Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Microsoft veteran Julie Larson-Green is known for building successful teams — here’s how she does it

http://www.businessinsider.sg/how-microsoft-veteran-julie-larson-green-builds-successful-teams-2017-12/?r=US&IR=T
Julie BortBusiness Insider US
December 25, 2017

Julie Larson-Green
Julie Larson-Green 
Brad Barket/Getty Images for WIRED

  • Julie Larson-Green spent 25 years at Microsoft, rising to executive vice president and chief experience officer. She lead teams for products used by billions of people every day including Office, Windows, Internet Explorer, Xbox and Surface.
  • Although Microsoft has a reputation for a rough competitive culture, Larson-Green earned a manager who built collaborative and efficient teams.
  • She shares her tips for building great teams with Business Insider, such as how to help people focus on their strengths.

Julie Larson-Green had a storied 25-year career at Microsoft where she worked on everything from Windows to Microsoft Office to Surface devices.
She left Microsoft in November and landed at Qualtrics, the Provo-Utah based startup valued at $2 billion that offers survey software. She’s taking on the role of Chief Experience Officer there.
One of the things that drew Qualtrics CEO Ryan Smith to woo Larson-Green was her reputation for building great teams within Microsoft.
“If you talked to anyone who worked with her, and every single back channel I talked to, everyone told me about the culture she built on teams,” Smith told Business Insider.
So we asked Larson-Green to tell us some of her tricks for building and managing great teams. She gave us these four bits of advice.
1. Stay curious about what other people think. Instead of working toward “culture fit,” which can be a lead to hiring like-minded people, build teams to “bring together different viewpoints,” she said.
2. Help people focus on what they uniquely bring to table. Don’t spin your wheels looking for golden people that do everything well. Do look for people who excel in specific areas.
One may be an engineering genius but not a great designer. Another may be excellent at communications but not an engineering genius. Another may be a great designer but not a good communicator.
“Don’t try to make an apple into an orange or a pear. Do hire an apple, an orange, and a pear, and then the team as a unit operates at a much higher level together,” Larson-Green said.
3. Don’t force people to work too hard on their weaknesses. If you are going to jigsaw-puzzle a team together based on everyone’s strengths, that also means that you have to support your people using those strengths and not constantly telling them to improve their weaknesses.
Make sure your employees are giving their “exponential effort on the things they like to do,” she said. “If they are working super hard on the things they are not super good at, it takes a lot of more effort.”
4. Give everyone room to shine. The final piece is to build a collaborative environment. That not only involves having everyone “focus on their gift,” it also means “leaving people a path” on how to accomplish their tasks as a unit.
Managers, Larson-Green said, often “get focused on how to do something and not on the goal.”
But if you give your team a goal and leave it up to them how to get it done, each one can take ownership of the parts of the task they do well. Everyone’s contributions will be appreciated.
“This creates less competition on the team and a more collaborative style,” she said.

You are naturally biased to be negative. Here's how to change

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/07/you-are-naturally-biased-to-negative
James HewittHead of Science & Innovation, Hintsa Performance
A white lion named Brutus is seen at the Drakenstein Lion Park near Cape Town December 29, 2015. Brutus, who fathered three "miracle" cubs despite having had a vasectomy in his youth, is going back to the vet to have the operation a second time. Brutus and his partner Nala, who live at the Drakenstein Lion Park, stunned staff at the sanctuary when she gave birth to the cubs just before Christmas. REUTERS/Mark Wessels   TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY      - RTX20F58Our skew to the negative is an effective way to avoid predatorsImage: REUTERS/Mark Wessels

Imagine you are living thousands of years ago among our ancestors. Unlike many of your peers, you’re an outrageously optimistic prehistoric person, roaming the savannah feeling grateful to be alive.

One day, in the middle of a hunter-gatherer mission, you pause and take a moment to look around and scan the scene. Over to your left, lurking behind a bush, you see an animal. You’ve never seen this animal before. It’s a lion. “Wow, what a fascinating creature.” you think. “I’ll head over there and take a closer look”.

Perhaps the lion is friendly, in which case you may enjoy an interesting encounter. More likely, you’re mauled to death.

A negativity bias

For most of human history, cost-benefit decisions have favoured those with a pessimistic view. We may have missed out on some opportunities but in a threat-filled world, expecting the worst significantly increased the probability that our DNA would remain in the gene pool. A negativity bias in our thinking was adaptive.

