Good to Great

I bought the “Good to Great” book two months back, but didn’t get enough time to read it. It was actually suggested by one of my friend along with “Blue Ocean Strategy”. Today I managed to read the first chapter of the book and found some very interesting thoughts and insights proven by researches. Still there are 8 more chapters to go, but the first chapter is the summary version of the book outlining the methods of analysis and data gathered for the research. I was amazed to see that this book was the outcome of a team of 21 people, including Jim Collins.

It’s obvious we never worry about becoming great, if we think we are good. Because good is the enemy of great. The reading of this first chapter had given me some great insights for my works and consultancy stuffs. But still eager to read the rest soon if the time permits. One interesting thing about this book is the companies which were considered for the analysis. These companies are quite unknown in the Sri Lankan context and the author had done a perfect study by collecting 50 years of articles (around 6,000), over 2000 pages of interview scripts, and 384 million bytes of computer data.

Study Summary 

So what is good to great? We know some companies perform well in the market, despite of unattractive industries. So what is the black box secret to become the great? I’m also interested to know the black box soon.

Generally if a company is well performing and well known its obvious the  CEO is also known. They give interviews, they talk about themselves, and their image will be used to strengthen the company since they act as the brand ambassadors. But in this good to great case the circumstance seems to be different. The great companies had a type of leadership totally different to well known personalities. They are self effacing, quiet, reserved, even shy and similar to Lincoln and Socrates and most importantly they had grown inside from the company and not recruited from outside. Please find the summary below

The strategy did not separate the great companies to good. Both set had well defined strategies, and these companies did not focus principally on what to do to become great, but instead focused equally on what not to do and what to stop doing. Seems they focused the indirect factor more and more. Even in terms of technology used, it didn’t become significant for these companies. They used it to accelerate the transformation but it s not a cause for transformation.

It is also common sometimes companies grow bigger and bigger and become great when the industry is performing well. But according to this book the companies considered for the study are exceptional. Their tremendous progress wasn’t because of the industry. All were not operated in healthy industries and some were operated in terrible industries too.

The total analysis of the book was depended on six phenomena, starting from

1-      Level 5 leadership

2-      First who, then what,

3-      Confront the brutal fact,

4-      Hedgehog concept

5-      A culture of discipline

6-      Technology accelerators

When looking at these points, it is obvious to see having great strategy, having personality leaders, having technology won’t make sense if the black box factors are not there. Let me read the remaining chapters and share the black box secret with you all .

Also mergers and acquisitions didn’t play a major role on these companies. In Sri Lankan context there are instances where companies merged together and did not reveal the expected output. While reading this book I thought to do the same analysis in the Sri Lankan context to see, whether these principles work in Sri Lanka as well or whether the findings are only relevant to the foreign context.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 22,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 8 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Never Give Up

The world is full of different types of people. Some are hard workers, some were born with silver spoon, some are lucky, some are lazy, some just give a try and see whether things are happening and so on and so forth. That’s why the world is highly diversified with numerous type of human beings.

I have heard people saying “I tried it but didn’t work out”, “I couldn’t do it”, “I am going to give up” etc etc. As human beings in most of the circumstances we find barriers after a certain limit. Some try to break those barriers and move forward. Some fail in doing that. This post is totally dedicated to people those who fought back to achieve their goals, people still defend their destiny with problems and struggles in life.  I wanted to combine some stories and thoughts here which inspired me the most.

Just wanted to recall a great personality who was my inspiration at this time, a person struggled for his daily meals, once in a week he gets food from a Hindu temple, and to get that good food he walked for over an hour. A great personality I admired the most. The thoughts, his inventions will still remain in the world until the end of this universe. He is an example person for never giving up.  Steve Job…  With all struggle in his life he had beaten every problems in life.

So what you think as the most important thing for never giving up thought? Is it your ability, behavior, perception? Nothing, it’s your attitude. No matter how you feel, you should get up, dress up and show up. It’s your attitude. It’s all about the “Positive Attitude”.

Whenever you start something which you think as correct, you should not have any second thoughts. Make sure you will win, win in style. Do not think “Will I win?” “Am I in a position to do it?”. Don’t think either in negatives or questions. It will always be your attitude at the beginning of any difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome. If you see the below picture, what will be your answer?

Half empty glass? or Half filled glass? The answer shows your attitude. Positive mind set people would say it is a glass filled half. People with negative attitude would says it’s half empty. Never think negatively….It prevents you from achieving your dreams…. Always Dream more while you are awake…… Determine whom you want to be….Work towards it. Achieve what you like.

I wanted to share a story here. A story of an athlete. A person who didn’t gave up. Generally in races the athlete who comes first only will be noted and appreciated. Last person will never get noted. But the story here something different.  Derek Redmond in the 1992 Olympics despite of an injury which haunted him and made him to finish the race last. However his attitude made the world to look at him, made him to get standing ovation from the crowd over 65,000. Though his dream was interrupted he didn’t give up. He set out to dominate and win his dream. He continued his dream though injured the injury with his father and finished the race.

