>> MIM Speaks
MIND POWER, THE NEW NAME IN BUSINESS GAME
SEPT 8, 1996 -
NEW STRAITS TIMES
IN the Management Times (NST, Sept 3) pull out, Institute of
Strategic and International Studies director general Dr
Noordin Sopiee said, "We need to massively and incredibly
achieve new levels of competence, talent and creativity ... If
we don't do this, we will hit the brick wall of
competitiveness and we are going to run into big trouble."
A huge technological wave is now sweeping across the globe. It
is gaining momentum and speed, and we all need to prepare for
change and creativity.
Malaysia requires a large cadre of talented creative and
versatile professionals in the computer software and
information technology industry.
We are now in the Information Age. When the first personal
computer came into the market in 1973 no one, not even IBM,
imagined that in the 1990s, organisations would be incomplete
without them. Soon, PCs will be as common as televisions in
the homes.
We have moved into the Information Age after 300 years of the
Industrial Age which begun in England with the steam engine.
Before that, human civilisation saw 9,000 years of agrarian or
farming lifestyle.
In the Information Age knowledge is plentiful and cheap. It
will get even cheaper in the future. Knowledge becoming a
commodity brings new problems or opportunities depending on
one's perspective. For instance executives in the corporate
sector are swamped daily with an information overload when
asked to make decisions.
And to think that it was less than 50 years ago (before World
War Two) that information and knowledge was a rare commodity.
Only the very rich had easy access to books, magazines,
newspapers TV and so on. Educated persons were highly
respected and revered.
The situation today is totally reversed. If you have access to
the Internet, you have a virtual library and can virtually get
any information just by the touch of a button.
We now have all the knowledge and the tools to augment the
capacity of the human brain. And in the corporate world in
novative organisations can make use of these tools and
technologies to achieve breakthroughs and reap the fruits of
success.
But do we have enough human talent?
As Sopiee says, unless we achieve new levels of competence,
talent and creativity, we are going to run into trouble. There
is an urgent need for Malaysians to be much more creative and
versatile if we are to remain competitive and achieve our
vision 2020.
MANAGING OUR MIND POWER
PRIOR to the Information Age, the traditional management
skills in handling the 4 Ms (Man, Money, Materials and
Machines) were good enough.
Today, and in the future, CEOs who are un able to add the
fifth M Mind-Power (or creativity) to the other skills, will
trail behind more creative corporations.
Creativity is necessary simply because the old rules of the
business game, in certain fast changing industries, have
changed. With information explosion and the speedy rate of
technological advancements, yesterday's concepts, business
strategies and ways of structuring the company become obsolete
today. And if not today, they will become obsolete tomorrow.
Unless organisations constantly rejuvenate themselves with new
ideas, new technologies or processes such as business process
reengineering (BPR) they will all face the dangers of being
challenged by smaller and more agile competitors who, may be
less than three years old.
These agile and newly formed companies have the talents and
guts to use advanced technology aggressively. Their approaches
are often outrageously unconventional.
Professor John Kotten of Harvard Business School calls them
"entrepreneurial techies". But where it concerns customer
needs and company objectives these gutsy techies are extremely
focused and single minded in their purpose.
CREATIVE ORGANISATIONS
NOT all organisations need to be highly innovative or have
creative employees.
For instance, Toyota Motors Corporation and Matsushita
Electronics achieved supremacy in their industries by being
efficient low cost producers with consistent high product
qualities.
Sony Corporation, a much younger company compared to
Matsushita achieved breakthroughs and international fame by
being more creative and unconventional. In the field of audio
electronics, Sony has come out with many novel products, the
most famous and ubiquitous of which is their walkman.
Generally speaking, markets or industries which need to be
more innovative or creative have the following
characteristics:
* Short product life cycles: Computers have very short product
life cycles of around one year. Similarly computer software
programs must keep pace with changing technology and changing
cousumer needs.
