Monologue

You know it’s not your usual day when you’re low all day and mess up things even before bed. You know something’s wrong with you when you can’t held your head high. Not because you’re guilty, but because nobody finds you innocent. This could just be a hunch, but I’ve never been more rational. You know how it feels when you’ve been dreaming every day and all you see is your dreams being incinerated. You know it’s difficult to digest when people are multifaceted. You know how it feels when you can’t believe it, but you got to live with it. You know how it feels to be outside the locked door with the wrong key hanging. You know how it feels to be one among the bunch of morons. You know it, and it’s always good to know. Be it for nothing, or worse of things; something’s above nothing. So, I’m a proud hick, proud filthy imbecile.

I can’t stop disappointing people, maybe the only thing I’m good at. It has somehow become a part of ‘to do list’ unintentionally.  I dream and wish to do good things, and start doing good, but I don’t reach there. Such is my fate. I wonder how could this happen every now and then. I’ve got stupidest of tongue, hands and mind; I don’t think my heart is one. Because I know I never intend bad. Tongue is my greatest enemy, a necessary evil. I speak up everything, I don’t see no consequences. Hands, fingers to be precise that types every bit of horseshit. And I swear I have filthiest of mind, I’m a mean minded schnook!

Being doomed is a fiesta. I hate to say this but people love it when you’re doomed. You ask me why? I say, you ain’t alone when you’re doomed. You’re alone to be doomed but every other being around add to the miseries. Well that’s freaking life I guess. When you’re joyous you get thousands of more reasons to celebrate and when you’re down people around you make sure that you fall to the abyss of depths. Gosh! What a world we live in. Cheers to everyone involved to raise the glass with and those who are making my life more disastrous. But hey! I ain’t giving up. Bring on!

I wish I could be harsh sometimes, I really wish. And I mean harsh. Not from my hands, not from my tongue and not from my mind. These are much more familiar now, I wish I could be harsh straight from the heart. God I wish! And why do I have to be so good at forgiving? Why can’t I stand someone else begging sorry in front of me? And why it has to be me who have to lament for days when I’m mistaken. It’s so damn unfair, Life is so freaking unfair. I wonder and laugh at my own idiocy sometimes. I’m absurd to the limits. I know I can’t get all people around me pleased by me. Not a man had ever done that or will ever do. And I ain’t making history anyway by doing one. I can’t understand why on earth I’m so strained when I’m bad to anyone. Why do I have to be good to everyone? Is everyone good to me? Hell No! So why should I be?

And my feelings right now, I feel like crying. I don’t mean weeping; literally crying out all my tears. The waterworks are the liveliest proof that you’re alive, not even laughter as big could make you feel more alive. Gone are the days I changed my pillow cover every single day, not because I am that concerned about the hygiene. But because they had stains. I’d live with it happily, but this world is so into you that it’ll make a story out of it to sell it to the mass. And people will buy it, yes they will. It doesn’t matter whether you want to sell. You’ll not even get to know that it’s sold, you’ll come to know only after you hear it later. Everything can be sold these days, and the things that we considered the most priceless and invaluable in fact are the ones that do not even need to be marketed. We live in the time where feelings are browsed and selected, bought and delivered online. Yes, they mean nothing. We live in the time where tears are packaged and uploaded for sale.

You know it’s not your day when you do all your best to make people feel better and all you end up is upsetting them. What’s the use of your stories when none would listen you? What’s the point in mourning when you’ll not be consoled? What’s the point in having good faith when you’re not graced? What’s the point in having biggest of palaces in the world when you have none to live with? What’s the point in having luxurious Mercedes if it’s left for rusting without being driven? You know how it feels when you do all you could do, and all you get back is tons of guilt in return? Had I been writing on the white sheets, it’d have swollen up and the text size would grow bigger. But we live in the world where texts are inked without ink. My tears ain’t that acidic that a metal or polyester outer of a HP ProBook would suck it in to get itself swollen.