If you want to be successful, you can start at anytime. But you must start. Don’t make the mistake of not doing anything because you can only do a little. Do what you can do. It could be studies, it could be work, it could be your business. No matter whether its small or big but, think big and achieve big. To be aware of what you want and not go after it, to spend years wondering if something could have materialized, and never knowing if it could have been, is a tragic waste of your life. The worst thing you can do is not to try.

Assume a port is your dream, and you are in the middle of a sea on a boat. If you want to reach the port you must sail. You must sail towards the port. Do not lie at anchor. You must sail off in the direction of your dreams, not drift. A journey of a thousand miles, begins with one step. While your journey you may face failures, disappointments, frustrations, and many…But NEVER GIVE UP until you achieve your dreams… You might be having problem with your loved ones, with the business partners, with the family, with you wealth. But nothing should stop your journey towards your goals. God invented problems to fine tune humans, if you worry about your early struggle in life, you may not have a good and fruitful journey in later life. The problems you face will become a norm for you once you win. When you look back after you win, you will laugh at the problems.  Watch this video:

Our lives are not determined by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, Not by what life brings to us, but by the attitude we bring to life……     A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes.  It is a catalyst, a spark that creates extraordinary results.

Let’s change to make a change!!! 

“The Optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty, whereas the pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity” 

Google Personalized Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ?

Its interesting to see that Google always changes the way it operates. Time to time search engine results vary and recently I observed another change (possibly I might be late).  I’m also not sure how to name it, but seems like “Personalized SEO”. I would say this would bring more and more benefits to the firm if handled and used carefully.

My blog is always ranked high in Google Search Engine for important keywords, drives me several visitors per day. Whenever I update my blog the post quickly get scrolled and showed in the top position in the Google ranking. For some keywords I wondered how it got ranked up. Later I identified Google has linked the Gmail and SEO together. If the person in your Gmail contact searches for a keyword which is relating to your post / site then the respective post / site comes up in the ranking. Lets try an example and see.

Step one – I logged in to my Gmail from other account, which has already my main Gmail contacts saved.

Step Two – I had written a post about invest in Sri Lanka in this blog, and searched for the keyword “Invest in Sri Lanka”, where my blog appeared in the first page as 8^th and 10^th result. Please see the screen shot:

Then I logged out from Gmail and again searched for the relevant keyword, where I couldn’t see the same results. So I’m not sure about my guess on these, however I can see that Google tempting people to use Gmail more and giving more personalized search results.

When I see this I got an idea, it’s good for Sri Lankan firms in the following ways:

1-    Use Gmail for communication with customers (Specially travel firms)

2-    When they reply it will be saved as contact

3-    At the same time they should share their online presence such as website, blogs etc etc. Both should be killer content.

4-    Now when they search for relevant keywords since the firms are in the contact list with shared content the relevant content will appear in the first page, which might surprise them and create credibility.

(But using Gmail for customer contact may not represent professionalism since people may worry about the trust).

These are just my observation and the ideas are totally with predictions. If I’m wrong please correct me.

Recapping My Facebook status updates during 2011 Jan to Dec

1. Good is the Enemy of Great……& that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great…..
   • I got this when I read the “Good to Great “Book written by Jim Collins.  It is 100% true that people stop their process once they believe they are doing good. Then they fail to take the next step to be great.
2. Not words win arguments… only action…..
   • It is obvious that everyday we spend our valuable time in arguing and justifying.  But it’s always simple to finish any arguments. If anyone argues with you, and if you don’t agree with them, keep quiet, save your time, show it in your action.
3. A humble visionary, leader, teacher and inspiration. He will be sadly missed but his legacy will live on to inspire countless others as he has inspired me. Thank you Steve Jobs and rest in peace
   • Loss of my admired personality, Steve Job. I have used him as an example in several places, several training programmes. He is not in the world today, but his legendary marks will always remain until the death of this universe.
4. “When You Are In The Light, Everything Follows You, But When You Enter Into The Dark, Even Your Own Shadow Doesn’t Follow You.
   • In life when you have money, you can see a lot of people around you. Though you have negatives they never speak about it when you have wealth. They do what you say, they agree what you say. But when you are alone without anything no one will be there for you, to care , to cry or even to help.
5. Coin Always Makes Sound, But The Currency Notes Are Always Silent. So When Your Value Increases Keep Yourself Calm and Silent”
6. You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.
   • Without taking risks you can’t lead a perfect live. If you want to realize the real rhythm of life take risks. Higher the risk bigger the return.
7. There are no perfect fathers, but a father will always love perfectly. Remember to Care for those who care for you…………… Watch this video…..
   • An amazing video which made me cry.

8. The best students are those who never quite believe their professors …..
   • Obviously.
9. LEARNING TO LIVE WITHOUT RECOGNITION IS A SKILL!If anyone ever tells you that your work is unprofessional, remember:amateurs built the Ark and professionals built the Titanic.DON’T LOOK TO BECOME A PERSON OF SUCCESS, LOOK INSTEAD TO BECOME A
   PERSON OF VALUE!

