The Power of Networking

Tele-copier machine

In 1970’s, salesmen have a problem to sell the new invention for corporate communication devices. They just invented a machine called tele-copier. Tele-copier is a machine that combine two devices into one, which are telephone and a photocopier machine. When salesman approached potential clients, client will ask who else do have this thing? If nobody else are using this, it will be useless.

The machine that known as tele-copier, today is known as facsimile. By 1990’s almost every organization will have their fax machine because it is one of the most useful devices at that time. Can you imagine if you are the only one that using facsimile? That device is pretty much useless. But the more people are using it, it create a different value to the users.

Metcalf’s Law

Robert Metcalf was the founder of ethernet. He define the Metcalf’s Law as:

Economic Value of a Network = (no. of users)²

Illustration of Metcalf's Law

In other words, if you are connected in a network of computer, the economic value is square. In other word, a computer connected into a system relatively have 1 economic value. If you have two computer in a network, the value is 4 and if you have three computers connected in a network the value has increased to 9. If we have more number of users, the economic value will increase exponentially, not arithmetically.

How does this apply in business world?

In business, the impact of the law remains the same. Imagine company like facebook or google, they know the important of Metcalf’s Law. That is why they are giving certain things for free, just to increase the number of users. They would then offer something meaningful later which in turns making them the big bucks. Company who don’t understand this law are focusing on making money everytime they do anything to the customer.

If we think about restaurant that operate franchise, which name that came first to our mind? Of course McDonald’s will come out first. Why? They do have the numbers, or in other words the network of the premise. 

Will People Remember You?

I was fortunate when the founder of Reach Your Goal from UK, Phil Berg shared some of his insight in an event organized by BNI Malaysia. Tonnes of lessons that I learned, and I am going to share with you some part of it.

Phil Berg

Get remembered by each and every person that meets you
If you got a chance to choose between these two things, which one will you choose?
i. To be remembered and be spoken about, or
ii. Become even better at what you do

Which one will you choose?
Well nothing wrong in choosing both, but which one you should put priority at?

Ok, let me ask you a question. Let say I was given an access to watch all the movies in the world and I don't know which one to watch. Can you name me a movie that you would recommend me to watch. Ok, let's think for a second.... [think... think.. don't cheat...]

Once you got that movie, what is the title of the movie?
Let's think for a while, is it the best ever movie that was made that you have ever seen.... or is it something that really stick into your mind because you remembered something about it?

Leading the Pyramid

In a study done at Stanford University among top achievers, they concluded that skills is not the main factor of their success. It is about 14% - 22% of success factor is based on skills. The main contributing factor is attitude, because if someone with good attitude, skills is no longer an issue because they will overcome it by themselves if it is necessary in getting the job done. 

Leading the Pyramid

What makes successful people have the drive in their life? What makes them persevere? What makes them doing things beyond what money can pay?

                                                           Diagram taken from: The Hero's Way Manual by Directive Communication

We can divide the pyramid into three categories. Skills, Attitude and Self-Actualization.

1. Skills
At the bottom of the pyramid is actually skills. At this level, people have skills but they trade their skills with money. Most of the time, either they provide single service such as plumber, barber or operator, or people who are working in a company as an operator, clerk or salesman, they trade their skills with money. Either they are paid by the job done, or they are paid per hour. What happened was if they were to do more than what has been agreed, they will claim more money. Such as over-time or some extra out-of-scope job. The key thing is, they trade skills for money and normally they are operating at an individual level.

Programming Minda

Semasa saya pulang daripada surau semalam selepas selesai mengerjakan solat Maghrib, terdapat sekumpulan anak-anak muda dihadapan pintu gate surau bermain-main. Saya terdengar dengan jelas, salah seorang daripada mereka berteriak "Akulah penyelamat bumi!" Mendengar kata-kata tersebut, saya terfikir mungkin anak-anak muda ini terpengaruh dengan rancangan televisyen, mungkin Boboiboy atau rancangan alih bahasa.

Beberapa detik selepas itu, saya mula mencermin diri saya. Semasa saya kecil, tidak kurangnya tingkahlaku saya. Saya teringat semasa di sekolah rendah di Muar, saya bermain Ultraman dan raksasa. Saya mengepalai sekumpulan rakan-rakan dan membahagi-bahagikan siapa jadi Ultraman dan siapa jadi raksasa. Memang agak lucu apabila mengenangkan semula kejadian silam, tetapi apa yang lebih penting, apa yang boleh saya pelajari daripada peristiwa tersebut? Kita manusia dipengaruhi oleh rancangan televisyen. Bukan sekadar kanak-kanak, tetapi juga yang dewasa. Cumanya yang dewasa dipengaruhi dengan cara yang lebih matang. Mungkin daripada kisah percintaan daripada siri Winter Sonata (maaf, saya tidak mengikuti trend terkini) atau Ariana Rose, tidak kurang kisah korporat yang sering ada adegan tikam-menikam.

Eksperimen Bobo Doll

Eksperimen Bobo Doll

Albert Bandura seorang ahli psikologi pada tahun 1961 telah melakukan kajian untuk memerhatikan kesan tingkahlaku manusia daripada pemerhatian. Kajian terkenal beliau adalah Bandura and Bobo Doll (Anak patung Bobo). Beliau membawa beberapa orang budak dalam linkungan umur 3 hingga 5 tahun kedalam sebuah bilik yang mana didalam bilik tersebut terdapat sebuah anak patung. Dalam masa 10 minit, terdapat orang dewasa yang melakukan perbuatan ganas terhadap anak patung tersebut termasuk menjerit, memukul, menendang dan menghentak dengan tukul. Kesannya? Kesemua anak-anak tersebut melakukan perkara yang sama terhadap anak patung tersebut.

