Some Outrageous Claims Made in History

Konosuke Matsushita : "No problem with labor," workers and talent. He's sure his company, now known as Panasonic will get as many workers and managers as they need.

Thomas Watson Sr 1914 : International Business Machines at a time when the company was doing only cash registers, meat slicers, coffee grinders, butcher scales etc.

Thomas Watson Jr : superiority in performance over the company's competitors, implying their company IBM will outdo others at all times. A bit presumptuous, unless and until you read the fine print and his real meaning.

Floyd Mayweather, a running boxer is a winning boxer

Whatever you think of Floyd Mayweather, a running boxer is a winning boxer.

A running army is a winning army. Mao's army. Genghis's army.

And the first rule of professional Ninjas, run away, run out of danger.

Earth Tunnelling, Air Tunnelling

Earth tunnelling makes me hot and bothered. But, boy, do I enjoy air tunnelling!

In a foreword to a book on the Yum Kippur war, an Israeli general remarked that future battle grounds are getting more and more "congested."

That kind of situation does call for air tunnelling. Tunnelling where there is noting to tunnel, nothing to dig, noting to shovel ... cool ...

Cheer up. You are either talented or inventive!

We all should cheer up because we are either talented or inventive.

If talented, then you can copy and clone the past and present successes and prosper.

If you lack that talent, then whatever you make will be a bit different, a bit unique. In other words, you are original and inventive!

You can be both, but you cannot be neither. Isn't it a bit cheerful thought?

My Parting Gift to the English Department

(1) When Chomsky and Halliday show up, ask them to build a working model or a prototype. If they refuse or if they can't, laugh in their faces or roll your eyes.

(2) When Sylvia Plath and co show up, ask them to write without a formula, If they refuse or if they can't, laugh in their faces.

(3) When fake ESP(English for specific purposes), EAP(English for academic purposes), EPP(English for professional purposes) experts show up, ask them how many hotel staffs, business people, geologists, chemical engineers, doctors, nurses, sailors, insurance people, software engineers have found their stuffs useful. If they don't have a specific number/figure, laugh in their faces.

As this lovely book illustrates, keep this in mind: Sophisticated elaborate ruses can be easily countered with very simple moves. Be simple, be even stupid.

Simplicity : Be Stupid --- 3

Even the book title is arresting: "Piercing the Fog of War: Recognizing Change on the Battlefield: Lessons from Military History, 216 BC Through Today."

Full of case studies. Comprehensive analyses.

As usual, I retain only the key points truly relevant for me.

The book says, the battle field is full of black swans, surprises, what he calls "extraordinary," "aberrations," the unknown-unknowns, etc.

I am nervous about even the known-unknowns. I am so more worried about the unknown-unknowns. What to do amidst these abnormal, totally unexpected aberrations?

The answer echoes my last two posts: Be simple, be stupid.

Aberrational actions do not necessarily aberrational re-actions. We can simply answer them with responses from our personal repertoire, personal experience.

Isn't that delightful?

True Peace in the World for Small Business Owners - Part 1

Suppose Qin Shi Huang, the first Chinese Emperor who built the Great Wall, and Hitler were alive and running fast food restaurant chains and were after your small fast food joint, I'd still ask you to relax.

True they had far better eyes and ears and spies.

True they had far better brains and advisers.

That's exactly there where the fun begins for you and me.

Qin Shi Huang knew every road and driver in his land, he knew very boat and boatman in his empire. He knew all about medicines, diseases, weather, and seasons. Still he'd go to the South China Sea and died.

Mr Hitler knew even Tibet and Myanmar. So he definitely also knew about Russia, her weather, her roads, rail lines and Russian tank production figures. Still he'd go to Russia in winter and fell.

They could not trust their own eyes and ears and spies and their own brains and advisers.There, the fun began in history and the fun begins for you and me at any point in history. They even used their hands in very similar ways, funny!
 

Cheap Innovation, Open Innovation, Research by Proxy

Open Innovation is a famous book, deservedly so.

And here is the story of The Double Helix. It's about how a young American -- 23 I think -- and a fellow British researcher, decoded DNA ahead of their rivals.

The young American was James Watson and the Brit was the 35 years old Francis Crick.

They were barred from doing their own experiments somehow. Anyway, they were behind their rivals in terms of data.

But they had a lot of experience in interpreting other people's data.

