Focus, Persistence and Quality

Having attained quality, we are at the cross-road of deciding what to do next.... We need to remain focused. It is so easy to stray from our path..... so we need to remind ourselves to stay the course and do what we are good at e.g. providing value-based management consulting services.

Time and again, we have achieved traction as evidenced by the roll-out of various management performance tracking tools for our clients. Feedback has been very encouraging and in essence it is expectation exceeded - the development of the tools has been widely influential in achieving excellence through a focus on 'execution' ..... serving as the template for implementation across strategic brands.

Ratings: Value from business analytics - excellent ..... Speed of implementation - excellent ..... Buy-in ( tone and attitude ) - excellent ..... Features and functionalities - excellent. ..... facilitated in developing the thinking around performance tracking and positioned the client as leader of a new business model ..... fostered pioneering spirit ..... world class 'can do' attitude and commitment in taking the project 'live'.

Naturally when we succeed and competition begins to take notice, we can expect our competitors to emulate us. By doing so, they do us a service by keeping us on our toes. For nothing is ordained that we can maintain our competitive advantage period indefinitely.

However, if we are aware of what our competitors are up to, we have at least a head start in ensuring that we continuously improve our franchise. This allows us to maintain our competitive advantage. The strengths lie in our passion and persistence towards quality. By building a strong foundation, accumulating deep knowledge on a subject matter, we can expect to be up to the task of competing in the marketplace. Likewise the competition is well aware that there is no free lunch and unless they have core competencies on subject matter and are committed to quality ( and at the right price point ), they may divert precious resources and in the process get distracted from doing what they do best. Losing focus.

That being said, we should also learn from our experiences. Projects can be ranked by the risk-reward matrix. Rationale thinking dictates that we should seek to optimise the return versus risk, and one way is through diversification. Very different from not been in focus. By so doing, we will be able to eliminate unsystematic risks from our undertakings. Unsystematic risks can manifest in many shapes and sizes. Suffice to say, we must be aware of these risks and develop techniques to mitigate such risks.


How do we achieve this? This will be our next milestone project.

Firstly, we can draw on our knowledge base of identifying what are these unsystematic risks and map them to underlying management theories in order to resolve the issues.

When we work within a hub environment, the benefit the group derives is the synergistic effect allowing for the optimisation of group payoff. This can only be achieved if there is trust. When one collaborator covets another's franchise and chooses to encroach onto the other's turf, it sends a very strong albeit negative signal. It puts the other party on notice, The outcome is less cooperation, leading potentially to a win-lose scenario and naturally a lower group payoff.

Such unthinkness is symptomatic of a lack of understanding of the strategic thinking process and the attendant value drivers. This is a clear example of an unsystematic risk and by articulating it we are in a better position to attempt to mitigate it.

Let's take a leaf off from invaluable insights provided by Tom Peters, a renowned management guru.
"The winners stun us not by their cleverness, but by the fact that every tiny aspect of the business is just a touch better than the norm."

A lot of things appear easy on the surface of it. However, the devil is in the detail.... and often times, managers forget that it is all about execution. If you are not willing to roll-up your sleeves, perhaps you should leave it to the expert.

So we will follow the old adage - you reap what you sow...... and we are heading for our next milestone project.


Keywords: quality, value systems,
trust, domain knowledge, technology, networking, maven traps, speed of trust, lifestyle

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