* Highly competitive markets: Where competition can be
described as cut throat, creative players have the cutting
edge. In Malaysia the banking and finance industry will get
extremely competitive in the near future. The one who is able
to make use of advance IT aggressively and creatively will
emerge the winner. The competition among the 39 or so banks
will very soon become serious.
* Novelty and uniqueness: In the world of fashion and
advertising, creative talents is the raison d'etre or key
success factor of the business. As the cook is the key success
factor of a restaurant fashion houses and advertising agencies
will close shop if they lack creativity.
Organisations with creative energies and guts should be able
to come up with new ways of using existing or new
technologies. For example in the unglamorous supermarket
industry, a small regional supermarket chain in the early
1960s, started to grow by leaps and bounds after its founder
the late Sam Walton, aggressively made use of the computer to
keep track of the millions of product items moving in and out
in his stores daily.
He also made use of the computers to store, handle and process
data to manage its warehouses and inventories. Exact knowledge
of stock level in the stores and the, warehouses enabled
WalMart to make strategic alliances with its suppliers.
All the cost savings from: (i) interest charges (ii)
warehousing (iii) transportation and double handling were
passed on to the customer. WalMaxt quickly became the cheapest
supermarket chain stores in America. Its growth became
phenomenal because it offers its customers the best services
as well. At no time walking into a wal mart store need to walk
out disappointed without the products they intended to buy.
Aggressive use of information technology revolutionsrised the
way supermarket or hypermarkets are being run.
THE MARK OF CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS
CREATIVE entrepreneurs such as Sam Walton create breakthroughs
by breaking down the brick walls of traditional methods and
thinking which are no longer appropriate in the Information
Age.
But creative talents though highly sort after, are rare
throughout the world. Our educational system and even our
business schools do not develop individuals to be skillful in
the creative use of intellect or mind. It looks like companies
wanting a cadre of highly creative and versatile professionals
(however small), must train and develop them in house.
Stephen Lai Teik Huat, the founder of J.F. Technology
Advisors Sdn Bhd, Penang, a multi branch IT company, expressed
his concern about a declining culture of innovation and
creativity due to complacency, in, NST's Computimes (Sept 5).
He also warned that the rate of adoption of new software
technologies is not fast enough.
While we now have the information, the tools and the
technologies to drive our corporations into world class
companies, we must very quickly develop a new crop of highly
"competent, talented and creative" professionals to fuel the
growth. Otherwise, like Sopiee said, "We are going to run into
big trouble".
Let us consider some of the traits and qualities of creative
professionals:
* They must be highly talented. Like talented musicians and
artists, talent is a gift of God or an inborn trait.
* They must (a) have a flair for design, (b) feel comfortable
working with technology and its tools, and (c) have a well
developed ability to visualise shapes and patterns and easily
deal with abstract concepts and contradictions or paradoxes.
* Needless to say, they must have the appropriate technical
background. For instance, if they are to work in the computer
and IT industry, they must have the necessary credentials and
hands on expertise.
* In terms of personal values, they must have attitudes such
as "if anything is worth doing, it must be done real well." At
the same time, they must be action oriented and result driven.
In this context, working smart alone is not good enough. They
must be willing to work hard and smart. The nature of their
jobs fierce competition, short deadlines from customers and
rapid technological changes require that they work hard.
* Then they must be fast learners, highly confident flexible
and versatile. Rapid products obsolescence and changes call
for the need to relearn new skills constantly.
In terms of interpersonal skills they must (a) be good team
players as they have to work in teams consisting of colleagues
with different specialised expertise or skills, and (b) be
sensitive to customers' needs and have the people skills to
deal with customers' unreasonable demand (at times) or
idiosyncrasies.
Last but not least in addition to being creative problem
solvers, they must have the oral courage or guts to stand up
for what they believe in. Otherwise, at the slightest
challenge they will back down and nothing creative, innovative
or revolutionary will ever be created.
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