Bill Gates and Tiger Woods were in awe!

(And learned how not to be like kids in a candy store)

It is human nature that when presented with a myriad of challenges and options that “we want to take them all in”.

Yet, Bill Gates is quoted in Fortune magazine; July 6, 2009: The best advice I ever got: “. . . I’d say one of the most interesting (talking about getting a lot of great advice from Warren Buffett) is how he keeps things simple. You look at his calendar, it’s pretty simple. You talk to him . . . And if it gets less complicated, he feels like then it’s something he’ll choose to invest in . . . he’s got . . . a model that really is predictive and that’s going to continue to work . . . And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics – it’s so amazing that he can do that. It’s a special form of genius.”

And similarly, Tiger Woods is quoted: “. . . My dad’s advice to me was to simplify. He knew that at my age (he was 6 or 7 then) I couldn’t digest all of golf’s intricacies. He kept it simple: If you want to hit the ball to a particular spot, figure out a way to do it. Even today, when I’m struggling with my game, I can still hear him say, “Pick a spot and just hit it.” When I’m making adjustments during a round, I know some of the TV commentators theorize that I’m changing this or moving that, but really what I’m doing is listening to Pop.”

As often as the writer can, in the articles in his blog, he talks about keeping it simple, both in the private and public sector – having himself gone through an evolution over 4 decades: (a) from thinking strategic planning to goal alignment, (b) from thinking managerial skills to leadership skills; the keys to execution, as well as from actually executing to consulting – under different markets, conditions, countries and cultures; and from a small family to global business, including ex-communist countries now doing business reminiscent of “western imperialists”. (Full disclosure: the writer had participated in contemporary strategy and leadership graduate programs and worked with leading thinkers, including The Conference Board, a US think tank – confirming research versus reality, among other things.)

The writer remembers being amazed at the host of statistics in both academic and government websites in the ex-communists countries (no different from the Philippines) where he was doing consulting.

And his Eastern European clients (who were expecting to be told “secrets from the West”) were underwhelmed when the first thing the writer asked were the margin numbers; and then quizzed them on the businesses they were in. Then the revelation: the exercise was for them to: (a) appreciate and (b) more importantly . . . discover . . . what businesses they were in as opposed to the businesses they should be in.

The realization narrowed the focus of the organization. And the next step was to figure out what other businesses they could pursue. But with the imperative that they must attain competitive advantage in short order, meeting newly established margin hurdle rates, i.e., value-added will generate volume. And the need to muscle up the portfolio with the right products was a requisite to do business successfully overseas. (Thus clarity of purpose was sharpened and it facilitated thinking and execution – from consumer insights to R&D . . . and all the way to logistics. In the Philippines acquiring totally unrelated businesses is celebrated, i.e., building on sand. And then we assemble commissions to figure out why we’re uncompetitive – it is predictable!)

The bottom line: they are today in a very narrowly-defined set of businesses but with the portfolio bulked up to be regionally competitive, for now. They can still make mistakes – like everyone does – so the next thing they have to learn is to look forward and unfreeze, not sulk, i.e., spend thinking time productively by problem-solving and executing; and managing their romanticism – leverage creative element and deemphasize serendipity.

Sounds like Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid”? (See: http://phileconomy.blogspot.com/2009/07/there-is-always-market.html)