Fast forward a few millennia and our bodies and brains continue to be built according to much the same genetic load that influenced our ancestor’s predispositions.

Our brains continue to operate in accordance with this negativity bias. Many forms of evidence suggest that ‘bad’ is stronger than ‘good’ as a general principle, across a wide range of psychological phenomena.

Does the threat of illness motivate us to change behaviour?

Unfortunately, while an effective way to avoid predators, our innate skew toward the negative does not seem to be very effective at motivating us to make good decisions in the modern world. We’re much less likely to be eaten by a predator, but chronic diseases, associated with poor lifestyle decisions, are an increasingly aggressive global killer.

If you were diagnosed with a serious health condition such as heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease or diabetes, you might imagine that this would be sufficient motivation to change your behaviour. In 2012, researchers posed this question based on longitudinal data from 17,276 individuals. The primary focus was to investigate how patients behaved, before and after a serious diagnosis.
After analysing the 12 years of data covered by the study, the researchers concluded that people rarely made positive changes in lifestyle behaviours, even after they had been diagnosed with a chronic condition.

This is despite strong evidence to suggest that adopting a healthier lifestyle can extend longevity, reduce the likelihood of the condition recurring and enhance quality of life. Bad news does not appear to be an effective motivator for change, but still we persist in using a negativity bias to try to influence behaviour. Are there any other options?

A solution to negativity bias?

Dr Richard Boyatzis is an expert in the field of emotional intelligence and behaviour change. In 2013, Boyatzis and his fellow researcher, Dr Anthony Jack, collaborated on a study to assess contrasting coaching and mentoring approaches.

The researchers divided a cohort of volunteers into two groups. Each volunteer was interviewed for 30 minutes on themes relating to ‘life coaching’ and performance, but the coaches who conducted the interviews used two contrasting techniques.

Group one:

Coaches asked questions that focussed on the problems and challenges the volunteers were facing. The coaches emphasised problem-solving techniques to try to identify solutions. This approach tended to bring up issues associated with other people’s expectations, weaknesses, obligations, and fears.

Group two:

Coaches asked questions designed to encourage the volunteers to imagine a positive future, such as how they would like their lives to look in 10 years’ time. The questions drew out the volunteer’s vision in more detail.

Dr Boyatzis describes the coaching approach in group two, which emphasised vision, hopes and dreams, as “coaching and mentoring to the Positive Emotional Attractor (PEA).” This contrasts with coaching in group one where the approach is characterised as coaching to the “Negative Emotional Attractor (NEA).”After a period of five to seven days, both groups of volunteers were asked to return and answer a series of follow-up questions by the same coach, using the same approach as in the first interview.

During this second round of questioning, the students' brains were scanned using fMRI, a brain imaging technique which detects changes associated with blood flow, to measure brain activity. The results demonstrated that the two contrasting interview approaches activated different and distinct regions in the brain.

The Negative Emotional Attractor approach, which emphasised the problems over the vision, activated the sympathetic ‘fight or flight’ nervous system and regions of the brain associated with blaming ourselves and experiencing negative moods. When we experience NEA, our sympathetic nervous system becomes more dominant. Physiologically, heart rate and blood pressure increase, but we are also more likely to make decisions based on fast, instinctive, but sometimes faulty, shortcuts in our thinking. We are more likely to be fixed, rather than flexible.

A plausible mechanism for PEA

The difference in brain blood flow between the two conditions points to an underlying mechanism that may help to describe why the Positive Emotional Attractor approach is more effective. In the study, it appeared that coaching and mentoring to the PEA resulted in activation of regions in the brain associated with developing a plan or vision for the future.

When we focus our attention on positive themes, reward circuits and areas of our brain associated with experiencing positive moods activate. In addition, our parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system becomes more dominant.
When we reduce our perception of threat, our mind may consider that it’s safe to take more time over decisions and think more deeply. We become more cognitively flexible, able to simulate multiple future possibilities and consider new ideas, as well as taking into account how other people think and feel.

These patterns of activity are vital for motivation, sustaining positive feelings and keeping going when we experience challenges – characteristics that are crucial if we are trying to change our behaviour and work towards a goal.

A positive focus to thrive


Psychologist and journalist Dan Goleman quotes Dr Boyatzis as saying: “You need the negative focus to survive, but a positive one to thrive.”


