The Illusion of the Best Syndrome

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‘We have the best working environment around here’ … ‘we changed the whole competition landscape, we are the best now and our competitors have to live with it’ … ‘Our products/services are not comparable to others, we are the best’

Once such kind of mentality starts flying around your organization, then it is in need for a serious therapy; it is going through the ‘illusion of the best’ syndrome! And once you have it, it is the downhill road thereafter.

There is no doubt that the marketplace is a competition arena. However, deciding who is the best should be left to stakeholders and unbiased observers, certainly not to the organization managers only!

And let’s give it some thought; in a business environment, what is the best? the best compared to what? and in which categories? And should we compare our products/services/practices to our competitors only? in our environment only? or should we do that globally? I am sure you can come up with endless series of question like these …

My argument is that the whole concept of being the best should have no place in a business environment. The ‘best in ….’ is a relative term even if based upon ground measurements, because, at the end, those measurements are based on agreements between a number of people.

The illusion of being the best could be damaging on the long run. It generates demotivation and kills innovation; why should we do more, we are the best?!

It happened that I have being sitting once with one of the so-called-managers of one of the biggest companies in the country and he was talking about how they are conducting some of their business. The strange thing is that he was referring to many managerial flaws in his talking, and he was acknowledging those flaws! I asked him ‘it is great that you can put your fingers on the wrong doings that are causing pressure on your staff and your productivity. So why don’t you solve these issues?’ His reply was ‘this is how we do business around here!’ I said ‘but there are many companies around the world that faced similar problems and there are many lessons that you can get advantage of.’ He replied ‘No No No … do not talk about companies around the world. Tell me about local companies. We are the best company in the area and this is how we are running our business’!!!!

I hope you got what I mean now!!

 

p.s. I think the ‘illusion of best’ syndrome fits Jim Collins’s stage number one of declining organizations; the stage he calls ‘Hubris Born of Success.’ Read more about it in his book ‘How the mighty Fall, and Why Some Companies Never Give in’ published in 2009.

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The Threatening Language

One of the most bizarre techniques that is sometimes adopted by weak managers of culturally weak organizations is the use of threatening language in the communication channels across the organization levels!

The repeated use of expressions like (or else … those who are not with us are against us … I will remember that in the annual appraisal … if you do not want to stay on the ship) in meetings, emails, circulations, or even in the company written policy, cause nothing on the long run but the loss of trust, disappearance of loyalty, and performance tardiness.

What provoked this post is a memo by one of the international brands working in Saudi Arabia. It is hanged beside one of its warehouses in front of everyone to see. It is written in Arabic; but here is its translation:

“Attention!!!!!!!!!!!! For all staff, please do not set anywhere outside the store unless it is a permitted area. If these instructions are not followed, the store management will have to take any necessary action.”

Regardless of the main topic of the memo, which is the staff seating arrangements, the memo was going somehow OK till the threatening language begun. As someone who knows nothing about the internal processes or culture of this company, reading these few lines I can tell that it is based on fear and intimidation. I can picture how demotivated their staff are and how the internal communication channels are filled with tension.

I am not saying that companies policies should not contain rules against misbehavior and so forth, but I am saying use them wisely, trust your staff, and do not threaten them. If you cannot build your company, department, or team culture based on trust, rest assured that you are going … nowhere!

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Ramadan’s Prices Hikes

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=grocery+shopping&iid=5210525″ src=”http://view1.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/5210525/products-shelves/products-shelves.jpg?size=500&imageId=5210525″ width=”234″ height=”311″ /]Few days to Ramadan and the consumerism carnival has already started. Consumers, retailers, and the Ministry of Commerce and its monitoring bodies are the usual triangle sides of the price hiking struggle and debate; who did what to whom!!

One of the strangest analyses that popped out this year came from ‘an official’ at Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) according to Arab News (here) The manager of the Corporate Social Responsibility at the JCCI is saying that the consumers themselves are the problem of any prices hikes because, those bad consumers, have brand loyalty!!!! He is also adding that there is no need for any prices monitoring systems, and assures us all that the Saudi market is one of the most open markets in the world, even more open than the West!!

