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Omar
Khan's recipe for good leadership This was the message of Omar Khan, the US-based management guru, who addressed a packed audience of corporate leaders under the theme of " Crisis to Greatness" in Colombo last Monday. The media sponsors of the workshop were The Sunday Times and Daily Mirror. Today's knowledge economy has brought in drastic changes to the classical theories, knowledge is not an scarce resource nor will it lose its value by usage, take for example Internet a massive knowledge base used by a equally large number of users, multiplication of the use will add more value to the Economy. Knowledge intensive sectors will thrive in the future eg: Travel, Education, Information Technology, Medical science etc. Amplifying the Knowledge revolution and convincing that knowledge is wealth and Khan clearly emphasized the emergence of Bill Gates as the wealthiest in the world that earned his wealth from knowledge in comparison to Sultan of Brunei (Oil Wealth) or for that matter Julius Caesar. While Bill Gates increased his wealth in the last decade this same decade will also go down in the history as the best decade in known times for moving 450 million out of poverty and this happened in China. Khan described Jack Welch of GE fame as an innovative leader who built up the company to greater heights; he advises the Boards of Directors to spend less time on checking numbers and concentrate on leadership and strategy and convert vision to action. Boards should spend 50% of their time on people, engage them directly and ask for accountability and don't kick them down; failures are opportunities to learn which enhances the value of experience -- after all who would want to go to a specialist who has never faced a failure? Organizations must constantly do a weeding process, as it's customary that the top 20% must be retained and next 70% in the mid group must be developed a1nd encouraged and the bottom 10% must be weeded out. He suggests that people should be engaged directly and advises to take care in recruiting, as a CV should not be trusted. Quoting his personal experiences in his home country (the US) and also during many visits to Sri Lanka, Khan identifies bad hiring, lack of coaching and improper recruitment as negative factors that ultimately give a bad image to the organisation. Explaining the concept of " Custom tailoring" Khan advises innovation to competition as in competition you would try to do what the competitor does. The message in innovation is to customize to make life easier. Cautioning Sri Lankan businessmen that China cannot be fought on price, Khan emphasised the need to give up producing for other brands and quoting examples stressed the importance of value addition in the home country Leadership requires vision for execution and this is the difference between Nigeria an oil rich nation and remaining poor and other countries that have developed to economic powerhouses through oil revenues. Khan envisages a revolutionary change in the corporate hierarchies to meet the needs of the 21st Century. Brand ownership will take priority over asset ownership and the key drivers of the new corporate world may well be the Chief Inspirational Officers, Chief Value officers and the Chief Knowledge Officers. He clearly sees the need to remodel the designations in keeping with the wealth creating knowledge Economy. IBM the Computer giant will in future be known for consulting and not for their Business Machines. In the knowledge driven economy leaders must cope with the speed of new ideas. Recalling his many visits to Sri Lanka during times of crisis and elaborating on the recent tsunami crisis, Khan was emphatic that Sri Lanka has paid a heavy price for lack of development in infrastructure and also gave a clear message to all Sri Lankans the Indian example of how predominantly Hindu India is ruled by a Sikh Prime Minister appointed by a Roman Catholic Party chief Sonia Gandhi! |
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