eBuzz: The Lok Jack GSB eNewsletter

April 2009 | Issue 45

Feature Article

Human Vice to Blame for Global Economic Crisis Says World Renowned Business Speaker

To Gary Hamel, world renowned business speaker and strategy guru, it is human vice that’s at the root of the global economic tailspin.

Speaking recently at the seventh annual Distinguished Leadership Conference, hosted by the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business on February 6, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Trinidad, Professor Hamel described the current financial as a “financial Katrina”, and gave a technical description of what happened. The “obvious culprits” being:

Too much liquidity in the global financial system
Huge global trade imbalances
The problem of securitization
The complexity of those securities
Leveraging of balance sheets

But Professor Hamel explained that behind all those factors there was something much more dramatic and scary – there was deceit, hubris and myopia.

“Behind all of that you see probably one of the greatest morality tales of the last hundred years…and a group of individuals who forgot that in a market economy – the lightly regulated market system could only function if the people who run its most important institution are stewards and not mercenaries, are prudent, who care about their shareholders and customers more than their own financial pay pack. What we saw here was almost every human vice on lurid display”, he said.

And it is not just business men, but business schools, which must now take account of themselves. Hamel observed that the global economic meltdown was precipitated in part by people who sat in his classes, and in the classes of other prestigious business schools around the world like Harvard, Northwestern and Wharton.

“Somehow some of the smartest people on the planet have taken the global economy into a tailspin,” he said.

According to Hamel, whatever management thinks is good practise out there today is not good enough. He challenged his audience to re-invent the way they lead, structure, manage, and run their businesses. “We’re at a point in history where we need new management practices”, he said.

The Professor explained that while there were hundreds of product innovations, there was none in management innovation. He suggested that 3 challenges exist here:

Adaptability: Building an organization that can stay relevant in a world of accelerating change.

Innovation:

Challenge unexamined orthodoxies
Practice scenario planning
Exploit unnoticed trends
Leverage unseen capabilities
Meet customers’ unarticulated needs

Dramatically raising the returns on human capital by allowing:

Passion
Creativity
Initiative
Intellect
Diligence
Obedience

He further explained that management was not about getting people to serve the organization’s goals. Rather, it was about creating an environment where employees feel engaged in their work, which translates into efficiency. However, data shows that only 1 out of 5 people are engaged in their work.

In closing his presentation, Hamel said people are adaptive and innovative by nature, born to create as God’s instruments, and organizations needed to be adaptive, innovative and creative to harness productivity and efficiency. “The challenge is to make the company more human and people more adaptive”, he said.

The conference also included a panel session themed “Out of the Ashes: Recovering from the Crisis of Business Failure” with Professor Jean-Frédérick Mognetti, Turnaround Consultant and Author; Mr. Arthur Lok Jack, Chairman, Associated Brands Industries Limited; and Dr. Rolph Balgobin, Chairman, Plipdeco and Lead Researcher, The Competitiveness Company.

Mr. Niall Dorrian, Chief Executive Officer of the event’s Platinum Sponsor - Digicel Trinidad and Tobago Limited – concluded the day’s events. He thanked Hamel for an “inspiring” presentation and commended the Lok Jack GSB for hosting such a relevant conference.

A wine and cheese reception and book signing followed where many participants took the opportunity to network with fellow business colleagues.

Also in this Issue

Consulting
- Business Process Re-engineering
Academic
- Brazil Study Tour
Centre for Training & Development

Consulting

Commonwealth Delegates attend 6-Day Business Process
Re-engineering Workshop at Lok Jack GSB

“In this time of economic uncertainty, we cannot pave existing cow paths.” “Business processes must be re-designed where inefficiencies, bottlenecks and arcane procedures are removed”.

So said Mr. Anthony Ming, ICT Adviser with the Commonwealth Secretariat, at the opening ceremony of the Caribbean Region Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) Workshop hosted recently by the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business.

The 6-day workshop, which began on Monday March 16, 2009, brought together senior officers and executives from the Commonwealth countries to help them translate vision into action plans and initiate re-engineering activities. It also assisted them in understanding and managing the issues and challenges posed by changed initiatives arising from the implementation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects in their organisations.

