Dilemma of Generating Alternatives for Issue Tree Analysis

Assignments! Assignments! I’m now at the stage of “generating alternatives” section of the Business Strategic Leadership assignment…….

The idea was simple, which was to generate alternatives of a chosen strategic issue. The tips are:

1. Make sure the alternatives are completely different.
2. Make sure the alternatives are not fine-tuning a solution.
3. Exhaust all known alternatives.
4. Use lateral thinking techniques (whatever that is!)

Okay, sound easy? If it is so easy, how come I’m stuck here for days?

My chosen strategic Issue was “how to influence retail Merchants to rollout our payment terminals?”

That sounds easy (at first glance). I could do it:

Alternative 1 : Offer signup incentives to retail merchants such as subsidized terminal rental.

Alternative 2 : Offer attractive MDR to retail merchants.

Wait a minute! Offering attractive MDR was also a form of signup incentive, not so “different” from the idea in Alternative 1. In fact, I could do Alternative 1 together with Alternative 2.

Okay. So I merged the two ideas and it became:

Alternative 1 (revised): Offer signup incentives to retail merchants such as subsidized terminal rental and competitive MDR.

Then, the dilemma came in as well:

Alternative 2 (revised): ????????

I could not think of other different alternatives!

As easy as it might sound, it was definitely not easy when you actually practicing it. That’s why I was stuck for few days.

Experience of Using Strategic Tools At Work

Not too long ago, I was assigned to work out a feasibility study of product in my company. Since I have attended the Business Strategic Leadership course, I’ve decided to use some of the tools learned to flavor up my analysis.

I used the “Battlefield” analysis to take a look at the business at bird’s eye view. The “Battlefield” analysis defined the market place with its competitors (either direct or indirect), substitutes, complements and influencers. The “Battlefield” diagram also showed the simple value chain of the business.

From the bird’s eye view of the “Battlefield”, it easily led me to prepare other notes/slides which would help to justify my case. Based on the same “Battlefield”, other ideas blossomed to support my feasibility study, like SWOT analysis, financial cost vs benefit, and market share chart.

My analysis was concrete and I shared my findings with the MD and management team. All agreed with the findings and they made a decision to keep the product, with unanimous vote!

At least something worked well for me a result from Business Strategic Leadership training, which doesn’t always happen!

Can Every Company Find Its Blue Ocean? (Part 2)

What companies are in Blue Ocean, really? It once said that our country’s very own budget airline AirAsia is in Blue Ocean. It was first to introduce the terminology “Now Everyone Can Fly”. We were all very excited when AirAsia offered affordable air tickets to regional countries. Business were brisk, and thousands of holiday deprived folks (like myself) made bookings 12 months ahead just to get FREE flight tickets (not including fuel surcharge, baggage fee, airport taxes and other fine line charges which can be very substantial!).

Now, every country tries to jump on the bandwagon of ‘budget airlines’. We have Tiger Airways from Singapore, JetStar from Australia, Cebu Pacific in Philippines and Lion Air from Indonesia. Even Malaysian Airlines (not really belonging to the budget airlines category) is offering cheap seats to compete with AirAsia! Now, the thing is, everyone’s swimming into the Blue Ocean, making it not so blue anymore…….

Once a company is successful in its Blue Ocean, others tend to follow. When the Blue Ocean becomes a competitive arena, it loses its edge and become Red Ocean. Sometimes, the Blue Ocean Strategy is not sustainable unless the company is constantly creating a new ocean to swim.

Can Every Company Find Its Blue Ocean? (Part 1)

The Blue Ocean Strategy is a tool to find a profitable business territory which void of any competition. One of the key objectives of Blue Ocean Strategy is not to compete with other in the so-called Red Ocean.

Is there a Blue Ocean for every company, waiting for the company to dive and swim into? If every company is able to find its Blue Ocean, then its ocean will be very small, cause total market size it not infinite…… a funny thing to ponder isn’t it?

Now, I am not 100% skeptical of the Blue Ocean strategy, I’m just not convinced that every company can find its own Blue Ocean.
Take a company that deals with commodity – a sugar refinery company. Sugar is sugar, no matter how you brand it, package it or promote it. How can you find a Blue Ocean Strategy for a sugar producing company?

Is My Company Strategy-Led or Vision-Led? (Part 2)

With ambiguous vision statement, I am, quite convinced that my company is not Vision-Led. But is it Strategy-Led? I definitely hope so……

If a company is neither Vision-Led nor Strategy-Led, it is in BIG trouble!
What is a Strategy-Led company? What is the definition of a Strategy-Led company?
In the course notes, a Strategy-Led company looks at where they are today. Then from there, the Strategy-Led company defines a strategy of where they can go and where they want to go is their vision. On the other hand, a Vision-Led company defines the vision first, then creating the strategy later.

I think my company is Strategy-Led. It has good moving forward strategies but have yet to define its vision.

