Category archives: Leadership

Lessons from a half

09Dec10

One of my goals last year was to complete a half marathon. Yes, that’s 21 kilometers. Last year, I trained and actually did up to 15 km prior to the race so I knew that I would be able to complete it. I trained during the fasting month of Ramadhan and undertook a gym routine to prevent injury.

It taught me many things.

1. Preparation and Planning. Yeah, sounds a bit like every other motivational story. What I did learn was that you can plan all you want but you need a contingency in case things go wrong. If you oversleep, when do you fit in your training session? If you have to train early in the morning, make sure you have a cold shower, or you will sweat into your work  clothes 2 hours later.

Application – The poet Burns did say “The best laid plans of men and mice gang aft agley (or screw up)”. Have a contingency in case – you never know just when you need it. When I handled events for Johnson & Johnson, we made sure we had a doctor on hand in case of anything. Over preparation never hurts. This is something that we constantly practice, from backup projectors to online backups of key documents. This may only come in useful once every 100 times but that’s when you are thankful for it.

2. Learn from your mistakes. Earlier in that year, I signed up for the Great Eastern Life 20km and fell flat (literally) from cramps at the 19km mark. Cramps were caused by dehydration and lack of fuel for the body. I learned to make sure I carbo loaded (eat more pasta and rice – woohoo) and kept some nutritional bars during the run to keep my muscles from cramping during the race.

Application - When mistakes are made in this office, we don’t shout or scream. It’s a change of mindset but what we do is look and analyze how the mistake occurred and take steps to prevent it from recurring.

3. Don’t be afraid to seek assistance when necessary. I was really nervous about running the half marathon this year. Doubling the number of kids (from 1 to 2) and moving into a new office (the list of excuses goes on) took a toll on my running. I was scared about running in this years half marathon and posted it on facebook. My friends not only gave me words of encouragement but I also received the P-stim treatment to increase blood circulation as well as patches to open up my meridians. Seeking assistance from the right people is key for most business people to grow their business.

Application – When we first moved into the office, we had a corporate space for rent (our meeting/training/brainstorming room). I sought advice from Chef Lee on how to run the F&B as well as some of my friends in the hotel industry. We have now partnered with Whitespace who also manage the sale and booking of this space. They are the experts in smart business sense and have given great tips on how to manage office space.

These lessons from running a half marathon will help you grow your business/department/or may help you achieve your goals.

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Interview with Astro Awani

01Nov10

This is an excerpt of a recent TV interview on Astro Awani where we discuss the fact that the teambuilding training rarely results in a positive return on investment. It’s a snappy 6 minute clip.

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Sustainable Change in Organizations – Gathering of the Great Minds

04Oct10

I recently spoke at the Gathering of Great Minds organized by Live and Inspire. My topic was sustainable change in organizations. I talked about sustainability in terms of people, organization and the environment. This Q&A by Gerald Chuah of the NST is a good summary of the talk.

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Lessons from…our journey into hospitality

24Sep10

Our company has just entered the hospitality business. Yes, we just started renting out our creative room. Here are some lessons that we learned from it.

1. Customer focus. Being a patron of the boutique hotels, I love the small things. Chocolates at dinner, an occasional tea/coffee on the house… these small things show that people care and provide a huge return on investment. Some of the guests at our creative room said that they wanted Milo and Ikea biscuits. Milo and Ikea biscuits weren’t in the contract. Actually, I overheard them say that they liked the biscuits and “it would be nice to have Milo”. Yes putting Milo and biscuits was an additional cost not in the budget. We made sure it was there. We also sought feedback on the tea breaks and made sure that we put in tea breaks that they liked. We monitored the tea breaks to see which ones had a lot of leftovers and which ones people enjoyed.

For the participant who was fasting, we gave him a pack of biscuits to take home for his iftar.

Trying to exceed customer expectations led to ice cream at tea breaks as well as teh halia and soya bean.

2. Processes and Planning. We made sure our partners worked according to our schedule. We made sure the internet provider, coffee suppliers, caterers, cleaners, water bottle suppliers, food suppliers knew our schedule and requirements. Being open with our partners helped them plan accordingly to ensure seamless delivery.

3. Backup. We have worked with a local restaurant to have a backup barista in case we need it. We also make sure we have spare suppliers of water and other essentials in case of glitches. You may not need your backup 90% of the time but you are really glad to have it for the other 10%.

We apply the three lesson for continuous learning and improvement. We constantly think about how to make things better for our customer – how to give them the WOW experience. By constantly keeping ourselves on our toes and looking for improvements we hope to stay ahead of the curve.

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Smart Office Solutions – Whitespace International

14Sep10

This is my latest article on Whitespace International, a smart office solutions provider, published on www.liveandinspire.com.

A lot of people have asked me how to start your own business. In this case the Nike adage “Just do it” is probably the best advice. One of the first questions is on getting a business premise or office.

