Be humble when reacting to a rejection

A student, having achieved a pre-university (i.e., high school) results that would rank him amongst the brightest academically in the country, applied for a scholarship and after the scholarship interview was unhappy that he was not awarded one.  This is a scholarship awarded by a university to attract top students to study at that university and this university would have the prerogative to select who they would want as their scholars.  Amazingly, the father of this student appealed against the decision!  Even more amazing is that this university even has a process to allow for such an appeal and the manager of the Bursary and Financial Aids department had to answer to the Appeal Board.  This is like someone, having not received a slice of cake from you, appeal against your decision who you shared your cake with and you have to answer to someone how and why you shared your cake the way you did!  I suppose this university has a transparent process to allow any hanky-panky to be expose easily.  The mindset of this parent is very similar to a story I once read (unfortunately I cannot remember where I read this anymore) and is certainly something I would like my kids to be mindful of.  I have forgotten the details of the story and had to make it up.  The essence of the story is however unchanged.

A senior position at a factory became vacant when the incumbent retires and two managers from that factory applied for the post.  After being interviewed by the CEO, one of the two applicants was selected.  The applicant who was not offered the position felt that he should have been selected.  Unhappy he went to see the CEO wanting to know why!  So the CEO asked him, "What product is the factory currently running?"  He asked the CEO to wait for a minute, step out and came back in with the answer.  The CEO than asked "For which customer is this for?" and again he step out and came back with the answer.  The CEO than asked "When is this shipment due?"  He again went out to get the answer.  When he came back, the CEO asked if they are on schedule and again the same thing happen.  The CEO than asked him to wait quietly at an adjoining room until he is called.  At that point, the CEO picked up the phone and asked the candidate he had selected for the post to come to his office.  When he arrived the CEO asked "What product is the factory currently running?" and he got his reply on the spot.  The CEO than asked about the customer, shipment date and if they are on schedule and he again got all these answered on the spot.  The CEO thank him for the answers and congratulated him for his promotion.  When the second person has left the CEO's office, the other candidate stepped into the CEO office and said I now understand.

In the scholarship case above, as usual there is a limited budget and not all applicants can be awarded.  Accordingly, the panel interviewed and ranked these applicants.  All these applicants are amongst the brightest in the country academically.  The top 5 are so mature they behaved like graduates.  The best of these has the maturity equivalent of a junior manager.  All those applicants who fail to meet the criteria or did not perform well at the interview were rejected.  I understand that it would be very difficult to accept how one of the brightest in the country could be rejected for a scholarship.  However, in a properly executed selection process, a rejection would mean that the candidate may be lacking something that disadvantaged him/her in the ranking process.  It would be better to ask what this is and how to improve instead.

All of us at one time or another would have been rejected for one thing or another.  A job application, a promotion, a scholarship, a place at a university, a contract etc etc.  When there is more demand than supply, someone will have to lose out.  I have to admit that not all selection process and criteria are fair or perfect and whatever the outcome, it is much better to be humble, learn from it and move on.

Keeping everyone focused on the target

A conversation over lunch with a colleague on Friday reminded me of this and I feel it is something worth sharing.

In 1997, I was invited to participate in starting an IC (integrated circuit) design company.  It was one of the earlier and possibly the first attempt by a non-government organisation to start such a design company in Malaysia.  Being the first employee of that company, I was tasked with getting the operation going.  Setting up of policies, procedures, hiring, acquisition of equipment etc etc.  Not too long after we had hired a few design engineers, a managing director was also appointed.  I was reporting to this newly hired managing director who sat at an office located in a northern  state in west Malaysia while I was sitting at another office fairly close to Kuala Lumpur.  I was also the design manager responsible for the team of engineers at my office.  Somewhat isolated from the operation of the northern office, I formulated a strategy for my team and I talked to my colleagues about this strategy regularly.  I can see that everyone bought into the strategy and could even put it in their own words whenever they need to explain this to someone else.  Very happy that I had aligned everyone I stop talking about it.  What I noticed is that over time, everyone seems to have lost this alignment and hence it effectiveness as a team.

The key learning I gained from this experience are as follows.  Set strategy that is not too complex.  I would even suggest that you have only one main/key target!  Even what you need to do to achieve this target should not be too complex.  In other words, it should be easy to understand and remember.  Next, keep talking about it.  Make sure it remains at the top of everyone's mind.  This is like programming everyone with one and only one target and constantly reprogramming them to ensure the target reminds at the top of everyone's head.

I think, too many of us don't have a single target and may have a plan/strategy that is not easy to understand/remember.  Or have one that changes too regularly creating confusion in everyone's mind.  Or it was not discussed/talked about regularly to remind in everyone's mind.  Without aligning everyone to the same goal, achieving it could be accidental!

A product in a customer's hand is still yours if it carries your logo

My wife and I bought a Honda City in early 2007 (slightly over 4 years ago at the time of writing) and the experience I had with the car and Honda Malaysia taught me a rather interesting lesson about the importance of corporate values and how these values affect and link the company to their customers.

