Redenomination or decimalization?

I listened with rapt attention to the new financial policy been proposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. I was impressed that someone is proactive enough to want to experiment with such a concept as cutting down the number of Zeros on the Naira by two. In contrast to the Zimbabwean record of having the highest currency denomination in the world, the redenomination policy of the CBN is expected to strengthen the Nigerian Naira.

It is a wonderful idea to have the 20Naira note as highest currency but I just wonder how we would pay for goods and services that run into millions of naira. How much would we be permit as the highest amount to possess or carry about as ordinary citizens? How much bags of “GMGs” will an average politician be allowed to have in his trunk? Agreed that the currency will be stronger but do we have workable policies in place to migrate us into a cashless economy? Are the banks ready to make the necessary investment to support such infrastructure that is able to support the opportunities that is been thrown on their laps? If recapitalization has caused so much money to be in the coffers of our banks, how much more will this new policy create a challenge for the surge in growth we foresee?

It is not enough to plan economic growth and cause excitement to keen watchers and believers alike, it is also more important to work with other segment of the economy to strategically position them for the challenge ahead. As a lay man, I do know that the energy sector is a core sector that needs proactive fixing. Until things are put right in this important sector, financial policies may be frustrated. The banking sector is not enough to drive the economy. Electricity and other infrastructure that aid local production need to be improved upon and made to function effectively. A situation which still makes Nigeria an import dependent economy will only lead us back to where we want to run away from. We do have the raw materials and personnel to satisfy local production but the cost of running a cottage industry is so high that most people have abandoned such ventures all together. I still believe that if Nigeria is able to improve on the power situation and have constant energy supply, more than 75% of the problem will be addressed. Attitudes of people and the fight against corruption added to the course will lead Nigeria to the promise land earlier than postulated.

Despite the skepticisms of the past about the workability of the Nigeria state and the state of insecurity in the Niger Delta, a clear roadmap, sincere and concerted efforts are essential ingredients that will prove that Nigeria can solve its own problem. I do not doubt the input of international donor agencies in the development or otherwise of the Nigeria economy, but I am sure that Nigeria can also rise and grow its own policies in line with realistic and positive projections. With good intentions, governments in the past have bought already made quick fix solutions instead of observing local trends and prioritizing specific areas of growth. While those packaged solutions might have worked in some sectors, it is also obvious that a number of them have generated a lot of wastes and their residue of debt will be paid by generations yet unborn. I think it is time to act and the time is now. Redenomination or decimalization, at least someone is thinking of economic growth and he deserves to be supported. Prof. Soludo, its your game, you can be sure your fans are hailing!

How do you define success?

"Success has many family members" is a common saying in my place. Success has also been erroneously known to be synonymous to the acquisition of material wealth and such ephemerals that gladdens the heart of a fool.

In my view, a truly successful person is one who has been a blessing to his society. A patriot who is exemplary and has used his influence to build leaders and many more like him is an example. He may however not be wealthy in materials. Martyrs like Mother Theresa who modeled the life of Jesus, freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela and civil right activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are classically come to mind. Great men like Richard Branson, Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates are few examples of men who use their wealth to affect their communities positively are indeed successful.

Despite the fortunes made from their businesses, they still found delight in contributing to the course of the society. HIV/AIDS is a world pandemic; yet, the Gates family is staking a great part of their fortunes to combat the menace of the disease.

I have seen people who have great material wealth, but greed blinds them from enjoying it and helping others through their actions. They rather derive pleasure in seeing their fellow men languish in poverty. I consider these people poorer than those they oppress. The inability to make the best use of the opportunities created by their material wealth for the benefit of others is a classification of poverty. Poverty is not the absence of riches and wealth; it is the inability to create them, even in the presence of abundant resources.

Biggest manufacturers don’t usually have all the raw materials in their immediate environment, global companies do not pride in material assets, rather, in the intellectual asset that provide best quality. The same way, fashion giants and other franchising organizations mentor and help people achieve empowerment and make money. This is my definition of success.

Success and its definition portray a win-win strategy and one positively influences the other. Similar to a pyramid strategy as used by network marketers, success is all encompassing. It supports growth, development and such other terms that show the undesirability of waste. A system that permits waste is not successful.

