Strategic Leadership’s View about Investment in Innovation

The strategic leadership view argues that the strategic incentive to invest in an innovation or the failure to exploit it as a result of destroyed competence come only after a firm’s top management has recognized the potential of the innovation. Top management makes the decisions to invest in an innovation, or if such decisions are made by lower level managers, they still reflect the beliefs and values of top management. But incentive to invest in an innovation or its ability to embrace and exploit the innovation is a function of the extent to which the firm’s top management recognizes the potential of the innovation. This ability of top management to recognize the potential of an innovation is a function of its managerial logic, or view of the world, which in turn depends on management experiences, organizational logic, and industry logic. Thus whether a firm is a new entrant or an incumbent may not matter much. What matters is the strategic leadership’s dominant logic.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Value Stream Management

The value stream management method is a strategic and operational approach designed to help a company or complete supply chain achieve a lean status. It has its antecedents grounded in the Value Stream Mapping approach but seeks to overcome some of the problems and drawbacks of this earlier approach. Value Stream Management also incorporates various education and policy deployment stages to make it a far better basis for ongoing company or supply chain development. The new approach can be divided into individual and consecutive stages.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Preparing an Effective Presentation

The first step in preparing for a presentation is to analyze the needs of the audience. You can then tailor your presentation to their interests and expectations.

As you analyze your audience, consider the following questions:

• What need or opportunity prompted the presentation?

1. What is the general purpose of the presentation (for instance, a ceremonial occasion, information, persuasion, entertainment)?
2. What kind of response or specific outcome do I want as a result of the presentation?

• Who specifically, will be attending the presentation?

1. What are the relevant demographic characteristics (such as educational backgrounds, ages, gender) of audience members?

• What do audience members already know about the subject?

1. What has been their exposure to, or experience with, the particular subject I am addressing?
2. What background information is necessary for the group?

• What is the audience’s attitude toward me, the presenter?

1. What is the level of my credibility?
2. How does the audience perceive my role in the meeting?

• What is important to the audience?

1. What do they want and need to know from my presentation?
2. Of the information I have, what do they most need to know?
3. How can I capitalize on the audience’s interests and expectations to reach my objective?

• What are the physical arrangements?

1. When will I be presenting? How much time do I have?
2. How many people will be there?
3. How will the audience be seated?
4. What equipment is available for visual aids?

• How will I improvise if my best-laid plans fall through?

1. What if I have only a portion of the time that I expected?
2. What if the audiovisual equipment I counted on is not available?

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Don’t Go Alone, Take People with you

Foreigners will almost always have more people on a team. You may not be able to match them (the Japanese and Chinese will always add more people), but do try to reach some balance in authority and power. Being outnumbered is a psychological as well as practical disadvantage. You need the help of a strong team to be able to carry on all the simultaneous activities of a negotiation: giving information, persuading, listening, thinking, preparing arguments, formulating questions and revising strategy as necessary to continue moving toward agreement. It also helps to have a number of nodding (or frowning) faces on your side to give an air of support and unity.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Concession Strategy in Negotiations

Never forget your concession strategy. With new information, you may need to adjust the strategy often, but whether you are, make your concessions count. Whether you make concessions along the way or at the end of deliberations, think of them as tools in the negotiations, not required give-aways. And don’t think you have to make a concession each time the other side makes one, but try to make your concessions only when the other side gives too. Don’t worry about being seen as stubborn—you will be respected for your consistency. Generally it is a good idea to let the opposite side volunteer its own concessions rather than suggest them yourself.

Whenever making concessions, keep them small. Each inch should make good mileage. The other side needs to have something to chip at—giving too much too soon doesn’t allow the process of negotiation. Old hands recommend accompanying each concession with sweat and tears, emphasizing the importance and generosity of the concession. Whether the style of your arguments, they must contain the necessary content.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Not Right or Wrong, Cultures are Just Different

People around the world feel as strongly about their culture as we do about ours, even if they do occasionally feel ambivalence. It is pointless to argue whether a culture is “good” or “bad;” every nationality thinks its culture is the best. For every foreign peculiarity that assumes us, there is our national peculiarity that amuses others.