Professor Mark Oakley, Acting Executive Director at the Lok Jack GSB, said that the Business School had been working on BPR long before the term was invented and was one of the reasons the Institution was created twenty years ago.

In her feature address, Ms. Arlene McComie, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Public Administration, explained that as a mechanism for effecting change BPR strategy must come out of a recognition and commitment that the key to any improvement or modernisation is the need to recognise and address the issues of roles, synergies, and dependencies of three critical elements – people, processes and technology. She went on to say that the Government of Trinidad and Tobago speaks to this critical transformation under one of the five pillars of Vision 2020, “Promoting Effective Government”.

“A team of officers within my Ministry is now working on a “Strategy for Improved Service Delivery in Trinidad and Tobago Public Service through BPR”, she explained.

In her closing statements, the Permanent Secretary shared five factors which she said were common to successful re-engineering efforts:

Setting an aggressive re-engineering performance target
Committing 20% to 50% of your executive’s time to the project
Conducting a comprehensive review of customer needs, economic leverage points, and market trends
Assigning a senior executive to be responsible for implementation
Conducting a comprehensive pilot of the new design

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Koon Tian of the Singapore e-Government Leadership Centre (eGL). Tian has over 10 years experience in ICT consulting and e-Government. In addition to Trinidad & Tobago, delegates attended from Grenada, Dominica, Belize, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Antigua & Barbuda, and St. Lucia.

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Academic

MBA Students Return from Brazil Study Tour

On sheer size alone, Brazil is a wonder to behold. Officially, it is the world’s fifth largest country by geographical area and the fifth most populous with an estimated 92 million people. Then there is its depth.

Imagine vast Amazon rainforests, contrasted with miles and miles of concrete jungle as far as the eye can see, home to many of the largest multinational companies in the world. It is a land of fascinating contrasts – grimy shanty towns (favelas) crouching next to modern highrises; beautiful people impoverished through ugly politics; wanton abandon simmering over religious piousness; so much hope rising out of so much squalor; so much potential waiting to be tapped.

There’s a natural rush that comes from being in this place, one of the world’s largest and most exciting economies in the world, proudly wearing the BRIC fast growing emerging nation badge (Brazil, Russia, India, China).

MBA Students of the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business discovered this first hand, when they embarked on a 10 day study tour to that country recently.

The students comprise managers and executives from a wide cross section of corporate Trinidad and the public sector. They have returned from Brazil with a more global perspective and understanding of the unique cultural, economic and social forces at work in Latin America’s fastest growing economy.

Students were treated to a city tour, soaked in the sun at Guaruja’s Atlantic Coast beaches, went Samba dancing and experienced the passion of Brazilian soccer. The more adventurous among them ventured out of Sao Paolo, where the Tour was centred, to experience the best that Rio de Janeiro had to offer – cable riding in its majestic mountains, soaking on its beautiful beaches, non-stop nightlife and marveling at the “Christ the Redeemer” statue up close.

On the business side of things, the schedule was even more hectic. Meetings and site visits were held with the Bovespa Stock Exchange, Embratel (a major telecommunications provider), Alcoa Brazil, ING Bank, Natura Cosmetics Company, Grupo Pão de Açúcar, and FIAP University.

A highlight of the trip was the visit to Meninos do Morumbi, an NGO dedicated to serving impoverished communities through music education and dance. Students were treated to traditional dance performances, including a taste of capoeira, and then had a practical lesson in drumming, proving that anyone (even Trini MBAs) could make music.

The Brazil study tour follows trips to Argentina, China, Barbados and Venezuela and is embedded in the Lok Jack GSB’s pledge to deliver an enhanced student experience. Additional optional study tours are being developed for qualifying students.

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Centre for Training and Development

Finance

Accountability & Transparency
27th, 28th & 29th April 2009

Overview

Accountability and Transparency is the way forward. This course will provide you with the knowledge and skills which can help you to deal with your internal financial and accounting problems as you tackle with the massive threat of the global financial crisis.