The Latest News, Tips, and Trends of the HRD Communities
Published by HRD Gateway for the e-ASEAN Endorsed ATN Project
www.hrdgateway.org/hub5
news@hrdgateway.org

August 2001, USD$3.00

CONTENTS

Editorial
Feature Article One: “Creative Workforce--Competing in the New Economy”
Feature Article Two: “RoadMap to a Quality Service Culture, Part Two”
Book Review: "Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia"
Attitude Vitamins
Links of Interest
HRD Gateway in the News
HRD Gateway Membership

Editorial

Hi there! This is the second issue of HRD Gateway.

We’re excited about this publication. It looks great at this moment. We know of course that five or ten years down the road, this issue will look pale in comparison to future issues – say, those of the years 2006 or 2100. But you must remember that those future issues are possible because we in the year 2001 took the initiative to begin this great tradition. So there it is!!

Enjoy HRD Gateway 8-2001!!

Cheers,
Joma Guzman and G K Lim

Feature Article One: "Creative Workforce--Competing in the New Economy"

Having a creative workforce is important to tackling competition in a connected environment. A creative workforce is important because the Internet has given the consumer more choices that can be customized to their own needs. Having the next “big idea” is now not as important as having a “unique idea with a ready pool of consumers”.

Thus the topic of creativity in the workplace cannot be detached from the concept of intellectual property, patents and franchising.

Having the skill to use thinking processes is not the same as simply being “intelligent”. Edward de Bono has emphasized that a highly intelligent person will take a point of view and then use intelligence to defend it. Conversely, many excellent minds are trapped in poor ideas because they defend them well. It is not possible to be immune to biases or perceptions, but excellent thinkers have control over it.

Here are some tips to harness and cultivate creativity in your own workplace.

Set Up the Constraints First

The process of generating creative ideas to their eventual execution will be greatly expedited if the participants are given a set of constraints first. These constraints can be in the form of funding, market demand and manpower issues. Nothing kills off the creative process in the workplace when 90% of the ideas are eliminated because the management did not communicate about the constraints to employees earlier.

Failure-tolerant Environment

It is important for every team member to have an attitude of supporting and helping people who fail. A good way to do this is to encourage people to share their failures and what they are doing to turn them into success. A related concept is the support of risk-taking. Supporting people in taking risks is all about knowing their capacity to take them and to help them gradually move up their own continuum. What might seem a very low risk to one person might seem a major risk to another person.

Predict the Future

Creativity can only dwell in an environment where people like to futurize. Management thinkers use terms like “thinking out of the box” and brainstorming to encourage employees to free up their thinking processes. A more practical way of looking at this is that the correct prediction will allow an organization to tap into a new market and create early barriers to entry.

Start a Reward System

All constructive and creative ideas should be rewarded. The reward system will differ between organizations but the motive is still the same: recognition. Management can also utilize the organization’s website to highlight these ideas with each participant’s email addresses provided. The reason is that other organizations may want to incorporate these ideas and the participant can act as a “goodwill ambassador” to create a possible alliance.

Intellectual Property

According to Robert Merrick of Stand Alone Inventor!, the art of inventing a product is to make it sufficiently novel so that it can enjoy trademark and patent protection. You will not want to create a climate where all your employees’ ideas are copied and executed by your competitors. Thus it is important to have a corporate policy where the better ideas are immediately protected through an intellectual property contract drafted out by your legal advisor. This is to ensure that your company’s effort in cultivating creativity will not be hijacked once your employee leaves your organization.

Contributor Colin Ong TS is the Director of MR=MC Consulting Pte Ltd (www.mrmc.com.sg) and can be reached at colin@mrmc.com.sg.

Feature Article Two: "Roadmap to a Quality Service Culture, Part Two"

In part one of this article, we discussed three questions relating to the natures and changes of the CRM (Customer Relations Management). Now answer question # 4 below by implementing the five P’s transformation roadmap to a Service Culture.

IV. How can we create a service culture? And how can a service companytransform the poor service people into quality service-driven ones?