One of my friends was looking at getting a business address in Solaris Mont Kiara. Since my office was there, he came by to have a look. I was immediately impressed by the way this place looked. It was clean and uncluttered. What also impressed me was the way my call was handled. The business administrators were polite, spoke good English and referred me to the Director very quickly.

Whitespace international was founded on smart business sense. As a virtual office, it has the basics you would expect such as nice office space, meeting rooms for rental, fax, email and receptionist services. However, it’s more than just a virtual office.

Their tagline is “Business Space Redefined”. It starts off at RM99/month moving up to RM299/month. What I liked about the packages is that you are not tied down for any particular period and you upgrade/downgrade as required without penalty. The Business Administrators are friendly and intelligent and able to help with referrals for accounting/audit firms, legal firms and company secretaries. They can also courier documents, order food etc. Should you need a room, you can book the meeting rooms by the hour.

What lessons could we learn from Whitespaceinternational?

1. Process excellence – their processes are impeccable with constant training and a detailed operations manual to ensure that processes don’t fail.

2. Get the right people. The process of hiring the business administrators is not easy. They have a 10% hire rate (after screening people) as they need to hire the right staff. Enable them and allow them run with their own initiatives.

3. Establish your niche vs. the competition and communicate this. They don’t just sell virtual office space – what they do is that they offer a smart business solution with well-trained Business Administrators. They also offer training sessions for entrepreneurs to increase their value add proposition.

4. Focus on the customer and have customer friendly policies such as variable packages and no minimum sign up period.

Their business is expanding and they are looking at a nationwide presence in Malaysia for starters. If you are interested in starting a business, this is one way to keep your costs down. On a personal note, I have been so impressed by this business I am now exploring ways to work with them.

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My interview on BFM

07Sep10

I was recently interviewed on BFM to speak about Generational Diversity. It was fun to talk about how we can learn and apply techinques to deal with the different generations in our everyday life as well as our professional life.

Juarez Lowe on the Bigger Picture

Attached is a link to an earlier interview on Negotiation Skills.

Juarez Lowe – Negotiation Toolkit

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Stuart Mackay’s interview on BFM

30Aug10

Raise Your Game with Stuart MackayPeople don’t change until they are at the precipice… Find out how to take yourself to a clearer and more productive mind in minutes a day. Come to meet author and founder of the Peace at Work system, Stuart Mackay on the 21 September 2010 at 715pm at juarezlowe Corporate Consultants, Suite K-6-3, Block K, Solaris Mont Kiara, Jalan Solaris, 50480 KL. RSVP here! Side effects include better sleep, increased productivity and happier relationships.

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Being grateful…

30Aug10

A really inspiring video – be grateful for what you have… Nick Vujicic in this video is a quadriplegic and yet he lives life to the fullest. It reminded me to be thankful for the many blessings that I have…

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Buka Puasa at Chow Kit

27Aug10

A big thank you to friends who came to break fast at Rumah Nur Salaam in Chow Kit yesterday. My wife has captured the evening beautifully with her post at goddessmoments. Do click to see the pictures.

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Everyday I will….

24Aug10

I am writing this for all the procrastinators and perfectionists out there (you know who you are). It’s past the middle of the year. Many New Year resolutions about getting fit, eating right, etc are probably out the window.

This post is dedicated to three women I know. One is an artist in the South of France – yes life is tough. Another is a kitchen artiste who comes up with vegetarian food even a carnivore like me loves. Lastly it’s my wife, who takes amazing photos (among other things).

This year they have embarked on a daily commitment. Floating Lemons does a drawing a day, Delectable does a recipe a day and my wife does a picture a day (sometimes more) with a snappy witty paragraph to accompany it.

What does this do? It forces them to practice. If they are perfectionists, they have to get it out every day. It’s great practice and discipline. Why do they do this? Floating Lemons hones her drawing skills and forces her to draw one drawing a day. Delectable pushes herself to come up with different vegetarian recipes – sometimes based on limited ingredients. My wife has to post a photo a day, regardless of whether it passes her quality control.

How does this apply to the corporate world? If you want to improve yourself, then set yourself a target and try to practice on a regular scheduled basis. You don’t need to do it every day. For my column in live and inspire, I have to submit my articles every 2 weeks. Over time, I hope my writing skills will improve.

If you want to move careers, you may want to do one job application a day. Set aside 30 minutes for it. Chose the company you want and tailor your resume to it. If you want to learn more about negotiation, read an article a day and then graduate to books. Set yourself every Monday to assess your progress. Even more powerful, tell your friends what you are doing and have them be your coach.

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, it is starting this process that is the most difficult. Don’t worry if you fall off track. Get back on the wagon.

Key takeaways to starting a new habit a day at a time:

1. Do something you like. Do it on a regular basis – e.g. daily or weekly or bi-weekly.

2. Do declare it to your friends and enlist them to coach you on a weekly basis

3. Assess your performance weekly.

Using these techniques will help you develop your skills further and stay on track to success. In the words of Charles Noble “First we make our habits and then our habits make us”.

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