Corporate Governance and Responsibility Forum – Day 2

Here are we are back to the Forum in Day 2. Multi-days forums usually show their effectiveness in following days, when the first impact of excitement is starting to wear-off. So, it is good to see that momentum remained in the second days in more heated discussions and debates to the benefit of all.

I would like to share a very interesting session we launched towards the end.

Conventional wisdom in such forums calls for pushing for concepts within these forums, so the sensible thing to do was to continue to rally for corporate governance and responsibility. BUT, we thought we wanted to challenge that. In the final session we brought two panels of experts on two sides:

1. PRO corporate governance and responsibility (makes sense!)
2. COUNTER corporate governance and responsibility (dangerous)

For some reason, I was chosen to be in the second panel and bring possible counter views on implementing governance and responsibility, which I personally thought to be fun!
So the first panel started by illustrating on the benefits that governance will bring to the region and attracting foreign investments and such, which was sort of clear after two days of workshops.

Comes our turn to “respectfully” disagree about the timing and the maturity of other systems in place before good governance and responsibility are to be in place.

I, along with my fellows, challenged that people rallying beyond governance may loose the bigger picture of the real motives behind it, which should be doing the right business and doing business right. The race towards rules and regulations may empty that good concept of its soul. I draw an analogy on the ISO certification that became the craze of the industry in the 90’s and factories were piling loads of paper trail just to show that their ISO.

My panel actually succeeded in coming up with strong arguments!

HOWEVER, towards the end we countered ourselves in saying that governance is not about just having the laws, regulations and procedures but about having the right thinking about what works and why it should work. Corporations have existed for a long time. The main mission of corporations has been and still will be to create value and wealth. In that process there has to be a balance in the environment between maintaining ethical and transparent conduct, and allowing freedom for operations.

In summary, everything we do or preach for has two sides. We need to see that and maintain an outlook at the bigger picture in our choices.

The Forum ended with a great enthusiasm and helped the attendees to exchange views and more importantly enjoy that in a relaxed atmosphere.

Until the next forum …

Corporate Governance and Responsibility Forum - Day 1

This is a forum means a lot to me since I have been involved in it since its inception (which doesn’t really mean I have been actual work organizing it! Thanks Maali! :) until it became a reality. Today (March 13th) is the first day and it seems it is up to a good start.

Audience is coming from diverse backgrounds which is enriching. We have international organizations like the OECD, NGO’s, government agencies, and of course the private sector.
In the press conference, we were faced with some good questions, and here is a summary of key responses:

• This forum has not been prepared without regard to other seemingly similar forums and conferences, contrary we consulted with others to ensure the timing and theme meshes well with other events.
• In our forum we are concerned mostly on the view and the role that the private sector can play in instituting good governance and responsibility practices. Some of the comments assumed that we are planning that in isolation of the government, which is not really accurate since we have a good participation from relevant government agencies.
• Good corporate responsibility is not an issue of creating sets of laws, but a genuine and honest desire by companies to truly engage with the interests of their societies to create a sustainable development beneficial to both.
• No matter how tight rules and regulations are weaved, they cannot ensure a perfect state of good governance, transparency and ethical conduct. There has to be a balance between creating a good operational environment and making that environment a feasible one to operate in without too many complexities.

Witnessing the discussions of the day I got with some key observations. There has been some courageous remarks of leaders in their discussions, as in “we have been spending on responsibility programs for 10 years and people do not know about it. Shall we be more vocal about it?”. Oppennes of people was really good in sharing their experiences and being honest about waht worked and what didn't.

The general mood is one that is being influenced by two main forces: the sheer amount of challenge facing this region in creating sustainable development environment that creates jobs and enhances living conditions, AND having faith that what we do today and need to do tomorrow will succeed in addressing these challenges.

Although this forum is organized by my firm and partners, I am personally very satisfied with the whole setup and the logistics, which was immaculate.

Until tomorrow ..

Everyone is a Producer! Everyone is a Star! The power of Web 2.0

Have you heard about Tila Tequila? I am sure those of who frequent MySpace have probably passed by this young lady who is becoming a known figure in modeling and singing. She did do some modeling jobs “here and there”, But her big break came three years ago when MySpace founder Tom Anderson invited Nguyen over to his new site. She is even featured in the TIME magazine issue of Dec 16th, 2006

“Over the next couple of years she turned her online persona into a full-fledged business."This is my job," she says. "That's how you maintain your popularity and keep it alive."” Now, she boasts more than 1.7 million friends on her MySpace profile! She has her own fashion line now!

The story of Tila is not an isolated one, as there are many people who became known film makers or writers and many more who will be under the lime light.

Just now I understand what Marshall McLuhan has said longtime ago that “medium is the message” and “audience is the content”, which does not need any explanation now as we are witnessing how the Web is making a difference as a communication medium and how we, as audience, are fueling the Web with our own creations.

So what is going to happen next?
Let me caught Marshall McLuhan again in his saying “if it works, it is obsolete”! So the current abilities and tools of today are soon to be out of sufficiency as people will demand more and be supplied with more.

