Social Consulting Toolkit – YSEALI PFP Fall 2015 Experience in Deloitte

I’ll open my writing with some common questions for NGO practitioner. Is this a good business idea? How I grow my organization? How can we work more efficiently? How to secure sustainable resource? These are common questions that NGO practitioner has. But, people who’re good on answering the questions, mostly situated in management positions and not within reach to help those NGO practitioners. That’s what I realize back then when I was working in management consultancy, and hence decide to lend my expertise to some of NGO and startup practitioner friends to support their strategy and management decisions to help them grow and create more impact to society.

And that’s the background of why I apply for YSEALI Fall 2015 Professional Fellowship Program, under economic empowerment cohort where I have a chance to learn about social consulting in Deloitte. Have been advising several organizations, and currently act as active chairman and advisor of Forum for Indonesia, I want to create more impact to Indonesia by built a team of social consultants / advisors to leverage more impacts to society. And to lead a team, I need to have strong fundamental of the subject. Understand well, teach, and leverage it with the team to create bigger impacts through the hands of more people which were the core future looking objective that I would like to achieve from my fellowship.

After month full of discussions with ~70 experts in the field, at the end fellowship we come up with tailored framework to support NGO. We call this framework as social space framework as the capability is to help NGO practitioner to tackle their issue on each sections that we define as spaces. Start from idea, growth, and streamline space. For more information, kindly refer to figure 1.

Figure 1: Social space framework

The journey has been worthwhile, the product has been well made, and now it’s time to leverage this learning into impact. A good friend in Deloitte pose this question “If what you’re passionate on is strategy consulting and advisory, how big is the impact you could do if you do it alone?” and that’s make sense. Framework is just the first step on the whole impact proposition. The important next step is on how the framework could be leveraged to gather and enable more NGO pro bono consultants. I might have the capability because of the social enterprise related pro bono work that I’ve done, but the real impact would be realized if we able to gather and enable more creative minds to create bigger impact. To borrow Deloitte tagline, it is time to make impact that matters! Thanks a lot Deloitte, US State Department, and American Councils, for the opportunity of attending YSEALI PFP program. It’s surely something that leaps my perspective by miles!

YSEALI PFP – Volunteering in Washington DC

During my YSEALI PFP fellowship, I had the opportunity to spend my day volunteering at Carpe Librum, used bookstore in downtown Washington, D.C. What’s interesting from this bookstore is the profit would be used to fund its parent organization named “Turning the Page”, which activities revolve around improvement of D.C. students learning environments through their parent engagement programs.

My responsibility for the day is to structure and organize books in business & economic section to ease navigation of potential buyer. Because there’re so many books piled up randomly, it is hard for potential buyer to the title collection. Simple as it heard, it’s really daunting that we spent half day to organize everything.

During my volunteering here, I found that it’s an interesting model of social movement. And in essence, it should be possible to replicate this model in our home society. On top of it, there’re several things that I think would be interesting to be noted here, which crystalize the essence of NGO and volunteering:

1. Connection with society
You know what’s cool with having a shop? Opportunity to meet with all range of people! Wherever it is, whatever it is, NGO always depend on people to support their movement. Hence, connection with people is essential. Warm and passionate volunteer at the cashier could be the main factor to attract strong supports for volunteer & donation.

2. Kindred spirits
There’re hundred books donated, and not just any book, many of them are high quality books. Some of the big names like freakonomic and built to last also found among them. I found it interesting that people have this helping heart where they really donate quality books for a cause.

3. Virtue could be brought from simple act
Last take away is that, even simple act could bring virtue. However small it is, act of virtue in everyday life is worthy.

Charismatic Leader – A lecture by Sam Potolicchio

When I recollect my notes, I found this really interesting note from leadership lecture by Sam Potolicchio as part of my YSEALI PFP program in Washington DC. Sam Potolicchio is Director of Global and Custom Education at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and named as one of “America’s Best Professors” by Princeton Review, the only one in his field and the Future Leader of American Higher Education by the Association of Colleges and Universities. Really love his lecture and I think it would be useful to share it. It’s really interesting because he bring out the samples from politic areas and try to construct a conclusion on what make a political leader really stand out and different.

So, what’s charismatic leader? Sam informally defines it as leader with strong contrast. Contrast is something that would make you unique and hence recognizable by society. In addition, strong contrast would need to be accompanied with 2 hygiene factors: competence over their respective field (strength) and trust from people (warmth). These 3 (contrast, competence, and trust) are traits, that not only differentiate, but also make a leader really stand out over the others.