Cultures have their own logic. Anthropologists say cutures are different because various peoples had to deal with diverse circumstances to meet their common human needs: different climates, different climates, different resources, different terrain. Just as animal species evolved differently to adapt to different conditions, so mankind evolved diverse solutions to life’s problems. Over the years the complex array of solutions to problems (many of which disappeared long ago)  created a confusion of cultural behaviors. But there are patterns, and one can begin to understand them by considering the different past, present and future of the cultures of the world.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Development and Corporate Objectives

Development activities ought to reflect the situation and circumstances of a company, its business objectives and its key priorities. For example, there is little point in a company building hypothetical team skills without addressing the following:

• The purpose of the team. For example, a bid team might require specific bidding skills such as defining value in customer terms.
• Where team members are located. People in virtual teams may be widely scattered and they may need special training.
• The role of groups and teams in the management of change, the management culture and management style must be supportive.
• The clarity of the goals given to teams, and the relevance of their priorities to business objectives. People need to understand the broad boundaries within which they operate in terms of goals and priorities.
• The discretion given to teams, and the extent to which people are given the required freedom to act.
• The commitment of senior management to team work, and especially cross-functional and inter-organizational team work. They must be dedicated to ensuring that decisions are taken as close to the customer as possible, and people are enabled to do what is necessary to add value for customers.
• Prevailing attitudes, such as the extent to which people feel part of teams. Empowered team work should be pervasive, rather than the isolated experiment.
• The management cadre. Managers should counsel and coach, value diversity, and foster and encourage teamwork, collaborative activities, self-development and group learning.
• How open people are, and the degree of trust and confidence they have. People need to feel they are able to take initiatives without being paralyzed by fear of the consequences.
• Existing performance within teams, the tools shared within teams, and the approaches and support in terms of technology and process available to them. For example, there should be relatively open access to relevant information.
• Rewards and performance management. This should be supportive of, and should recognize, team work, the acquisition of team skills and the exhibiting of role-model behavior.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Design Entry and Exit Strategies

Astra Zeneca does fundamental research to develop new drugs; Halifax Bank designs new types of accounts; Microsoft designs completely new software. These companies look for the high profits that come from new products, but they have to bear the cost of research and development.

These companies follow a product for its entire life cycle. But most organizations do not start with basic research to develop entirely new products – neither do they continue making a product through its entire life. They find existing products that fit into their range, and modify these to create their own ‘new’ product.

Organizations generally start supplying a product that is already some way through its life cycle. The time when they start, and later stop, making a product defines their entry and exit strategy. The best entry and exit strategy depends on your expertise and objectives. Your organization might be:

• Research driven these are good at research, design and development, but they lack the resources and production skills to manage a growing  demand. They work in the introduction stage, and leave before the growth stage.
• New product exploiters. These look for research that has commercial potential and then exploit it during the growth stage. They use strong marketing and process design to get the high prices available during growth, and then exit when profit margins begin to fall.
• Cost reducers. These design very efficient operations, so they enter the market at the mature stage and produce large quantities efficiently enough to compete with organizations already in the market. They exit when sales fall too low to maintain high production levels.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Training: The Competitive Edge

In leading-edge companies that contend with international or domestic competition, training for new technology has moved from the periphery toward the center of managerial concern. Four reasons account for this change:

1. Constant accretion of new technology-based products and processes is an essential weapon in the competitive struggle.
2. New technology cannot be successfully acquired and implemented without training.
3. The value added by proper training and the losses incurred by inadequate training are too high to be ignored.
4. The next value of training for new technology increases with wider dissemination throughout an organization.

Strategic management of training for new technology, even in leading companies, is a new and difficult art.

A competition intensifies and spreads, companies in all sorts of industries will find that they have to behave like high-tech companies because the onrushing changes in technology and products in almost every industry have combined with increased competition to bring about shorter product lives, more products, more competitive products, more products being introduced, more products phasing out, exponentially increasing management, and operations complexity in manufacturing.

Many manufacturing industries not yet directly exposed to international competition are suppliers to industries that are so exposed, and will have to respond to their customers’ pressures. Industries outside the manufacturing sector have been insulated from international competition, but their time is approaching. Since their productivity growth in these areas has lagged far behind that of the reinvigorated manufacturing sector, the blow, when it comes, will send many of them reeling.

The skills and knowledge come from well-directed investments in research, development, new technology, and training. High-tech companies make these investments not because something peculiar to computers, lasers, or high-strength plastic requires it, but because they will succumb to the competition if they don’t.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Complacency Breeds Failure

Once they are making a lot of money, many salespeople, for instance, tend to get complacent. They get lazy and sloppy and stop attending to the basics. The same thing happens in many different areas when people or teams are successful. Success, is the goal, the finale, the reward, the finish line. Because it is viewed as the end and not the means, there is a tendency to think we’ve got it made when we achieve our goal. We think we know the basics, have the skills and drills down, and start taking success for granted. The result is, we get killed into complacency and slack off.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight