Why Outsourcing?

1. Cost Savings

When the activity is your not core business and outsourcing it gives significant lower operational and labour savings. This will also allow additional bandwidth to focus on your core business processes.

2. Leverage on outsourcing vendor

Outsourcing allows your company to tap onto your outsourcing vendor resources and networks. The vendor can also provide you with links into a new market.

3. Mitigate Risk

Outsourcing allows the company to mitigate risk in a number of ways. Firstly, outsourcing passes the responsibilities of delivering onto your vendor, and is especially useful when your company is not adept in the particular area. Secondly, locating part of their operations overseas is useful especially when the country where you are operating in has high risk. 

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Lessons from a certain CEO on your career

Be a Busybody:

In a big company, your role is often very specialized and the things you do will naturally be of a narrow scope. Achieving mastery in what you do is desirable, but it is also important to know a bit of what is happening around you, on a macro scale. This is to say that it is good to be a busybody, in a smart way, and talk to people from other departments. From your conversations, understand the different processes in different areas as well as their perspectives.
The advantage of being a busybody is not only some knowledge of the various operations of the company, but unwittingly you gain visibility in the organization. Senior management will come to take note of your curious antics and when the opportunity arise for a project which often needs cross-department knowledge, you will have a high chance of being considered for the role.

Balance.. Life is a marathon

.... and so is your career. Remember, your working life can span up to 40 years... or more. In the current generation, I believe many hold the dream of retiring at 40 or even earlier. Mr CEO has seen many people burnout after working day and night for the first few years of their career. In the long run, the winner goes to the one still running the race.
It is thus important to have a work-life balance. Mr CEO takes joy in spending time with his family, especially his wife whom he holds dearly.

Take care of your people

Your success depends a lot on how you treat your people.
For your staff, if they clear their KPI (key performance indicator), make sure they get their well-justified reward.
A question comes up from the audience on how does he monitor so many people. The answer to that is that he has sub-managers to monitor their respective groups. This answer is obvious in my opinion, but to really do that well is a challenge which requires both leadership and charisma
Lastly, your people also include your customers. Make sure that they are happy using your products.

Get a Mentor

Lastly, having a mentor can add to your value. It is important to get a good mentor. Good mentors hear you before saying its a stupid idea. The choice of a mentor seems to be a great discussion point. I would try to blog about this in my next posts.

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Why Hire Management Consultants?

You pay hundreds of thousands for these men in suits. Most of them are younger than you, some are just fresh our of college and they speak like they have been in the industry for many centuries. Are they credible, and is it worth paying such a huge sum for their services?

Given the significant success in the management consulting industry speaks volume about the value of the services Management consultants bring. Some are tangible while others intangible: 

The database

Large Management consulting firms like McKinsey have an immense database accumulated over years of market research. This is the main reason why those young chaps have the confidence to speak louder than you during meetings. They based their recommendations over solid market data. This asset of information is what many companies lack

A clear, unconflicted 3rd party opinion

Having worked in your company and in this industry for a few decades, you might already have some ideas cast in stone which impedes you from making an objective analysis of the situation. Consultants have a broader perspective and can possess knowledge and benchmarks which are exclusive to them. They are not conflicted and they can offer advice from a position unaffected by biases of your company.

A lifeline for change

Management consultants especially from established companies like McKinsey or Bain would bring with them an aura of credibility. To get a proposal approved, officers can convince the management team better if the change is proposed by McKinsey or Bain. 
Some companies might be in an unfavorable situation and need the best advice as soon as possible. Management consulting is like their lifeline and they are willing to pay for it.

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Covering up mistakes at work

Covering up your mistake at work might get you away initially, but if your cover is blown, you will not only show that you are incompetent at work, but also a dishonest chap.

Covering up for someone at work might gain you the gratitude of the person but when things get serious, you will have to bear a share of consequences.

It is an unhealthy culture for a company to try to cover up their oversight, instead of acknowledging it and rectifying it. This might lead to potentially bigger problems that would take much more effort to resolve.

But the tendency to cover up is natural.

As an individual, be forefront and admit your mistakes. Everyone make mistakes at work time to time. The trick is to acknowledge your mistake sincerely, and give the assurance that it will not happen again, while keeping that assurance.

As a company, acknowledge that employees do want to look good and might not surface errors. Thus a company should cultivate an environment where its ok to make mistakes such that employees can learn from each other's mistakes and truly grow.

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How to build a successful presentation team

Presentations are still the most common method to convey ideas and messages in business. Analysts present their findings to higher management through presentations. Entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to potential investors through presentations. When it comes to presentation, there is usually a time limit, but there is usually no rules to say that you have to present on your own. In fact, the more successful presentations revolve around a team rather than a single member.

Here's are 3 tips on how to build a successful presentation team

1. Present By Expertise

People would present better if they know the content. Thus, let your team present according to their expertise - For example, the CTO should handle the technology, the CEO handle the commercialization plan, the COO handle the operations section.

2. Order by presentation style

Recognize that everyone has their own presentation style. You would want an enthusiastic speaker to start to get your panel's attention in the beginning. However, it is impossible to get full attention throughout the whole presentation. Order the less exciting presenters in the middle where the content is less important, and finish with an enthusiastic speaker to wrap the presentation.

