Caught out by intentional mistakes

In a recent conversation with Prof. Sudhanshu Shekhar Jamuar, a DLP speaker for IEEE Circuits and System Society 2008/9, he said he sometimes inject mistakes into his lecture to determine if his students are following and who are the better students. I asked if there is any chance that students may end up learning the wrong thing and Prof. Jamuar said no as he will not let the mistakes continue too far.

It would be hilarious if an intentional mistake is allowed to continue beyond its intented purpose. An example of this is claim 9 of US patent Pub. No. 20040161257. An excerpt of the claim is as follows. This patent is listed as one of the crazy patent at freepatentsonline.

I think most inventors will read what their patent attorney prepares for them very carefully. It took me more than a year to draft and review revisions with the patent attorney for my very first patent. However, a recent patent filing had a dateline and the time between the first draft to filing was only a few weeks. I was so tired mentally when I received the final writeup (having gone through a few revisions over a few nights) that I virtually skim through the final document prior to filing! Considering the above example, I don't think I will ever skim any patent document again!

High pressure washer loosen ...

It seems that domestic high pressure washer are these days as common as lawnmower. It is so easy to blast dirt and grime on all kind of surfaces with one of these high pressure washer as compared to brushing with elbow grease. When we redeemed a unit from points from our credit card our neighbour was telling us that a friend of his was using one of these washer to clean dirt and grime along mortar joints and that the pressure was so great that it removed grouting and cement along these joints. Some much so that he now have loose tiles!

Apathy amongst workforce

Several years back, I was working at a place where apathy amongst the workforce is fairly high. The mindset there can be summarized as "tell me where to stand and where to face!" In other words, there is virtually no initiative; no one wants to think anymore and people will only do what they are asked to. I even find myself behaving in a similar manner after being there for a while! I didn't understand why or what is the cause of such apathetic feelings amongst so many at that time. I didn't until about a year ago, where I noticed the same apathetic feeling arising in me after i was being blamed for something unfairly.

When a manager is not willing to accept responsibility and diverts blame to his/her people when things goes wrong, even when everyone were just following instructions from the manager, his/her people will soon learn that their manager will use them as human shield or punching bags when things goes wrong. I am very certain that such a manager will stand up to accept credits for what the team has accomplished instead of diverting the credit back to the team. Combined this immature self centered behaviour with the tendency to blame others unfairly for everything including such things as not doing something that has just come to light, and his/her people will now feel that their manager is not predictable. Over time, people will come to feel that they are not appreciated and can not win with this manager. At this point, people will start giving up and apathy will set in.

I am very sure that this is not the only cause of apathy amongst workforce. Actions that lead to people not having a sense of belonging will lead to apathy.

Sensitive documents leaked by the printer/photocopier!

Often when a politician is asked how he/she got hold of a confidential document or the damaging information within, he/she will most likely say "it fell off the back of a truck!" I wouldn't be surprised if some of these politician would one day, if not already, say that the document came from the photocopier! And this is why.

Several years back when I was working in Adelaide (South Australia), one of my colleague was very sure he knows how much the GM of our organisation was making. He would speak as though he has seen the payslip of our GM. And it turns out that he has! I was told that this colleague will flip the cover of a photocopier whenever he walked passed one! And on one occasion, he found the payslip of the GM in the photocopier! As this GM is not a very nice person, this colleague could have made many copies of his payslip and distributed it but he didn't.

I am sure you may have come across a document or two in a photocopier or have left a document in a photocopier yourself. Even though I do not flip the cover of photocopiers like my ex-colleague from Adelaide, I have come across a number of sensitive documents left in photocopiers including a cheque for a five digit sum. I have also come across sensitive documents in printers including those that has a secure print feature.

Finding a suitable balance ...

A friend of mine who is very much into building his own PC and other gadgets bought a PC from a store CKD (complete knock down). In other words, it is a complete PC with Window OS and all but totally unassembled. A few days after he had assembled the PC and added the applications he needed, he realized that the motherboard he selected is incompatible with an application he needed and had to swap it for another. Everything went smoothly with the new setup until he tried re-activating Windows. As the very license key was activated a few days earlier using the previous motherboard, he could not activate Windows in the new setup using the same license key. So he had to call Microsoft and was given a stern warning before being issued a re-activation key.

I think one can understand that Microsoft need to protect their product from being pirated and no one can blame them for putting all the necessary steps in place to look after their interest. But the whole experience left such a bad after taste in this friend, he started to switched his machines to linux! As he is very much a technical geek that friends and relatives consult before buying, I feel that this is a lost for Microsoft! It will be an even bigger lost when he get into the position to influence the platform direction on development work at his workplace in the future.

