Dr. Wolfhart H. Anders
Mo
31
Dez
2018
2019 Is Only A Few Hours Away
2019 is only a few hours away. And, of course, after the disquieting, even ominous events in 2018, we will all be concerned about what does happen in the coming year.I would like to share with you the thoughts that take me from 2018 to the New Year. And, I would like to find among all of you, that I am so proud to know, some voices to spread the message: We must make the threshold to 2019 the ‘Cusp of Change’.Let me put this into context.
It had been a wonderful year, 2018, in the little world, which Sabine and I have created for ourselves.And, I am sure, when you look back into your own memories of 2018, you will find a compatible patchwork and sequence of events that just made you happy.Sabine and myself enjoyed extensive travels to our ’homes’ away from home / We have spent unforgettable, never-ending summer days and evenings on our roof terrace in Wiesbaden talking to friends, pleasantly carried away by the best food cultures, viewing the vineyards on the opposite slope of the Nerotal. ‘Nature’ has been so very generous to German vineyards this year. (Yet, we do not forget, the same ’Nature’ made so many people on this globe suffer from climate change, wildfires and hurricanes, especially this year) / We were so happy to widen our family circle and friends in 2018 / We were granted the opportunity to maintain old relationships from over 60 years, celebrating exiting Anniversaries / We will nor forget Joseph Marioni, meeting the “painter” on the Vernissage of his Liquid Light Art Exhibition in Wiesbaden. I have collected through my life a few of his outstanding works of art / We will remember for years to come the ‘Gundermann Event’ in Bonn, meeting the Film team and Gundermann’s wife, viewing the film and listening to a wide selection of the Gundermann ‘oeuvre’ /// ….. And we are not ashamed of the roaring engine sound of our Pxxxxxe cars, knowing they are the last fossil remembrances, we will have had the pleasure to drive for the last time.Yet with all these warm remembrances we know, 2019 will not and cannot just be just a continuation of that ! We want and must become ‘agents of change’ and we hope you will help us.Outside our little world the waves of global affairs have come close to a dreadful sequence of TsunamisSo much ‘information’ has been spread about US President No. 45, the Theresa May Brexit, the Turkish majority waiting for Erdogan to tell them what to do , Kim Jong Un and his fireballs, Jamal Khashoggi’s last day, the Trump-Russia probe, Merkel’s stepping down, the MeToo movement taking a global view, Imran Khan, Christine Blasey Ford - a sad life story ridiculed by No. 45, the Venezuela crisis, the Yellow-Vest Protests in France calling for a fundamental change that can easily go beyond ’68, the trade war between US and China, No. 45 stepping down from the Iran Nuclear Deal, Worldwide Terror Attacks and gun violence, Trails of migrants in Europe and the Americas, the inhuman Yemen crisis, the Rohingya crisis tolerated by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, the Crimean Bridge and the Ukraine disputes …. and the Pope calling homosexuality just a temporary fad.We have great difficulties to decide the ’fifty shades of’ fake-news on all these subjects that have darkened our understanding of what has really happened and what we finally need to be alarmed about.My personal advice: let us read news articles in as many languages as we know, from as many news sources that we could lay our hands / eyes on, from as many political view points as we can find and let us look especially at those that we would normally not read …. and only then evaluate validity options …. and let us talk about our findings.WE HAVE ACCESS TO SO MANY CHANNELS TO COMMUNICATE !The necrologies are sweeping closer to where I amAnd, of course, thoughts creep up, that we might run out time to do all we have planned to finish, that we will not find the critical mass required to support the ‘Cusp of Change’.I am concernedI am extremely concerned about the following key items:(1) The wide-spread demands in our on-boarding generations that the ’State’ is responsible for our personal mishaps and unrealistic dreams, that the State should provide the unconditional basic income / And if the State does not do enough, there must be immediate support from the parents, heritage-distribution long before their lifetime ends(2) Social media are blamed for the ’teenage mental health crisis’, the ‘rise of populism’, the ‘Fake News Problem’ and even the ‘decline of whitetail deer herd’s in New Zealand’.What a Global Comedy!Mark Zuckerberg had to appear before US and European Parliament Committees to explain the social media platform’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data activities, where everybody could / did know that Trumps election as No. 45, the nonsense promises of the Theresa May Brexit, Modi’s elections in Gujarat and Delhi and many, many other political events of this kind were contracted by those that now stood up as judges.(3) Our loss of remembrance for historical facts that have happened in our life’s times .… It seems very likely that history “overly remembers” some events at the expense of others.Our objections against foreigners, their treatment of women f. ex., sometimes grossly forgets the historical events that changed these very same items in our society just a couple of decades ago. And, the ‘red lines’ for the far-right political parties are clearly drawn in our ‘personal history memory’ …. have we forgotten to tell the on-boarding generations about these red lines and the consequences?(4) Meeting of foreigners …. dislike, disgust, animosity, bad opinion, bias, contemptuousness, discrimination, enmity, information intolerance, narrow mindedness, preconceived notion, racial intolerance, xenophobia ….Why can we not accept foreigners as our friends, work companions and neighbors next door?I would like to find among all of you, that I am so proud to know, active supporters to make the threshold to 2019 the ‘Cusp of Change’ in our lives and our societies. Help us find a channel of communication that we can build for our ’Swimming against the deadly tide’ Movement.Let us get the Gandhi sentence across to make a first step
Sa
19
Jul
2014
Indians have an Anglo-Saxon mind and a Latin heart
Having spent 28 years in executive search, when Claudio Fernandez-Araoz says that the way companies build their talent pool needs to change, it's time to pay attention. A senior advisor at global executive search firm Egon Zehnder, Fernandez-Araoz has authored two books on talent management, Great People Decisions and the recently released It's Not the How or the What but the Who: Succeeding by Surrounding Yourself with the Best.
