Business and Money Tips

Everyone says the best leadership is leadership by example. So I see some bosses go all the way down to the ground, and many even below the ground.  They work, suffer and toil as hard as the workers.  Some think that leadership by example means the boss accepts the same pay as the staff.  Others say that the leader has to arrive at the office earlier than everyone and leaves later than everyone. There are some who assert that a leader is leading by example when he is there to solve all the team's problems and assumes all blames. If the above principles of leadership by example is true, who wants to be a leader?  The leader is the worst of all, he suffers the most and enjoys the least.  No wonder many people in Singapore are afraid of stepping up as they fear leadership by example.  Truth be told, leadership by example is none of the above.  If you follow great leaders like Genghis Khan, Steve Job and Sun Tzu, you'll realize that leadership by example is about one and only

From Sun Tzu's "Art of War" book: 1.  Seek Victory From the Situation A skilled commander seeks victory from the situation.  He knows when the situation is favourable to him and avoids war when it is dangerous to him.  2.  Deceive Your Enemy All warfare is based on deception.  Even though you're competent, you have to appear as incompetent.  When able to attack, we must seem unable, when using our forces, we must seem inactive.  When we are near, we must make the enemy believe that we are far; when far away, we must appear near.  In short, appear weak when strong, and appear strong when weak.   Hence those skilled in war will bring the enemy to the battlefield and not be brought there by the enemy.   Supreme excellence lies in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting .  Hence the ultimate winner is one that wins without fighting .  Or put in another way, the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. 3. Be Invisible and Soundless I

In his military classic "Art of War" written 2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu taught us that to defeat the competition and achieve your goals, you must have foreknowledge.  Foreknowledge is not about the following: Prediction based on the past Unsubstantiated Hearsay Analogy with past events Derived from calculations Foreknowledge is about 4 things: Detailed research and analysis from people who know the competition situation in details Knowledge of the personality and behaviour profile of people Psychology of things, why people do things in certain way Knowledge about the environment, including business climate Foreknowledge does not stop at knowing your competitors.   The most important knowledge is to know yourself.  You must know where you are strong and where you are weak so that your weakness will not be exposed and instead positioned as strengths.   Having foreknowledge will also help us to exercise Deception, which is simply not letting the enemy kn

Sun Tzu said in the Art of War that it is not enough to "Know Yourself, Know Your Enemy", we also must ensure that our opponent does not know the real us.  This is what he meant by 'Deception' - "When strong, appear weak, when weak, appear strong".  The famous Sun Tzu quote: "All war is based on deception" does not mean Sun Tzu teach us to deceive people and be dis-honest.  At the beginning Sun Tzu said "Moral" is of utmost importance, thus we know that Sun Tzu is not a book for cheats. To Get People Not to Know You could mean the following 5 Things: Be Humble , for humility gives you flexibility if things go wrong Under Promise , so that you could Over Deliver easily.  If you over-promise, you would stand a high chance of under-delivering Be Confident , especially when things are uncertain.  For that confidence gives people confidence in you, and that will translate into support, which in turn will make you stronger Leave Questi

Sun Tzu Art of War uses tactics to achieve maximum results with minimum resources.  One of the most used stratagem is "Kill with a Borrowed Knife" or 借刀杀人。Unknown to many people and unreported by the media, our Finance Minister Mr Tharman used this tactic in pushing the PIC (Productivity and Innovation Credit). You see, Mr Tharman had a tall and challenging task.  How can Singapore 250,000 companies, of which over 95% are small and medium enterprises, reduce the reliance on cheap foreign labour and use higher skilled local staff and automation to increase productivity?  So he came up with the PIC scheme in 2010. In 2012, Mr Tharman enhanced this scheme and increased the cash subsidy from 30% to 60%, payable quarterly instead of yearly.  But he has another problem: how can this scheme be pushed out quickly to the most number of SMEs without the government hiring a big public relations team?  The answer lies in making use of vendors. You see, vendors doing training , I

We all met such a person before: one who never fails to catch up the latest fad in management and sales and knows more than trainers.  But when you ask him which knowledge he has applied in his daily work, he will remark, "Not yet". We call such a person an Intelligent Fool.  Many a times such a person will go to great lengths to prove that he is right and you are wrong.  He is highly intelligent as a book smart. On the other hand, there is the Practical Wizard : one who is very down to earth and applies knowledge on a daily basis.   It's obvious who gains the most: the Practical Wizard will gain the most while the Intelligent Fool is still occupied with proving that he is right!  There are 5 Ways to apply knowledge into work: Apply Immediately .  Strike while the iron is hot and apply the concepts immediately. In all our training we create a '30-Day Action Plan' where we give out prizes to those that complete the best Action Plan.  Teach others .  When

In just one short year since joining Yahoo in July 2012, Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, has turned around a failing company into one of the re-born stars in the internet. Today, Yahoo regains the number one position as the most visited website property in USA, overtaking giant Google. It’s mobile products are considered cool once again and its quarterly revenues and profits are increasing.   Unknown to many, what Marissa Mayer used the tactic of “ Loot a House on Fire ” 打铁乘热, tactic number 5 of The 36 Stratagems . She fixed the weak Yahoo’s culture, hired a bunch of highly motivated and talented product people, and went on a buying spree, acquring 21 mobile start-us in 12 months. The biggest purchase was Tumblr US$1.1 billion. What's next? Blackberry? What'sapp? Dropbox?   In fact, Sun Tzu Art of War or 孙子兵法 uses many tactics of deception. Such tactics, however, must be in line with overall Tao or 道 of the company’s mission: to be a strong Product

As we know, management is an art and not a science, and the best managers do not manage at all, for they make people better than themselves .   I follow the 8-Path Wisdom in Management as follows, using how to ensure people hit their targets as a case study:  Right Understanding Do we have the right understanding on the reasons for people not hitting their targets?  Is it due to lack of skills, motivation or attitude? Right Intent Is hitting targets our intention?  Or making people perform at the highest level possible our intent? Right Action What is the Right Action to Take if Lack of Skills is the reason for people not performing at the right level?  Let's say it is weekly training, plus monthly new challenges.  Right Effort What is the most positive action, every day, in both ourselves and our team?  How can we engage our people so that their  efforts becomes more effective? Right Speech How do we