Let me start with the car.  The fourth generation facelift version Honda City is a beautify car.  Its gives an amazing silky smooth ride even as it shift through the 7 speed Multimatic continuous variable transmission (CVT) gearbox.  We had the i-VTEC version and an incredible 14km/L was something achievable for city driving.  All in all, you have to say that this is an very nice car.

About a year ago, I was advised by someone at the Honda service center I frequented to "Get rid of the car.  It has a gear box problem!"  Curious, I asked more and was informed that he kept seeing that generation Honda City and another Jazz model frequently having had to have their gearbox repaired/replaced.  Well, we were still within the 3 years warranty period and so I thought nothing of it.  Slightly after 3 years and still way within 100,000 km, I noticed that something was wrong.  I was advised by the service adviser that we need to change the starter clutch to fix it and if we want to keep the car, it would be best we change the whole gearbox and that will costs slightly over RM20,000!  Not satisfied, I called Honda Malaysia and was told, there is no issue with the design and that the damage could be due to many factors such as the way I drove the car etc!  Interestingly, the current and fifth generation Honda City no longer use the troublesome CVT gearbox!

Now, compare such a response to what Toyota did with their Prius.  In June 2011, Toyota annoused that it will recall 105,784 Pius to fix a fault in the model gearbox and steering (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/01/us-toyota-recalls-idUSTRE7500S320110601).  This recall includes the first generation Prius launch in 1997 some 14 years earlier.

Honda Malaysia's response gave me the impression that they considered my Honda City mine not theirs.  While the way Toyota has responded to the Prius gearbox and steering fault as though it is still theirs!  Accordingly, I firmly believed that a product, even when it is owned by someone else, is still yours if it carries your logo.

Guess what I am driving now?  A Toyota!  Not only have I become a Toyota fan, I am sharing this rather unpleasant experience with anyone whenever the opportunity arises.

(The above photo is by  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Two_hundred_percent and the link to the photo is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Honda_City_(fourth_generation,_second_facelift)_(front),_Serdang.jpg)

Opportunity to earn loyalty, trust & respect

I believe most of us will agree that true respect, loyalty, trust and the like are not something we can demand even by force but instead they have to be earned. I also believed most of us will agree that one earns these by the way we conduct ourselves. What about opportunity to earn these? All the time whenever there is an interaction or are there certain occasion that's more favorable?  A chance meeting with a friend recently prompted this entry. He worked for a company known generally to be a good employer yet an event with his manager ended up with his departure from that company. Though this is yet another good example of a case that people join great company, leaves bad manager, it also highlight another important aspect about opportunity to earn loyalty, trust and respect. Let me start with a story I heard from my father years ago. He told us that he was told it is a true story but his facial expression at the time he told us this story seems to suggest that he is not totally convinced that it is though. Anyhow, this is the story.

Years ago, there was a man who worked as an accountant for an employer where he would only have the opportunity to go home once a year during the lunar new year. On one occasion he had a bet with his employer and when asked how much he would place on the bet, this man said his entire year salary! It turns out that this man lost the bet and when it came time to prepare for his journey home that year, he was rather depressed. When his employer asked him why he is so depressed, he said now that he has lost that bet, he has nothing to bring home. His employer told him that he should at least bring a basket of food, already prepared for him, back to his family for the new year. As there is nothing more he could do, he went home with the basket of food. When he arrived home, he was still rather depressed and when his wife asked him why, he apologized to his wife saying that he has lost the whole year's income on a bet with his employer and he could only bring a basket of food that year. Having already unpacked the basket, his wife said, what are you talking about, the money is at the bottom of the basket. This man rushed to count the money and there was his whole years income. Not a cent short. This man then rushed back to his employer immediately and when he arrived his employer was concerned why this man is back before the new year celebration and asked if everything was alright. His response to that was "Sir, I shall work for you for the rest of my life even if I don't get paid."

I have always took this story to convey the message that you win/earn loyalty, trust and respect when you perform an incredibly good deed for someone when it is not expected. This is certainly not a law that holds true all the time though. It is highly unlikely that an ungrateful selfish person would reciprocate anything done for them. But what is interesting is that this story also tell us that there are occasions where we could earn loyalty, trust and respect by showing other our true color.

The case of my friend above was is follows. He was working on the other side of the world from his home country and he has some family matters back in his home country that requires him to be there for an extended period. His request for an unpaid leaves was rejected. I am sure this company must have a good reason why his request is rejected. And from the information I gathered from this friend, it sure sounded like his manager does not see him as someone worth retaining. Something I have difficulties understanding as this friend is a fairly smart and capable person and received offers from various international firms (listed in Fortune list of Best Companies to work for) the moment he tendered his resignation. Perhaps, his manager was reluctant to deal with the complications of allowing him off on an unpaid leave, but my feeling is this. If this manager is genuinely caring and help him out with whatever arrangement possible in one way or another, even if not exactly to how my friend has requested, I am sure it will show my friend how caring a person his manager is thereby earning his respect/loyalty and he will surely reciprocate.