KISS

(Keep it simple . . . . .)

Keeping it simple is counter-intuitive . . . like a golf swing is. And hence it was not surprising why the disciples were in a state of shock when Christ said, in response to their query, that all they had to bear in mind were the Two Great Commandments.

In the secular world keeping it simple is more palatable in the West than the East. But it does not mean that Westerners don’t struggle with something that is counter-intuitive, notwithstanding Pareto’s Principle.

Reagan and Clinton (“It’s the economy, stupid”) are two examples of leaders who were able to keep it simple. Obama, on the other hand, may soon find out that he has not kept to the mantra, i.e., he risks execution and would scale down his priorities – or under-deliver on an over-promise? (He is fortunate still because of demographics, the day of the white male vote as the minority has arrived save in the south, i.e., he has political cover.)

In private business, both in the East and the West, prominent business leaders and tycoons are guided by simplicity and clarity, akin to (the positioning of) dominant global brands – Warren Buffett does back-of-the-envelope calculations to make billion-dollar decisions. On the other hand, not even supposedly savvy bankers on both sides of the Atlantic understood the quality (and risks) of the tranches of securitized subprime mortgage loans or the mathematical formula developed by two geniuses and their investment-banker friends that was to be the fail-safe money-machine model – that sank the global financial system and Long-Term Capital Management, respectively.

Jack Welch, the former CEO of GE, after he had restructured GE down to about a dozen businesses, and mandating the respective CEOs to focus on being number one at worst number two – no ifs and buts – in their industry, focused on developing leaders. And a handful of Fortune 500 CEOs today grew out of this Jack Welch mantra.

How did he do it? Very simply, he literally spent half of his time (his calendar confirmed it) doing leadership development – traveling the world to be face-to-face with GE people so that he became comfortable with the thinking, attitude and style of the individuals tapped and nurtured into the GE succession planning process. He understood that GE had to become a top-notch global company, beyond a successful US enterprise – echoes another CEO, "My job is to be a globally effective leader, not just be an effective leader in my own country, in my own culture". (Our GDP is not that much more than GE’s market cap; and if one adds those of the other companies whose CEOs are former GE managers, the group’s contribution to the global economy would equate to the GDPs of a few countries, i.e., more than being local patriots they are COWs – citizens of the world – doing a good deed far beyond their shores.)

In the East we are about kinship beyond blood and marriage; our instinct and social structure are complex to begin with. This is not only true of the Far East but in most places starting from America’s heartland, the Midwest, and then jumping east across the Atlantic, it is discernible.

Reading Jack Welch’s calendar when he was CEO of GE and reading the typical manager’s calendar would most likely prove the point, i.e., no manager would spend half of their working time on one and the same thing.

While GE is a progressively managed conglomerate, it is in fact an exception; its European counterpart, Siemens, is learning that focusing on one’s core business is key to long-term success, i.e., Siemens had to do a major restructuring last year to narrow its focus. Even GE may be facing a similar prospect with growth decelerating in some of their businesses – a dozen businesses is still a lot, i.e., even the exception must prove itself?

The bottom line: clarity and focus facilitate execution and win hands down whether in the public or private sector. That is how we should proceed to deal with our economic challenges? Kudos to our business leaders for presenting policy recommendations (distilled down to 12) to Congress! (See: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/207236/business-leaders-present-priority-bills-congress)