Owning up to your mistakes
By · CommentsHere’s the question. If somebody has wronged you and they apologise as soon as they know they have made the mistake what is your reaction? You will probably forgive fairly quickly, especially if it was a minor transgression.
If that person, however, takes a long time before they admit to their mistake and apologises you could take a fair while longer before you accept the white flag. You might even terminate the friendship.
Now before you roll your eyes and click off this article thinking:- yugh one of those new age articles, let me quickly reassure you otherwise and give you an example that you might be able to relate to.
The headline that caught my eye today was in the New York Times and it said that ‘Toyota has pattern of slow response on safety issues’. The immediate reaction could be that of course this is so. After all Toyota is a Japanese company and Asia doesn’t like to admit to mistakes.
This is not because Asian companies are necessarily evil. It’s because as head of the organisation you just cannot afford to make a mistake. If it’s a serious mistake you could even be expected to commit suicide. At the least you need to resign. You can see that this is not exactly an incentive to confessing to having made a mistake.
Going back to the opening question what could this mean to Toyota if it is a company that doesn’t like to admit to mistakes? The worst possible scenario probably. It could mean losing customers. In Germany sales are already down by 20%. In the USA Ford and Chevrolet are celebrating an unexpected bonus.
Having now made this big deal about Asian CEO’s being reluctant to admit to mistakes, let’s have a look at what happens in the West. Well actually almost the same in some cases.
Cast your mind back to Arthur Anderson in their time one of the biggest accounting firms in the world. They got caught with their fingers in a rather messy scenario. Instead of immediately apologising and making a huge showing of how they are fixing the situation, they went into denial mode. Even got sued.
End of Arthur Anderson. It took about 8 months for one of the biggest firms to die. Could Lehman Brothers have survived if they had admitted to having problems instead of denying all rumours up to the day before they closed their doors.
Could Toyota die a horrible death? Unlikely. The sticky gas pedal is not a company killer. But if they had reacted sooner to the problems of the gas pedal, which it appears has been around for a while, the cost and damage to the company would have been far less serious.
There have been great examples of companies weathering serious knocks because they stood up and admitted to their mistakes really quickly. And the quicker they reacted, the sooner the story went away.
So lesson of the day, react quickly. Whether you make a mistake dealing with a friend or as a business owner even big company executive. The quicker you react, shout mea culpa and make every effort to make good the sooner you are out of trouble.
It’s difficult though. Sometimes the option of keeping quiet in the hope that all will go away seems such an easier one to take. Beware, it could end up being a lot more dangerous though!
Remembering the fall of apartheid twenty years ago
By · CommentsRemembering the day February 2, 1990 in South Africa! On an epic day the then president de Klerk offered South Africans, of all persuasion, and the world a total dismantling of the apartheid regime. Read an excellent article on this here.
It makes one reflect that anything is possible. Not many South Africans considered this option a possibility. And yes there was a fair amount of resistance amongst the ruling white class after its announcement. But by making this step publicly and with conviction there was just no going back.
How often do we hesitate before we take a tiny step. We agonise over the consequences, the possible fall-out, the damage to our ego and the expected personal humiliation we are sure we will be subjected to.
And none of that is significant really. When a single person can stand up and announce a huge change of direction for his country, a total reversal of all things previously fought for and held onto then our small challenges feel insignificant surely.
But it’s not only our individual small changes that become minute in comparison. It is also the foolish stances that politicians all over the world take in their determination to protect their authority or avoid losing face in their mindless effort to hang onto a bad status quo.
If one small relatively unknown politician can change the fate of an entire country, then those other little politicians can do a lot more to ensure that their subjects are offered a life of equality, justice and freedom just to mention a few of the rights many people never get to experience in their lifetime.
Well done South Africa. Well done to both W F de Klerk and Nelson Mandela for showing the leadership required to make the impossible become possible.
YouTube and TV - the competition hots up
By · CommentsIn a surprising turn of events Google’s YouTube has signed up the rights to show all games of the Indian Premier League cricket competition live online. The deal runs over a period of two years.
Of course the sports body can still sell the rights to the TV broadcast to any takers. TV has not been excluded. So why should they worry. How many viewers will flock to online rather than watch on TV?
After all, TV surely has the upper hand when it comes to showing the games with commentary and other expert opinions making it more than just a TV viewing experience. How would YouTube compete with that one wonders.
Where the YouTube experience is going to come in is the availability factor. The sport fan does not have to depend on the TV channel to decide which games they think are important to show. This is especially important for viewers when concurrent games are played.
For instance for tennis fans the Australian Open viewing can be limited to one channel. When there are countless games being played at the same time on different courts, it is up to the TV broadcaster to decide which game could be the most interesting.
Where does the viewer’s preference fit into this? Isn’t this exactly the point that is going to kill off TV in preference to the internet? The choice is now up to the viewer as to what they would like to view, rather than having to put up with the TV editor’s choice.
How glorious would this make the Olympic Games viewing for instance. You could end up watching all of the competition in your particular field of interest, never mind how remote it is from other people’s interest. Or compensating for the 15 hr time zone difference between Hanoi and Vancouver for instance.