Here is what I foresee:
1. More people will be contributing with their content in blogs, media, and “digs”.
2. Majority will not be able to sustain the drive of creations and will fall off the curve.
3. The few who will stay in the game will have a good chance of “commercializing” themselves. Already, we see video sites paying top hitters or sharing revenue. The relationship will be more professional.
4. There will be added-value services to “manipulate” content as in providing online mixing of videos (check eyespot.)
5. There will be “agent” services to check on the “creations” of people of various sources (photos posted, videos watched, or blogs written) and determine if a person is a good employee, suitable partner or a security threat.
6. We will see “hyper” sites that provide aggregation of content, access and subscription to various services.

What do we need to do?
My simple suggestions:
1. Experimentation – try out the different things that you can do online. Start a blog, upload a few pictures or videos. Use that as a learning experience of your own interests and creativity.
2. Moderation – it is easy to get sucked in this world. Watch out the time you spend online and be disciplined at the amount of time you spend online. Perhaps dedicate certain times for your online contribution. There is a real life out there!
3. Self-regulation – Always know that whatever you do online will be (or is) being watched by someone and assess what would that could mean a few years down the road.
4. Enjoy is as another channel of self-enriching source

Corporate governance forum set

RazorView, under its new trademark Schema, will hold the first regional Corporate Governance and Responsibility Forum this month.

The forum, to be held at the Mövenpick Dead Sea Hotel from March 13 to 15, will bring together leading businessmen, stakeholders, family business owners and experts of corporate governance and responsibility from the Mena region and internationally to create a localised framework for corporate governance and responsibility that compliments the regional business environment and corporate culture.

Attendees and participants will be coming from Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Egypt and Lebanon, said an official spokesman.

Regional and local companies have become aware of the competitive benefits provided by corporate governance and responsibility and their implications on developing businesses, ensuring the sustainability of businesses and the positive impact it creates on the international markets.

The forum will be addressing the corporate demand and processes to bring into effect value generating corporate governance and responsibility corporate cultures.
'The need to hold such a forum has become a necessity and well overdue in order to evolve the region's implementation of corporate governance and responsibility and align the regions business practices with international standards in a manner that is both applicable and effective in the MENA region,' said chairman of the organising committee Maali Qasem.

The idea of holding this forum has been very well acknowledged by many companies in the MENA region that believe in the necessity of implementing relevant corporate governance and responsibility concepts, and that is shown by the number of participating companies and organisations.

The forum is sponsored by Investment Dar, Agility Logistics, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, and the Arab African International BankTradeArabia News Service

Problem Solving and Strength Seeking – The Art of Appreciative Inquiry

Ask any consultant about how he (or she) approaches a typical engagement, and most probably the answer will be somewhere down these lines: “we understand the current situation, the future position, what the gaps are and then create plans to bridge that”. At the heart of this process is “problem” identification and solving. There is no “problem” with that, as we instinctively seek to identify what is “wrong” with the situation and engage in rectifying that.
However, by using negative words and descriptions (‘the problem’), we can often over-emphasize the negative aspects of the situation and depress the enthusiasm of those involved. Instead, why not look at what is working, and take that forwards? It is a more positive approach.

That is a school of thought that I recently came to learn about through a good old friend of mine (Hania Qubain), who was kind enough to direct me to “Appreciative Inquiry” (AI).

Wikipedia explains Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as ” a process for engaging people across the system in renewal, change and focused performance. The basic idea is to build organizations around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn't. A proven benefit of the approach is its reliance on the acknowledgement of contribution at the individual level, which leads to trust and organizational alignment. Since the method creates meaning by drawing from stories of concrete successes and lends itself to cross-industrial social activities, it is enjoyable and natural to many managers, who are thought to be naturally social people focused on the bottom line.”

AI manifests some key assumptions to start with:

1. In every society, organisation, group or individual, something works


2. What we focus on becomes our reality


3. Reality is created every moment. Every society, organisation, group and individual has their own realities


4. The act of asking questions of an organisation, or group influences the group in some way


5. People have more confidence to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known)


6. If we carry forward parts of the past, they should be what are best about the past


7. It is important to value differences


8. Te language we use creates our reality.
   

Appreciative Inquiry utilizes a 4-stage process focusing on:

• DISCOVER: The identification of organizational processes that work well.


• DREAM: The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.


• DESIGN: Planning and prioritizing processes that would work well.


• DESTINY (or DELIVER): The implementation (execution) of the proposed design.

I immediately felt how well AI meshes with a lot of my personal thinking that I actually decided to attempt to use it at a current case in hand, where we were asked to envision a new future for a 30-year old organization. The proposed approach captured the attention of the leadership team and clearly showed a positive change in mood, just by introducing the concept. Of course, a lot of work has to be done to carry that approach in reality. The good thing is that there are so many practitioners of AI that openly share their experiences.

We are still at the beginning of the process, so there is a lot to learn and practice. I hope for this to be a success for that organization and share the experience with the rest.

I conclude with a famous quote of Albert Einstein provoking the “genius in the question” who said ““What would the universe look like if I were riding on the end of a light beam at the speed of light?”. An attendee enlightened me that he said that when he was 16 years old!