My Return and a New Year

As of last night, I am back in New Zealand after my fantastic 2 month hiatus in Asia. My third trip to the region in as many years was rewarding as ever, visiting a while new set of cities from my usual base of Hong Kong.

Japan: Osaka, Kyoto, Fujikawa & Tokyo
China: Beijing, Souzhou, Hongzhou, Shanghai & Hei Feng
Thailand: Phuket

Most Epic City: Beijing

Though this was my third trip to China, it was my first trip to the capital and it was most definitely the most epic city I visited. Temperatures were between -10 to 5 degrees centigrade making it the coldest city I've been too. We had snow on the Great Wall which apparently is a rapidly deteriorating phenomena.

Beijing gives a completely different feel than most other large cities in Asia with it's circular city planning, extremely wide roads and relatively low skyline. The people there were extremely foreign friendly, especially when compared to say the Hanoi; the capital of Vietnam.

Did I mention it was cold?

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City I Want to Return to the Most: Tokyo

I absolutely fell in love with this city. An amazing, vibrant and action packed place that, despite its size, feels and is remarkably safe. I need to go back to this city for at least a week as I'm only just scratching the surface. I did achieve my primary goal however; eating a plate of Fugu, the famous Japanese puffer fish (poison fish, poison fish, tasty fish!). Fortunately our good friend is moving over to Tokyo to become an interpreter so I may get to return sooner than I originally thought.

And now that I'm back...

It's time for the major announcement of 2009: I won't be going to management consulting at Deloitte as originally planned, but will instead be completing my Masters at Auckland University. Quite a few reasons led up to this decision, some of which I hope to discuss here at a later time. This however means I've got the opportunity to participate in other aspects of university life such as sitting on the committee for Spark (The student led entrepreneurship initiative on campus) and on the executive of our local Toastmasters chapter. More on both of those in the future.

So know that I'm back to technology I guess that means I should start writing again.

OCI Week 10: Wrap Up

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image credit: spursfan_ace

This Thursday was our last formal class of the year, which I guess means the last class of my degree. Kind of anti-climactic now that I think about it. Regardless, we still have two more classes for presentations of our new media challenge and the group projects we have all been involved with but more on that next week. This Thursday was all about the team work apparently and getting our projects done with a little bit of hand holding, which we probably all need at this stage. I'm disappointed we didn't get any real class time, the readings were quite interesting and there wasn't the token impossible to read article in there so maybe more people would have done them. The basic gist of the articles was talking about how our culture and research has all over valued 'change' and emphasised it as something necessary and glorified. The articles don't disagree with the importance of change but instead stress the need for more research in how companies can create continuity and sustainability. It rings quite true to my dissertation where I talk quite extensively about individuals who maintain organisational cultures as well as those who create and change it. Perhaps there has been an overemphasis on the change elements in the management literature because it focuses on managers in organisations. My observations have always lead me to believe that the continuity of organisations is pursued by individuals distributed throughout the organisation instead of vested in the upper ranks where change is often driven from. Since we're all getting ready to present our New Media challenge next week, I thought I'd share with you some videos about some of the things I would like to say but won't have time to.

Creative Common Copyright

All of the images you see me use here and in my slide shows are licensed under creative commons. To get images under this license search here and check the creative commons box at the bottom.

Academic Blogging

This guy has some different ideas to me so I thought I'd put him up. He's talking about blogging as an academic from PhD level and onwards, focusing on many of the challenges you face with transparency but also the great benefits.

 

 

OCI Week 9: The best/worst class ever

"I could go back home, but what would I do in a town of 280 people"
"You could be Sheriff Darl!"
"But we don't have any crime, once someone broke a window but we know who did it"

- Darl Kolb
Interesting title yes, and since my day was so dichotomous, the post will reflect that. Didn't want to spoil the mood and the awesome lecture. Lets go.

Best. Class. Ever.

Today was fun, for some heaps of people rocked in quite late, so unless you're a member of the new all nighter Wednesday club (seriously) then you don't really have an excuse. We started out with a oddly structured debate over Thomas Friedman's popular theory: The World is Flat.

It was odd because the harder angle (Negative) was given a huge numbers advantage against those who rocked in late on the affirmative, but they also had Darl, ironically one of the only people in the room capable of arguing the negative.

