Loud Thinking

Archive for April, 2014

Questions Successful Innovators Should Ask

Asking a lot of questions is one behavior that successful innovators share. Instead of just rushing to take action, posing questions helps you crystallize the entire innovation process by improving your ability to spot new growth opportunities, pinpoint disruptive threats, and more. Consider using questions like these to increase your odds of success:
What problem is the customer struggling to solve? If people are spending time or money trying to solve a problem (and existing solutions fall short), there’s no clearer sign of an opportunity for innovation.
Who has already solved this problem? It’s likely that someone has already found a solution in a different industry, country, or company. Gaining inspiration from their successful approach can speed up your process.
What can you do that few other companies in the world can do? Zero in on what makes you unique (a trusted brand, access to a distribution channel, technological know-how) to maximize the chances of creating a powerful and compelling offering.

Adapted by HBR from “ Eight Essential Questions for Every Corporate Innovator” by Scott Anthony.

An eye opening letter published today in the daily “Dawn”.

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif the public will be looking to the answers of the questions raised in this letter..!

Pakistani bonds
From the Newspaper

Comment Email Print

THIS refers to recent news reports on Pakistan bonds. I think the issue was good news for US fund managers. Most of the allocation was taken up by them. It was also good earnings for the four leading banks concerned with the issue.

The recently floated Sri Lankan bonds, with five years’ maturity, had a coupon of 5.13pc. Our Pakistan bond of a similar period and maturity has a coupon of 7.25pc. This is a substantial rate difference.

The nation would be interested in knowing from the finance minister as to how many countries have issued sovereign bonds in the last 12 months with a yield as high as the Pakistani bond?

Shiraz Sachedina

Karachi

“If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.”

— Lemony Snicket

“If a man wants his dreams to come true, he must wake them up.”

Anonymous

Consider Keeping Your R&D Close to Home

Just because a company can offshore a portion of its operations doesn’t mean it always should. Recent research shows that although there are benefits to moving aspects of a business abroad (e.g. savings), the costs may add up over time through increased organizational complexity – and at a certain point, the move could be counterproductive. Global competition puts pressure on firms to relocate certain arms, even research and development, overseas. (With nations like China ramping up their innovative capacities, why stop at offshore manufacturing or customer support?) But research suggests that offshoring too much of a firm’s innovation is likely to be costly, because it can hinder a firm’s ability to adapt to changing environments, which can affect performance. So keeping R&D on home turf can be beneficial in a world where innovation cycles grow shorter and developing new technologies more difficult.

Adapted by HBR from “ Research: Don’t Offshore Your R&D” by Walter Frick.

Panacea for the ills of Pakistan..!

@nayyarahmad: After 66 years, Pakistan is a more fragmented society than our forefathers could have ever imagined. The schis… http://t.co/wsFCiUmuWZ

Panacea for the ills of Pakistan.

@nayyarahmad: After 66 years, Pakistan is a more fragmented society than our forefathers could have ever imagined. The schis… http://t.co/wsFCiUmuWZ

After 66 years, Pakistan is a more fragmented society than our forefathers could have ever imagined. The schism (division or disunion), is so intense that if immediate corrective steps are not taken, God forbid, this country may see even more turbulent times.

The writing on the wall is clear for all to read. The decadence of Pakistani society in every sphere of life, be it political, economic, educational, industrial, agricultural, religious, law and order or any other segment worth naming, is abysmal, to say the least.

Hardly, any day passes without reports of suicides committed by the poor due to the economic hardships. Children did not not die in dozens, but in scores, due to the measles outbreak and; strangely enough, no soul moved and not even a single person was held accountable.

Recently, hundreds of hundreds kids, women and men died in Thar area, just due to diseases and malnutrition, but our ministers and public representatives made sure to enjoy their feasts, right in the middle of the starving population of Thar. These beasts are more callous than the Changez Khan.

Maybe, we have one last chance to stem the rot, to unite the people and to give them a prescription, to rise again and re-build the nation from the ashes; because, for the overwhelming majority, a time is coming that the masses may will be forced to think: no life no nation.

The current frame work, under which the country is being run will not take Pakistan any forward, even if it is allowed to continue as such, for another 100 years. All small and big nations in our region and the world have overtaken us, in the basic fields of health, education, justice, law and order and food security.

All stakeholders must wake up, as the nation is moving towards destruction and business as usual, can do no good for Pakistan; our survival is directly linked with the existence of our nationhood. Nationhood means, “the state or quality of having a status as a separate and independent nation”.

Pakistan needs a turnaround for which the basic need is our adaptation and readiness for the change, not in cosmetic but real sense. We need a complete change from one era to another, like the one, witnessed by China, under Mao Zedong.

Hence, for all Pakistanis, failure is not an option but success is also not automatically guaranteed. In this regard, I would like to suggest that we formulate a new social contract, for the common people of Pakistan, who always pay 100 percent bills and taxes and never defaults on their bank loans. Let us make a new Pakistan, which is redesigned to practically cater to the needs of the exploited masses.