Coaching and mentoring that encourages us to imagine a positive vision of the future, focussing our attention on possibilities and dreams has been shown to enhance behavioural change and increase the likelihood that we will achieve what we are hoping for.

That’s not to say that we should ignore problems entirely. Rather, consider the starting point when you next begin to think about a new challenge or opportunity. Will you begin by listing the problems and threats, or take a step back, make a conscious challenge to your negativity bias and make your starting point a vision for a more positive future, characterised by growth, learning, development and possibility. Evidence suggests this may be the most effective approach; unless, of course, you are staring down a lion.

Here's why your attitude is more important than your intelligence

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/heres-why-your-attitude-is-more-important-than-your-intelligence?utm_content=buffer278f6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Dr Travis BradberryCoauthor of EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE 2.0 & President at TalentSmart

A worker arrives at his office in the Canary Wharf business district in London, Britain February 26, 2014.      REUTERS/Eddie Keogh/File Photo                GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD PACKAGE Ð SEARCH ÒBUSINESS WEEK AHEAD 5 SEPTEMBERÓ FOR ALL IMAGES - RTX2O4AU
Psychologist Carol Dweck has found that your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ.
Image: REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

When it comes to success, it’s easy to think that people blessed with brains are inevitably going to leave the rest of us in the dust. But new research from Stanford University will change your mind (and your attitude).

Psychologist Carol Dweck has spent her entire career studying attitude and performance, and her latest study shows that your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ.

Dweck found that people’s core attitudes fall into one of two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.

With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you’re challenged because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed.

People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. They outperform those with a fixed mindset, even when they have a lower IQ, because they embrace challenges, treating them as opportunities to learn something new.

Image: LinkedIn

Common sense would suggest that having ability, like being smart, inspires confidence. It does, but only while the going is easy. The deciding factor in life is how you handle setbacks and challenges. People with a growth mindset welcome setbacks with open arms.

According to Dweck, success in life is all about how you deal with failure. She describes the approach to failure of people with the growth mindset this way,
Failure is information—we label it failure, but it’s more like, ‘This didn’t work, and I’m a problem solver, so I’ll try something else.’”

Regardless of which side of the chart you fall on, you can make changes and develop a growth mindset. What follows are some strategies that will fine-tune your mindset and help you make certain it’s as growth oriented as possible.

Don’t stay helpless. We all hit moments when we feel helpless. The test is how we react to that feeling. We can either learn from it and move forward or let it drag us down. There are countless successful people who would have never made it if they had succumbed to feelings of helplessness: Walt Disney was fired from the Kansas City Star because he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas,” Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a TV anchor in Baltimore for being “too emotionally invested in her stories,” Henry Ford had two failed car companies prior to succeeding with Ford, and Steven Spielberg was rejected by USC’s Cinematic Arts School multiple times. Imagine what would have happened if any of these people had a fixed mindset. They would have succumbed to the rejection and given up hope. People with a growth mindset don’t feel helpless because they know that in order to be successful, you need to be willing to fail hard and then bounce right back.

Be passionate. Empowered people pursue their passions relentlessly. There’s always going to be someone who’s more naturally talented than you are, but what you lack in talent, you can make up for in passion. Empowered people’s passion is what drives their unrelenting pursuit of excellence. Warren Buffet recommends finding your truest passions using, what he calls, the 5/25 technique: Write down the 25 things that you care about the most. Then, cross out the bottom 20. The remaining 5 are your true passions. Everything else is merely a distraction.

Take action. It’s not that people with a growth mindset are able to overcome their fears because they are braver than the rest of us; it’s just that they know fear and anxiety are paralyzing emotions and that the best way to overcome this paralysis is to take action. People with a growth mindset are empowered, and empowered people know that there’s no such thing as a truly perfect moment to move forward. So why wait for one? Taking action turns all your worry and concern about failure into positive, focused energy.

Then go the extra mile (or two). Empowered people give it their all, even on their worst days. They’re always pushing themselves to go the extra mile. One of Bruce Lee’s pupils ran three miles every day with him. One day, they were about to hit the three-mile mark when Bruce said, “Let’s do two more.” His pupil was tired and said, “I’ll die if I run two more.” Bruce’s response? “Then do it.” His pupil became so angry that he finished the full five miles. Exhausted and furious, he confronted Bruce about his comment, and Bruce explained it this way: “Quit and you might as well be dead. If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread into your work, into your morality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there; you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level.”

