sebuah PIKNIK yang gagal !

Piknik, sebuah acara yang seringkali kita tahu dan kenal. Bisa dilakukan oleh keluarga atau sebuah kelompok atau pun kantoran. Piknik bisa kemana aja. Ke pantai bersama, makan bersama di resto yang terkenal, mancing bersama atau bahkan sebuah bhakti sosial bisa menjadi piknik. Piknik yang dilakukan oleh keluarga bisa lebih mudah dalam pelaksanaanya, karena kedekatan hari dan pikiran sehingga acara itu bisa dilaksanakan, karena satu komunitas yang sama. Namun piknik yang dilakukan oleh kantor kadangkala susah dilaksanakan atau paling tidak tidak semua anggota kantor bisa ikut piknik itu. Kenapa?? Meskipun dalam komunitas yang sama tetapi masing-masing belum punya kesamaan hati dan pikiran. Ada yang mau tapi jangan lama-lama, ada yang mau tapi ninggalin keluarga, ada yang gak bisa karena ada acara, dsb. dsb. Lha, terus bagaimana ini sebuah piknik bisa terlaksana? Paling tidak hal-hal berikut bisa menjadi solusi: persiapan harus matang, piknik bukan pemaksaan, piknik jangan lama-lama, piknik jangan jauh-jauh, menggunakan moda transportasi yang mudah dan murah, serta ada tujuan yang jelas. Mohon maaf kepada teman-teman Netwave Multi Media, karena kita tidak bisa piknik bareng-bareng.

Foto diatas mudah-mudahan bisa jadi piknik melalui blog ini : Water Bridge in Germany: six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long, this is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration.

Learn From The Future (LFTF)

Gila! Itu sebenarnya yang saya pikirkan ketika hari ini dengerin pelajarannya Prof. Dr. Martani Huseini. Bayangkan, gimana coba terjemahkan makna dari Learn From The Future ? Sebenarnya tentang hal itu ada bukunya, karangan Gary Hamel. Saya sendiri belum baca. Cuman Prof MH udah instruksi gini 'mau ikut bimbingan thesis saya? .. baca Gary Hamel!' Menurut saya ini dari LFTF adalah urusan globalisasi yang pasti akan sampai ke seluruh aspek bisnis di dunia dimana saja berada. Hanya masalah waktu. Apa yang harus siap dengan globalisasi? Prof MH tadi bilang, hanya ada 4 hal yaitu : BETTER, CHEAPER, FASTER dan NEWER.

Coffee Morning

Hampir dua tahun sudah, di perusahaan Netwave Multi Media berlangsung forum yang bagus sekali, yaitu COFFEE MORNING. Coffee morning sebagai salah satu usaha untuk meningkatkan dan memelihara aspek-aspek yang baik tentang budaya perusahaan. Di perusahaan-perusahaan lain yang sudah maju, coffee morning dikenal dengan breakfast briefing (BHP) atau morning earthquake! (SAS), visi dan misinya adalah sama yaitu sharing each other. Budaya organisasi, memang harus dijaga dengan hal-hal yang seperti ini. Coffee morning di Netwave Multi Media sendiri, memang di-inisiasi oleh Direktur Utama sendiri, yaitu Bapak Wawan Setiawan. Dalam forum ini, setiap karyawan setiap bulannya dipersilakan untuk menyampaikan presentasi dalam apa saja. Dalam coffee morning tanggal 02 Desember 2005 kali ini, saya menyampaikan presentasi berjudul BUDAYA ORGANISASI. Sharing Each Other Grow Together.

(Inset foto : Yohanes Arianto, Wawan Setiawan, Sapta Wijaya, Tati Setyowati - Coffee Morning 02 Desember 2005)

The Types Of Charismatic Leaders

Self-confidence.They have complete confidence in their judgment and ability.

A vision. This is an idealized goal and the status quo, the more likely that followers will attribute extraordinary vision to the leader.

Ability to articulate the vision. They are able to clarify and state the vision in terms that are understandable to others. This articulation demonstrates an understanding of the followers’ needs and, hence, acts as a motivating force.

Strong convictions about the vision. Charismatic leaders are perceived as being strongly committed, and willing to take on high personal risk, incur high costs, and engage in self-sacrifice to achieve their vision.

Behavior that is out of the ordinary. Those with the charismaengage in behavior that is perceived as being novel, unconvetional, and counter to norms. When succesful, these behaviors evoke surpise and admiration in followers.

Perceived as being change agent. Charismatic leaders are perceived as agents of radical change rather than as caretakers of the status quo.

Environment sensitivity.These leaders are able to make realistic assessments of the environmental constraints and resources needed to bring about change.

Source:Based on J.A. Conger and R.N.Kanungo,”Behavioral Dimensions of Charismatic Leadership,” in J.A. Conger and R.N. Kanungo , Charismatic Leadership (San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988), p.91.