Yes. We can create a service culture whilst transforming our poor service people into quality service-driven ones. In addition to including values on staff training, service people should be carefully selected on personality and motivational factors. They have to have the ‘people’s person’ personality and the passion for a service career. It is like training artists or scientists. Greater success on training would follow those who have an innate personality, and who aspire to their jobs with a burning passion. However, according to our survey, 80% of the people are not doing what they aspire towards. Instead, they fall into their job and keep at it merely to make a living. Their rewards are mere monthly pay cheques, which divert their attention from their neglected career talents and dissatisfied life-goals.

We have also learnt from our survey and visit to five outstanding world-class organizations that taught us the five P’s transformation roadmap to a service culture to transform poor service people into quality service-driven ones:

Here are the five P’s:

a. PASSION in serving people

Everything starts from one’s passion: the inner burning fire that drives people to do whatever they aspire. With passion, the service-driven people enjoy serving people as their career fulfillment and for their personal satisfaction. Without passion, everything is done passively and indifferently and there will not be any strong commitment and genuine loyalty. Customers are, therefore, only the means to an end - profits. Without passion, serving people is a dishonorable job done in apathy and boredom. Passionate service people on the other hand are driven with personal satisfaction and career fulfillment. In other words, they not just work to live, but live to work for total satisfaction.

CASE EXAMPLE

I had a ‘learning cup of coffee’ in a Starbucks outlet at Seattle, where Starbucks originated. I wanted to find out why the Starbucks coffee is taking the global market ahead of so many other coffee businesses. My first thought was to find out their secret coffee formula and then their brewing method. However, to my surprise the manager told me that they had neither secret coffee types, nor brewing method. They merely serve coffee in a way that will make a big difference. The great secret is their serving staff are trained to serve their hearts into the coffee with passion and enthusiasm, which means putting on their best attitude, personality, smile and personalized conversation. This passionate quality service makes the coffee smell and taste better to the customers who have been made happy and entertained. The added service values also make the customers feel important, recognized and cared for. Starbucks is, therefore, selling not only coffee, but friendship, passion and lifestyle. Now I know why Starbucks coffee tastes better and the place feels cozier. It’s because the service people there are warmer. They serve with a burning passion.

LEARNING POINTS

Passion is the trigger for doing something enjoyable and rewarding. It is also the inner burning fire that motivates people to give their best performance.
Passion aims at inner satisfaction over materialistic gains.
Passion leads one to maximize natural intelligence (talents).
Organizations should discover the natural talents and passions of each service people and help to develop and position them where they will maximize their performance. There is also the need to be open to and experiment with their creative and innovative talents.
Children should be encouraged and guided to explore their talents. Also to guide their passions for both personality and career developments.

b. PRIDE in being quality service people

It’s the dignified professional identity – the quality service people do not let the social hierarchy suppress their pride in being the service people. Because their self-esteem and professional identity are built on their values rather than on how people perceive them, their career pride is one of honest, sincere and giving, without an attitude of arrogance or inferiority complex.

By doing their work to satisfy both the customers and themselves, they see it as a win-win position. Without holding back their best ability to service people, they are able to let themselves experience the fullness of reward and satisfaction. In their minds, even though they are employees, they work with pride for their own success, which is the true sense of ‘ownership’. Career pride comes from career passion.

CASE EXAMPLE

Boeing is synonymous with aeroplanes as G.E. is with electronics, Microsoft with software and IBM with business computers. These names have become the icons that pride the people who work there in Seattle. Under a giant hanger twenty or more 747 Boeings are being assembled by hundreds of well-trained staff in their Boeing work-uniforms, proudly making their projects possible. Only people with pride can undertake such an enormous task.

LEARNING POINTS

To replace the social hierarchy that prejudices against service culture.
To emphasize training on attitude and self-esteem developments on top of job skill training.
To have more incentive programs to motivate the service people.
Companies should provide positive career image and professionalism for their service people by respecting them and paying them well.
Customers to pay more respect and show more courtesy to the service people.
Service people should take time and effort to relate to customers above serving them. Put customer relations before customer service.

c. PURPOSE for the service career

Working without purpose is like a sailing ship without a compass and destination. Living without purpose is mere existing. Most people work just to make ends meet; from pay cheque to pay cheque; from job to job without looking into their potential nor planning their future. The famous challenge says “If you don’t plan to win, you’ve already planned to fail.” Purpose in life is correlated with career planning. Studies indicate that people who drift along their life path never stop on the way to plan for the next step, let alone the next direction. In today’s competitive market, one with a clear purpose, strategic planning and action goal will survive and succeed better than their purposeless counterparts. Serving people is the most challenging business and honorable career.