You know it’s not your day when you’re isolated for being good. Goodness pays off, I believe. But not very soon they said, well said. And it wouldn’t surprise me either if it goes unnoticed. Because the time has changed. People see and judge people at instant. They wouldn’t give a shit about nothing. People are so comfortable with the surface that they fear depth.  The world is so phony that only fraudulent survives. All goodness shall perish. Pretending is the new reality. Surface is the core. Appearance is the beauty. Shade is the light. Weakness is the strength. Venom is the antidote. Rejection is the acceptance. People who display love are loved back, not the one who loves. Pretty agreeable though, what’s tangible is the truth.

Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Nepalese Context

Better done than said they say, but it is reverse in Nepalese context. Be it the leaders of Political parties or the one heading the nation and his team, we have been promised to the limits but never delivered. Incapability or the lack of willingness whatever may the reason be, its crystal clear that we have been fooled around for some decades now. We have come through several revolutionary changes surpassing those we thought were hindrance to the growth of the nation, and experienced the governance of every political ideologies prevalent but could never make the breakthrough. And when we thought we were about to make it despite the political instability and frequent changes in government, we had to suffer two huge setbacks in recent decades. The first one being the civil war labelled People’s war by Maoists in 90s for ten long years. The historic people’s movement did end the deep rooted monarchy and political parties agreed to draft the constitution through elective Constitution assembly, but deadlock seems to be never ending. The other setback being recent devastating earthquake have added to the woes  taking lives of around 9000 people, making tens of thousands homeless and loss of major urban infrastructures.

One doesn’t need to go long back flipping the history books to notice where we stood few decades back. In fact lots of developed nations in and around South Asia and South East Asia now were far behind us in many aspects then. The turnaround they have managed in past few decades is really exemplary to nation like us still aspiring to take a leap towards economic development. Nepalese economy in the past decade is growing much slower with highest growth rate being around 6% per annum and averaging below 5% in past decade. The Current GDP is around $20 billion and is more or less stagnant as increment is very steady. So what are we lacking? Is it the governance that do not come up with the concrete plan to get the things done? Is it the implementation part? Are we erroneous in the fundamentals itself?

The ever rising unemployment rate is the result of fractional economic activities undergone in the country. Be it for the education or as a labor force, huge portion of active population flee elsewhere. Why are we not able to convince our people to find their destiny in their home? Are we creating the nation where no further generation would love to be a part of? They are bound to leave to earn their living. And those who leave for the further studies will hardly come back, not necessarily they do not want to but because they are unable to figure their future out here.

In this current scenario, until and unless the people are convinced that they can actually do something in their home to earn their living and do something for the betterment of the children, the trend will continue. And as I already stated, we have been promised to the limits and never delivered, none is ready to have faith in the idea that things will change. We are struggling to attract the foreign investor, the very few which were here they are leaving us finding it difficult to do business in Nepal, the recent example being KFC. The longer we take to figure out the problem in us and work on solving it, worsening the situation will be. Every country have their own culture, practices and unique ways of getting the things done, just that we have our own. Foreign investor investing in Nepal is just the bonus, can’t we do something on our own to drive our economy that we have to rely on foreign grants and loans every year?

The growing economy is the reflection of plenty of economic activities in the country. More the entrepreneurial activity within the boundaries, more will be the economic activities thus leading to prosperous economy. Entrepreneurs are national assets to be cultivated and motivated not just because they come up with the new enterprise but can change the way we live and work. If successful, they’ll not just create wealth out of their business but also create jobs and the conditions for a prosperous society helping maintain the living standard.  In the situation like ours where economic activity is very low entrepreneurship is key to foster the activities which not just help create demand but also creates employment opportunities which can produce a cascading effect or virtuous circle in the economy. The stimulation of related businesses or sectors that support the new venture add to further economic development. For example, when a new resort or a Hotel with very good facilities is ventured the travel agencies and transportation service provider will come up with new, better and improved ideas and facilities, and even new players can enter into the market as a result of establishment of new resort. Similarly, future development efforts in underdeveloped countries will require robust logistics support, capital investment from buildings to paper clips and a qualified workforce.

The ultimate goal of every new venture is to make money. Existing businesses may remain confined to the scope of existing markets and very few players try new things. Not necessarily every nascent entrepreneurs try new and improved offerings, products or technologies. But even if very few of them try to be innovative, they will be able to capture the new segment of the markets and thus new wealth will be created. Additionally, the cascading effect of increased employment and higher earnings contribute to better national income in form of higher tax revenue and higher government spending. This revenue can be used by the government to invest in other, struggling sectors and human capital.

