Working for a rupee a year?

http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=149238

Thursday, November 27, 2008


Lee Iacocca worked for a dollar a year when the US government gave Chrysler a life-saving loan. Now that the IMF has given Pakistan a life-saving loan of $7.6 billion, would our MNAs, ministers, prime minister and president be willing to work for a-dollar-a-year?

The CEO of Japan Airlines rides public transport to work, eats in the company cafeteria, and cut his salary below that of his pilots as a personal response to the ongoing economic crunch. Now that our nation is in need of some serious belt-tightening, would our MNAs be willing to shun protocol, give up the expensive national assembly, the luxury residences, cars and perks provided at the expense of ordinary Pakistanis as a personal response to the financial crisis that our nation is going through? More important, since they have accomplished approximately zilch in six decades of Pakistan's existence, why should they reach into my wallet to fund their private jets and mass visits to the holy lands? I hate to point fingers because I know that will not help. And I know our problems cannot be wished or prayed away. But with nothing to show for their existence, our politicians should not show off. It hurts an ordinary Pakistani like me.


The response of our leaders will determine the fate of our nation. The current leadership has a historic opportunity -- they can either make history or become history.

On University rankings / quality of education

http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.shtml?161093

The HEC recently launched university rankings and it led to a debate about the quality of higher education in Pakistan. But, how do we define quality education? And unless we do that, all efforts to improve will remain misguided, like a journey without a well-defined destination.

Educational quality is a difficult concept. The goal is to produce world-class graduates. Universities have to be geared up to do that. It takes a world-class university to produce a world-class graduate. The creation is a reflection of the creator and graduates are created by universities.

What makes MIT better at technical education? Universities` quality is based on the quality of teachers and students they can attract and retain. All else is just frivolous detail. MIT is better because it can attract, retain and develop the best brains for teaching and learning. A university would do well to gear its processes to this end.

Teaching and learning are highly creative processes and cannot be standardised beyond a certain limit. The problem facing our universities today is that they are not designed to handle world-class brains. These people, although belonging to one class, are highly individualised. No institution which cannot handle diversity of an intense kind, and which does not allow freedom, will be able to retain these people. Number one in Pakistan is almost as good or as bad as number 20.

So far, we have not been able to establish a list of recognised degree-awarding institutions. But we have rolled out university rankings.

Tayyab Rashid

100 Ways to Succeed #113: (Tom Peters)

Nothing Is Irrelevant
Stop. Right now.

Check the reception desk.
Check the reception area.
Check the bathroom.
Check your last Client email.
Check etc.Check etc.
Check 10 "little things." Right now.

Is each one stunningly, amazingly excellent?
Does each one confirm & extend & broadcast your "brand promise"?
You, personally?Your training department?
Your 3-person accountancy on Main Street?
Your BigCo division?

Repeat.Daily.

(Remember: You are in control. There are things you cannot make happen, to be sure; but you can project Brand Excellence on a thousand "atmospherics" that determine Client-Employee perception.)

Get Out And About!

Get out! [Of your office.]
Get out!
Get out!
Get out!Now!
[Within the ... hour!]
Now!
Now!
Now!

Tucking the Shower Curtain

Here is a story about Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton hotels.

At a gala celebrating his life, Conrad Hilton was asked, "What was the most important lesson you've learned in your long and distinguished career?" His reply was, "Remember to tuck the shower curtain inside the bathtub."

paying attention to detail makes all the difference when we are trying to achieve excellence.

When we miss the little things, we miss the opportunity to achieve excellence; we fall just short of it.

"What shower curtain do you need to tuck in?"

Let us march

“In classical times when Cicero had finished speaking, the people said, ‘How well he spoke,’ but when Demosthenes had finished speaking, they said, ‘Let us march.’”

—Adlai Stevenson

the boss as the CHR, Chief Hurdle Remover (Tom Peters says)

Peter Drucker once famously said, “Ninety-percent of what we call ‘management’ consists of making it difficult for people to get things done.”

There is more than a grain of truth to that.

On the other side, and there can be an “other side,” I see the manager’s principal role as identifying things that get in people’s way (by asking them!) and meticulously getting those things out of their way. Thence, you could call the boss the CIRO, or Chief Impedance Reduction Officer, or my choice, CHR, Chief Hurdle Remover. In any event the idea is that this is a/the primary task the boss performs—and that it is a systematic, pro-active affair (e.g., on the daily agenda).

Getting Things Done (GTD)

“It works this way, Tom. You’re talking to a guy who’s important to implementation down where the rubber meets the road. He’s skeptical—he either really is, or it’s the act he chooses to play. You go over the thing with him and he has a thousand objections. You nod your head a lot, and take copious notes. Then you go back to your guys, and you find a few places where you can very specifically accommodate him. You make the changes, even if they are pretty ugly. Then you go back to him, and show him exactly what you’ve done. You have a ‘born again’ supporter. You took him seriously—and through the changes, he’s now your co-inventor, your savior. Now he’s doing the selling for you. Hey, the whole damn thing wouldn’t have worked were it not for his interjections—that’s the way he frames it to his folks. I tell you, it never fails.”

Source: Australian
IS-IT chief, mid-sized company in financial services