My prefered training style

Amongst the numerous things I love, training is an activity that allows me to learn from others, check my knowledge and also share what I know. A sure sign that learning is taking place is when I observe facial expressions that show affirmation or reservation.

Training professionals about how to perform their tasks better is a humbling duty. Though I often draw from personal experiences, I have realized that they are best sought from the audience. Once examples that best describe the topic been explained are given, shared or elaborated upon by attendees, I am assured that learning is taking place or has already occurred.

I have studied various learning type, but for short-term refresher courses, my observation is thus: cognitive learning style helps to explain a lot of things. Time is saved explaining long concepts because participants can relate to the context and use their real-life experiences to boost understanding.

In a typical Project Management class comprising of professionals from all fields, my best facilitation style is that which breaks down the text and allows for dissection using various experiences shared by the entire class. Time and scope are always of essence, but an understanding of how best to help professionals grasp concepts has greatly helped me to minimize waste. I agree that if given the opportunity, people would talk endlessly and I have learnt to encourage this to take place out of class. This way, knowledge sharing continues and relationships are fostered and further strengthened. In most instances, these mark the beginning of community of practice.

Project Management Knowledge

Project management is an art people have engaged in from time immemorial. One wonders how the building of the Pyramids of Egypt and other world wonders were project managed.

Our abilities to deliver quality on time and within allocated resources are put to test in our daily tasks. Paraphrasing Project Management Institute's definition, Project Management is the use of knowledge, skills, techniques and resources within an agreed scope and time to meet an agreed quality.

Any venture that is time bound, has a budget (allocated resources) and has a defined scope is a typical example of a project. Consider a simple task of cake baking, wedding ceremony, home makeover, complex tasks such service rollout, system migration, building construction, and so on as examples of projects. Time, resources (budget) and scope are usually referred to as “triple constraints”. An attempt to reduce any of the three items most often has an effect on the quality level to be delivered.

To deliver to an agreed quality means that specific details need to be thoroughly thought out and carefully planned. The ability to successfully deliver a project on time, within budget and to specification depends on one’s level of planning for the different phases and aspects of the project. Typically, a project has five phase and they are
1. Initiation
2. Planning
3. Implement/Executing
4. Monitoring
5. Closing
These phases have different activities embedded at every level. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. Every phase needs to be carefully planned for overall success.

Different schools of thoughts have their unique methodologies for project management. Whatever designation is assigned to the methodology used, it is all a matter of nomenclature as they all go through the five stages. They all aim at delivering on time, to agreed quality and within budget.

Project management knowledge is not only essential to understanding the triple constraints and their effects on projects and quality levels, it empowers one to be able to effectively deliver projects successfully, gain in-dept knowledge of analysis, how to select and motivate a team, improves ones communication and so on.

The Project Management Institute’s methodology divides project management into nine Knowledge Areas (KA). This means that as a project manager, one is expected to possess good understanding and gain competence of those knowledge areas. Be not afraid, the Knowledge Areas are all a breakdown of the five phases.

In perspective, the knowledge of project management now helps me to take the history as an important element of project. By history, I mean what happened in the past to other or similar projects? Did they succeed, did they fail, how and why did these happen? These are all comments and observations that are recorded as “lessons learned” under the closing phase of every project. Experience has taught me that they play an important factor in the success of a new project in the performing organization as they help me to learn and understand the organization’s culture and what I may need to watch out for or do to successfully deliver my project. Project management skills make one to see life itself in a new light to be lived to quality and most especially within budget. The meaning of risk and the need to plan for and against it is also made clear. To continue to count will be to write an epistle.

Aside from being a certified project manager, PM knowledge is unending as one learns more by the execution of projects. They may differ in scope, expected quality, time frame or budget, one fact I have come to live with is this: I may have the best of sponsors and champions who ensure that resources are released on time, but my team members are my greatest asset and are to be motivated from the charter to the closing of any project. Waste is eliminated because of the understanding that occurs as a result of open communication with the team, hence we often work with sigleness of purpose.

Illiteracy

This is an article I wrote in 2003 and would like to share it.