3. Have a fair mix

A successful presentation team need not have a team of Barack Obamas. In fact, a good mix of exceptional and OK presenters can do a better job. The exceptional presenters can leave a better impression and what they presented will be etched in the panel's mind. Also, a team of mixed gender also seem to prove useful in improving the presentation.

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3 tips on writing a letter to reject a proposal

There are times where you would encounter a need to reject an application or proposal, and you have to do it tactfully. This happens when you are in a position where a hard reject is the wrong thing to do. 

Here are 3 tips on writing a proposal rejection letter

1) Never say NO

A truly skilled rejection letter does not directly says no, but is still strong enough to convey that the proposal didn't make the cut. In the context of love, you can notice that a mild rejection comes in the form of  " We are different" rather than " No, I don't like you."

2) Mention good things

Massage their ego by praising their strengths and accomplishments so far. Recognise what they have done well, and then go in for the kill. "While your company has garnered significant sales in a short time and generated positive publicity, we note that there are a few key criteria in question."

3) Ask questions

This should be your key "weapon" of rejection. Probe on the weaknesses on the proposal so that the applicant knows their proposal is lacking. Depending on your style, you might want to mercilessly list down all your doubts rather than having a back-and-forth ball game which will take a much longer time.

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Miscommunication in business

It is very important to state clearly what your objective is to let the party know where you are coming from. This gap of what the customers think is important and what you think is important must be bridged. 

For example, you might think function is a key feature but really what your customers wants is the product must look good. To accomplish this, conduct surveys with your potential customers and understand their need. You will have a clearer picture of what the majority thinks. 

To win customers, this miscommunication needs to be eradicated to grasp and provide what they truly need.

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How to win against your smaller competitors: a case study

Case study:  Cab-charge Card from a cab company

To win competitors, go the extra step and make lives easy for your customer at no cost.

In this example, the local cab company took away the tedious step of claims processing by issuing a cab-charge card usable solely for cab fares. A cab-charge card works like a credit card but is only usable to pay for cabs. This expedites the claiming process for transport, and staff could only take cabs from selected cab companies offering such a service.

As a result, smaller cab firms which do not have the capacity to offer such a service is squeezed out of the game. On one hand, smaller firms might be more flexible and can focus on a niche area better. But on the other hand, the bigger firms have the resources and capacity to implement new features and services to capture a bigger market, out-competing the smaller boys.

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When Hiring, go for attitude rather for aptitude

You'd think, “sure, they’re a pain but they produce such high quality work I’m willing to put up with them.” Big mistake.  One bad apple spoils things for everybody.

When it comes to hiring for a startup, it is more important to see that the candidate is 200% eager to do the job, rather than hire someone experienced who expects to be treated like a superstar.

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How to make your business scalable and some examples

The key thing to look in the potential if the business is it's scalability. It may be losing money, it may be stagnant currently, but if it is able to grow it's capacity while  decreasing the incremental cost securing and supporting a new client, it's scalable. And being a scalable model adds value to your business.

How to make your business scalable (PPPC)

Product

try to standardize your production and keep to a standard product. Think apple. They have only one product the iPhone, and you can observe similar parts used across their Span of products. This gives them the advantage to be able to produce morevolume for less amount.

People

 if the business depends on a star player and cannot survive without him,  naturally it is harder to scale. To expand operations, we need to break away from exclusive skills held by few to pervasive knowledge such that more people can run the show, increasing the capacity to grow. To achieve this, some sort of training program or knowledge- sharing sessions should be in place.

Processes

Operations and processes should be kept as simple as possible. They should also be standardized as far as possible. In that way, expanding the company would be mostly repetition of the same thing and can tap on existing infrastructure for support. Identify suitable areas of the business which can be outsourced, transforming your fixed cost into variable cost.

Customers

Leverage on your customers to reduce resources on certain tasks. Some process need not human intervention and can be passively accomplished. For example, instead of getting a staff to take their orders, use a computer/ self-service kiosk for the customers to input their orders.

What are some examples of scalable business?

- a grocery store. Below the maximum capacity,  You can restock and extend your operating hours to increase sales. This does not require a large additional capital investment.

- selling your licensed software is scalable. You can sell as many copies of your software once developed and the cost to support the customer should not be more than the cost of goods. Successful SaaS(software as a service) models is able to easily scale their operations and expand their client base to all over the world.

- remember the overnight sensation drawing app "draw something"? That is also an example of a scalable business as they built something that was efficient, fast and easy to scale. They had the capacity to accommodate 50 million downloads - the processes were kept up and running throughout.

Thus, the potential of being able to garner millions of customers is very attractive to investors. To fully maximize the value of your business, refine your model such that it is easier to scale up.

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3 tips when using acronyms in business

Woah careful with your acronyms! If you work in a place where the culture enjoys coining new acronyms, you have to understand that people might not get them. A good point of reference would be checking with your newcomers to see what they think the acronym is without giving the context. In fact, acronyms are sometimes a pain to remember but, they do help save time in some cases. When using acronyms, some things to consider:

1) Will the reader understand out of context

It will be frustrating for the reader or worse, if he wrongly assumes some other meaning for the acronym

2) Is the acronym appropriate

Be especially careful with acronyms containing the F word..

3) is the acronym widely known in other context

Avoid coining new acronyms with already popular ones to prevent confusion. Acronyms like AIDS , FAQ are well known for the purposes they serve

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