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Motivational video

Aspire to be- the BEST!

Nothing comes easily – especially success.

I found this video – very simple and supremely inspiring.

What makes the difference between the person who is first and who comes behind!

Watch this everyday!

Go through this every single day- and motivate yourself to put in that effort- to bring the passion to the fore- that will propel you to bigger things in life!  

All the best. Happy Viewing.

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Aspire to be a CEO: Learn differentiated decision making.

One of those big myths about business decision making is about the inherent admiration of a aggressive, super-sure, quick decision maker. This strategy may be great in certain situations – not so good in others.

Some decisions in haste can be reversed, altered or has little impact. These haste decisions are necessary if there is a fire in a factory. Decisions made for the sake of speed is a little different from decisions that require swiftness. Understanding the difference is critical.
There are two kinds of decisions – revocable and irrevocable.
Revocable decisions are changeable decisions that can be made relatively fast and if it is wrong or needs to be altered, can be changed again relatively fast wit comparatively minimal impact. Examples would be – Office layouts, Advertising schedules, Not making a decision, Pricing, Phone service provider, Choosing an insurance company, even hiring a contract staff or a tier 2 reseller.
Irrevocable decisions such as brand name, acquisitions, executive hires, buildings, IT architecture are usually not easily irrevocable. Exercise caution while taking irrevocable decisions. Even if you need to take these decisions under time pressure, then you need to read fast, assimilate information fast, analyse fast, think fast and then decide. The decision may seem fast – but as a manager – you know you have done your due diligence.
Sounds easy! The essence of understanding the difference is the situations under which you operate in a particular mode that will make you successful.
Tim to decide! Merry Christmas!

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Aspire to be a CEO: Get closer to your customer. Be a salesman.

Is it a coincidence that majority of corporate Presidents started as a salesman or were sales people at some point in their career?
Selling is a super critical function. Selling possibly is the only function that gets up close and personal to your customer. A sales person starts to  understanding customer’s likes, dislikes and idiosyncrasies. They get to know the precise reason why a product or company clicks or why it ticks.
And as the salesperson grows in the organization to increased responsibilities, they start shaping products, teams and organization structures to address their customer’s need. They have first hand experience and the conviction required to fix things that generates revenue for the company. Over time and not surprisingly, the successful salesman becomes an star within the company. He is well recognized, for the sales man knows their customers the best.
When management wants to hire for a position on the management team,

  1. who do you think would be on their A-list – A star salesman.
  2. Secondly, since organization exist because of their customers, management would prefer some one who has been with the customers for senior positions.
  3. Thirdly, in all probability the current CEO and the executive team were salespersons themselves in the career. It is only natural for biases towards star salespersons.

Whatever be the case if you are a salesman you are in good hands. You have the inherent advantage to get to the top. If not, get a role in sales to fill up that gaping hole in your otherwise impeccable record.

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aspire career CEO change great Leadership Lesson

Aspire to be a CEO: Add fuel to the fire!

Making an impact is a good thing. To leave a mark is a good thing.
However in this destructive goal pursuit of ‘leaving a mark’ and ‘making an impact’ managers often reverse their predecessors decision and change things just to ‘leave a mark’ and ‘make an impact’.
Successful CEOs from Jack Welch to Lou Gerstener, did change a zillion things. They did make an impact. But they did retain one characteristic – they encouraged good things.
If you find good things – however dull, old or tried – just add fuel to it. catalyse more of it. Not every success is about solving a problem, or doing a turnaround. The sole financial objective of a company is to give significant returns to its shareholders.
You do this by finding and filling your customers needs. If you customers love it – do not change it. Do not change the labels, the ingredients, the name, price, advertising or anything else.
IBM understood the power of its eight bar logo and its brand name. Coke understood the power of its ingredients. The Disney company understands the value of Mickey Mouse. P&G is never tired of telling people that Ivory soap is “99 and 44/100 per cent pure”. And they did it for fifty, seventy, hundred years.
Don’t change the formula for success – Add fuel to the fire!
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Aspire to be a CEO: Don’t build empires and fiefdoms.

Another big myth from practicing managers is that they think that the biggest budget and the most people reporting to them is a guarantee to get them to the top. This probably was true in the days of kings not in today’s flat world.  Today, it is all (only) about doing more with less.
Do more – Grow revenue, profits, marketshare – with less people, money and resources.
A few cardinal rules

  • never complain that you are expected to do more than what your budget enables
  • do not be that manager who is constantly hiring people
  • never use lack of resource as an excuse

Forget the empire. Power and promotions go to people who can do more with less. Efficient producers not resource hungry administrators.

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Aspire to be a CEO: Only bet on yourself!

When my nephew was seven years old, his favourite cricket team Deccan Chargers was clearly winning, with 12 runs needed off 36 balls and two wickets to spare. Convinced of the victory, he offered to bet his grandfather on the outcome of the game. His grandfather laughed and agreed. The stakes were $4.64, all they money that the seven year old had. In the next five minutes the bowler took two straight wickets and the boy lost.
The kid hated to lose and as he was giving away his life’s earnings his grandfather said, “Only bet on yourself. Don’t bet on events and people you can’t control to influence. Don’t bet on what you don’t know or understand.”
These golden words hold immense wisdom in business. History is galore with examples from sub-prime crisis to Wall Street crash to the dot-com burst. These events had downed hundreds of companies and rendered millions unemployed. They had one common characteristic. The executives of the failed firms had an appetite for risks. More importantly they were betting on risks beyond their control; on things they did not understand and on things that they did not believe in.
Was it then a surprise disaster was in the making.
The golden rule of any successful manager or entrepreneur – he would should bet only and only if he can influence and has control. Risk taking is not a great idea if you do not control the risk factors.
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Aspire to be a CEO: Have Fun, Laugh!