So, what do we need to create those 3? Sam share some tips:
1. Ability to attend / observe. A leader needs to be able to attend / observe many things around them (country, colleagues, sub-ordinate, society, and even follower/fans) because they need to make a stand point /decision in their daily lives. Don’t drag too much in unimportant task, because human is not a good multi-tasking organism.
2. Attentive to subliminal signal / body language
3. Ability to create Halo effect. Halo effect is something that makes you trust and create feeling of similarity with other person. This one is really apparent in political figures, and it could be built and practiced from the way you use language (verbal and non-verbal).
4. Be flowsome could make you awesome. Means, what would make a leader awesome is the way they could handle the flows of where things are going.
5. Handle unexpected conditions well.

Hope it’s useful for you, aspiring leaders!

Leaders – Made, Not Born?

Just had a wonderful discussion about leadership which led us to a conclusion that “leaders are made, not born”. This kind of idea is well supported by many writers in the field of leadership, for example by Nicholas Bate [1]. Leaders made by learn certain skill set and experiences in leading people over time, other than the true nature of the person itself [2].

Leaders can be made! It meant we can make a new effective and efficient leader for the next generation. Yet, why many people can’t rise as local leaders at certain environment? From the discussion we had a unique conclusion, “environment is the key”. Therefore, it is important for a potential person to have a good influence from the environment. It is the environment that built manner and capability. In my experience, StudentsxCEOs built my awareness and knowledge about business, while Young Leaders for Indonesia built awareness about contribution and capability of young leaders in Indonesia.

To sum up, there are 2 important way to build a great leader; they are “knowledge” and “environment” [2]. By took the right composition of both ingredient, one can become great leader for the future society.

References

[1] Nicholas Bate. 2008. Instant MBA: Think, perform and earn like a top business-school graduate (52 Brilliant Ideas) [Book]

[2] Young Leaders for Indonesia. 2012. [Training Session]

Era of IT Analytic

Introduction

Year 2012 is predicted to become the year of analytics. Most corporate already install analytic or business intelligence system to support their business. Big corporation start to realize that analytic can support and save their spending on human experts and efforts. Many aspects on our modern society will depend on this technology on near future.

Why?

Just Imagine, how to analyze the pattern found on a gene illness. Traditionally, researchers look the data one by one. Semi modern researcher use tools like Microsoft Excel or maybe Mat Lab to analyze the data further. But nowadays technology enable computer to find the pattern by itself. This technology is called as data mining and its derivation on business called business intelligence / analytic.

Where?

It has been taking place all over the world. Accenture, Cap Gemini, IBM, and Microsoft frequently report about their success in implementing Business Intelligence (interchangeably with analytic and data mining) all over the world. It is the new hype of information technology on hand for current organization.

Closing

As analytic is going to become a mundane tools for organization to thrive, it is a good time to try to use analytic for our own good. The simplest on is used on blog to track how many people came, the more complex one used on Facebook analytic. Many aspect of our modern technology has used this technology, nowadays. Happy try, learn, and get the essence of analytic software then! 🙂

Belbin Team Roles – A Method on Decide Team Member

Introduction

As MBTI is not enough to determine whether teamness will occur or not, Dr.Meredith Belbin study 9 team roles. These roles need to be balanced to make a good team. There are some critics on this method, yet we can still get some jewel in implement this approach.

The Roles

1. Shaper: People who like to shape things. Keep challenge people to improve continuously.

2. Implementer: Get things done. Make ideas into action.

3. Completer-Finisher: Ensure no error in the work. Perseverance people.

4. Coordinator: Guide people. The leader.

5. Team Worker: Make sure the team work well together.

6. Resource Investigator: Innovative people. Explore options. Extrovert.

7. Plant: Innovator with new ideas. Introvert.

8. Monitor-Evaluator: Analyze other’s idea.

9. Specialist: Own specialized knowledge to make job done.

Conclusion

The 9 roles are very important to be balanced in team to ensure teamness. An individual may take multiple role and yet, the accumulation of people strength and weakness become the team strength and weakness. That’s why it is important to pick your team well.

Further Study

Belbin Website. http://www.belbin.com

Belbin’s Team Roles. Mindtools. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_83.htm

Team Role Inventories. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Role_Inventories

5C & 4P – Basic Case Study Framework

Introduction

As it is another new recruitment period for some top tier consulting company in Indonesia, people constantly ask me about how to approach case studies problem. They always unconvinced when I introduce my secret technique (5C&4P) as it seems very simple. But, as the discussion goes, I always delighted at time I saw they start running after got acquainted with this method.

3C (Product Mix)

3C (Product Mix) is a concept developed by Kenichi Ohmae, a former partner of McKinsey & Company consulting firm. 3C view the problem from the view point of the company, customer, and competitor. This framework is useful to build a strong foundation on our problem. At least we know what’s the general condition of the company, how the customer react lately, and what’s our position regarding our competitor. For you guys who interested on 3C concept, you can read it further from “further reading” section below.