Entrepreneurship could change the game of living through small tasks. Not necessarily entrepreneurship should make wealth. It could just be a catalyst for wealth generation of the people and nation. Living in Nepal, where we arguably have to give it all to get the basics of living a small act of entrepreneurship in society could actually change the living of community and in turn help the nation. For example, most of the rural areas in the Nepal have abundance of drinking water but they have problem in availability. I.e. fetching. We are blessed with the clean, hygienic and natural drinking water but people are bound to spent hours fetching them. What if someone could come up with the idea and vision to make it readily available for the people just in and around their residence? It could not only help make their life easier but also they could use their saved time in the productive sector and help the national economy itself. A village with 50 households could save 50 man hours a day at least and could invest those time elsewhere.

Some famous entrepreneurs around the world have been actively helping in community based works. Bill Gates for example gives certain portion of his earning to finance education and public health sector. This helps for the betterment of the community, society and nation itself. Overall prosperity of the nation is not possible just through one prosperous sector.

But again regulation plays a major role as everything should be nurtured and taken well care of. Unregulated entrepreneurship may lead to unwanted social outcomes including unfair market practices, pervasive corruption, financial crisis and even criminal activity. Paradoxically, a significantly high number of entrepreneurs may lead to fierce competition and loss of career choices for individuals. With too many entrepreneurs, levels of aspirations usually rise. A strong governing and regulating body for all these would be odor in gold but that’s what we have been lacking since years.

Entrepreneurship and economic development has important inputs and inferences for policy makers, development institutes, business owners and B Schools. If we understand the benefits and drawbacks, a balanced approach to nurturing entrepreneurship will definitely result in a positive impact on economy and society. One of the many ways to take Nepalese economy leaping forward would be fostering the entrepreneurial activities in the country. Guiding, mentoring and motivating entrepreneurs and supporting them in every possible aspect would help the aspiring business owners live the life of their dream enabling many jobless youths in their ventures and creating wealth for them as well as nation. This is not a onetime activity as it just sets the platform and culture for more other to follow the same path. And most importantly it could just end the national parasitism and dependencies on foreign grants and debts.

Article review on ‘Core Competency of the corporation’, HBR 1990

Overview

The article is well structured and written clearly, though its purposefulness and relevance is limited today as it is  more than 25 years the article been written. GTE and NEC were the leading players in the technology then. Things have changed now with new players entering and ruling the market. The few of the renowned players discussed in the article are still in competition and doing well around the globe includes Cannon, Panasonic, Honda, and Phillips. Etc.

Despite being well organized every reader will have some problems in following the rhythm of the article. The authors seemed to use a more intuitive approach because they didn’t give any definite guidelines for their bigger concepts. They gave lots of examples of what different businesses were doing, but didn’t go into greater detail than that. The appreciable part of the article is that the article have not lost its track and has revolved around the basics of core competencies.

Though published some 20 years back, authors C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel still have an article that is applicable today. It is focused on the content of strategy and what many different companies include in their own private strategies. Having such concrete examples and thoughts makes this article a very conceptual piece of writing. They gave examples using GTE, NEC, Canon, Honda, Xerox, Chrysler, Yamaha, Sony, Komatsu, Casio, Black & Decker, Thomson, JVC, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, GM, Toyota, Motorola, Matsushita, Philips, Goldstar, Sam Sung, Kia, Daewoo, and Ford. The article talks a little about the new idea at the time of ‘going global.’ This of course was a big deal at the time and it was something that all business had to make amends for in their own strategies. This almost forces the authors to use an implicit definition for strategy, because it is bound to be different for every single company. To portray the ‘essence of strategy,’ the others give a vivid picture of a tree. They use this for the idea of a diversified corporation, but it is a model that should be at the core every corporation; including everything from the trunk being the major core products to the leaves being the end product.

Contents Summary

The article starts with the inability of GTE to find out its core competency and use it for the sustainable growth of the company, as a result in a matter of a decade NEC went ahead of GTE despite being far behind in terms of sales. So what was the factor behind this? In today’s world, the critical task of management is to create an organization that is capable of giving those products to the customer which they need but have not even imagined. In Short run core competencies are derived from price or performance of the current product, but in long run it derives from an ability to build at lower cost more speedily than competitors. And competency do not get diminished with more use like physical assets rather it fades if not use.

