MTI CEO shares his thoughts ‘Strategic Reflections’
Thursday, 19 March 2015 00:05
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Q: How did your column on the Daily FT begin?
A: Three years ago, after a presentation at a business forum, I had the pleasure of meeting Nisthar Cassim, who was returning to the Wijeya Group to begin the Daily FT. He suggested I write a periodic column and after a brief period of internal conflict with regard to what I should write about and why I should I even write it in the first place, I decided I should probably give it a go!
Q: You initially started off with a lengthy full column and then subsequently shifted to a short paragraph on the front page. Why the change?
A: Apart from all of the consulting work, my personal style of communication is to be very specific and use a minimal amount of documentation. Of course, this is carried forward in our work at MTI as well, where we choose to get straight to the point and hit the nail on the head without beating around the bush and resorting to unnecessary ‘fillers’ just to make our reports or deliverables look bigger.
We live in an era of information overload where you can access all the information you need, in a split second and at your fingertips. It was never my intention to add to this overload or to compete with it (which would be quite futile). I prefer getting a message across in the least amount of words possible instead of resorting to ‘stories’. In fact, I strongly believe that partly due to the information overload, we lack the need for bold and bottom-line driven (not always in monetary terms) thinking.
This is what I attempt to deliver, short paragraphs of insightful thought and questions based on probing the challenges faced by global and local economies, enterprises and employees alike.
Q: So does it take much less time to write a short paragraph as opposed to a long ‘story’?
A: Certainly not! In fact it’s perhaps the contrary. With the benefit of ‘unlimited’ space and the enormity of the English language, you can perhaps fill pages and pages of your unstructured rambling. However, when you have about 100 words and need to get a key message across, you train your mind to discipline and structure your thinking and articulation.
Q: Why did you choose the name ‘Strategic Reflections’?
A: Corporate executives are busier than ever today despite the advances in technology, which has supposedly made their lives ‘easier’ and has improved its ‘quality’. But let’s face it; many of them are caught in an activity syndrome – performing one routine task after the other with very little or perhaps not enough time for critical thinking. My column aims to make business leaders sit back, think and reflect on the strategic elements that affect their life and work.
Q: So have you achieved this? Have you made strategic reflections possible?
A: I don’t believe an author can ever be the judge of his own work as it must always be criticised and validated to be considered worthwhile and substantial. I have had several people disagreeing with some of my thoughts and questions, some proposing alternative paradigms and the rest providing their thoughts to further a stimulated discussion. All of these are positive signs and so I feel the column has achieved the impact I intended.
Q: ‘Strategic Reflections’ tackles several issues and in almost all cases, you end up challenging the status quo. Why?
A: That’s exactly the purpose of this column, to ask the hard questions and challenge the status quo. We would never have had any of the medical, technological or even entrepreneurial breakthroughs that we have had up to date if inventors, researchers or business leaders never challenged the status quo.
Sri Lanka, as I see it, does not do enough of this in the corporate sector. Employees refuse to ask questions and challenge the way things are currently done in fear of upsetting the wrong people or the wrong thing resulting in either a loss of their internal social standing, disciplinary measures or even a loss of their jobs! Why punish those asking questions for the sole reason of contributing to the success of the business?
Q: We see questions and questions, but hardly any provision of solutions. How come?
A: I intend to challenge and trigger deep thought and to do that, I have found that asking the right question can be an extremely powerful tool. I am not able to provide the answers to all questions and to certain types of questions, it isn’t practical. In many ways, I don’t want to give out any answers as well, as that would provide some degree of closure that would prevent the reader from thinking and figuring it out for themselves. That would defeat the entire purpose of the column.
Q: What triggers your writing process?
A: The one competency that has helped me the most over the last 17 years as the CEO of MTI Consulting is a simple one – Thinking. We have four major values at MTI which greatly influence the way we think – Ground Zero, Bottom-line Driven, Structured Thinking and Limitless Mind-Limitless Possibilities. The first relates to approaching a subject without any pre-defined bias, the second involves always keeping the end goal in mind, the third relates to thinking along the lines of an established framework so that one does not go overboard or do less than intended and the last instills the fact that nothing is impossible and no self-imposed limitation should stand in the way of success.
My thinking process is strongly founded upon these four principles and I have made so much use of it that it has become a good habit for me to apply these in all aspects of my life. To help cut through the clutter of information and overload of opinion, one of the most powerful and yet simple questions I always ask is – ‘so what?’