Been aware and conscious of ones surroundings is an attribute that adds luster to life and existence as a whole. Steps and actions are taken in accordance to ones level of knowledge. This prompts a reasoning of what should be. Hence, the word “literacy” would mean something like "knowledge of what is and what should be” Is this simple enough?

One in tune with idea, knowledge or appropriate information can only carry out actions, deeds or thoughts predicated on the ideals of modern reasoning. Literacy may not necessarily mean “a state of acquired papers” to show or serve as a testimonial of the number of years spent in acquiring such skills. At best, it would mean the exhibition of the character befitting of one with such a skills and its proficient usage for the positive development of the society. Having been found worthy in both character and learning, an individual may be certified literate, the number of years spent to or acquire the skills or learn to conform in character not withstanding.

Traditions and self-fashioned culture of “it does not matter” or “I don’t care” are little foxes that could spoil the yard of literacy if permitted to play around the fences of our mind. Doing it our own ways a’ times leave us inconsiderate of other people’s rights. Truth is, most of the time, we prefer things done our ways, why then is it difficult to sacrifice, doing for others what we would like them do unto us?

The difference between literacy and illiteracy is only a thin line, just a slight tilt and you are out of line, watch out!

Leadership

Business models have greatly improved to adapt other societal elements like leadership. The essence of leadership cannot be undermined by any society or organization. No matter how small, a group of people look-up to some persons or the other to show the way forward. In a home, the wife looks to he husband and children look to their parents. In the larger societies, government and other opinion leaders enjoy this responsibility.

It is common to associate business with management. Managers do not only manage scarce resources, they are also saddled with the responsibility of showing a direction, focus, coaching and mentoring. These are shared attributes that both leaders and managers share. A business venture is usually profit driven and business owners must learn and use various strategies to achieve this major objective. To show direction and get people to support a process, people have to be involved. A manager without soft skills will end-up doing the whole work, use force to get things done, waste more time and other scarce resources or achieve poor results. Leadership is that unseen arm of the manager that supports internal processes by motivating those who drive the process.

A good leader breeds others, the same for a good manager. He uses skills, methodologies and proactively designed strategies to motivate people to move in agreement with a common vision. He helps those with alternative views shape and fine-tunes them to work in consonance with the common goal. These help him to get more done in less time, saving resources. In his days at General Electric, Jack Welch adopted a leadership approach to management and this was made evident in GE’s fortunes, achievements and many praises. Organizations that use this model have since given-up thinking along the lines of “I am the boss”. While I do not support delegation without feedback, it is my opinion that people be assigned responsibilities and be mentored to succeed. Many thanks to thinkers whose managerial styles are changing the landscape of organizational cultures, their achievements are been built on by those they painstakingly mentored and coached through the processes. Through Knowledge Management, organizations now understand that employees are not just a necessary “must haves”, but also a great contribution to an organization’s knowledge capital asset.

Leaders identify and build on people’s potential realizing that they do not have eternity to spend in a workplace. Smart leaders reproduce themselves in others. While good managers may not make good leaders, good leaders are sure to make excellent managers because the ability to see beyond business resources and profit. In a bid to show leadership at business levels, employees are offered the opportunity to partner, lead project teams, make contributions at senior management levels, seat in and observe meeting proceedings, mentored and coached, or even head new business units. Leadership as an art can be learned and put into daily activities.

It is usually refreshing for a father to watch his son grow and become a man. That is the feeling of a leader. Even in the midst of “destructive innovation”, a leader still tolerates a level of excess. Senior management at Motorola could not have exhibited leadership better by allowing a team of young innovative business oriented engineers and developers to research, design and launch the RAZR phones. The story of breakthrough innovation is not complete without a leadership success story.

Today, I advocate that leadership be taught at every level of our lives. This does not only help us to be better managers at business levels, it also help us to motivate people to work at their best potential levels so that undesired waste can be minimized. A system that is not performing at a maximal level only generates waste.

Love and Marketing

A relationship normally starts with a word, like hello! It steps up to conversations, phone calls, emails, lunches, dinners and so on. For the brave hearted, it may end up in marriage. For some others, it may not be such a happy ending. Talking, following-up, Q&A sessions and other activities that create bonds characterize the period of getting to know each other. All these are aimed confidence building for both parties. The concept of marketing cannot be ruled out at this stage. Ironically, continuous marketing and patronage is an essential part of the dynamics of any relationship, whether business or emotional.