CASE EXAMPLE

While living in Florida, I visited the Kennedy Space Centre. This mind-boggling place is a testimony to what a tiny human mind with a grand purpose can reach into the infinite outer space. Everything starts in the purposeful mind. As I was gazing at the giant rockets, I asked in my mind – what motivates these people to create these giant rockets? And the answer is this: they have giant dreams with a giant purpose to conquer space. On the other hand, dreams without a purpose are just passing clouds in the sky. However, when it is accompanied with a purpose, it soars into the skies and reaches the stars afar.

LEARNING POINTS

The purpose of serving people is not just doing business, but enjoying the passion of doing it.
Service culture purpose is to develop high EQ society and courteous people.
Without a purpose, serving is a dishonorable and an ego-crushing experience.
Making money is not the ultimate purpose of true service culture.
Service people are human with values, passion, pride and purpose.

d. PLEASURE in making people happy

The greatest reward in serving people is giving pleasure to the customer and the customer in return gives the same to the service people. It’s an action-reaction process. Many people dislike serving people. It’s because they fail initially to give the customer pleasure and, likewise, get nothing in return. Pleasuring the customer will bring customers and their friends back to our business. It is a multiplication of success with little pleasuring effort.

CASE EXAMPLE

When I dropped into the Nordstrom store in Seattle, a black tie pianist was playing a grand piano entertaining me and other shoppers (not even customers yet) in the elegant store ambience with a mesmerizing Mozart’s music. No one tried to sell me anything, nor offer me a drink. So I took an aromatic cup of coffee and sat down to rest my tired feet and also to enjoy the non-demanding customer service. Clearly the store aims to pleasure the tired drop-in shoppers by providing an oasis for relaxation. They know that when the drop-in shoppers are relaxed and happy they will likely become prospective customers. When music and coffee are blended together with pleasure, it creates many happy shopping customers. This is an elegant and creative way to do the real business. It takes pleasure to pleasure people.

LEARNING POINTS

It is more pleasurable to give than to receive in the service business.
Pleasuring customers is the utmost pleasure one can give and receive.
Pleasure promotes personal trust and fun relationship; the substance the customers want when being served.
The pleasure the service people get from the customer in return makes the job and the work more pleasurable.
Next time when we become apathetic in our jobs, try putting a little pleasure in it and see how much difference it can be.

e. PARTNERSHIP for quality service culture

Partnership is built on ownership. There is a triangle ownership involved between the service business, the service people, and the serviced customer. The dynamic of this triangle symbiosis is that every party will enjoy more caring, pleasurable and value-created relationships with one another, thus generating quality service-culture together.

There should be an equal triangle connection for six-way symbiotic partnerships.

CUSTOMER

SERVICE PEOPLE SERVICE BUSINESS

(a) The first line connects the SERVICE BUSINESS with THE SERVICE PEOPLE. There should be mutual ownership without hierarchical barriers. They are to empower and enforce positive relationship. At the same time, no one should feel being short-changed or depreciated. With a strong sense of mutual ownership, everyone will put up their best effort for a ‘win-and-let-win’ performance.

(b) The second line connects SERVICE PEOPLE with THE CUSTOMER. There should be equal respect for one another. Service people must put on their best attitude to ‘delight’ and ‘pleasure’ the customer who must also treat the service people with human dignity and appreciation. The service people are satisfied whenever the customers are satisfied.

(c) The third line connects the CUSTOMER with the SERVICE BUSINESS where the customer will give frequent positive and negative feedback to the service management. In the Asian culture, dissatisfied customers do not usually take time and effort to give feedback, but walk away grumbling -- killing the business by bad mouthing it outside. No one learn anything and nothing is being improved in this way. To facilitate this triangle symbiosis, the service management should appreciate all the negative and positive feedback as learning factors without being defensive and hostile.