If you aren’t getting a little bit better each day, then you’re most likely getting a little worse—and what kind of life is that?

Expect results. People with a growth mindset know that they’re going to fail from time to time, but they never let that keep them from expecting results. Expecting results keeps you motivated and feeds the cycle of empowerment. After all, if you don’t think you’re going to succeed, then why bother?

Be flexible. Everyone encounters unanticipated adversity. People with an empowered, growth-oriented mindset embrace adversity as a means for improvement, as opposed to something that holds them back. When an unexpected situation challenges an empowered person, they flex until they get results.

Don't complain when things don't go your way. Complaining is an obvious sign of a fixed mindset. A growth mindset looks for opportunity in everything, so there’s no room for complaints.

Bringing It All Together

By keeping track of how you respond to the little things, you can work every day to keep yourself on the right side of the chart above.

About The Author: 

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the #1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, the world's leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and training, serving more than 75% of Fortune 500 companies. His bestselling books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. Dr. Bradberry has written for, or been covered by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review
.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Economy of Indonesia: Shifting from Consumption to Investment? | Indonesia Investments

https://www.indonesia-investments.com/business/business-columns/economy-of-indonesia-shifting-from-consumption-to-investment/item8071

Economy of Indonesia: Shifting from Consumption to Investment? | Indonesia Investments




Thomas Lembong, Head of Indonesia's Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said the 5.01 percent year-on-year (y/y) economic growth pace of Indonesia in the second quarter of 2017 was rather disappointing as consumption remained bleak. Only Indonesia's export and investment realization showed an improvement, Lembong added. But, overall, Indonesia's economic growth stagnated.

Growth of gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) picked up in Indonesia at a pace of 5.35 percent (y/) in Q2-2017 due to rising investment (accelerating from a growth pace of 4.18 percent in the same quarter one year ago). However, Lembong said direct investment actually only forms a small portion of GFCF. The contribution of state-owned companies expenditures, re-investment by corporations, and government spending are much bigger.
However, corporations' re-investment remained weak over the past quarter as companies are holding back on expansion plans. That also partly explains why funds in Indonesia's banking sector have risen sharply over the past couple of quarters. Therefore, key to boost the Indonesian economy - in the words of Lembong - would be rising confidence among businesses. The government can help to boost confidence by further slashing regulations that are regarded as undermining the attractiveness and competitiveness of Indonesia's business climate. With Indonesia's business and investment environment still being difficult due to excessive regulations, Indonesia not only misses out on investment but the country's competitors become stronger because investors turn to these markets.
Investment growth in Indonesia during Q2-2017 was better compared to household consumption growth in Q2-2017. Lembong said that this development is no surprise because Indonesian President Joko Widodo already stated earlier that he wants the government to aim for a shift from consumption to investment. Therefore, this development is in line with government targets. In fact, Lembong sees plenty of room for further growth of foreign and domestic direct investment realization in Indonesia up to 2019 when the first term of Widodo ends.
Although Lembong could not deny or confirm anything, there are rumors that the Indonesian government will again revise the Negative Investment List before the year-end in an attempt to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI).
The tourism sector is one of the sectors that should play a strategic role in the shift from consumption to investment, Lembong said. Moreover, this sector would open plenty of employment opportunities for local Indonesians, as well as in other sectors that are related to tourism, for example transportation. Another advantage is that investment in the tourism sector tends to be realized much quicker compared to investment in other industries (when complex factories need to be developed). Meanwhile, on the long-term there should be a continuous flow of foreign exchange earnings brought in by the arrival of foreign tourists. Lembong added that investment in the tourism sector should help to compensate for bleak foreign demand for Indonesia's export products.
According to data from the BKPM released last month, total direct investment realization in the first half of 2017 in Indonesia reached IDR 336.5 trillion (approx. USD $25.3 billion), or 49.6 percent of the BKPM's full-year target.

Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Daya Beli Terpuruk, Tetapi Jalan Semakin Macet

http://ekonomi.kompas.com/read/2017/07/29/120323026/daya-beli-terpuruk-tetapi-jalan-semakin-macet
RHENALD KASALI
Kompas.com - 29/07/2017

Pasar Glodok sepi karena ditinggalkan oleh para pembeli
KOMPAS.com / DANI PRABOWO Pasar Glodok sepi karena ditinggalkan oleh para pembeli

Dalam CEO Forum Metro TV hari Kamis lalu (27/7/2017), saya sengaja mengundang Perry Tristianto sebagai narasumber bersama para pengusaha properti. Kami membutuhkan Perry untuk menguji kebenaran tentang lesunya pasar belakangan ini.