Talking to Corporate Dossier from Buenos Aires, Fernandez-Araoz says that the tradition of focusing on high performers isn't necessarily in the best interests of the organization. "Having done executive search for so long, I've realised that enormous value can be created if you have the right leaders at the top," he says.
Rather than looking for the high performers, he suggests a better approach is to look for high potential individuals and develop them for leadership roles. According to Fernandez-Araoz, there are five aspects to a high potential leader. "The most important thing is the right motivation, a paradoxical blend of commitment and humility. The person has to be committed to creating something larger than himself for non-selfish reasons," he says.
The other important factors are curiosity, insight, engagement and determination. He cites the example of Jack Welch, who, even after retiring from GE would end up asking more questions than answering at lectures he'd give senior executives. "The best CEOs remain curious throughout life. They also know how to use logic to go through the information they collect to separate the signal from the noise in this complex world," he says.
Further, a high performer is likely to be closely engaged with people's hearts and minds and show determination in driving large challenging objectives in good times and bad. "One reason why Indians are doing so well in global leadership roles is because they possess these factors. They are used to crisis management and dealing with adversity. I define them as having an Anglo-Saxon (logical) mind and a Latin (warm) heart - and thankfully, not the other way around," says Fernandez-Araoz.
Of course, doing this isn't necessarily easy. "Talent-spotting is going to get more difficult and companies will need innovative strategies to get it right," he says. Yun Jong-Yong who transformed Samsung from a semiconductor business to a global consumer powerhouse, did exactly that. He was the first person to place less emphasis on academic pedigree, hiring high potential students from outside Seoul's top two universities unlike the others, and actively increasing the number of women employees at all levels.
Fernandez-Araoz feels that India is well placed to take advantage of this opportunity given that it is a hotbed of innovative practices at the bottom of the pyramid. "I've seen some very creative HR strategies and a lot of discipline at that level, be it the Infosys training campus or the blanket offers Tata Consultancy Services makes to every member of the graduating class at institutes which have offered it the best results in the past," he says.
While the bottom of the pyramid may be secure, some work needs to be done at the top. Companies need to have outstanding boards that can add value on strategic decisions.
Priyanka Sangani, ET Bureau Jul 18, 2014, 08.00AM IST
Mo
14
Jul
2014
The Seeing Eye Dog
A man named Mr. Smith was flying from San Francisco to LA. Unexpectedly the plane stopped in Sacramento along the way. The flight attendant
explained that there would be a delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft, the plane would re-board in 30 minutes.
Everybody got off the plane except one gentleman who was blind. Mr. Smith had noticed him as he walked by and could tell the blind man had flown
before because his Seeing Eye dog lay quietly underneath the seats in front of him throughout the entire flight.
Mr. Smith could also tell he had flown this very flight before because the pilot approached him, and calling him by name, said Keith, we re in
Sacramento for almost an hour. Would you like to get off and stretch your legs?” Keith replied, “No thanks, but maybe the dog would like to stretch his legs”. Now, picture this: All the people in
the gate area came to a complete quiet standstill when they looked up and saw the pilot walk off the plane with the Seeing Eye dog! The pilot was even wearing sunglasses. People scattered. They
not only tried to change planes, but they were trying to change airlines!