CASE EXAMPLE

Another organization that has impressed me in Seattle is the Microsoft University. I observed many types of people with diversified talents working together as team partners. I learn more staff with PhD’s are working for Microsoft than any other companies in the world. Why do Microsoft attract so many cream of the crop to work with them? It’s because they value their human capital for knowledge-based business. Every staff is appreciated and respected as partners. They have the mutual symbiotic partnership for survival and success. This service company is built on a partnership and ownership culture.

LEARNING POINTS

The new economy business strategy is based on a win-win-win partnership between the three parties – the service business, the service people and the serviced customers. To retain the loyalty of everyone, all parties, each must be placed on equal footing and ending.
Customer loyalty comes from the loyalty of the service people.
Business partners have a deeper caring relationship. It’s not what one can get from the other, but how one gives to each other.
Solo survival and success is harder than it is in partnership.

In closing, quality CRM depends much on both the personal and professional change of values, attitude and mindset of the service business. The service cultural and the service-driven people may be developed by the dynamic transformation with the five P’s.

The five P’s quality CRM creates ripple effects as in throwing a stone into a pond, the ripples created an action – reaction effects. It starts from the inner passion to the professional pride, to the purpose in giving pleasure to the customers, and finally it ripples out to the partnership CRM as illustrated below

The final challenges are:

For the service business: Are you setting up a customer caring service or just a profit making business? Do you have what it takes to build a quality CRM organizational culture?
For the service people: Do you have the personality, attitude and values to drive your passion for the satisfaction of serving people?
For the customers: Do you respect the service people? If yes, you will get the service you deserve; if not, you also get what you deserve.

Let’s make your customers your best marketing partners. Make your service people your management partners. Above all, let’s make Singapore into a world-class service culture, where people of the world enjoy coming here not only for cleanliness and orderliness, but also for the best customer service. Let’s service them with an attitude of care and pleasure.

Contributor Dr. James Y. Lin is the CEO and corporate trainer of the Quality Lifeskills Quantum International (USA, Asia-Pacific). Specializing in Attitude and Stress Transformation training for the New Economy. Email: qlq@jyl2000.com Web site: www.jyl2000.com

Book Review: "Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia"

To uninformed Westerners, Asia is often treated as a single geographic location with an identical culture. But for those who live here, we know that the contrary is true. Asia is a diverse region with many differences in culture, social, economical, and political structures. The authors, Kristof and WuDunn (a husband-and-wife team), make clear that, by fighting cronyism and the suffocating regulations that had kept many Asian economies in bottleneck, much of Asia has benefited. They think the financial crisis in 1997 was actually a positive event because it enabled Asia to unleash its powerful growth energy through reformation and transformation.

Kristof and WuDunn take a balanced outlook on Asia as they cover both the positive and negative aspects of things. As they praise its dynamic economic development, they also emphasize such shortcomings as discrimination against women, horrendous pollution, and the rise of nationalism. They warn that the rise of Asia will not be a smooth process, and that the emergence of powers like China and India may bring instability to Asia, which makes it both a vibrant and dangerous place to be.

Thunder from the East is a brilliant guide to a region that is now in a position to compete with the West for economic, diplomatic, and military power in the near future. As many futurists have predicted years ago, Asia is fast becoming the focus on the world's attention.

The most readable part of the book is the vivid portraits of ordinary people, from Indonesian vigilantes to Japanese Internet entrepreneurs to sex workers in Bangkok. The discussion of Japanese education is particularly insightful, because the authors' children attended schools there. They tell their story by using examples of real people they have met throughout Asia. From the bankrupted Thai entrepreneur who starts life anew with a street-vending business to the Japanese veteran haunted by the mother and child he killed in war, the authors share their opinions of why some Asians can excel in conditions deemed unbearable and horrific to many Western observers.

The book can be ordered from your local bookstore or from Amazon.com.