I am not sure how Mr. Official understands the concepts of brand loyalty, consumer protection, and open markets but here are some comments:

• When consumers trust a brand and develop some kind of attachment to it, then it should be their own choice to continue with it or not if the brand owner decided to increase the price for any reasons (e.g. manufacturing costs, new features, raw materials cost, etc). But when the prices increase not because of the brand owner but because of other factors in the local supply or distribution chains, then whose responsibility is this? And even more, what if the brand owner is a local who takes advantages of different seasons to increase prices without any reasonable justifications, whose responsibility is this?
• There are no contradictions whatsoever between free markets and consumer protection activities. Not only that, I can take it a step further and argue that, consumer protection groups are major signs of a truly free market!
• Prices monitoring is one of many responsibilities of consumer protection groups. Quality checks, fighting monopolies, be the channel of communication between the customers and other governmental bodies are all examples of such activities. Again, how all these activities contradicts free and open markets??

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Where Are the Solutions?

Just before the summer vacation sneaked in, I wrote ‘Tourism is a Business’ talking about how I, and mostly anybody I know, have never been persuaded by any local tourism activities.

Now, as most of the Saudi cities are living the so called ‘Summer Festivals,’ one of SCTA’s members went out on Arab News and talked about how these festivals are poorly organized, and how much they lack creativity and fresh ideas!

Most of the points he touched on like prices, transportation, diverse activities, and even electricity and water cutoffs, almost reach the level of agreement between those interested in the idea of local tourism, and we as customers are certainly interested.

The point is that if one of the organization’s members knows and can so eloquently list all these problems and shortcomings, I believe it is legitimate for us all to ask, where are the solutions??

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Why Don’t You Just Do It?

I was talking with a couple of colleagues today and the topic of reading just popped up. One of them said “you know, we should really read some more, we developed the habit of no reading. It is a common problem.”

So he confidently knows that we have a problem, and admits that it is a common problem (he is saying ‘we,’ right?!), and I am sure he had said this same statement before. But he is just saying it and doing nothing about it!!

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=lazy&iid=255339″ src=”http://view4.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/255339/middle-aged-heavy-man-with/middle-aged-heavy-man-with.jpg?size=500&imageId=255339″ width=”234″ height=”331″ /]I have repeated this so many times, and I might’ve said it on this very blog, nothing in my professional life get on my nerves like when discussing some business matters with someone and he starts saying “I know you are right, all what you are saying is true, but we cannot do it!!!” especially when everything we need to get on the right track, that we both agree upon, is within our reach!!!

Submitting to the usual, doing things in certain ways just because they are in our comfort zone, lacking the willingness to learn new things and try new paths are all devastating whether we are talking individuals or organizations.

The conclusion of this post is simple; when you know there is something right and you want to do it, go ahead and do it!!

• Want to read; stop at the nearest bookstore and grab a book or two.
• Want to change a process because you know it will reduce costs and boost productivity, connivence your team and nurture the change challenges.
• Want to develop your leadership style, go learn by reading, by consulting, by joining trainings and so forth.

*******

An Arabic poet once said (trying my best to translate it):

– I have never seen a shortcoming in a human being, like the shortcoming of those who can be perfect, and never try!

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Foul Mouthed; Be Carful

President Obama and his administration have been under pressure to take a firmer stand against the the tragedy of the oil spill taking place at the Gulf of Mexico. As days were passing by without any hope of a working solution, people frustration was getting stronger and they were expecting their President to do the same. So on one of his TV interviews, Mr. President responded to a question about how the crisis meetings were going on by stating that one of these meetings’ goals was ‘to determine whose ass to kick.’

So ‘Should Leaders Ever Swear?’ was the question asked by Dan McGinn recently on HBR Blog. Should leaders really give up formality in certain situations to attain certain goals? Or such tongues slips could cost the leaders and their organizations later on?

Strangely, the post refers to a study that has been published in 2007 where the researchers emphasized the importance of using unconventional or uncivilized language in the workplace. Not only that, but they also grouped workplace profanity into two categories:

• Social Swearing: where swearing just pops up in the middle of causal conversations.
• Annoyance Swearing: which is used in stressed situations to release pressure or used as ‘relief mechanism’ as they put it.

However, both types of swearing mentioned above should not be so much treasured when talking about PR activities, branding initiatives, dealing with staff, or in front of customers. Using improper language could cost the organization a lot of its image and authenticity in the eyes and hearts of its customers. And could definitely makes it a repulsive place to be working in.

Not only organizations, even when we are talking about personal branding of leaders (business or not) and celebrities of any kind, having a bad mouth is a trait that sticks to the person and cannot be easily forgotten.