Personally I side with Friedman for the most part, I see the world being flat as a construct that is inherently useful for us to make sense of our international state. We can continue to argue that the the world is simply "flattening" and that it can never be truely flat. But then again neither is a sports field ever perfectly flat, but its still useful for us to be able to describe it as such.

On the other hand though it would be an academic fallacy to write about it as such, and I certainly agree with Darl's work on on connective gaps and our need to redefine distance. But I guess that's why he gets published in Organizational Dynamics and Friedman has to stick to the New York Times, each to their own I suppose. At the end of the day, academia very quickly teaches you that it's good to be able to think about things from multiple perspectives and some how believe both of them.

New Zealand 2.0
We went on to have a discussion and break into groups on what we thought New Zealand 2.0 might look like if we were to be competitive. Duane came up with the idea of thinking of the world through the metaphor of an organisation, where here at the edge of the world, like at the edge of the organisation, innovation can best occur. For that innovation however we need focus, and resource allocation in line with that focus.

In line with these thoughts we saw New Zealand focusing on several key industries (E.g. Ag Tech, Bio Tech and Hi-Tech) thereby engaging in predominantly weightless economy goods and stressing activities that are not dependent on economies of scale. It quickly became obvious that to do this we would really need a major cultural shift in New Zealand. New myths, new stories, new attitudes.

What's other peoples opinion on this? I know you're reading this I see the stats :-) If New Zealand is to move up the OECD rankings (It's harder to go down much further) how do you see this being done? What will a successful New Zealand look like. And by the way, I don't mean winning the next world cup.

Worst. Class. Ever.

Darl dropped the bomb yesterday, one many of us wish he'd done a long time ago. Basically the grades were put out today for the first assesment. It was an academic essay worth 30% of the course (A double points paper) which translates to the most heavily weighted assessment (1st equal) in the entire department. The catch is it's only 2000 words... They were not pretty (the grades, the words as well I guess)

I thought about it for a while but decided that actual grades weren't something I thought should be online. But I will say that it was the lowest grade I've received in any assessment at Auckland University, and I'm not saying I didn't deserve it because I couldn't do that without reading everyone's essays and seeing their marks. But I do know that I'm in trouble now.

What's more people are worried now; when I went back to the lab around 7 last night, there was a very sorry feeling. We all felt it and it wasn't good. I'm really concerned about motivation in class, sometimes a shock to the system inspires people to work harder but other times it demotivates them. At the moment I feel that the class, at least in discussion, is being carried by a few key individuals. When these people stop participating it's going to be bad for everyone, I certainly need the conversation to learn this stuff and I get the feeling Darl and Deb need it as well to teach it.

On the bright side, it was bitter nice to get a taste of my own medicine tonight. I generally the one comforting people and helping them figure out a way to get out of the mess. So it was good to hear people turn around just be honest with me. "It will be OK, do what you can about it and move on", they would tell me. And there right, It's one hell of a hole to dig my way out of if I'm going to meet my goals. But All we can do is try.

So fellow class mates and casual observers, it's time for us to lift our game so high they can't catch us. Don't show up next week with just the 10 pages + 10 Slides x 10 Refs, bring everything you've got. Get started on your team reflections and bring those, challenge them to keep up with how hard we're trying. Get started on your tech challenge now and ask them about it. Talk to each other and for crying out loud start talking in class more. Read and argue, that's all you have to do. First time I've ever drunk beer on my own writing this post. This is what the end of a shit day looks like at my desk, not the tidiest.
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OCI Week 8: Competing from Down Under

After a long class hiatus we finally got back into it last week on Thursday with the long awaited "Competing in a (not so) flat world / from New Zealand" lecture. Considering we had handed in our assignment a week before I was kind of hoping that everyone had done the readings this time. Skimmed them? Printed them? Next time? You Promise? Sweet. The readings did challenge the untold optimism we're normally able to spout about competing from New Zealand, it was great being challenged to not resort to the standard clichés as a point of good argument but conversations generally tend to drift that way regardless. Most enjoyable however was having previously mentioned Selwyn Pellet in to discuss his experiences as a business owner competing from New Zealand.