Attitude Vitamins

Even the lion must put up with flies. -- Anonymous

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility. -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. -- Aristotle

Fortune favors the brave. -- Terence

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, directions, missions, and callings. -- Abraham Maslow

Don't be afraid to give up the good for the great. -- Kenny Rogers

Of all human pursuits, the pursuit of wisdom is the more perfect, the more sublime, the more useful, and the more agreeable. -- Thomas Aquinas

The conscience is the most flexible material in the world. Today you cannot stretch it over a mole hill; while tomorrow it can hide a mountain. -- Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. -- Jimi Hendrix

Links of Interest

Guide to Grammar and Writing
A wonderful site, and a complete course, on grammar and writing.
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

Academic Info
An annotated Internet subject directory for college and university students. Can be used also by high school students, librarians, and the general public. Maintains a list of digital libraries of free online publications and texts in each subject area.
http://www.academicinfo.net/

Creating a Culture of Customer Service In The Hospitality Industry
Since so much has been written and discussed about customer service over the last decade, how is it that so few of us are getting good customer service? As the economy continues to boom and unemployment remains low, customer service is the challenge of the day. We are victims of our own success. For complete article, go to…
http://www.tradenex.com/p_ne_it.asp?NewsID=4884&RubricID=41&From=News

White paper on ICT, Malaysia
http://www.tradenex.com/SharedImages/Library/pdf/F_21.pdf

HRD Gateway in the News

Transcript of an interview with Thomas Wong, President, ASEANET.org (now HRD Gateway), by Hazreen Ghazali, Content Developer, AsiaPacificIT.com Sdn Bhd, Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia, on July 13, 2001.

1. What brought about the ATN project? Why does the region need this project at this time?

The driving force for our project is the e-ASEAN Task Force, who has worked very hard in the last two years to develop the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement (see http://www.aseansec.org/summit/infs4_afw.htm) and to have it signed by the leaders of the ten ASEAN countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam). The agreement, which formed the basis for a collective effort to effectively position ASEAN into the global networked economy, takes a holistic approach to achieving digital readiness for this region. Additionally, it also acts as a binding mechanism for action, under the five main e-ASEAN elements:

Development of an ASEAN Information Infrastructure
Seamless environment for e-commerce
Common marketplace for ICT goods and services
Capacity building and e-society
E-Government

However, none of these aspirations can happen without (1) a savvy Internet and IT user base and (2) applicable knowledge and contents. For example, the current Internet literacy statistics is not very encouraging. With the exception of Singapore where 40-50% of homes and offices have broadband access, most of the other ASEAN countries have somewhere between 1 to 10% low bandwidth access. In addition, as soon as these users hit the Internet, they are bombarded by western Web contents, which usually do not address their local needs. In this sense, we applaud your efforts in coming up with an IT publication for the region.

We initiated the ATN project for two main purposes. First, we support the objectives set forth by the e-ASEAN Framework Agreement to enable e-commerce competencies in the region. Second, we want to address the learning needs and economic challenges faced by ASEAN countries. Both are important for attracting more investments and enabling ASEAN economics to compete and cooperate with the bigger economics of China, Korea and Japan. With China entering WTO, we no longer have the labor advantage that has served us well in the past two decades. Consequently, ASEAN workforce needs to upgrade their productivity and develop new skills, especially those needed in a knowledge-based New Economy.

The ATN project is managed by ASEANET.org (now HRD Gateway)—a nonprofit organization that is being incorporated. We are the first regional HRD organization dedicated to work primarily with ASEAN communities with a strong focus on the Internet and information technology.

2. What are the strategies and activities that have been carried out and are being planned to ensure the achievement of the project's objectives?

The ATN project has five specific goals:

(1) List training & HRD activities

Working with our members and partners we have created an informative, bi-monthly publication called HRD Gateway, which is dedicated to list training and HRD activities in the region. News and articles are contributed by members and guests. This publication is currently provided online for free. However, we are evaluating the feasibility of doing a printed publication for paid subscription.

(2) Develop local expertise & resources

We have set up an online Expert Directory to build a regional database of training and HRD professionals, consultants, and subject matter experts. We aim to build a comprehensive listing that includes relevant Web sites.