Someone once told me that "locks are only good for keeping the honest fellow out!" To be fair, it also good at keeping the opportunist thief out as well. The steps needed to re-active a genius Windows license feels like a "complex lock." It seems more stringent than the license key management for EDA tools that costs a few order of magnitude more. Accordingly, I feel that the extend of the complexity of these locks is rather important in that it should not put off the genuine customers and that a good balance be employed.

Going beyond maximum return

One of my previous manager once told me the following story. It seems that this is a common story in India. The story goes as follows.

One day a man took a piece of leather to a cobbler and asked if he could make him a pair of shoes. So the cobbler measured the man's feet and said it will be ready in 2 weeks. Before the man leave, he asked the cobbler if he can make 2 pairs of shoes out of that piece of leather and the cobbler said yes but will need an extra week. Taken by how quickly the cobbler responded, this man thought that there must be a lot more leather than just the 2 pairs and not wanting to be cheated he asked the cobbler if he can make 3 pairs! Again, the cobbler said yes! So the man asked if he can make 4 pairs and again the cobbler said yes! The man finally stop asking after the cobbler responded positively to half a dozen pairs as he felt that 6 pairs of shoes from the piece of leather he provided is really good value for money. Weeks later when the man came to collect his shoes, the cobbler presented to him half a dozen pairs of tiny little shoes! Rather than getting a single pair of hand crafted shoes he can use, this man now have half a dozen pairs of hand crafted shoes none of which are of any use to him!

It seems that this story is not unrealistic. After leaving my previous employer, I joined a few of my friends in a start up and tried starting a training and consultancy service for this organization. As we were from the innovation centre for an American multinational company, we wanted to continue providing training and consultancy in the area of innovation. We approached many companies big and small, local and multinational with various results. The most amazing result we have thus far was with a Malaysian company listed on the main board of KLSE that has presence globally. Even though we were relatively unknown outside the innovation centre we came from, we were selected to be the consultant for their innovation initiative. Over a 3 months period, we trained a team of 4 executives seconded from various operations and it is so rewarding to see them transformed to a level where they could provide valuable and meaningful advice to their creative agencies! At the time of this posting, this team is also in the process of filing the first patent for their company.

The other extreme we have encountered, as you would expect, are people who flatly don't believe in us and said no. Then we have the following. The people we talked to are interested but they are either not willing to pay for the service we provide or only very little. An example of this is another listed Malaysian company also with presence overseas. We had many discussions with them and finally agreed on a compressed session where we discard and/or shorten a few modules to pack a 2 day workshop into 1 day. They were unwilling to pay the normal fees and so we only asked for a nominal fee in the hope that there will be continuing business. Within that limited time, we showed all we could on the techniques we normally cover in our workshops but was not able to go in depth into the intricacies of any of them. These are techniques I spent 18 plus months training myself. They were very happy with what they learned and called us back for more discussions and it all suddenly stop. We heard from one of their ex-employee that they were able to generate a few good ideas using the techniques they learned from us but could not turn these ideas into something tangible. In other words, they were still unable to innovate. And with that they discredit our method. This is a little like the man in the above story saying that the cobbler does not make good shoes.

Another way of viewing this comes from an English friend. He built his own house in England before migrating to Australia and would frequently tell us interesting stories about the building of this house. There is one of these stories where he related how he negotiated with a contractor and he would stop pressing the contractor for more discount. His explanation is that the contractor may say yes but the quality and workmanship of the work after that may be questionable.

Do not force your supplier to ripe you off!

I used to have a manager who was from India. Every now and then, he would tell us Indian folklore relevant to the situation. One of them which he always repeat is "what is a little rain when you are already wet!" Another one was about this man who gave a cobbler some leather to make a pair of shoes. Not wanting to be cheated, he asked the cobbler if he can make 2 pairs. The cobbler replied yes. This man then thought that if he answered so quickly there must be enough leather left for another pair and asked if he can make 3 pairs. Again the cobbler said yes! So the man asked for 4 pairs! Again yes was the answer. This went on until the main asked for half a dozen! Again the cobbler said yes! At this point the man stop asking for more. Some time later, the man return only to find that the original piece of leather has been turned into 6 pairs of tiny little shoes!

On Friday last week, I met a very interesting man in Johore Bahru (the capital of Johore - the southern most state of Peninsular/West Malaysia) who founded a bread factory that now supply to outlets around Johore, Singapore, and as far north as Kuala Lumpur. He was relating an experience one of his business associate had importing shoes from China. Like the Indian folklore above, this business associate of his negotiate a price that was essentially half of what was earlier negotiated. When the goods arrived they noticed that each box had only half a pair of shoes!

The moral of the story is this, your supplier need to make money as well. Yes no one wants to be cheated and we should not be cheated. However, force his hands beyond limit and you may get a surprise.

