Over the last 10 years Asia Pacific has grown in stature as a strategic and significant market for Brocade. We rapidly grew revenue, share, people, footprint and infrastructure. To respond to Daniel’s question, I cannot concoct a panacea that will deliver surefire results for every organization – I wish I could!
My formula for success is more a blend of many small thoughts and practices coupled with incredible execution. After persistent probing from Daniel on what the driving factors for this transformation were, I put my mind to work. I realized that the transformation rode on a set of common and consistent principles that most people are aware of but honestly lack the guts or even the desire to practice. No doubt ‘Success’ is a limited membership club!
People Smarts
We consistently hired and surrounded ourselves with smart people and continue to do so! People smarts coupled with shared goals and vision, authority, and accountability have helped us drive incredible outcomes. Given that smart people enjoy the company of equally smart people and thrive in their midst, this move helped us build an energized organization that attracts, retains and develops talent. Ask your average manager to knowingly hire someone better than him or her … you will instantly know how difficult this is for the person!
Walk the Innovation Talk
Talk is cheap. Showing the team that you mean it through your actions is key. We have succeeded in encouraging people to try out new things even if they make mistakes. Then we support and guide them when they make mistakes. These actions however have not veered us from our end goals and commitments. It is commonplace for leadership and individuals to give ‘experimentation’ as an excuse for unacceptable results. This excuse stifles the spirit of experimentation and innovation within the organization. Good business governance should be combined with innovation and experimentation when setting and meeting goals. This is no mean feat and requires judgment, maturity and courageous patience.
Know the End Goal
“What are we trying to solve here …?” is a phrase that shows up in most of our meetings and brainstorming sessions. Every member of our team rapidly seeks the end goal in any activity they get involved in. They then work backwards, involve the people with the right skills, table the right information, and collaboratively do what it takes to accomplish that end goal. We use a disciplined and effective operating procedure that drives efficiency and productivity while cutting the fluff, which most office meetings get inadvertently drawn into!
Diversity as an Advantage
Many Asian companies have been crushed by the spread and diversity of this vast geography! Interestingly enough, we have also succeeded in using the diversity of Asia to our advantage. Learnings and best practices from one country are implemented in other countries. Asia’s mix of mature and fast-growing economies with diverse regulatory environments offer a variety of testing sites for products or business strategies. In addition, we have been able to leverage core competencies of specific demographic groups within a multi-cultural team.
Fix the ‘Back-end’
Revenue, share and profitability are all scorecard metrics. While they reflect business performance, I have never given them more attention than that. Focus instead on what drives these metrics. In the ongoing economic boom that has swept this part of the world, we fortunately do not have a demand-side problem in Asia. Any organization with a credible track record, strong offerings and the qualities that I mention above is a viable supplier in their chosen industry vertical. The variables that often derail an organization’s progress is the inability to fulfill demand often due to a lop-sided back-end that cannot keep pace with the demand that the front end generates. This is where visible and invisible infrastructure comes into play. People development, Legal support, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Customer Support and Logistics are great examples of back end functions that need constant attention. Build each of these areas robustly with systems, process and people skills – couple this with a top class front end Sales and Marketing machinery and your organization is on its way to glory!
[...] is run with a broad worldwide outlook rather than an inward focused approach and tight hiring standards that brings in the best talent into the organizations are more powerful [...]