Business is War

I am taking up a new job posting as a trainer for OOP with MatLab in collaboration with a local company to provide consultancy for Singapore and probably Malaysia and Thailand too.

With the temporary loss of one key member of my team, business plans have been thrown off track and will need to be realigned. The company probably need some time to recuperate before moving forward again. Sometimes, I fear for the worst.

We have been working together in the same team for years, as both a collegue and a friend. I have always admired and valued our camaraderie. I believed that it is in his best interest, to follow his heart and decide on the eventuality

Making the business successful takes more than my individual effort - I need a more committed team. As engineers, we usually work on site-based decision making. As part of the team, individual members need to have clear, shared goals, a sense of commitment, the ability to work together, mutual understanding and accountability. But effective teams do not develop by accident, the team need time to develop and mature, as well as acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge to be successful.

I have been reading some excerpts from a newsletter, published by a Singapore-listed company. It says that "... an army is typically vast, complex and bureaucratic and often get the job done through sheer weight of numbers. By comparison, the special forces are light, nimble and able to respond rapidly with pinpoint accuracy. Every member of the special forces team must completely understand his roles, and be able to depend entirely on every other member. A well-drilled team with every member totally focused and in tip-top condition make the crucial difference in the heat of battle that leads to winning or losing."

We are a small business entity, to win we must be hungrier and prepared to work harder, have the stamina and commitment to sustain through rough patches. We also need to be flexible, keep an open mind and respond to changes and challenges faster.

Though we are now a man down, I believed we can pull through. It will need a concerted effort, not lukewarm enthusiam.