10. Take the first step in faith, you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step…….

• Simply thousand miles of journey begins with the single step, if we actually worry about the 100 steps we won’t make the first step.

11. If you win, you need not have to explain…If you lose, you should not be there to explain..

12. In a day, when you don’t come across any problems, you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path…

• If the life is so smooth the life won’t be interesting.  Simply a smooth sea won’t make good sailors. When you face problems only you will be polished up to face the future challenges.

13. When it rains, most birds head for shelter; the eagle is the only bird that, in order to avoid the rain, starts flying above the cloud. …
Winners win by pushing their limits until their limits become the norm.

• One of my famous saying. Absolutely amazing. A story which impressed me. The story of an Eagle.

14. Strength is a matter of a made up mind

15. Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever- Lace Armstrong

• Whenever you start something, if you fail giving up is not the solution for everything.  Take the pain, try your level best, win the war, be a mercenary.

Holiday in Sri Lanka

Sometimes when on holiday you desire for culture, history, nature and a profusion of places to go sightseeing without investing so much money. Sometimes you just wanted to lie down and enjoy the sounds and smells of the nature without the disturbance of civilization noises. Sometimes you wanted to enjoy food which is nourishes with spices of eastern culture and garnish in western style.  Other times you just wish for a stunning beach and plenty of fine dining along with peaceful and safety dives. If this is what your heart desires then welcome to Sri Lanka, Pearl of the Indian Ocean as it is more commonly called by the keepers of the sea.

Sri Lanka is the most natural sightseeing friendly island in the Indian Ocean and the popularity and number of tourists coming to the island keep on and still continues to grow and grow. One of the reasons for Sri Lanka to be most attractive tourist destination in Indian region is because it boasts the finest beaches in the world which enable tourist to do diving, swimming and coral sightseeing. Crystal clear waters which come and conquer the sands of srilankan shores will make our feet feel like silk cloth between the toes.

Not only is the ocean there is also another secret behind the success story of srilankan tourism. The secret is none other than the heritage historical places of Sri Lanka which illustrates the nation’s history and the importance of such an island in the middle of Indian Ocean. Anuradhapura, Polannaruwa and Kandy are growing as most popular tourist spot which resides in Sri Lanka. The historical importance of these places keeps on attracting tourist who is more interested in learning the culture of Sri Lanka.

Other than the beaches and historical importance, Sri Lanka is also an island which defines convention. According to island bio-geographic theory, small islands don’t have large mammals. Regrettably for theory Sri Lanka is an exemption, as the largest terrestrial mammal in Asia, the Asian Elephant, is found on the island. Sri Lanka is beyond hesitation that the best place in Asia to see the Asian Elephant. Uda Walawe National Park, to the south of the central mountain massif, and the tourists are assured to see elephants. During September and October an annual concentration of elephants, called ‘The Gathering’, takes place on the receding shores of the Minneriya Lake in Minneriya National Park.  ‘The Gathering’ is surely one of the greatest wildlife spectacles on the planet.

The tourism merchandise in Sri Lanka is growing and so too does the infrastructure of Sri Lankan transportation and accommodation facilities. There are mountains to tramp and hills to trek. These hiking spots are improved so that the tourists can enjoy the trekking of mountain with the worry about the safety of the lives. Sri Lanka is not only about the beach and what lies beneath the brilliant blue waters. It’s the culture which prevails in Sri Lanka which makes it special. Ever smiling, generous and always obliging people of Sri Lanka make the tourist feels they are welcomed to this wonderful island- A promise like no other.

Holiday Bungalow in Sri Lanka – The village home for investment

I visited Kandy last month for training and stayed in a nice holiday bungalow. It’s a very traditional and eco free place. It was only ten days ago in early Dec, that I sat out with my collogue in the verandah in that home after a heavy dinner. It was  pitched dark and so  silent, calm and quite. It was like the world was absolutely still. After years, I too could hear the frogs making such a noise with the evening showers. They sound so happy and continued till I fell asleep.

Suddenly my mobile rang, it was a thundering noise. It would have been heard   by   any person, even 500 yards away. In Colombo it is not even heard within the home. That was the silence that I am talking of.

Thereafter, it was just one sleep and I was up  only with the many  serene voices of the     birds led  by the cock a doodle do as he wakes the whole village. Thank god, it was not by a screaming bus or a three wheeler that is so common in the city.

I was up in a flash and as I opened the front door, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have never seen two huge eagles on any lawn the noise and the sound they created, as they  flew was never heard before   and still it lingers in my ears.

I have enjoyed the evening and the morning at that home and I thought just had a chat with the owner and I got to know he is planning to sell the house to the investors. It’s lovely place for a travel holiday bungalow. People those who buys it will definitely earn great profit in future and many more. I have got some snap shot of the place, see those below – contact me if you are interested ragulfun at gmail.com