KISS: Keep it Simple

Prinsip KISS pada mulanya diperkenalkan oleh Tentera Laut Amerika (American Navy) pada tahun 1960. KISS merupakan singkatan, "Keep it Simple, Stupid!" Konsep ini menyatakan sesebuah sistem itu akan lebih berkesan sekiranya ia dibuat secara mudah, berbanding dengan sesuatu yang kompleks.

Ada juga yang menggelarkannya, "Keep it Simple and Straightforward," dan ""Keep it Stupidly Simple" dan beberapa akronim yang lain. Hakikatnya, ia menggalakkan kita menjadikan sesuatu itu mudah.

NLP - Yang susah dimudahkan

Frog Into Princes

Sebelum saya mendapatkan pentauliahan sebagai pengamal Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP Practitioner), saya banyak membuat kajian mengenai subjek tersebut. Saya cuba untuk mendapatkan sebanyak mungkin risalah, laman web, video di Youtube dan Torrent, dan beberapa e-book. Dan salah satu e-book yang saya jumpai berjudul "Frogs Into Princes" antara buku terawal ditulis oleh Richard Bandler dan John Grinder, pengasas kepada NLP. Sekiranya anda pernah melihat buku ini, ianya ditulis dalam keadaan penuh dengan tulisan dan tidak nampak sebarang hujung pangkal dalam setiap bab yang ditulis. Saya mula terfikir, mereka mengasaskan NLP, tetapi tidak menggunakan NLP dalam penulisan mereka. 

Anthony Robbins

Pelajaran yang saya dapat daripada perbualan dengan salah seorang rakan yang berasal dari Chicago pada minggu lepas adalah dengan menjadikan sesuatu itu sangat mudah. Bandler dan Grinder walaupun pengasas kepada NLP, mereka hanya berjaya menjana jutaan dollar daripada mengajar ilmu tersebut, tetapi Anthony Robbins pula menjana ratusan juta dollar mengajar ilmu yang mana beliau mengambil konsep NLP dan memudahkannya supaya mudah diikuti dan dipelajari oleh orang ramai. Maksud saya, bukanlah wang ringgit perlu jadi ukuran, tetapi berapa ramai yang sanggup bayar dan mendapatkan manfaat sekiranya seseorang itu dapat menyampaikannya dengan mudah. Anthony Robbins merupakan salah seorang yang memahami konsep tersebut, dan mengaplikasikannya.

Dunia Teknologi Maklumat

Dalam dunia IT, Google merupakan enjin carian yang paling popular kerana ianya mudah berbanding pesaing yang lain seperti Yahoo! Laman web mudah.my juga lebih banyak dikunjungi daripada eBay ataupun Lelong.my di Malaysia bukan kerana ciri-ciri atau fungsi yang ada pada mudah.my, tetapi interface yang mudah digunakan.

Keynote iPhone pada 2007

Kejayaan iPhone menjadi peneraju telefon pintar juga sepertimana pembentangan Keynote Steve Jobs pada tahun 2007 adalah dengan menjadikan telefon itu sangat berkuasa dan sangat mudah digunakan, berbanding telefon pintar yang lain pada masa itu, walaupun berkuasa tetapi sangat sukar digunakan. Konsep ini akhirnya ditiru oleh jenama-jenama lain kerana ianya sangat mudah untuk digunakan oleh pengguna.

Law of the Lid - Everything Rises and Falls on Leadership

In his book, '21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,' John C. Maxwell suggested that your leadership is like a lid or a ceiling. It simply means that an organization (or a body even a country) performance will not rise beyond the leader's leadership capability. In other words, the effectiveness is highly dependent on one's leadership ability.

"Everything rises and falls on Leadership" - John C. Maxwell
Not something, not most of the thing... it's everything...

That is why, for most non-performing organization, the only way to increase the performance is only by raising up the leadership capability, or replace the leadership role with more capable leaders. For a performing organization, when we replace the leader with less capable leader, the organization performance will fall to align with the leader's capability.

For example, the McDonald's Fast Food Chain. Everybody knows McDonald's, don't we? Even my kids know it very well. But did you know how it started? It was initially run by McDonald brothers who have a small restaurant selling hamburgers. There is one day, one franchisee wanted to name the restaurant McDonald's, they asked "Why?" They started in the first three years by selling fifteen McDonald's franchise, however, only ten that really operated. Until one guy, name Ray Kroc, who is the owner of a milk-shake machine company, who supplied to McDonald, saw the vision of making McDonald's a successful franchise business. He turn it into an organization, a successful one. In four years, he successfully opened 100 restaurant; the other four years there were 500. Now the organization have 34,000+ restaurant worldwide, and still growing. What Ray Kroc brought into the company was his leadership. He got the vision and he sacrifice a lot (by not withdrawing any money in the first eight years).

Start Where You Are

There are time that we wanted to do something but the we are waiting for the right timing.

“Do not wait: the time will never be 'just right'. Start where you stand, and work whatever tools you may have at your command and better tools will be found as you go along.”

― Napoleon Hill

If you wait for that 'someday', it might not come.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

― Arthur Ashe

Credit to zenpencils.com and finerminds.com