[picapp align=”right” wrap=”true” link=”term=Rooney&iid=9151450″ src=”http://view2.picapp.com/pictures.photo/image/9151450/football-england-algeria/football-england-algeria.jpg?size=500&imageId=9151450″ width=”234″ height=”167″ /]Jack Welch, the infamous CEO of GE between 1981 and 2001 was known, beside his managerial abilities, to have a tough tongue that likes to throw the f-bomb now and then. And for those following up the World Cup nowadays, we’ve just seen the poor kid named Rooney throws some of highly tuned trash at the camera after England’s last match with Algeria (read about it here)!!

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Conflicts Are Here To Stay

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So you are leading a team at the moment, or even part of one; Do you know when you should be really worried about your team performance?

It is when there is no conflict!

Conflict is a part of any healthy team work environment. It is not only natural to have different views and rising disputes whenever group of people are interacting with each other, some management experts go further to emphasis that conflicts must be there. Without conflicts over ideas, concepts, process, etc … group thinking prevails, adhering to the status quo cripples creativity, and lack of job excitement controls the work environment.

That does not mean conflicts should get out of hands, and team meetings turn to wars and power struggles. There are so many techniques that could be used to contain this conflict and employ it to work for the sake of the team, not against it. There is only one prerequisite. The team members should have a common objectives, an identity they believe in, and shared values.

So it goes like this:

• Have a team with no common believes and unified goals, and the organization will turn into a circus!
• Have a team that shares a strong identity and give them the chance to do miracles.

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Tourism is a Business

It’s been more than 10 days since my last post. I had the chance to take the family to the magical city of Paris and the magical world of Disneyland Paris. And since I am still in the mood of vacation and tourism, there is nothing better than talking about the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA). And I have to say, they are not going to like this!

From http://www.scta.gov.sa

I will start this by a confession; although the Saudi Commission for Tourism has been around since 2000 (they later became the SCTA in 2003), I have never been persuaded by any of their activities in those 10 years of operation to change my tourism destinations to inside instead of outside the Kingdom!! And to generalize this confession a bit, I’ve never seen any of my family members or friends change their vacations plans to the inside. Not that we do not have terrific destinations and rich heritage to visit and enjoy, and I mean my words; it is more of the fact that we do not have the business mindset of tourism.

The interesting thing is that the SCTA has an active and regular presence on the media scene and this is something they should be really praised for. However, putting the whole PR campaigns aside, there is nothing you can touch on the ground. At least from where I see it as a customer of whatever service they are providing!

In my belief, their strategy should’ve been built to satisfy two major objectives (they actually have a very long talk about their objectives, vision, and mission in their web page, but I would quote Seth Godin to describe it ‘You write and write and talk and talk and bullet and bullet but no, you’re not really saying anything.’)

• Objective 1: Creating the Tourism Culture

It is creating the culture of hospitality and understanding of differences. The local community of tourism destinations are better to understand and be ready to accept and interact with different people of, sometimes, different cultures. That’s why Egyptians grow up knowing that their country is a major tourism destination. That’s why the people of London, Paris, and Rome are familiar with strangers filling their streets all the year long!! This objective is a pre-request to the objective number 2.

• Objective 2: Creating and Developing the Tourism Business

And this is not something expected from the commission only, but it is expected to lead the orchestra. The business of tourism is all about being organized and taking care of the tiny details. it is in the museums, theme parks, resorts, cultural activities, historical monuments, and logistics (i.e. transportation, tour guidance, information availability, etc). Strangely, our understanding of tourism attractions stopped at shopping festivals and opening bigger malls!! You want a proof, try the next time you visit any hotel around the Kingdom to ask the reception (or the concierge, if there is one!!) to give you a map of the city you are visiting!! And try the same thing in Dubai for example!!

Satisfying the above two objectives is only the beginning of the journey and the first steps on the road … so what do you think the SCTA has accomplished in its 10 years life time?

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If Saudi Women Are Allowed to Drive

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For those not familiar with Saudi Arabia; It is unfortunate to say YES, Saudis are still debating the idea of allowing women to drive!

Anyway, this is not what this post is about, but I felt it was a mandatory introduction!