Seperti pengusaha ritel dan properti lainnya, ternyata Perry mengkonfirmasi lesunya pasar. “Sulit,” ujarnya. “Tahun lalu saja sudah susah, tahun ini lebih susah lagi. Dan tahun depan saya yakin akan semakin susah …". Tapi ujungnya Perry mengatakan,  "semakin susah bagi kita tak mau berubah!”

Perry yang dikenal sebagai salah satu raja FO (Factory Outlet), tahu persis pendapatan dari penjualannya di beragam FO di Bandung semakin hari semakin turun. Tetapi, bedanya dengan pengusaha lainnya, ia tak mau menuding masalahnya ada di daya beli.
“Sudahlah,” ujarnya lagi di Rumah Perubahan. “Masalahnya bukan di daya beli, tetapi gaya hidup masyarakat yang terus berubah. Cepat sekali,” tambahnya.

Lawan-lawan tak kelihatan

Tentu saja untuk melakukan validasi ucapan Perry, kita membutuhkan science. Dan science membutuhkan data. Ilmu yang saya kuasai sesungguhnya bisa melakukannya.

Hanya masalahnya, lembaga-lembaga yang ditugaskan mengumpulkan data terperangkap dalam sektor-sektor yang bisa dilihat secara kasat mata. Dan sektor-sektor itu semuanya adalah konvensional.

Taksi konvensional, properti konvensional, ritel konvensional, keuangan dan pembayaran konvensional, penginapan (hotel) konvensional, otomotif yang dirajai pemain-pemain lama, media dan periklanan konvensional dan seterusnya. Hampir tak ada yang menunjukkan data substitusi atau prospek dari disruptornya. Ini tentu bisa menyesatkan.

Sampai kapanpun, kalau data-data yang dikumpulkan tetap seperti itu, maka kita akan semakin cemas, sebab faktanya dunia konvensional cepat atau lambat akan ditinggalkan konsumen baru, khususnya generasi millennials yang sekarang usianya sudah mendekati 40 tahun.

Generasi millennials itu mempunya cara pandang yang benar-benar berbeda dengan para incumbents yang telah bertahun-tahun menjadi market leader. Uang (daya beli) mereka memang belum sebesar generasi di atasnya yang lebih mapan, tetapi mereka bisa mendapatkan barang-barang dan jasa-jasa yang jauh lebih murah di jalur non-konvensional karena dunia ekonomi yang tengah peristiwa disruptif yang luar biasa.

Di dunia baru itu mereka dimanjakan pelaku usaha baru yang telah berhasil meremajakan business process-nya. Mereka bukan pakai marketing konvensional (4P) melainkan business model. Dan lawan-lawan tangguh pemain-pemain lama itu kini hadir tak kasat mata, tak kelihatan.

Ibarat taksi yang tak ada merknya di pintu, tanpa tulisan “taksi”, dan penumpang turun tak terlihat tengah membayar. Sama sekali berada di luar orbit incumbent, pengumpul data dari BPS dan lembaga-lembaga survei lainnya, ekonom, bahkan oleh para wartawan sekaligus.
Kita hanya disajikan angka-angka penurunan yang sudah diramalkan oleh penemu teori Disruption, Christensen (1997), bahwa data-data itu sungguh tak valid. Pernyataan Christensen itu bisa Anda buka di situs YouTube dalam suatu wawancara di kampus MIT.
Di situ Christensen menjelaskan pertemuannya dengan founder Intel, Andy Groove yang sempat meninggalkannya setelah sekitar 5 menit mengundang Christensen. Namun seminggu kemudian Andy menyesali perbuatannya dan kembali mengundang penemu teori Disruption itu. Apa alasannya?

“Saya akhirnya menyadari ucapan Anda bahwa pemain-pemain lama seperti Intel ini bisa terdisrupsi oleh pendatang-pendatang baru yang masih kecil-kecil karena mereka membuat produk yang simpel yang jauh lebih murah,” ujar Andy Groove seperti ditirukan Christensen.
“Look,” ujarnya lagi. “Saya membutuhkan data, tetapi dalam era disruption data yang ada sudah tidak bisa dipakai lagi karena data yang kami kumpulkan adalah data-data kemarin yang hanya cocok untuk melakukan pembenaran. Sedangkan kami butuh data untuk melihat apa yang tengah  dan yang akan terjadi besok. Jadi yang saya butuhkan; kalau belum ada datanya adalah teori. Dan teori Anda menjelaskan proses shifting itu.”
Intel selamat berkat disruptive mindset-nya. Dan sekarang kita saksikan hal itu tengah terjadi secara besar-besaran dalam landscape ekonomi Indonesia. Semua orang bingung.