Moreover, the current election system is so flawed that any Tom Dick and Harry can easily manipulate it to defeat the basic purpose of the democracy. So, if the basic electoral process is retarded, how can it give birth to genuine representatives?

Changes must be made in the constitution, to make it a presidential form of democratic set up. The election system should also be changed, so that the whole country directly votes for the president. However, before voting, the candidates of all political parties for presidential post, must notify a list of their MPAs, MNAs and Senators, who will be automatically considered elected, according to the percentage of votes cast, in favour of the main candidate for the top post of the country.

The decision for Pakistan’s charter of development for building dams and mega projects for the next 50 years should also be finalised, on which, later on, no politics should be allowed. In other words, the representatives of the nation should decide now, where they would like to see Pakistan, in each and every field of life after 50 years. This plan should be further divided into ten five years plans.

In order to decentralise and empower the maximum number of people, to enjoy the fruits of self-rule, we should convert every division of Pakistan into a province. This will also work as a panacea (an answer or solution for all problems or difficulties), for the eradication of linguistic and any other type of frictions and doubts about the hegemony of one class of the people over the other.

In fact, it will work wonders in the speedy development and unity of Pakistan; and kill instantly, any secessionist or separatist activities, currently prevailing in some parts of the country.

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How the Asia Cup was lost?

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Published by the daily “Pakistan Observer” Tuesday, April 22, 2014

– THERE is no shame in going down fighting. As they say, if fate has ordained defeat for you, give it a good fight. However, any team is as good as its leader. And there can’t be a better saying to describe the importance of a leader, than the one associated with Alexander the great, quoted as below:

“I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”

What happened in the Asia Cup final at Dhaka on Saturday, 8 March, 2014 is a classic example of mental bankruptcy of the Pakistani cricket teams think tank, or the tour management committee, consisting of Messrs Zaheer Abbas, Zakir Khan, Moin Khan and Misbah ul Haq.

At the out set, two basic and important decisions (team selection and the decision to bat first) were wrong, where we made sure that the match was lost, even before a ball was bowled.

Always the basics of team selection stipulates that only fit players are selected. The whole world knew that Umar Gul, Junaid Khan, Sharjeel Khan and Shahid Afridi were not 100% fit. If at all, we had to take chance with an unfit player, only Shahid Afridi was the person, where the gamble was worth taking. Otherwise, Suhaib Maqsood and other two fit players viz., Bilawal Bhatti and Anwer Ali should have played, for the unfit Umar Gul and Junaid Khan.

Now, coming to the batting first decision, again the whole world knew that we earlier won very close matches against India and Bangladesh, by chasing the target. May be the long list of unfit players included in the team, was the reason for the surprise decision of batting first, so that the injuries does not further aggravates, in fielding first.

After the disastrous top batting order collapse (exclusive responsibility of which falls on Zaheer Abbas, the chief batting consultant), Misbah and Fawad Alam, almost consecutively played four maiden overs, which practically reduced our innings to 46 overs. Such type of defensive approach is never adopted in an ODI match, under any circumstances; because of its limited overs nature. Yes, Test matches are saved under such type of circumstances, but in an ODI match, game is only played for victory; and victory can not be achieved by playing record number of dot balls, even if there is a collapse. How can any team forget the adage that offence is the best defence.

Furthermore, unfit Shahid Afridi was not played for his bowling prowess. Obviously, he was included, keeping in consideration his tremendous batting form. As such, at least for the last five overs Fawad Alam should have been called back, as retired hurt, to allow Afridi to have a go. Afridi was our nuclear weapon and the enemy was allowed to conquer us with, worlds most potent weapon in our arsenal, unused. We could not have given a bigger gift to our enemy, that too, in the most important final match.

In the bowling department, we perhaps wrongly believed that only one fit bowler i.e., Saeed Ajmal will single handedly take ten wickets in his ten overs. After all, the Sri Lankans were not in the finals for nothing.

The most pathetic and abysmal performances were given in the fielding and wicket keeping departments. Our teams fielding just gave a look of a third rate club team, if compared with the fielding performance of the Sri Lankan team.

As such, not only Mr. Shoaib Muhammad, but all those PCB stalwarts, who selected and appointed him as a fielding coach, must be debarred from handling any independent and important assignments in future. Pakistani team gave a much better performance in the fielding department, during the last UAE series matches. This proves that our fielding coach practically contributed in the down fall of the teams fielding levels. Hence, he also deserves to be banned from any future PCB assignment.

Misbah ul Haq, has again proved that he is not at all capable to lead Pakistani team to the victory podium of the 2015 ODI World Cup. He is being retained as captain, at our own peril. If Sachin Tendulkar, Younis Khan, Kumar Sangakara and so many other legends can play under their juniors, why can’t Misbah ul Haq be asked to play under a junior player?

“Do what your heart desires, never hold back a thing, and don’t worry so much about what the others think, because at the end of the day, what makes you happy is what really matters the most.”

— Author Unknown