On Ownership and Business

"Ownership for me is about having more people on the train"
I think many people from the class enjoyed the business ethic that Selwyn brought to the table. That amongst all the profits was a genuine urgency to have fun and create wealth not just for himself but his friends and New Zealand.
"I think I enjoy seeing other people be able to make choices"
He also espoused much about his theories on ownership, including compulsive VC (vulture capitalists) avoidance and his governance policies for keeping them out.
"There is only one class of shareholder, no preferential shares"

Competing globally

"Communication and culture are the hardest things about going global"
I'm not sure whether or not Deb told him to say that one, but echoing our class themes certainly rang true for all the students in the room. He spoke on the challenges of running a truly global business and the folly of many people who want to have each manager in the direct vicinity of the function. He talked about how the global entrepreneur needs to also be a hardened traveller whose home is on a 747. I certainly hope not, and youthful idealism ignorance is bliss.
"You don't have a management team, you have a virtual team."

The Role of New Zealand for Hi-Tech

"The role of New Zealand is frankly limited"
In talking about the New Zealand Hi tech sector, the truth from Selwyn can be harsh, but hidden beneath the numerous disadvantages of operating globally from our physically distant country, Selwyn enlightened us to the various benefits he has identified running companies from New Zealand.
"Kudos to Helen Clark; we are welcome everywhere, there is not a country in the world that turns it's back on New Zealand"
He attested to the ethical perception that the world holds of New Zealand at the moment. This trustworthy image can become a source of serious competitive advantage. He also referred to the large innovative creative talent that we have particularly in the high tech sector:
"We get less hours out of them and trade on the fact that they are more creative"
However, his perception of employing them in New Zealand was less than optimistic even if it did pay off. It was great to hear his thoughts on the New Zealand engineers especially when compared to Australia. In later conversations he attested that NZ employees on average work significantly harder for considerably less pay, sometimes in the region of 35% more in total cost to company. Overall his thoughts on doing business New Zealand mostly related to the fact that he and his friends think its a great place to live and our people and our innovation seems to be the main things going for it. I think he summarised his thoughts best when he said:
"It's not a bad place to do business, it's just bloody far from everywhere"

Concluding Thoughts

Firstly, Some of the messages he sent you don't necessarily want to believe. I don't think he makes it look easy which is refreshing. Though this is probably not the message that would go in a PR release, it's a lesson that I'm glad as a student at Postgraduate level I have access too. Secondly, there are a lot of challenges facing New Zealanders, but there are things we can do today.
"Kiwis have to get away from investing in bricks and mortar"
Finally, He doesn't put any polish on the challenges that exist if you want to be successful.
"The way I see it there are the 4 M's that form the impediments to success; marriage, management, mortgages and then you get myopia"
But his emphasis on personal resilience and self reliance is advice we can all afford to take.
"If it's got to be, it's up to me"

National Case Competition League

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Image Credit: letmein As an interlude to my regular posting regarding OCI I thought I'd let you guys all in on the last couple of days of the National Business League Case competition. I was able to attend the last two days of the 5 day finals held at Massey Albany. The Thursday was a development day held with various entrepreneurship super star appearances and the Friday was the last day of competition and the prize giving dinner. Massive fun had by all and it was amazing to watch such talent.

Thursday: Entrepreneurship Challenge

The challenge was this: how can we create more entrepreneurs in New Zealand. Pitched the idea for a potential solution by Selwyn Pellet, the 24 minds of the case competition had three hours in which to prepare a comprehensive proposal to give a panel of New Zealand entrepreneurs. The students definitely delivered on this one as a fantastic demonstration of their fast paced analytic ability, realistic understanding and what must be epic co-ordination skills. What was produced was a feasible entrepreneurship apprenticeship model combining New Zealand's top young talent with New Zealand's top entrepreneurs on a one to two year program designed to create a platform that will create New Zealand's top business owners of the future. The best thing about this is that on Monday, Selwyn and two of the programs students will be presenting this same proposal to government minister Pete Hodgson. Following the presentation we had the pleasure of being exposed to some jewels of wisdom from the panel. Among them was Sam Morgan who told us some stories from his time at Deloitte before he went on to start Trademe
"If there's any more than 5 consultants on a project you can pretty much do nothing and get away with it" -Sam Morgan
In addition, we got to hear some criticism of common organisational culture approaches in New Zealand from the Chief Enthusiasm Officer of Rivera:
"If you've got a bad culture you just throw alcohol at it until it comes right" -Wayne Norrie
Fortunately he now spends a lot of his time teaching people how to do it right.