Tabloid Kontan menyajikan judul menarik, “Gejala Anomali Ekonomi Indonesia” sembari menunjukkan data-data penurunan pertumbuhan penjualan beragam sektor. Sayangnya kita hanya membaca sektor-sektor yang, maaf, konvensional.

Kita tak cermat membaca ketika penjualan sepeda motor turun sebesar 13,1 persen dan semen turun1 persen untuk semester 1 tahun ini (dibanding periode yang sama tahun lalu). Kemana ia beralih?

Juga tak kita baca bahwa pendapatan PT Astra International naik 30 persen sepanjang semester I tahun ini.

Yang lain kita mendengarkan pandangan-pandangan yang saling bertentangan. Teman saya pengusaha keramik terbesar di negeri ini mati-matian menjelaskan daya beli saat ini sedang drop. Tetapi Perry Tristianto mengatakan, “Dulu saja, Jakarta-Bandung atau sebaliknya cukup 2 jam. Sekarang 5 – 7 jam. Sulit bagi saya untuk mengakui bahwa daya beli turun?”

Saya tambahkan lagi, selama mudik lebaran kemarin (dipantau sekitar 4 minggu), penumpang yang terbang dari 13 bandara di lingkungan AP 2 naik sekitar 11 persen. Lalu di Bandara Halim Perdanakusuma saja naiknya hingga 25 persen.

Blame and Confirmation trap
Kejadian-kejadian ini jelas disukai para eksekutif yang bisnis-bisnisnya mengalami kelesuan. Maaf, maksud saya, kita tiba-tiba seperti punya jawaban pembenaran. Semacam konfirmasi. “Tuh kanemang bener, daya beli turun. Jadi wajar, kan?”

Pada saat saya tulis kolom ini pun banyak yang menunjukkan gejala serupa: mainan anak-anak juga turun signifikan. Sama dengan data dari asosiasi pengusaha angkutan truk.
Mengapa kita tak belajar dari pertarungan mainan anak-anak antara Hasbro (yang naik terus penjualanannya karena bertransformasi dari mainan monopoli ke mainan transformer yang kaya "experience" dan online games) dengan Mattel (yang dari masa ke masa hanya membuat boneka Barbie).

Para penjaja mainan juga luput memonitor beralihnya anak-anak ke permainan yg menantang seperti gym anak-anak, parkour dan mainan lain yang kaya engagement.
Namun alih-alih membaca weak signals, hari-hari ini komentar yang sering kita dengar justru lebih banyak menghibur diri untuk membenarkan turunnya pencapaian target.

Lantas pertanyaannya, “memangnya kalau kondisi kembali membaik menurut versi itu, katakanlah sekarang daya beli benar-benar turun (bukan shifting), nanti manakala benar-benar sudah kembali lagi, katakanlah setahun dari sekarang , dan daya beli membaik besar-besaran, lantas penjualan produk/jasa Anda benar-benar kembali naik?”

Come on, my brother. Itu benar-benar perangkap. A confirmation trapkarena puluhan pelaku usaha di bidang yang konvensional semua membenarkannya. Dan Anda pun memiliki satu buah perangkap lagi: A blame trap. Ya, kita terlalu senang mencari, pertama-tama, siapa yang bisa kita blame, kita salahkan, bukan memecahkan masalah yang sebenarnya.

Realitas lain
Kebetulan sejak buku Disruption beredar akhir februari lalu, di Rumah Perubahan kami mulai mengkaji kejadian-kejadian yang berada di luar orbit konvensional.
Kami mendengarkan, mengecek kebenaran, mengumpulkan fakta-fakta yang terjadi dalam aneka usaha yang berkembang di luar orbit yang kasat mata itu.

Kami membuat semacam case study dan menyebarkannya kepada sejumlah eksekutif. Sebulan sekali mereka datang dan mengikuti kuliah saya, membahas kasus-kasus itu sehingga mereka bisa membedakan mana kasus tentang bisnis yang salah urus dan mana yang terimbas disruption. Kami membagi ke dalam dua kelompok.