Now, let’s assume that the decision popped up and women are suddenly allowed to drive. From business and marketing points of view, what kind of change or new opportunities that could come up as a result of the new situation? Here are some points I thought of:

• Automobiles Selling Tactics: Car dealers should really change, or at least introduce new selling tactics and marketing campaigns targeting women. Many researchers have argued that the way men and women approach the final purchasing decision is remarkably different. For that, ways to target segments divided based on gender should be different as well. And believe it or not, such studies have already started to take place in Saudi Arabia once the driving debate started to heat up few years ago, at least this is what a marketing manager in one of a prominent Saudi car dealer told me.
• Car Accessories Shops: Women, at least of a younger age, will be definitely looking to have distinguished cars; exactly like their counterparts males. So I won’t be surprised to see car accessories shops opening whole sections specifically for ladies. Or even better, complete new accessories shops for ladies only, operated by ladies only!
• Pimp-her-Ride: This could be related to the pervious point, but with those who have some extra cash to spoil themselves, and their cars!!
• Segregated Car Service: Whether we are talking mechanic shops, car cleaning, oil change, etc, There is a huge opportunity to create women-only shops. If someone would argue here that allowing women to drive will ease the segregation between men and women we are currently seeing in the society, I would respond by saying yes but still. At least at the beginning, such women-only shops could flourish because it would give women a sense of freedom freedom they are enjoying in their closed communities. You know, taking off their Abbayas and enjoying chit-chat with friends in a closed area while their car is serviced. That will definitely be much better than waiting in line in most-of-the-time dirty oil change shops! So it could turn out to be a good idea after all! Even further, the existence of such shops could be a factor of helping some conservative families to make the decision of allowing their wives and daughters to drive. They will be dealing with women most of the time, right!

It does not matter how strange, funny, or shocking, these ideas might sound to some of you, because such a decision will definitely takes its toll on the society. New challenges, new obstacles, and new opportunities usually come out as results of change. Taking all that and blend it with the Saudi market status and the Saudi consumer behavior, I am sure interesting outcomes will be generated.

what do you think?

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The CrackBerry Curse – By Omar A. Bamahdi

Today I am bringing you a guest post from my friend Omar Bamahdi in which he will be talking to us about the Blackberry … or what he likes to call, the Crackberry!! Mr. Omar, to say the least, is a multitalented gentleman. He does not have a blog yet; but let’s hope he will start one soon. Along with opening a blog wish, I really hope he will go back and finish his PhD degree that he was about to finish few years ago … I told you he is multitalented!

As we are continuing to monitor the power game between RIM (the blackberry manufacturer) and the Saudi CITC in regulating the service; the consumer behavior toward these addictive devices should not be out of the picture. After reading this post, many questions descended to my mind and they might interest you as well. Are these devices really taking us out of the reality and throwing us in the virtual world? Should we be concerned about that? Who should take an action against the addictive nature of such devices? Is it part of the companies’ social responsibility to educate its users about the potential addictive nature of such devices? And … what is the reason that makes a 7 years old kid asks for a blackberry? … Read Omar post …

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[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=Blackberry+phone&iid=3469769″ src=”6/3/3/b/12.jpg?adImageId=12728431&imageId=3469769″ width=”234″ height=”355″ /]Ever had your head in a sack for the past few years, then all the sudden you realize how the next generations are abusing or misusing, literally speaking, almost any new technology!  As stunning as it may sound, Saudi youngsters are getting exposed to many technologies supposedly without any parental or whatsoever kind of supervision.

Forget about old days fooling around with Bluetooth technology, exchanging photos, broadcasting phone numbers, etc…  Two weeks ago, I had to visit the clinic with my family, and once I entered the waiting room, almost five youngsters were posing in concentration with their head glued into the screen and fingers searching for the little buttons of their CrackBerry.  It is true without exaggeration; for God’s sake they were on crack with a lil berry on their palm!  They didn’t even notice that someone has entered the waiting room.

Nowadays, this mobile device, so-called BlackBerry, is a must-buy tool that all youngsters MUST have!  I can see them almost everywhere in the malls, cars, coffee shops, hospitals, grocery stores; not to mention my sister’s house keeper had one, too! Moreover and like is it not enough to pay 1200 SAR for this device, devices with VIP BB numbers are sold for 2000 SAR plus its original prices.  I am sadden with a pity toward our society for having such ridiculous mentality.

It is a triggering phenomenon, believe it or not even my seven years old daughter asked me once … to buy her a blackberry when she pass second grade!  Such hype must be discussed in our schools to enlighten the youngsters, specially, children about the necessity of this device and its original use for business needs rather than a toy for joy.

What do you think? Take a second to express your point of view and how should we educate our children on dealing with new technologies productively!

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