Aloysius Chan's Blog

Review: Besides having all facts, statistics and consequences of too many meetings, it also talks about how to conduct effective meetings when they have to. Rated: 8.5/10 Half of the content is not relevant, 20% of the participants should not be there, 40% of meeting time sharing information that can be delivered outside, meeting often failed to deliver Managerials and professionals spent 2 days per week in meeting, an organisation collectively spend 15% of their time in meeting, and only half of the content is relevant and necessary to do their jobs Cost consequences: salary costs of attendees, salary costs of preparation and travel expenses involved in running the meeting; indirect costs: lost productivity, too much internal focus, delays to delivery, slow decision-making ineffective collaboration, people hate it Creating bad culture; too much information and too many people = slow consensus and heavily rely on face-to-face Attend meetings only when: your expertise is needed, ...

Review: Should be more on how to jump forward in term of breakthrough, but more on sustaining and handling the situation on different phases. Still is important as if you cannot solidify you will build a weak foundation. Rated: 7.5/10 Surprises can be good or bad, better than conventional avoid, minimise, prevent or reduce words when it comes to taking a huge leap DuPont achieve breakthrough by cutting down the costs to legal agencies Housing Works become popular because they are like Salvation Army but only accept high end goods Four Seasons use web discount to attract customers to view their heritage and built global brand A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it - John Steinbeck Leapfrogging life cycle: sparks of surprise (listen) > engaged exploration (explore) > tangible focus (act) > fear & doubt (failure zone, persist) > market surprise (seize) > breakthrough Breakthrough starts from yourself, a compelling or...

Review: a very update book on the current situation between US and China, things may change and information may be renewed but it will serves as a very good history and insights between Trump and China. Rated: 7.5 / 10 China won US in term of quantum satellite, trade, railway and 5G 2013 China launch Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and it was a huge success Obama signed the new anti-propaganda act that will create momentum that may be hard to control and this handicapped Trump Online poll shows Chinese like Trump, at least he did not use physical threat like Obama to threaten China and China does not trust Hillary Clinton Trump regard Taiwan as China and he regard the one-China policy 2017 Trump ordered a missile strike in Syria as Syrian was using Sarin gas US leaders thought countries are blocking US import and therefore decided to rock the boat Market Leninism - where IS media and academe assailed (violently attack) China’s economy system China’s aircraft carr...

Review: Using many examples and experiences from the military, this book defined how battlefield is like in the business-field - as accordance to Sun Tze. To launch an attack to the market or competition, you need to face it like a life and death situation, then you will achieve the desired result. Rated 7.5/10. Credibility = proven competence + integrity + relationship A manager’s principal task is not production but coordination Snowden & Boone’s Cynefin model: (predictable & ordered environment) obvious > complicated > (unpredictable & disordered environment) complex > chaotic Cephalopod: removed a tentacle and it will still bring food to it’s ex-host A senior role does not need to be told and will recognise those needs and resources even before any planner told him so Strategic, operational and tactical will be at its peak when it have achieved shared consciousness Edmund Burkes: “when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one...

Review: this is a book for you to achieve breakthrough, if you are not already doing something you may not fully benefit from the essence of this. When you are puzzle why many things you do doesn't matter, try create space for each area. Rated 8/10 Space is vital for deeper self-insight and sense of purpose, better strategic and creative thinking, richer relationship, delivering what really matters - therefore you can’t deliver your best or really grow as a leader unless you first create space  4 Overarching dimensions: space to think (intellectual and psychic freedom) / connect (emotional capacity) / do (prioritising) / be (step back and reflect) To think, create space to reflect > learn > decide Balancing between intuition, reflection, analysis, action Reflecting cycle: 1. What is going to happen? > 2. What do I think about this? > 3. How do I feel about this? > 4. What could happen instead? > 5. What has happened? > Back to 2. Reflective practice: t...

Review: This book went through all important aspects on building a successful business literally from 0 to 1. You can have your expansion plan or big time ambition to reach 100, however if you cannot get from 0 to 1, it means nothing. Rated: 9 / 10 Question received ideas and rethink business from scratch Dot-com crash lessons: make incremental advances, stay lean and flexible, improve on the competition, focus on product and not sales Opposite principles: it is better to risk boldness than triviality, a bad plan is better than no plan, competitive markets destroy profits, sales matters just as much as product Creative monopoly means new products that benefits everybody and sustainable profits for the creator Monopoly: proprietary technology, network effects, economy of scale, branding To succeed, you must study the endgame before anything else Success is never accidental Definite optimistic: Hegel, Marx / indefinite optimistic: Nozick, Rawls / pessimistic definite: Plato, Ari...