Kelompok pertama, adalah para CEO dan pejabat-pejabat Eselon 1, komisaris perusahaan, para rektor dan pemimpin-pemimpin strategis. Kami membahas bagaimana mereformulasi strategi di era ini. Lalu kelompok kedua diikuti orang-orang marketing dan sales, para CMO (Chief Marketing Officer).

Dalam setiap pertemuan, kami menghadirkan CEO –CEO yang melakukan disruption dan yang terdampak oleh disruption. Dari situ kami mengetahui apa yang setidaknya terjadi atau bakal terjadi.

Kami jadi mengerti mengapa penjualan sepeda motor turun, sementara kendaraan yang lain justru tengah kebanjiran permintaan. Kami jadi mengerti mengapa Sevel ditutup, mengapa supermarket-supermarket besar kini kesulitan akibat perbaikan distribusi yang dilakukan produsen-produsen besar.

Kami jadi mengerti mengapa suasana perdagangan di Harco (Glodok), Mangga Dua dan bahkan Pasar Tanah Abang serta Electronic City yang dulu ramai kini mulai terganggu.
Kami juga mengecek sektor-sektor non-konvensional. Tidak terlalu sulit karena dua start up lahir dari tempat kami, yang satu situs pengumpulan dana (crowd funding) dan satu lagi situs peternakan yang semua saling terjalin kerjasama dengan start up-start up besar Nusantara lainnya dalam bidang fintech dan retail. Kami bisa lebih mudah mengintip data-data mereka.

Dari berbagai pertemuan dengan para CEO itu, saya juga mendapatkan data-data yang bertentangan dengan pandangan tentang memudarnya daya beli.

Minggu lalu saya juga sempat makan malam dengan CEO perusahaan tepung tererigu besar yang langsung mengecek data produksi dari ponselnya. Ia mencatat kenaikan permintaan yang masih terus berlanjut meskipun hari raya telah lewat. Bahkan hari raya Lebaran saja ia mengaku sebagian besar pegawainya tak bisa libur demi mengejar produksi.

Tetapi yang lebih menarik adalah membaca data-data perputaran uang dalam bisnis non-konvensional yang akhirnya tampak dalam bidang logistik.

Saya memilih perusahaan yang paling sering disebut situs-situs belanja online semisal JNE atau JNT. Sekali lagi dari JNE saya mendapatkan data pengiriman barang yang sangat signifikan.

Tetapi yang mengagetkan saya terutama adalah perubahan pola penyaluran barang dan sentra-sentra pengiriman. Harus kita akui, shifting yang tengah terjadi sangat berdampak pada semua pemain lama.

Tak banyak yang menyadari bahwa beras dan bahan-bahan pokok yang dibeli para pedagang dan konsumen di Kalimantan, Sumatera dan Sulawesi saja sudah berawal dari Tokopedia dan Bukalapak.

Barang-barang pangan itu juga bukan lagi diambil dari sentra-sentra konvensional yang selama ini kita kenal. Petanya telah berubah.

Saya juga membaca bahwa perbaikan di sektor perhubungan, khususnya tol laut, jalan tol, pelabuhan-pelabuhan dan bandara-bandara baru telah membuat rezeki beralih dari pedagang-pedagang besar di Jakarta, Bandung, dan Surabaya ke berbagai daerah. Dari pengusaha-pengusaha besar ke ekonomi kerakyatan.

Saya ingin kembali ke rekan saya, Perry Tristianto, si raja FO yang tadi saya ceritakan. Karena penjualan FO sudah bukan zamannya lagi dan turun terus, ia pun telah mengalihkan usahanya dari ritel konvensional ke bidang wisata.

“Saya menemukan perbedaannya. Justru sekarang daya beli itu ada di segmen bawah. Mereka yang naik sepeda motor bersama keluarga mampu ke kawasan wisata, dipungut biaya, dan mengucapkan terima kasih. Sementara yang membawa mobil Mercedes komplain: mengapa harus bayar?"

Saya mengerti fenomena disruption ini masih sulit dipahami para incumbents yang telah bertahun-tahun menjadi "penguasa" dalam bisnisnya masing-masing. Namun hendaknya kita sadar bahwa banyak hal telah berubah dan kita telah tinggal dalam kubangan aneka perangkap, di antaranya adalah "the past (success) trap".