What is marketing? The second definition of marketing as “The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer” by Free Online Business Dictionary[1] articulates my point better. From the definition above, I would like to pay particular attention to three different items mentioned. Those items are commercial functions, transferring of goods, and producer to consumer. The idea expressed by “commercial function” is that it is a function performed with a “result of gratification, gain or profit” in mind. “Transferring of goods” means that that there is an exchange and of course, the exchange occurs between a set of people as exemplified in the producer to consumer aspect. The analysis of this relationship from the “marketing” point of view clearly shows that a party or both parties stand to benefit from this mutual relationship.

Couples fall and stay in love as a result of continuous marketing (though the consumer/producer roles interchange from time to time). The same way products or service consumers and service providers’ roles interchange from time to time. A service provider makes services available and cash is exchanged. In the same manner, cash is made available and service is requested in exchange.

It is true that during the marketing phase, emotions are higher and the urge to relate is usually intense. Once a typical business marketer seals a deal, from my observation, servicing the relationship is taking for granted. Look at it, how often does one spend long hours queuing at a typical Nigerian bank, Airline ticket sales outlet, customer service or support center, and other service delivery outlets? This starts immediately a client is won over. Signs of failure to deliver on promises, neglect, unavailable support, irregular follow-up services and other signs that show system inefficiencies and defective services are the usual appreciation meted to those that have fallen prey of the marketing gimmicks. How does a relationship blossom under these wasteful conditions that throws patrons into a state of loss? How long will it take providers to realize that consumers daily feel that they have and are been taken advantage of? I am positive that with commitment from especially the power players, this love can last forever.

[1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Marketing

People Support what they help create

Community of Practice (CoP) by their informal nature, members are usually a group of workers who have a common issue and regularly meet to discuss issues, solutions, technological challenges or advances and such things related to their common interests.

Workers are a source of innovation as they form the knowledge capital of an organization. Through a CoP, workers have a common form of identity to discuss issues emanating from any organizational effort. A process improvement activity has it own challenges and if care is not taken, the whole effort will crash like a pack of cards if not supported. A process that is created, driven and supported by the workforce will not be allowed to fail. It is not enough to train employees after the purchase of a package if they are not included in the improvement effort or introduced to the advantage of the new system or process. For effective performance, employees should be allowed to work in groups and freely associate. One greater advantage of the inclusion and participation of workers in change management, process development or any project that affects the positive development of the organization is that suspicion between management and employees are reduced. This breeds workplace harmony, employee loyalty and innovation. On several occasions and in many instances, employees as a group have come up with innovative ideas that have changed for the better the fortunes of their workplaces. New product development, time and material saving strategies and such other ideas are been championed daily by employees.

The insistence on compliance of policies that are alien to staff could lead to workplace tyranny. Staff may not only revolt, but it may also cause a great disaffection between senior management and lover level employees. Even if such projects or policies are aimed at improving the lot of the end-users, their non-inclusion at the right stages may lead to the creation of a defective process. The history of law itself reveals that the law is an extract of the people’s culture and unwritten acceptable level of behavior. Organizations review their workplace manuals from inputs from their employees, make members a part of various workplace committees in order to secure this similar commitment of supporting and strengthening.

Global organizations have networks for people who work in the same unit, perform similar tasks or share common interests. Strategically managed, these knowledge networks, social groups or CoPs are essential in the smooth running of their various organizations. Some CoPs have regular tele/video conferences to address workplace challenges, discuss common interests or just share ideas. Groups of professionals through their networks work for the advancement of their profession. In so doing, they document and share best practice and even form a standard enforcing body. The International Institute of Business Analysts, Project Management Institute, other certification bodies and organizations were at one stage or the other a network of professionals.

To promote support, efficiency, waste reduction and desired improved process, it is expedient that people (staff, employees or even clients) who are going to use the process or system or those that will directly benefit from the implementation be involved in the development of such process, program or system at all levels of the implementation