(3) Provide marketplace for commercial transactions

We have tested a marketplace tool for training & HRD professionals to trade their products/services and to expand their business opportunities outside their local areas. However, the market for training transactions online is still very small. We will evaluate other possibilities.

(4) Enable competencies for the new digital economy

We are in the process of preparing several program proposals that address the training and education needs of ASEAN communities. They are as follows:

ASEAN InfoLit Campaign
ASEAN Knowledge Quest
ASEAN Quality Lifestyles

More information will be available when the proposals are ready for review.

(5) Create a virtual learning community

We have set up a number of Discussion Forums targeted at different professional and user groups. We are in the process of bringing those groups to our site. One of such user group is the Internet, IT and Wireless professionals. We see them as HRD professionals who can participate in our project.

3. How do you implement your ATN project, i.e. are they joint efforts with member countries or companies, etc.?

We divide our work in two areas: online communities and instructor-led training. The online setup is relatively easy and inexpensive to operate. Our challenge is to get people to use it. We have put forth a number of plans to promote and expand our online services. As for the instructor-led training, we will be able to initiate the first phase later in the year. We already have a few businesses and organizations interested in partnering with us. Among them is a regional job recruitment agency, which has expressed a strong interest in using our training and education services for their clients.

We have also evaluated several e-learning vendors for offering Web-based training from our Web site. We do not see e-learning as the end means but a supplemental tool for our programs. E-learning can be more effective for certain courses, e.g. MS Office.

4. How has the response been from the HRD practitioners in the region?

We have been practicing an open-door policy. So far, the response has been very positive. In addition to individual membership and partnership from ASEAN countries, we have formed informal alliances with such HRD organizations as HR Indonesia, malaysiaHRonline, and HR Singapore which together represent a grouping of 2,000 HRD professionals. The Founders (or Co-Founders) of these three organizations have also signed up with us as a Managing Officer or Work Committee Member.

The conventional HRD professionals are HR and Training professionals. But we have a wider perspective. We treat all professionals (engineers, IT professionals, etc.) as HRD professionals who can help develop the human resource in the region. We want them to be part of our work.

5. How will this project benefit the people in the ASEAN region?

First and foremost, we will help e-ASEAN meet one of its key objectives, i.e. capacity building and e-society development. By bridging the digital divide even by a few percentages, we can raise the Internet and IT literacy in the region and make e-commerce ventures much more feasible. So it’s not just the ordinary users but businesses who want to get into e-commerce. We will help build a user base for their products and services.

Second, we will develop a network of local and international HRD professionals who are committed to serve the ASEAN region. In addition to making the expertise easily accessible for everyone, we will also create a collaborative and cooperative system for everyone to work together. As you know, ASEAN is a highly diverse region of culture, languages, political and economic structures, and learning styles. We believe that our model will promote a common ASEAN spirit, which is so essential for ASEAN’s success in the global marketplace.

6. What are the main issues that you face so far and how do you overcome them?

We are a volunteer-based organization. Everyone on our Management Board and Work Committees has donated endless time and/or money for the ATN project. If we were just to focus on developing online activities, we can manage it with the funds that we have already received. However, a significant portion of the ATN project is to carry out instructor-led programs. So funding is a major challenge. There are areas where we can ask volunteers for help, but there are areas where we definitely need funds to work with. We are in the process of submitting funding proposals to businesses, multinational corporations and multilateral agencies. e-ASEAN does not provide any funding yet. But they may be able to source some funds for us.

We believe in the quality of our work and are confident that when local communities understand it, they will support us in whatever means they can.

HRD Gateway Membership

[1] A free e-book entitled "Achieving Peak Performance" (USD$24.95)

[2] A speedy listing in our Expert Directory

[3] Routine email updates of activities and publications

[4] Referrals from HRD Gateway for various opportunities

[5] Able to participate in our planned programs for ASEAN communities

[6] Networking with professionals worldwide and etc....

And best of all, your membership with HRD Gateway is absolutely free!

Do you have an article or a link of interest to contribute? Send it to news@hrdgateway.org. The editors reserve the rights to use your contribution.