the job)
• Decision gridlock (lacking influence and political clout to implement ideas)

The critical challenges facing business leaders today are:

1. Globalization (Balancing Pankaj Ghemawat’s 3As i.e.)

• Arbitrage: has to do with exploiting the variations in the availability and cost of accessing critical resources. For instance, situating your production facility in China may provide you with opportunities for significant cost-reduction with respect to labour as against erecting your facility in Western Europe or the United States. (you can ask BMW why they decided to move some of their operations overseas!)
  
• Adaptation: entails tailoring your products to suite target markets. HSBC’s slogan, ‘the world’s local bank” is a pointer to the fact that they package their products to suite their target markets. Standardization may not always prove effective depending on the nature of products and services being offered.
  
• Aggregation: aims at strategically centralising some aspects of your operations or implementing some form of shared services. The leverage point here is scale. With careful case analysis, multinationals can aggregate aspects of their operations for better coordination, increased throughput and overall effectiveness.

2.Technological change

Any business that isn’t internet enabled would simply be unqualified to be called a business in the nano-second world of today. Deployment of business automation systems and e-solutions including business to business and customer to business applications are basic pre-requisites for conducting any sort of business today. Service providers, finance and consulting firms and companies where knowledge and information management constitute core aspects of their business have significantly higher technological investment obligations including Document Management Systems, Information Security and Availability, Business Continuity Planning and host of others.

In our fast changing world, successful companies (by implication companies with sound leadership and management) focus on a few simple rules:

• How to rules -- There are standard methodologies and approach to problem solving.
• Boundary rules -- A niche has been carved out. This forces you to focus on your target market and ignore almost everything else outside your strategic framework.
• Priority rules -- First things first. Resources ought to be allocated on the basis of the projected estimated value derivable from such resource commitment.
• Timing rules -- There’s a time and season for everything. If you would agree with me, we are past the period of mega-bucks profits from computer hardware sales. It’s critical to discern the right moment for a product offering, but this does not in any way negate the fact that a company must be able to pro-actively articulate the needs of consumers and hit them with a solution they never knew they needed!
• Exit rules – There’s a time to be born and a time to die. One of the most critical issues investors face today is pin-pointing to divest, exit or liquidate an investment. A twenty-hour delay in liquidating an investment could have implications in the realm of billions of dollars in losses for global corporations.

Warren Bennis remarked that the new leader is one who commits people to action, converts followers into leaders, and converts leaders into change agents.
Today’s leaders ought to think globally and act globally (not just locally)!

Classical VS 21st Century Leadership Imperatives

Leadership in the 21st century has taken on a new dimension and is significantly altered from what was obtainable in ancient, medieval and the pre-2nd millennium era. The demands placed on today's leaders are unique and unconventional, meaning that those who would be effective in this mordern and hi-tech era would have to do 2 things quite well.
Learn and acquire the new required skills swiftly and equally important, unlearn and discard old, traditional and no longer effective ways of exercising and manifesting quality leadership.

Classical leadership traits and fundamentals:

• Influence
• Charisma
• Lineage/family line
• Eloquence
• Physical ability
• Reactive
• Positional
  

21st century leadership cornerstones:

• Information
• Technology
• Change/innovation (agility)
• Opportunities (foresight)
• Communication and strategic intent
• Effectiveness
• Proactive-ness
  

This is basically self explanatory. I would elaborate on how each of these traits fit into their respective classifications in subsequent postings, but I’ll let you ponder upon these and draw on the power of your most-prized asset (your mind!) as self discovery is often the best way to learn.
Each of these traits (particularly those of the 21st century) can be further understudied to reveal how they strategically fit into the core-requirements for delivery and exceeding performance in whatever projects or engagements undertaken in the global/information society and capitalist/free-market place of today.

Hallo Friends. Welcome to the Strategic Year of 2008

Hello friends. I believe it’s been a great start into the New Year for you, and believe me, 2008 would be the best year yet (say Amen now!) Well, I want to apologise for failing to update my blog page regularly. Some have visited my site http://www.adetayo.blogspot.com/ a number of times expecting to see something new (but were disappointed), but be rest assured, there’s going to be something new at least every other week this new year. (I should let you know that I changed my job about three times last year, and was involved in quite a lot of relatively disconnected activities but this year has been declared one of greater glory (by my pastor, Rev Yinka Ojo – obviously echoing God’s mind) and experiencing this Chabod and Shekinah requires focus and consistency.

Alright, let’s shoot! I will use the first quarter of 2008 to share my thoughts on Strategy, Leadership, Values, Cause, competitive advantage and ‘spirituals’(other themes would also feature from time to time). These are highly critical and brain tasking mysteries that several leading authors and consultants of repute are still trying to unravel. (I guess you are then wondering…..’so what makes you think you’ve got what it takes to talk about, or perhaps provide insight into this high-octane arena that has kept Harvard Professors, thought leaders on strategy and CA, executives of PwC, Mckinsey, Boston Consulting group…..e.t.c working over time?’)

Well, let’s just say my mind, head and most-importantly Heart (or ‘Spirit man’ for those of us that understand the language of ‘Spirituals’) have been doing significant work along these lines, and I believe the little that I have to say would add value, and help at least a few people make better decisions that will impact their communities, constituencies and stakeholders positively. Hope you get the point!?

I was perusing the initial issue of Harvard Business Review in 2008 (and guess what? The cover page and most of the content echoed strategy and leadership!) Before I had even read through the magazine, the very first sentence in Prof. Michael Porter’s revised “Five Competitive forces that shape strategy’ (or something like that) was rendered invalid and/or inaccurate by Dr. Oren Harari on his aw-inspiring blog at http://www.harari.com/blog/. This probably provides you with some degree of insight into the intense warring amongst diverse schools of thought on these hotly contested themes.

Alright then, too much talk and too little action isn’t my style, so I’ve got to halt and get to the crux of the matter. Wish you the best as you learn a few things from my posts in 2008.