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| Sunday, 27 March 2005 |
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Business |
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News Business Features
Editorial
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Formulating strategies to overcome obstacles by Lloyd F Yapa The great Sri Lankan scientist/engineer, A. N. S. Kulasinghe interviewed over television was asked what the secret behind his groundbreaking innovations was. His reply - a desire to do everything better! The process He did not elaborate on this, but having listened to the entire interview, the inference is that the statement incorporates several other elements such as a) confidence and boldness, that anything and everything can indeed be done better, b) the accomplishment of such tasks need commitment (perhaps led by a desire to serve the country), that is not easily discouraged by failure, c) the need for certain skills including that of planning to identify desired objectives, formulate strategies to overcome obstacles, the ability to communicate one's vision, reaching consensus with stakeholders, checking on technical and economic feasibility of activities, the ability to motivate co-workers and ultimately to deliver results. This systematic and sequential process of performing tasks better seems to be just what was ordered for today's ills. If it is practised by everybody from students, the man in the street and most certainly by those who call themselves the leaders of this country, not only will tasks be done better or more efficiently, but the country's economy will also register faster growth. Main problem Take for instance the element of self-confidence to move forward, come what may. The writer has asked many persons, what in his/her opinion was the reason for the apparent lack of socio-economic progress on the part of our country, when compared with some of the high performing economies of Asia. The emotional reply invariably was that certain forces have been successfully conspiring to prevent the country from succeeding, despite the fact that the people are so clever and it is endowed with all the resources. Remedy Those who listened to Kulasinghe, would have realised, that the remedy is to resort to the above approach with confidence and conviction, that positive results could most certainly be gained. On closer examination, it is none other than the process known as Strategic Management, that all enterprising entrepreneurs adopt to achieve business success. It is the same recipe for success harped on by management gurus such as Tom Peters, Stephen Covey, Omar Khan et al. It is the same approach, that Asian leaders such as Lee Kuan Yew and Deng Tsiao Ping had adopted (with changes to suit their local conditions) to liberate millions of their people out of poverty. In fact the last named, when confronted with the 'dangers' of his decision to open the hitherto closed Chinese economy, is supposed to have retorted, "when the windows are opened, a few flies may come in; we know how to deal with them" The Head of State of this country also seems to have been saying something to the same effect, during the last few months - that there is widespread consensus to move forward and problems should be solved as they present themselves. To translate, what these professionals and leaders may be saying, to business management language or to the Kulasinghe credo - once the aspirations of the people (needs of the market) are made known and the required outcomes are identified, not only look outwards for threats, (as well as opportunities like the enormous wave of international sympathy in the aftermath of the tsunami), but also reflect inwards into our inner selves. We may discover, the absence of substantial progress may be due to our own weaknesses like our lack of self confidence to move ahead, reluctance to work hard to get what we want or our inability to understand, that certain ground realities cannot be reversed. We may also find inner strengths within us, which we have not tapped so far to the fullest like the innate intelligence of our people and the bounteousness of our land. Then evolve high impact strategies by finding means to overcome the problems (without being overawed by them),building on the favourable factors and exploiting opportunities. Go on to build consensus on these, so that implementation is made easy and smooth. This procedure of carrying out tasks better is bound to yield results as
demonstrated by Kulasinghe and others. |
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