Friday: Case Competition Final

The final case for this year was on the New Zealand Fejoa Growers Association and written in part by our very own Liliana Erakovic. As with any non traditional business form this provided an interesting challenge to all the teams but unfortunately fairly homogenous strategic choices from most of them as well. As it often does, it came down to the teams or could clearly articulate their strategy as a viable solution, the manager of the firm alluded to financial viability as his key concern at the awards ceremony. The awards dinner was a great chance to meet the talent, judges, coaches and various parties who supported the program. After a massive dinner, huge dessert and plenty of drinks, the part we had all been waiting for came:

Final Day Results

1st University of Waikato 2nd Auckland University 3rd Auckland University of Technology And the overall placing for the inaugural National Business case League 1st Auckland University 2nd University of Waikato 3rd Canterbury University On the rumour side of things there was word going round amongst the participants that Deloitte may not be sponsoring the league next year. If that's the case I'm really disappointed, one of the reasons I signed with them was because I felt they took an active stance towards what I consider to be the best form of business education in New Zealand. Their presence at the competition has always been I thought to establish a talent pipeline, something which I was proud to be part of. For me these competitions are in large part about the talent you meet. Often in commerce degrees, people are just there to get a degree and aren't passionate about being successful or engaged with what they do. But the people you meet in these programs are all going somewhere, all want to be engaged and most of all, know how to have fun doing it.
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image credit: Justin Soong The best thing about the above photo is that everyone is having an awesome time and the winners of the competition aren't even in the shot. I hope to hav a shot of the auckland team up shortly. Update: Here are the champions
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image credit: Chris Jenkins

OCI: Week 6

View whole presentation here
Today class was certainly eventful. After having a presentation dropped on us yesterday, I spent the latter parts of last night preparing it and gave it this morning to a no doubt sleepy class. People tend to be a bit shocked the first time they see me present and I get a stream of people asking how they can make totally sweet slides and whether they should get a mac (The answer is yes, you should). Anyway, the majority of people in the MIB department have got pretty used to my presenting style and thus are a bit over it I'm sure. In a discussion following class it would seem I haven't improved my speaking too much this year (one of my goals) but I think I've just got a lot better at doing it with less preparation, thanks Toastmasters. Following everyone's haphazard, made in the morning night before presentations. We got into my favourite case study "Icebreaker: The China Entry Decision", but I guess I only really like it because it was the case from the national competition last year. As usual, there is a lot to learn from Icebreaker but I was amazed to see just how few people knew about the brand. This of course is kind of awkward when your talking about what a great marketing company they are. I thought I'd take some time today to talk about why I write about this paper. I never intended on doing this but as my lecturers stumbled upon the blog I found myself explaining to Darl why it is I do it so I thought I may as well do the same here. Really it comes down to three things (so far); first it is the reflexivity I gain by writing about something that I think we take for granted as mundane, secondly it is a demonstration of the unknowable pervasiveness that has come about from the entire new media revolution, and finally it is about experimenting with transparency. My final point on transparency I think is key, organisations gained a lot when they started to allow employees to write about the company. Suddenly people were criticising the company from the inside, talking about what works, what doesn't, why they love their job, why they hate and so on and so forth. I think to many people, this sounds like a scary thing to let people do and perhaps it's generational, but to me this is exciting. This kind of transparency made organisations more human, more fallible and in the end, more trustworthy. Companies stopped being like giant boxes that shoot out product and started being collections of people that struggle and fail just like the rest of us. Now the classroom isn't a company, but I think introducing some transparency to it can be beneficial. Everything I write might not be shining glory upon all that is postgraduate studies at Auckland University, but it is that honesty that makes what I do say about the class credible. One hope that I do have is that someone who is thinking about doing Postgrad studies will read some of these stories and get a real understanding for what it's all about, more than any prospectus could offer them anyway.