Business Transformation
Transformation of a business is a human process (technology hasn't caught up with this one yet!). In 15 years of advicing CEOs and coaching executive teams, I have repeatedly found that all the critical answers to transform a business are within the minds and hearts of the people who run the business. All I do is ignite the genius that is already present in people. In this section, I am sharing with you the framework, methods and concepts that have helped me kindle passion, creativity and innovation in organizations. I welcome your own insights and experiences that can help business transformation.
January 11, 2005
Four Questions
An Approach to Ignite Your Natural Genius - Prasad Kaipa, Ph. D. ( download this article in pdf ) I found four questions to be extremely important in working with CEOs and senior executives in assisting them and their organizations identify their unique DNA. (While the term “DNA” could refer to both personal DNA or organizational DNA, for this article, I will focus just on personal DNA). How we use this approach to understand and map organizational DNA will be subject of another article. By tapping into our DNA, we can find ways distinguish ourselves, unleash our authentic leadership, evoke...Posted by pkaipa at 12:30 PM | Comments (1219) | TrackBack
January 14, 2005
The Art of Accomplishment
Six Principles for 21st Century Leaders: In my 15+ years of work with organizations and senior executives, I found the following six principles, derived from spiritual literature to be quite helpful in coaching executives to become successful in these times of great change. I discussed these principles about six years ago in a talk and this article came out of it. A brief commentary about each principle is described in this article, although the best way to learn more about them is to practice them regularly. The six principles are: 1) Clarity of intention 2) Awareness of self and what...Posted by pkaipa at 05:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 18, 2005
Efforts Vs Results
Today I had a conversation with my friend Sudhakar Ram about effort vs. result. He told me how some people focus on putting in great effort and how they attribute what they got to fate. Some others on the other hand, focus on result. In some sense, he said, maybe effort and result are not quite connected. He quoted our mutual friend Dr. Mohan Rao and said ‘only barbers can measure results based on their efforts with certainty.’ Is that really true? Does effort have no connection with result? My mind immediately went to Bhagavad Gita statement about not focusing...Posted by pkaipa at 05:17 PM | Comments (166) | TrackBack
January 26, 2005
Mapping the Organizational DNA
A Living System Approach to MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS Prasad Kaipa , and Thomas Milus, KaipaGroup, formerly SelfCorp, and Kathie Dannemiller, Dannemiller Tyson Associates. Download this article ( PDF file, 164 KB ) Overview This chapter focuses on a systems view of leadership, strategy, structure and culture and the dynamic nature of the relationships between them and how these relationships could impact the outcomes in mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures. More specifically, the human aspect of the system (in this case an organization) is at the heart of this chapter. As such, market and technical analysts, financial strategists, the local...Posted by pkaipa at 06:03 PM | Comments (2839) | TrackBack
January 27, 2005
Acres of Diamonds: by Russell Conwell:
All Good Things Are Possible, Right Where You Are, and Now. (Conwell's famous lecture, "Acres of Diamonds," made him America's foremost platform orator. By the end of his life, in 1925, he had delivered the lecture more than 6,000 times in town after town throughout this vast land. It was heard by millions from pulpits and public platforms, and by radio, and today others are still reading his practical, optimistic essay and hearing it on cassettes. He founded Temple University, a worthy cause, from over $8 million dollars that he earned from telling Acres of Diamonds Stories) In 1870 when...Posted by pkaipa at 08:47 AM | Comments (959) | TrackBack
March 10, 2005
In Search of a New HP Way
“If you were to be advising the board of HP, what would you say,” a friend and a CEO of a services company asked me. He knows that I am an advisor to CEOs and boards for the past 17 years. And that I help them to identify their company DNA and see whether potential candidates for executive positions have a personal DNA that aligns with that of the company. “Now that Carly Fiorina has resigned from the company”, my friend said, “the HP board has another opportunity to restore the legend of HP. Would you recommend that they...Posted by pkaipa at 05:19 PM | Comments (156) | TrackBack
March 22, 2005
What is your Core Incompetence?
This article was published in the November 2004 issue of Managementnext. You can see the table of contents of the current issue by going to http://managementnext.com/ Editor: Benedict Paramanand benedict@managementnext.com> Past successes are holding many companies and managers back from moving forward. Is there a way out? Theoretically, our core strengths alone are sufficient to move us forward with velocity towards living our larger purpose. But there are times when we have the nagging feeling that despite having identified a motivating purpose, we are not making fast enough progress. To resolve this dilemma, we must understand that each of us...Posted by pkaipa at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 07, 2005
Vision, Mission... Confusion.
We had a conversation about purpose, vision and mission in a board meeting that I recently attended. These have become rubber words – you can stretch them any way you want and don’t mean very much for many people because they see them all the time on the walls of conference rooms in companies but rarely pay attention to them in terms of providing service to customers or dealing with employees let alone dealing with investors. On the other hand, I have more and more executives (and friends) who are exploring what they are about and what their purpose in...Posted by pkaipa at 12:23 PM | Comments (123) | TrackBack
April 08, 2005
Ground Rules: What I learned in Kindergarten
Mr. Alan Mullaly, the President of Boeing Commercial Aircraft used to be the General Manager of 777 project in mid-90s while I was working as a consultant to develop senior executive development program. He used to operate his weekly project review meetings by a set of guidelines or ground rules every week. He is an inspirational person and I admire his passion, energy and how he brought his leadership skills wherever he want. Here is a small story of how Mullaly helped his kindergarden kid and his friends to create a set of ground rules in their class. Mullaly's son...Posted by pkaipa at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 26, 2005
Reflections on music in the context of self-management
Prasad Kaipa, Ph. D. and Giridhar Tirumalai, Ph. D. During the 20th century Industrial Age, people and machines worked side by side with little difference between them in terms of the expected output. Efficiency management (of a machine or a person) was the primary focus then. In the 21st century Knowledge Age, the survival and growth of a company depends not merely on efficiency but effectiveness, not on repetitiveness but on innovation, not on one-time success but continuous growth that is sustainable. Effectiveness, Innovation and Sustainability are not objective, external factors and cannot be achieved by efficiency-management by others; they...Posted by pkaipa at 03:24 PM | Comments (281) | TrackBack