Read my first post and second post to understand better.
Yeah that didn’t turn out as planned. It basically went down the drain. After more than 1 year, I’m finally back here. But Fred Wilson, the one who inspired me to blog on daily basis, kept on blogging, without failed. So in the span of a year, he has written 365 posts, which I too could have accomplished. I wish.
Anyway, let’s move on. I am here because I am inspired (sometimes baffled) by the daily musings of Malaysian political and corporate landscape and the work that I’m currently doing. I could totally relate to the “Managing in Adversity” course I took in MIT. Everyday we are feeling anxious, everyday we are fighting, but at the same time we remain hopeful, because we believe in the institution and we believe in the new government. What’s the ordeal you might wonder.
UNCERTAINTY.
How do you remain steadfast on the vision you set-forth when the overarching mandate is in question? How do you continue with your project’s execution when the only direction you have from the management is to pause on any long-term work until you have better clarity? How do you ensure the short-term work gets implemented despite not knowing if the end goal will be approved by the management? How do you manage your stakeholders and investee companies? How do you motivate yourself and your team to keep going? What do you do when you are continuously in limbo?
If you believe in the value, nothing else matters. Nothing should stop you until you are being told otherwise. That’s the spirit I carry to work everyday. We fight till our last breath!
My current project involves me dealing with some of our investee companies (GLCs) and we would need the new management’s approval before we continue to the next step and then we would need to get the buy in from their management. It’s a lot of work and it involves a lot of different parties. They all have the same question as you which you yourself don’t know the answer. So, what do we do?
- Wait and do nothing; or
- Continue to complete the agreed milestones while at the same time prepare to convince the new management and pull off the final show when you get the greenlight; or
- Just bulldoze assuming the project will not be cut off because you believe in the potential value creation
Always go for the second choice, unless you are a start up or private company that your chairman/CEO is one of your family members then go for the 3rd choice.
Dayana Omar 