All of the weight lifting? No problem. What about the archery or the shooting competitions. These are often neglected for such crowd pleasers as gymnastics or athletics. Yet there are millions interested in the smaller sports and most often they are the ones having to give way to the bigger viewer numbers. All for the sake of the most powerful advertising buck.
Enter the internet where everything can be streamed because numbers are not as important. It’s this choice that is going to be the problem for TV. Viewers will be giving up the battle for the remote. It’s no longer necessary. It’s all available. And as much as the IPL’s games will be shown live, the point is that they will be available to view again and again. At whatever time you want to. And as often as you wish.
And as for watching on a small computer screen. Those days are long over as well as all gadgets start to talk to each other. Plug the computer into your data projector and your game is played out on the biggest screen you can fit into your lounge.
Now all you need is that cute little robot to bring you a never ending supply of ice cold beers and you could consider yourself in sport watching heaven. TV will have to get very creative to counter this revolution.
Or else they will need to provide all games as well. Every single one. That would mean the women’s singles game could just have a chance of being shown as well, not just the men’s. And that at any time, and for ever. Good news that.
No amount of clever commentary and post or pre-match interviews will make good the fact that right now on TV in Vietnam I have only one choice of a game in the Australian Open. And it’s not the one I want to watch. Bring on live tennis on YouTube. Please Google!
Nobody hesitates to see a doctor when they have a broken bone. Toothache? Phone the dentist. Financially ill? Muddle along on your own. Why? Get a coach, employ a ‘financial doctor’. Don’t go it alone.
Top athletes depend on their coaches for peak performances. The top teams in basketball, ice hockey, football and more perform in line with the abilities of their coaches. Top politicians employ personal coaches, people serious about diets have nutritionists helping them.
Becoming a financial expert will be much easier if a coach is there to help. This may be an intimate one on one relationship or may be spread amongst a series of people whose advice is absorbed and followed.
The coaching relationship may include consultations or phone calls. It may just be offered via newsletters, blogs, podcasts or articles in newspapers and magazines. Find the one that appeals and that speaks at the right level of competence for easy absorption.
Add a mentor to this mix or a mentoring group of people. It is easier to try a new field if there is support. A coach might be too aggressive. A mentor might be a better choice. Either way it is important to find support to ensure that assistance is on hand.
In line with finding the right coach and mentor, it is also important to find the time to practice and apply oneself. All top performers spend more time practising than participating in their game. This is the same whether following the careers of grand chess masters or a Roger Federer on the tennis court.
These top achievers have one thing in common. They relentlessly work to improve their game. Tiger Woods spends hours hitting the ball, David Beckham kicks the ball one hundred times and recording artists spend hours in the studio.
Practising to become financially expert is relatively painless. As an investor it is possible to set up a portfolio using readily available software and spend the year of 2010 practising investment techniques without spending one cent on buying shares.
Or alternatively allocate a small sum of money, an amount that is affordable, and invest on a trial and error basis. Learn using small steps practising along the way. However, the coach is not only essential in helping to increase the income. Learning how to budget and reduce unnecessary debt is as important in the quest to become a financial expert.
Many people might find the practice period to be boring and unproductive. Yet it is a necessary component towards financial expertise. Anticipate that some of the practice sessions will not exactly sparkle with excitement.
It’s the same with all new skills. There is a period where the basics have to be learnt and acquired whether learning to play the piano or riding a horse for the first time. None of these are particularly fun. But if persevered with, they can bring untold pleasures. This is the case with financial expertise as well.
Make 2010 the year of finding a good coach and practising a lot. It will pay off handsomely.
Copping out at Copenhagen
By · CommentsAnd here we thought The United Nations Climate Change Summit was all about the well being of the living planet! How stupid of us.
In an article by well-known journalist Johann Hari on the outcome of the COP15 Summit he makes one damning point after the other to expose the developed world’s quest to worship their almighty God called Profit.
Read his excellent article most appropriately called ‘They didn’t seal the deal; they sealed the Coffin’ here.
During a few days of supposed reasoned talks by world leaders what seems to have been totally ignored were the pleas by representatives of low-lying island states. It also appears that nobody paid attention to presentations by countries such as Bangladesh being swamped by rising water levels.
What about the people speaking on behalf of the drought wracked countries of Africa? Did anybody hear them? And the other pleas not any less urgent begging the leaders of the developed world to nurture the planet and its people rather than destroy it. Did that all fall on deaf ears?
Swept aside were the objections by the developing world that they have all the disadvantages of the changing weather patterns such as floods and droughts with none of the benefits of huge profits the developed world has had while leaching the life out of this planet.
What won were the interests of big money. It’s business as usual for petroleum companies, industry that spits out poison into the atmosphere and the travel industry to mention a few of the culprits.
It’s not even a question of we didn’t know. The scientific evidence is out there. It’s even common knowledge. Everybody with some common sense and access to news has an understanding of what is at stake.
How is it that we are allowing our leaders to kill off the world? Surely leaders should represent the people’s best interest? It cannot be in the people’s best interest to allow the world to die off. Short term profit, long term disaster.
And as for the disappointment of the year? Barack Obama who offered such wonderful promises? Yes we can! Can kill the world? Shame on you Obama. We had such hope. And don’t say you weren’t there and couldn’t make a difference. Yes you were, and no you didn’t.
