By SEOW MEI LING

Hatim Tyabji, Chairman of DataCard Corporation and also Founder
and Former CEO of VeriFone Inc, was in MIM to speak on the topic
of "Effective Organizational Leadership & Entrepreneurship for
Global Organizations".  During the seminar, he posed a few
questions: Does entrepreneurship lead to an erosion of moral
values?  Is it impossible to aspire for spiritual and
intellectual achievement, while at the same time achieve
entrepreneurial success?  The fundamental question is, is it
mutually exclusive to care and simultaneously to lead?

Through years of experience in managing successful companies and
working with young individuals as a mentor, Hatim talked about
creating the soul of an enterprise.  Creating the soul of the
enterprise requires very deep conviction.  It requires passion,
caring and intense 100 per cent involvement.

Hatim shared a profound and personal experience about the values
of leadership and the courage to reach for the stars.  His
youngest son is a fighter pilot with the air force and he is
very proud of him.  However, recently, his son was home from
base and was really depressed.  His son was saying, "You know,
Dad, I really want to go to pilot school and I want to be an
astronaut, but these things aren't really working out.  I'd
really never make it."

A couple of days later, Hatim was teaching a class and he made a
simple request.  Hatim said to his son, "Could you please attend
my class?  And I'd like you to sit in the front row.  I'd be
teaching the class and I'd be talking to you.  I'd like you to
listen to your dad."

His son attended his class as requested.  Hatim's message was
simple and straightforward.  He said, "Anyone of us, if we do
not have the courage to dream, to achieve something that appears
totally unachievable, something that normal common sense would
say, don't even try.… If you don't have the courage to dream, to
pursue your dream, then life isn't going to be a whole lot of
fun." He went on to say, "It doesn't really make any difference
if you don't end up achieving all that you are striving for.
Because if you give it everything you've got, you've got to be
walking tall, you've got to be walking with a spring in your
step because at the end of the day, you've tried.  At the end of
the day, you've got to like what you see when you shave in the
morning.  And as long as you can do that, it doesn't really make
a difference of what you achieve or what you don't achieve.
Because, fundamentally, you achieve something that very few
people achieve.  You achieve a level of comfort and confidence
in terms of who YOU are and what you stand for.  You're able to
achieve a level of self-esteem.  You're able to achieve a level
of self-respect that most human beings would kill for."

Many people think of leadership as an abstract concept - plenty
of words but precious little action.  Hatim believes deeply in
leadership.  Leadership means action.  In 1991, Hatim wrote a
long email to all his employees in VeriFone Inc.  "I have high
standards of leadership," he said.  "I practise these standards
myself.  I judge my own performance and the performance of the
others by these standards.  I am not shy about advising others
when they fail to meet my standards.  By the same token, I fully
expect others to advise me when I fail to live up to my beliefs.
The following statements express my deeply held convictions
about leadership.  They represent the way I live.  They
represent the way I work."

The is a summary of some of Hatim's pointers about what he
believes to be the qualities of leadership:

Lead by example.

Saying one thing and doing another will only compromise one's
effectiveness.  You are the role model for your staff.  Practise
your beliefs faithfully and you will find people following your
lead.

Take the toughest problems on yourself.

As a leader, one must take personal responsibility for making
the call and accepting the consequences.

Set standards of excellence and measure performance against
them.

Maintain a driving sense of urgency.

Take action now.  Do not be afraid to make a mistake!  It may
not be the absolute best choice but it is better than no choice
at all.  People in institutions, large or small, are often faced
with difficult situations and the most common response is to
keep putting decisions off.  However, by putting it off, one has
made a decision and the decision is to do nothing.  There is a
huge consequence of inaction.  How many times has this taken
place in the political arena?  How many times has this happened
in the corporate arena?  The ability to maintain the driving
sense of urgency and having the courage of one's conviction to
take action is a true sign of leadership.

Accepting failure.

Another key element of leadership is accepting failure.  A
leader cannot afford to be paralyzed by the fear of being wrong.
Take the risks and be prepared to deal with the outcome.

Be tough but be fair.

Leadership is an intensely personal and inter-personal skill.
How one relates to staff means everything.  Toughness starts
with one's own standards, one's own performance and the example
one sets.  Fairness is the other side of the coin.  Judge others
as one would judge oneself, fairly and consistently.

Many of us in our day-to-day endeavours, whether we are about to
start a new company or whether we are young individuals starting
out in a larger company and working our way up, or whether we
are working in the government, irrespective of what our
endeavours happen to be, are often held back not because
somebody is holding us back.  It is because of that mental block
that we have in terms of our own capabilities.  Hatim told the
story of a sportsman, who went beyond himself to achieve greater
heights.

Roger Banister was an Englishman who broke the four-minute
barrier, i.e. the ability to run the mile in under four minutes
that had been holding the world's best runners at bay.  When he
was later asked how he was able to do that, Banister replied,
"It's the ability to take more out of yourself than you ever
thought you could." Once Banister broke through on the other
side, one person after another kept breaking not only the
4-minute barrier but also Banister's record itself.  Of the 22
record holders in the last century, Banister held the record for
the shortest period of time - 46 days!

Robert Banister's achievement reminds us that records give way.
Companies whose leadership seems invincible may not be that
leaders get overtaken.  All that it takes may well be as Robert
Banister described as the ability to take more out of yourself
than you ever thought you could.


Hatim Tyabji is Chairman of DataCard Group, a global provider of
secure ID and card personalization solutions.  He was at MIM on
1 July 2004 and spoke on "Effective Organizational Leadership &
Entrepreneurship for Global Organizations." For more
information, please call MIM Customer Service at 03-2165 4611,
e-mail enquiries@mim.edu or visit our website www.mim.edu.