For instance, someone did an experiment, got some results, and published or presented his/her findings. Crick and Watson understood, or could explain the results better than the researcher who really undertook the experiment.

When you're lazy or late, you can often rely on their modus operandi.

Patents, Competition, and Securing Your Intellectual Properties

I've been reading Guy Kawasaki's books recently, in particular, Enchantment, Reality Check and Rules for the Revolutionaries. He has only disdain for patents. He believes that entrepreneurs who rely their defence on patents alone are "clueless," and that patents are good only to impress one's parents.

Even before that, I've read that patents is a game only for big corps with deep pockets to fight their litigation wars.

I almost despaired whenever I read such stuffs because I had so many things to patent, to protect ;-)

On the other hand, if you choose to play in stealth mode, holding all your cards close to your chest, all the gurus say you will see a corpse in any mirror. That is, your business is not breathing at all.

In this dilemma, I was relieved to read an interview with the founder of NeuSoft of China.

He said that as soon as he put his software to the market, the rivals copy-catted it in no time.

Gradually, he wised up.

Now he no longer tries to protect a huge idea but produces a multitude of ideas both big and small.

Now he no longer worries about protection but concentrates on monetization of his ideas and faster execution of them.

Since China is one of the most competitive markets in the world, we all may be able to learn from their experience.

Helpfulness Advantage

Working hard is dumb. Working smart is a half-baked advice. We must work to our natural strengths, especially in this globalized, commoditized, very flat world. Michael Porter talks clusters. Seth Godin talks niches. Ries and Trout talks positioning.

How do you uncover your strengths that have paying customers?

I suggest helpfulness.

When I was young, I was very very dumb, short-sighted and narrow-focused. I charged everyone for my lessons, including my close friends, except my brothers and sisters.

However, even in those days, I helped free for short- term or one-off services. Any stranger could come into our Department and walk through my doors and  ask for my help. I had never turned them away.

When you can help someone for free:

1.  You prove to yourself that you are expert in this area.
2. You prove to the world that you can get customers for such services.
3. You increase your odds that you tie your wagon to young Carnegie, rising Sim Wong Hoo, or still poor Zuckerburg.

Choose:

1. Helping already rich people gets you good money. 
2. Helping soon-to-be rich people gets you great money.

Some programmers  may not have learned this lesson. Maybe they prefer working hard in poverty far too long.

Competitiveness | Jose Mourinho

The two teams involved were Barcelona and Inter Milan. But the coach of Inter Milan was so famous that he overshadowed all the players and even the teams themselves. Thus, many newspapers and online commentators described the match as "Jose Mourinho vs Barcelona."

It was a battle royale between a special manager and a special team and the special manager won out 3 to 1. My curiosity was piqued to see how an individual can have that much impact on so many players. This is my analysis of what exactly happened.

Mourinho understood football/soccer as a position-and-numbers game. Barcelona and other teams take it to be a possession game. Thus, they are playing different games in fact. Most other teams want to feel like over-capitalized startups: the more money, the better. The longer you keep the ball, the better. However, the truth is borrowing more than you need does never good, and similarly, just keeping the ball for the sake of keeping it does no good. Mourinho proudly said after the match: "We gave the ball away". His players let Barcelona keep the ball as much as they like.

Threats Neutralized

1. Barcelona is feared for its passing game
------ 1. Cut off their supply line to their front men.
------ 2. Stay in your positions. Let them play their passing game in harmless areas.
---------- Software designers/architects will be reminded by Barcelona of systems where objects call each other a lot but do noting else. e.g Ken Thomson in Coders at Work
---------- Business people will be reminded by Barcelona of paper-pushing company cultures.

2. Lionel Messi
------ 1. Just hold your ground. Avoid premature commitment and tackles. Let him make his moves first.
------ 2. Don't give him any chance for free kicks.

Your Own Attacks

1. Destroy their positions by pressing high. Win back the ball, the possession at the front with the intent to attack. Not merely for possession.
2. Exploit any positional mistakes.
------ 1. Barcelona's defensive weaknesses on the flanks.
------ 2. Direct balls over Barcelona's high defensive lines, to your own fast strikers.
3. Creating numerical supremacy during your own attacks.

I do recommend All The Way Jose for a nice read. You will be inspired to see how a mere translator for coaches transformed himself into an assistant coach and eventually into a world-famous manager of the world-famous football clubs.

on May 5, 2010