Saya tak mengatakan daya beli telah tumbut besar-besaran. Saya hanya mengatakan terlalu dini menuding penurunan pendapatan dan penjualan karena daya beli. Mungkin bukan itu masalahnya.

Mari kita ikuti terus fenomena disruption ini.

Friday, November 10, 2017

5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brentbeshore/2015/08/02/5-minutes-early-is-on-time-on-time-is-late-late-is-unacceptable/#2c8008e81b2a



I have a magic pill to sell you. It will help you make more money, be happier, look thinner, and have better relationships. It’s a revolutionary new pharmaceutical product called Late-No-More. Just one dose every day will allow you to show up on time, greatly enhancing your life and the lives of those around you.
All joking aside, being late is unacceptable. While that sounds harsh, it’s the truth and something that should be said more often. I don’t care if you’re attending a dinner party, a conference call, or a coffee meeting - your punctuality says a lot about you.
Being late bothers me so much that just thinking about it makes me queasy. My being late, which does occasionally happen, usually causes me to break out into a nervous sweat. The later I am, the more it looks like I’ve sprung a leak. Catch me more than 15 minutes late and it looks like I went swimming.
On this issue, I find myself a member of a tiny minority. It seems like most people consider a meeting time or deadline to be merely a mild advisory of something that might happen. I’ve been called uptight and unreasonable, or variations prefaced with expletives. In a world that feels perpetually late, raising the issue of punctuality isn’t a way to win popularity contests and I’m ok with that.
There’s a reason we set meeting times and deadlines. It allows for a coordination of efforts, minimizes time/effort waste, and helps set expectations. Think of how much would get done if everyone just “chilled out” and “went with the flow?” It would be the definition of inefficiency. It’s probably not that hard to imagine, considering just last week I had 13 (yes, I counted) different people blow meeting times, or miss deadlines. It feels like a raging epidemic, seemingly smoothed over by a barrage of “my bads,” “sorry, mans,” and “you know how it goes.” The desired response is “it’s all good,” but the reality is that it’s not okay. Here’s what it is.
As I said earlier, I’m occasionally late. Sometimes a true emergency happens, or an outlier event transpires. When it happens, I try to give a very detailed account of why I was late, apologize profusely, make sure the other person knows that I take it very seriously, and assure them it won’t happen again.
  • Disrespectful: Being on time is about respect. It signals that you value and appreciate the other person. If you don’t respect the meeting’s participants, why are you meeting with them in the first place?
  • Inconsiderate: Unintentionally being late demonstrates an overall lack of consideration for the lives of others. You just don’t care.
  • Big-Timing: Intentionally being late is about power. It’s showing the other person, or people that you’re a “big deal” and have the upper-hand in the relationship. It’s also called being a dick.
  • Incredible: No, not in the good way. When you miss meeting times or deadlines, your credibility takes the trajectory of a lead balloon. If you can’t be counted on to be on time, how could you possibly have credibility around far tougher tasks?
  • Unprofitable: Let’s consider a scenario where five people are holding a meeting at 2 p.m. Your sauntering in ten minutes late just wasted 40 minutes of other peoples’ time. Let’s say the organization bills $200/hour. Are you paying the $133 bill? Someone certainly is.
  • Disorganized: If you can’t keep your calendar, what other parts of your life are teetering on the edge of complete disaster? Being late signals at best that you’re barely hanging on and probably not someone I want to associate with.
  • Overly-Busy: Everyone likes to equate busyness with importance, but the truly successful know that’s BS. Having a perpetually hectic schedule just signals that you can’t prioritize, or say “no,” neither of which is an endearing trait.
  • Flaky: Apparently some people just “flake out,” which seems to mean that they arbitrarily decided not to do the thing they committed to at the very last minute. Seriously? That’s ridiculous.
  • Megalomaniacal: While most grow out of this by the age of eight, some genuinely believe they are the center of the universe. It’s not attractive. Note, this is also called Donald Trump Syndrome. Do you want to be compared to Donald Trump?
  • Paying attention to punctuality is not about being “judgy,” or stressed. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It makes room for the caring, considerate, thoughtful people I want in my life, whether that’s friends or colleagues. Think of how relaxing your life would be if everyone just did what they said they’d do, when they said they’d do it? A good place to start is with yourself and a great motto is something I was taught as a child:
    “5 minutes early is on time. On time is late. Late is unacceptable.”