4P (Marketing Mix)

4P (Marketing Mix) is a concept developed by Neil Borden and simplified by E. Jerome McCarthy. 4P view problem from the view point of Product, Pricing, Place, and Promotion. This framework is useful to attack the problem tied with selling when the foundation (covered by 3C) is clear. For you guys who interested on 4P concept, you can read it further from “further reading” section below.

5C

While 3C is good to cover the basic information needed, 4P is not strong enough to cover general problem likely to be asked. This is the time when 5C (as it is my secret technique) play the role. 5C is an extended version of 3C (which is rarely used, let alone be known). 5C is composed of company, customer, competitor, Collaborator, and Context. 5C strengthen the power of 3C, and together with 4P, they can deliver great result on your case problem. For you guys who interested on 5C concept, you can read it further on “Situation analysis” from “further reading” section below.

Conclusion

It is very hard to nail the case without a good framework, yet we can’t nail the case by framework only. It is the balance that’s important. 5C-4P is a good start to improvise and tweak your own method along the way.

Further Study

3C’s Model. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3C%27s_Model

Marketing mix. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_mix

Kenichi Ohmae. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenichi_Ohmae

Situation Analysis. Net MBA. http://www.netmba.com/marketing/situation/

6 Thinking Hats of Edward De Bono – A Practical Tool in Brainstorming Meeting

Introduction

6 thinking hats of Edward de Bono is a great concept to help you do brainstorming in strategic meeting. While it heard like a funny concept, it hold an important notion on analysis and decision concept, which is “it is all about perspectives”. Edward de Bono history itself is very exciting to read and you can read it by yourself here.

Concept

The concept of the thinking hats is simple. There are 6 type of perspectives that we can use (later on wrote as “hat”), they are white hat, red hat, black hat, yellow hat, green hat, and blue hat. White hat means we are looking into the data. White hat process the problem logically, while red hat process the problem emotionally. Black hat attack the problem from defensive and cautious perspective, while yellow hat look the opportunity in a very positive state. Green hat means a creative thinking perspective. Green hat enforces you to think out of the box, out of ordinary. The blue hat resembles the position of the meeting leader, the one who decides when to change from one perspective (“hat”) to the other.

Experience Sharing

From my experience, this concept is very powerful, especially in brainstorming process. The blue hat (leader) can choose how we approach the problem. When the leader chooses to use white hat, we can see some pattern in data. Yet data is not the only matter, emotion possibly be the key to problem you seek, so the blue hat can change to the red hat mode and so on. Simply speaking, the blue hat is the key to unleash the team power as it is the leader who chooses which hat we’ll use for a while.

Further Study

Edward de Bono Website. http://www.edwdebono.com/

Six Thinking Hats. Mindtools. http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTED_07.htm

[StudentsxCEOs] Knowledge from Mandiri Micro Retail Director (Mr. Budi Sadikin)

Introduction

Just awhile, StudentsxCEOs team meets with Mr. Budi Sadikin, Managing Director of Micro and Retail in Bank Mandiri. In this 2 hours session, he shares some tips in living our professional lives.

Tips & Tricks

1. “Di atas langit masih ada langit”. Stay humble. You’re not the greatest person in the universe!

2. Pressure makes you stronger. Sometime we need pressure to improve ourselves.

3. In choosing your future career, choose the one that suit you well. Don’t make money as your only criteria as it will bring you more curse than benefit.

4. In decide a hard problem, use your heart!

5. Don’t be naive in working.

6. Teamwork is very important! Choose your team well. Pick people that are comfortable with you, not because they are star player only.

7. There will always be incline and decline in life

8. Learn how to forget embitterment.

9. be active in organization! You didn’t get executive level skills from schools.

10. Take time to hear how great people think! 1 hour of discussion with great people means 1 year of learning. Learn how he/she walk, speak, think, and engage!

11. Don’t build intellectual trap. Always respect others opinion! Never felt arrogant because of your achievement.

12. Leader in business must learn on how to explain hard corporate strategy into simple words, easy to understand.

Join us

Join with StudentsxCEOs events are great experience for me. It is such a great chance to meet a CEO and learn directly from them. So, you guys who want to meet great CEOs like what we’ve experienced, check our website and Facebook fan page. There you can see an opportunity to apply as our guest star. Don’t miss the chance to become our guest stars J

References

Introduction

Why?

Where?

Closing

Introduction

The Roles

Conclusion

Further Study

Introduction

3C (Product Mix)

4P (Marketing Mix)

5C

Conclusion

Further Study

Introduction

Concept

Experience Sharing

Further Study

Introduction

Tips & Tricks

Join us

Introduction

Points to consider as a leader

DNA for leader

How to lead

Leadership orientation

Conclusion

Join us