Is My Company Strategy-Led or Vision-Led? (Part 1)

Is my company -Led or Vision-Led?
Before we probe further, let’s talk about the vision of my company. My company’s vision is:
“To Be the Leading Electronic Payment Operator in Malaysia”
To me, every company wants to be the leading company in its own industry. I find the vision statement a cliché and overused by most companies. To be leading in what way? Leading customer service? Leading technology? It is too vague for my understanding and I really don’t see the value in the vision statement.
To me, a vision statement has to be emotional where everybody can grasp passionately. The vision statement should describe how you will feel when the outcome is realized. The emotional payoff of the vision should be compelling, inspiring, and energizing.
Walt Disney’s Vision is to “Dream, Believe and Dare”.
The Vision is simple yet compelling, and it has a lot of emotional elements. It is easy to grasp the values implied in the vision statement. Walt Disney’s vision has an inspiring purpose.
Just food for thought, I think my company needs to fine tune its vision statement.

11 April

Last week, our company sent me for a training program “The 4 Disciplines of Execution – by Franklin Covey”. Since “Execution” is one of the 5 values of Leadership adopted by UEM, let’s talk about it.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution are:

1. Focus on Wildly Important Goals
2. Act On Lead Measures
3. Keep Track of Results using A Compelling Scoreboard
4. Build Cadence of Accountability

Sometimes I wonder our company has many Wildly Important Goals to focus on?

10 April

One week left to do my assignment! Whoa…… time flies.

However, “if it is to be, it is up to me”.

3 April

This week I shall write some input on challenging the process.

My company has been around for 11 years. Part of my new role is to prepare some management reports. I’ve inherited these reports from the previous person-in-charge and he told me he has been preparing 10 reports ever since he took the job many years ago. I look at the reports and I think some of them are quite irrelevant and I believe no one will place any importance to these reports.

Shall I take out these irrelevant reports and put in only the important ones? Will someone jump if I take out these reports? Can I identify anyone who actually reads these reports? So far, my peers and bosses say they flipped some of the reports like reading a tabloid leisurely.

Maybe I should challenge the process. Maybe I should not distribute the irrelevant reports and see who will come screaming that the reports are amiss…

31 March

Yeah! The budget has been approved, at least some of it……….

30 March

It is a brand new week; and I’ve decided to use the Logical Persuasion method to influence my boss to get that sales budget I’ve been eyeing on. I’m going to prepare an analytical report on potential card sales. Without going around the bush, I’m going to be direct and explain the impact of this budget to improve card sales.

28 March

The end of 1st Quarter of 2009 is here and a month after the program, I am still thinking of the little phrase “If it is to be, it is up to me”.

While doing my assignments on Hay Influence Strategies, I learned the many methods on influencing methods.

It seems to me that there are many suitable Influencing Strategies for different types of situations. It is like buying different flowers for different occasions.

Maybe I can use the Hay influence Strategies to help me on “If it is to be, It is up to me”! I can influence my boss using less of the Impact Management Influence strategies and more of Logical Persuasion. I could try the Organization Awareness Influence Strategy to get support from my peers.

Although I can’t gauge to get the results of these new influencing methods so fast, I can see my boss and peers starting to listen. That’s a start!

Maybe “if it is to be, it is up to me” is possible after all……..

20 March

Two weeks ago, I was struggling to find a clear vision and goal for my new role. Besides setting a card sales target as my gold in my new role, I want to set a clearer personal goal at work. I want to be relevant! I want to be somebody at work and I am recognized for my achievements.

After setting a personal goal at work, I really feel its impact to energize me at work.

Humans being humans, could it be that in order for us to work on company goals, we must satisfy our personal goals as well? It seems to make sense, though………

14 March

“If it is to be, it is up to me”

It seems easy to say, but can I really influence everything and anyone according to what I want the world to be?

Easier said than done. How can I influence my boss to get that budget she has been quite stingy about? How can I influence one of my staff to be more committed at work, who has been taking so many days of medical leaves? How can I influence my peers to support my ideas in management meetings?

If it is to be, how can it really be up to me? So many things are not within my circle of influence.

6 March

I reflected on my last entry in the past week and figured out that my leadership stand is really a part of me, regardless of which department I’m placed in. If I keep myself focused on the goal and vision, I can succeed in whatever I do and wherever I am. If I can a winning attitude towards achieving my goal and vision at work, I am able to build the energy to inspire others and myself. If I can inspire myself and energize others, I will surely love my job!

I can still be myself with the leadership stand and move on with the new role. However, firstly, I must find a goal and vision for what I can to achieve in this new role. Without a clear vision, I will not be able to inspire myself to love my new role……..

27 Feb

What is really my leadership stand? In the program, I had identified the following leadership stand that best suit me:

“I am a loving, inspiring and visionary leader”

Is that really a leadership stand that represents me?

At work lately, I have been feeling quite indifferent. There had been a major management restructuring in the company. Many roles and portfolios will be switched. I was previously in charged of marketing and now, that portfolio will be taken over by Corporate Communications Department. I will now be in charge of bringing in card sales. How will I associate my leadership stand with the new role? Can I even relate my leadership stand with my new role?