Business is tough and may is not joy ride. That should not stop you from emanating joy and having fun along the way.
As a manager, you are expected to to keep the team focussed towards the goal. You are supposed to to lead them through the journey. You can make the journey hard, grumpy and tiring. Or you have a choice to make the joy, fun and lively.
It is a common knowledge that people who enjoy their work can be more creative, more enthusiastic and more productive. Conversely, an environment that is constantly serious and matter-of-fact is stressful and inefficient.
The manager who is able to maintain a sense of humour, lightens the mental load will always have a motivated happy team. A motivated less stressed team is a more productive team. They achieve things faster, better and bigger.
Sense of humour is mark of intelligence and quality sought out for corporate presidents. If you see it as a rare quality – all the more reason you have a better change of being one if you possess one.
Make  fun@work a reality.
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aspire career CEO Leadership Lesson opportunity problem resource

Aspire to be a CEO: Don’t hide the Elephant.

Big problems will always surface. Even if they are hidden unintentionally, the fall out is disastrous when they surface. The ‘hiders’ are always face a more serious censure than the ‘discoverers’. The discoverers are being safe. the ‘hiders’ were trying to cover up. the fall-out is not always nice.
When you know of a big problem or a goof up, let the bosses know immediately. The delay is only going to worsen things. At least, if you shout early, you can get help.
Turn the problem into opportunity. Give them a potential estimate of loss. Give possible scenarios. Give solutions to come out of the situation. Ask for help, resources, management support. At least they can strengthen your hands. It is also important that you position yourself of independent reporter in control. Describe the problem as if you were not previously involved.
Watergate to Vietnam, bankruptcies to Iraq, all elephants that ere hidden and mismanaged.They grew bigger and bigger and beyond control., When they could no more be hidden, the hiders lost everything.
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aspire best Boss career CEO great Leadership Lesson

#LeadershipLesson: Follow the footsteps of your Boss!

‘Boss Bitching’ is a fad. An entertaining one, at that; though not the right one to take you to the top.
All of us have heard people who can just complain and complain about their bosses – just give them an opportunity and they can rattle the worst things about their twenty-seven bosses through career. They  share horrifying stories about their tyrannical and incompetent bosses, that have reached the top while leaving these people in the lurch. Such sad stories are for losers.
Winners do not have tyrannical bosses. They have fantastic bosses and amazing supervisors.
Just as most people can vividly remember their memorable teachers and their teachings from kindergarten to Graduate school, the same applies to business. Winners do remember learning from their bosses.
They know, that most people do not have a choice on hiring their bosses. But they do have a choice of learning the good qualities from them. They know, that nobody is perfect, and every body is good at something. Winners learn, study, emulate the good things from their boss – whoever they are.
Great teachings from superiors are subtle, yet significant—they praise properly, they are fair goal setters, they are honest, they  let people grow. There may have their idiosyncrasies and whims – but great bosses are usually hard working, smart and open minded.
Seek those people early in you career. Seek people with those qualities. Work for them. Watch them closely. see how they handle problems and handle criticism. Note how they manage people and get things done.
Walk their way!,
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Aspire to be a CEO: Push ideas not paper.

As modern corporations grow to become global businesses, there is an increasing need for ‘replicable models’ and ‘standardized processes’. This need slowly takes the form of “Bureaucratic Creep”.
While, practically every organization and every job description demands the need for qualities like entrepreneurship, innovative and risk taking – that precise quality that is being killed every day in most organizations. Pangs of growth, they would say!
Corporations are afraid of internal entrepreneurs. They cannot handle personalities that build businesses. Most managers cannot deal with informal, anti-policy, anti-procedure style ,idea people and business builders. They want monthly reports, detailed expense accounts, personal reviews on paper, quarterly reports, year-end reports, stock reports, one hundred page business plans and many more. Do not get paper-strapped. Papers are means to an end.
Do not get paper trapped. Do not accept those handcuffs. The zillion reports, if they do not help in decision making – do not prepare them. If some report has to be done and you know no one  looks at it, avoid it at all costs. If it is unavoidable, delegate it to the junior-most level staff. Just do not do anything  that does not improve your company’s performance.
PS: At the same time please do document the statutory things that are important for your company existence.

“Bureaucratic Creep” is a term you will hear used a lot around leadership and management conferences.  It refers to the inexorable progress of developing bureaucracy to deal with the issues that arise when a company grows past a certain point.  Bureaucratic creep is really just a function of laziness, taking the easiest path to a desired end.  Rather than deal with individuals, we find it easier and more efficient (at least in the short term) to set up policies and “class actions,” which say, “anyone who falls into . . . category will be dealt with by  . . .  means”  In small companies, we see much less of this “efficient” behaviour.