This man also spoke of how some of those street stalls in China who sell to foreigner at an exorbitantly high prices. He would counter offer and walk if the trader starts cursing. They will call you back if they can still make money from your counter offer. They will keep cursing you as they sell you the item. What this man did was interesting. He asked the trader if he still makes money. If they say no, then he will advise them not to sell. But if they say yes, then he asked them to stop cursing!

Earring and torn ear lobe

My daughter has been asking to have her ears pierced after seeing 2 of her classmates with pierced ear lobes and wearing ear studs to school. Today, about a month short of turning six, she got her ears pierced. Given another chance I would not have let her pierced her ears!

I can't help but recall a story a friend told me a few year ago the moment I saw her pierced ear lobes. This friend was telling me about a time his daughter's girl friend was wearing one of those earrings that has round rings dangling from the ear lobes and they were playing a game. One of his finger was accidentally caught in one of the earrings ripping it off the little girl's ear and tearing her ear lobe!

Pressing a client for a meeting

Several years ago, my then manager called me to meet with some representatives from a company waiting for him at the front desk. My manager was too busy at that time and said that they were there to show him some software. The 3 gentlemen who where there explained what they have and immediately I realized that they are talking to the wrong person. My manager oversees hardware and ASIC design activities and they were showing us a software platform that makes it very easy to design the software component that manages the interface for mobile devices such as PDA and mobile phone. When I said that they are talking to the wrong people, I was told that they had flew in from a neighbouring city specifically for this meeting! Feeling sorry for the 3 blokes, I said they need to pitch what they have to another manager and will go see if this manager is available to meet with them.

When I asked this other manager about meeting these 3 gentlemen from interstate, I was told no he is not interested as the platform his team is using is determined by his bosses back in HQ! Somehow, I managed to get one of his team leader to at least go learn about what this company is offering.

Later that day, curious why my manager would be interested in meeting with someone with a product totally irrelevant to what we do, I asked him about it. As the story goes, someone from that company has been calling my manager and pressing him for a meeting. They kept at it even when my manager told him that it is not relevant. He was just giving them the opportunity to show their demo in the hope that all the calls would stop! In a way, this other company wasted the traveling expenses for 3 people to fly interstate for a meeting where no one is really interested. It is almost as good as flying 3 people interstate and go talk to some strangers.

I suppose what these 3 gentlemen were trying to do is to fully explore all opportunities. Not very different from how an insurance/investment sales person would pursue a "difficult" potential-client. But your chances of selling an MP3 player to a person who is deaf or a light bulb to a person who has no access to electricity is going to be very slim even if they agree to let you do a demo.

Building/Breaking working relationships

Business travel frequently mean traveling with superior, colleague(s) and/or subordinate(s) to foreign places we would otherwise not. Unlike working together in the office, business travel, especially with subordinates, avail itself opportunities for one to build stronger working relationship or destroy one. The following examples are based on actual events.

The design manager of a small company was traveling with one of his subordinate and two of their directors to a foreign country. They were there to negotiate a joint venture. The year was 1997 and mobile phone was not very affordable where they were. The evening after their arrival, the design manager noticed that his subordinate looks rather uneasy and asked if everything is okay. His subordinate said that he has not had the opportunity since arriving to call home to let his wife know that he is okay and that he knows that his wife and his mother will be worried. Without hesitation, even though he may have to pay for the call, the design manager reached for his mobile phone and let his subordinate call home that very moment. Imagine that you were that subordinate. How would you feel towards your manager after that?

And this. The Finance Manager (FM) of an MNC at one of their remote site organized a meeting for her site GM to meet with a vendor at their regional HQ in a city that is an hour flight away. Upon arrival, the FM had to make a detour to the washroom and so her GM and another colleague travelling together proceed through their immigration formalities ahead of her. After completing her immigration formalities, she couldn't find her GM nor her other colleague. Instead she received a call from her GM saying that he is in a taxi heading to the office! Her GM has "abandoned" her! She arrived at the meeting 5 mins after her GM and everyone in the office were very surprised and asked what happened. The FM tried to put a positive spin to the whole thing but it was very obvious that the GM had abandon the FM at the airport. Privately, this FM said that the event says a lot about the GM and that it has left a negative impression. If you were the FM, how would you feel towards the GM after the event?

A good advice for managers in these situations can be found in chapter on terrain in Sun Tzu's thesis on The Art of War [1] and Sun Tzu advised "Look upon your soldiers as you do infants, and they willingly go into deep valleys with you; look upon your soldiers as beloved children, and they willingly die with you."

[The above excerpt is from Thomas Cleary's translation of Sun Tzu's Art of War available at Shambhala]

[1] T. Sun, The Art of War. Thomas Cleary, Trans. Massachusetts: Shambala, 1999, pp. 146.