Strategy Safari

Using the analogy of the blind men trying to describe an elephant (remember the story where the one feeling its tail thought it was like a rope, the one feeling its leg thought it was like a tree, the one feeling its tusk thought it was like a spear, etc.) Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel discuss various approaches to strategic planning. They identify 10 different schools of thought, and describe in chapters devoted to each, its history and origins, basic concepts, applications, advantages and disadvantages, and situations in which that approach to strategic planning may be appropriate.

At the outset of the book, in attempting to define this amorphous beast, they outline what they call 'the 5 P's of strategy', which are really five different ways of thinking about the essential characteristics of strategic planning. These are:

1) strategy as a plan ­ a guide for a course of action, a path from a current state to a desired future end state2) strategy as a pattern ­ "...that is, a consistency of behavior over time. A company that perpetually markets the most expensive products in its industry pursues what is commonly known as a high-end strategy, just as a person who always accepts the most challenging of jobs may be described as pursuing a high-risk strategy." (p.9)

3) strategy as position ­ the location of particular products in particular markets.

4) strategy as perspective ­ "in Peter Drucker's memorable phrase, this is the "theory of the business" (p.13) ­ it represents strategy as a particular philosophy of the business in terms of interacting with the customer, or the way(s) in which goods or services are supplied.

5) strategy as a ploy ­ under this definition, strategy is a means of gaining market share through a specific maneuver, designed to outwit a competitor or opponent.

The authors also discuss at the outset of the book the pros and cons of the various reasons why strategic planning has been thought to be beneficial in an organization. These are:

- strategy sets direction ­ while this is clearly beneficial, the danger is that the blinders that a strategic plan can impose upon an organization can make it difficult to appreciate new opportunities and possibilities as they arise- strategy focuses effort ­ true, but the downside risk is that managers within an organization can get locked into a particular form of "groupthink", again missing out on potential new opportunities

- strategy defines the organization ­ again true to some extent, but the danger here is that the rich diversity inherent within the organization can get overlooked or lost by an overly simplistic stereotype of "what the organization is all about"

- strategy provides consistency ­ assuredly important, but consistency for consistency's sake, without having a clear market-oriented reason for this, is the obvious danger here
So it is apparent that the authors do not necessarily regard strategic planning as a good thing in all cases; they clearly indicate that there are dangers that an overly rational or overly rigorous approach can pose.The core of the book is a detailed description of each of the 10 schools. They differentiate between two categories in this regard: the prescriptive schools, which attempt to identify directions for action on the part of the company based on an assessment of its current situation and that of the environment within which it operates, and the descriptive schools, which simply attempt to understand the historical reasons why a given company is where it is at a particular point in time.

The 10 schools are listed below; the accompanying chart (click here) provides further details on each:

Prescriptive Schools

1) Design School: This approach regards strategy formation as a process of conception, matching the internal situation of the organization to the external situation of the environment. Thus the strategy of the organization is designed to represent the best possible fit.
2) Planning School: Here strategy formation is seen as a formal process, which follows a rigorous set of steps from analysis of the situation to the development and exploration of various alternative scenarios.
3) Positioning School: Under this approach, which is very heavily influenced by the works of Michael Porter, strategy formation as an analytical process placing the business within the context of the industry that it is in, and looking at how the organization can improve its competitive positioning within that industry.
Descriptive Schools
4) Entrepreneurial School: This approach regards strategy formation as a visionary process, taking place within the mind of the charismatic founder or leader of an organization.
5) Cognitive School: This approach, based upon the science of brain functioning, regards strategy formation as a mental process, and analyzes how people perceive patterns and process information.
6) Learning School: This school of thought regards strategy formation as an emergent process, where the management of an organization pays close attention to what works and doesn't work over time, and incorporates these 'lessons learned' into their overall plan of action.
7) Power School: Here strategy development is seen to be a process of negotiation between power holders within the company, and/or between the company and external stakeholders.
8) Cultural School: This approach views strategy formation as a collective process involving various groups and departments within the company; the strategy developed is thus a reflection of the corporate culture of the organization.
9) Environmental School: Here strategy formation is seen to be a reactive process: a response to the challenges imposed by the external environment.
10) Configuration School: In this final approach, the purpose of strategy formation is seen as a process of transforming the organization from one type of decision-making structure into another.

In each of these schools, the process of strategy formulation itself is regarded as something of a "black box" ­ none of them are able to clearly describe how an individual or group is able to leap from the collection and analysis of information, to the conceptualization of alternative courses of action (although they do concede that the cognitive school comes closest). Overall, the authors appear to prefer the 'learning school' (they are teachers, after all), because of the emphasis that it places on an organization incorporating input from its environment, and adapting over time.
In the final analysis, just as none of the blind men's descriptions of the elephant was completely adequate, yet each contained elements of truth, none of these 10 approaches is complete in and of itself, either. Each offers some useful concepts, and some strong points to aid understanding, but has its disadvantages as well (again, see the chart).

As well as providing a useful illumination of the origins and characteristics of the different schools of thought, Strategy Safari also makes for a very enjoyable and entertaining read. Mintzberg et.al. have done an excellent good job of taking a difficult and potentially deadly boring subject and rendering it interesting. The book is highly recommended for anyone embarking upon, or engaging in, a strategic planning process.