Cost Effective Service Excellence - Think ACE

...This customisation is unique and central to our program.
The challenge is to develop the curriculum that it is scaleable and relevant to the marketplace.

...Our task in this program is to fuse two critical skills i.e. domain knowledge and technology. It is this ability that we think will set the stage for the next level of competitiveness. We re-define ability as the individual’s cognitive capability to multi-task competently and speedily.

We hear so much talk about the need for organisation to create value in an extremely competitive landscape, and why company must pursue service excellence and yet maintain a lean cost structure. In the famous words of Jack Welch - More for Less, Stretched Goals. For instance it has been suggested that tour guides provide commentary while driving at the same time. The rant goes on and on. The bottom line is really how do you continuously please your customers? The key -empowerment. Yes, unless and until you learn to trust your staff, and let them evolve, it will be very difficult for them to do the things that are expected of them.

How do you empower a person?

By providing lifelong education for people who are passionate about enhancing their skills - skills that are relevant and can accrue to them. Let them climb the value added ladder - and let their wages rise flexibly ( of course provided the economic return justifies it and that the long-term competitive advantage is not impaired ). If productivity increases at a faster rate than wages, it is fair to say that the net gain is positive, and a win-win scenario results. In reality, this does not always happen and we need to re-examine this.

For instance, even with the best intention a company may focus on cost effective service excellence to the extent of overemphasing it and alienating other clasess of stakeholders i.e. shareholders and employees.

Particularly in a very challenging industry, where companies overcompete and end up over specifying the products with functionalities that are not appreciated by the majority but only for the high end segment of the market. Such sustaining innovation may result in diminishing return on invested capital leading to the path of value destruction as it provides an opportunity for competitors to come up with a disruptive innovation providing value as well as innovative proposition winning uncontested market space. A very good example is how budget airlines are taking the travel industry by storm. Is it a fad or an emerging trend? So long as entrepreneurs are willing to experiment and create, there is always a chance that such innovation, provided it adheres to the principle of making adequate return on the capital invested, may be the "killer" model .

As our economy matures, we need to find ways to maintain our competitive position and the way is to educate our workforce to relearn. The tagline - Creativity At Play, sums up our attitude in empowerment at an early age - i.e. children of schooling age, through our Think Robotics program. It is a comprehensive programme that serves to enrich as well as to provide a competency-based learning environment that will prepare the children for the challenges that lie ahead. It creates the environment for the children to gain domain knowledge and competency that compliment the primary disciplines of math, science and technology that are taught in school. Together with their peers, they learn to construct rudimentary models involving mechanical parts like gears, wheels, motors to more esoteric tasks installing sensors, datalogging and programming the machines, and in the process allowing a free flow of creativity so essential for learning and development. Children will be prepared to articulate, communicate their ideas as well as to execute ( ACE ) them well. They will do so in an environment that allows them to remain connected to the real world. In the process they learn to gain the requisite competency as part of their lifelong education.



Keywords: ACE, game theory, Prisoner's Dilemma, think robotics

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Collaboration and Game Theory

The most crucial element in a collaboration is to ensure that interests are adequately aligned.
In the competitive environment that we are in today coupled with the phenomenal emergence of micro-markets and -businesses, the challenges and opportunities cannot get any better than what we are experiencing now. Just take a look at the airline industry in Asia where budget airlines flying to destinations within a 2 to 3 hour range taking head-on their bigger and better capitalised brethrens. These budget operators are making waves taking away micro-markets away from the larger operators. What we are experiencing is a new form of competitive strategy leveraging off value and innovation. With India and China growing at robust clips, and an uplifting experience for that matter, it is said that for every flight done by Kingfisher Airlines of India, about 30 to 40% of the passengers flown first time. Now the population of India is 1.1 billion - think of the uncontested marketplace and the possibilities. It is no wonder that Airbus is trying to sell their 800 seat capacity aircraft to these budget airlines.

We have completed the first step of getting the collaborators on board, and ensuring that we have adequately articulated and communicated the common vision. The collaborators are in for it with interests nicely aligned through two sets of affirmative undertaking.

It remains to be seen how the collaborators can leverage on their differing and yet complimentary skills to execute the vision.

To be ACE entrepreneurs, the clue lies in the ability to defer any form of instant gratification and to work towards the interest of the group so that optimal payout can be achieved.

Keywords: ACE, game theory, Prisoner's Dilemma

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