The concept of competencies of an organization is well illustrated through tree structure where entire organization regarded as a tree. Trunk and major limbs are core products, smaller branches are business units, leaves flowers and fruits are end products, the root system that provides the nourishment, sustenance and sustainability are the core competencies. The article deals with the importance of the core competencies and challenges the corporation to survive in absence of core competencies.

This article offers a new model of strategic thinking by basing the core of the resulting plans in certain competencies or in other words competitive advantage that companies possess in order to put themselves in a position to defend themselves against competitive forces and create end products that the consumer will be willing to purchase.

This article raises important questions and brings to light the fact that every corporation has a core competency, on which it must at least partially base its strategy. The quote that best captures the author’s ideas states, “Does the new market opportunity add to the overall goal of becoming the best player in the world.” This quote is key because it deals with the idea of a corporation going global, but it’s also just a good quote to consider in any decision making process.

So can the core competencies be identified? Since existence in long run for every corporation depends upon its core competence, it is more than essential for every organization to identify its core competency. Competencies provide access to potential large variety of market place. The core competence should make a significant contribution to perceived customer benefit of the end product. And finally core competence should be extremely very difficult for the competitors to imitate. The degree of difficulty is even higher when it is complex harmonization of individual technology and production skills. While we get to know how to identify the competency of the company it is equally important to know the cost of forgoing core competence as it can only be partly calculated earlier. Core competency are built through a process of continuous and enhancement that may span a decade or longer, a company that has failed to invest in core competency building will find it very difficult to enter an emerging market, unless of course, it will be content simply to serve as a distribution channel.

Understanding and inferences

People and corporation often misunderstand the concept of core competency and core products. The tangible link between core competency and end product is what is called core product. Core products are components or subassemblies that actually contribute to value of end products. It is very much important to have clear distinction between core competency, core products and end products because no players can afford to be left behind in the global competition. Well targeted core products can benefit the company beyond the calculations and imagination including cost, time and risk reduction. It can lead to the economies of scale and scope.

Not all company can identify their core competency and use it properly and gain the advantage to outrun their competitors. Time has changed so do a lot of things from then when business organization used to speak the words of leading management consultants. Having the proper resources doesn’t mean company will build the competency, it is a complete blend of several other factors. According to the authors US companies do not lack the technical resources to build competitive advantage but often the top management vision to build and administer them across all level of the organization.

Developing the strategic architecture is important to identify which core competency to build and their constituent technologies. When company is considerably diversified in terms of products and services, fragmentation of core competencies is inevitable. Core competency associated with single end product is not always enough for a large company to find in the global market. Architecture is helpful for product and market diversification. Every organization wants to be the best player in its field so they will have to analyze every organizational activity in terms of whether it exploits or add to the core competency of the company. The amount of time, money, effort invested by big players in the market in developing the core competencies is tremendous which reflects the need for developing the core competency in global market. The authors have cited an example of Cannon in the early 80s where they invited many under 30 engineers to make a team of 7 members to spend two years plotting cannon’s future direction, including its future architecture. This makes it clear that you either have a core competency that makes you sustainable in long run or fade away from the market and lose your shares to either existing player or the new comers.

Conclusion on Article

The author has ended the article on the note that core competencies are the wellspring of the new business development. And it’s not the just the work of SBUs or top level rather they must work aligning with each other to come to a focused strategy and core competency. Managers have to win manufacturing leadership in core products and capture global shares through brand building program through aimed at exploiting economies of scope. With more competitive decades in sight no players in the market can afford to stay passive if they are to protect their share in the market.

Personal Application, Evaluation and Conclusion

Achievement of core competency cannot be done in isolation, it is a collective learning. It doesn’t diminish with use like physical assets but gets better with every time use. Just like changing world and environment competencies are ever changing and are dynamic in nature. Business Organization cannot afford to take rest though they possess advanced and superior competency than that of the competitor. Because you never know when your competitor will take you over and leaves you behind fighting to go ahead ever after. Thus Research and Development plays a huge role in determination, identification and proper utilization of the competency. Corporation cannot develop competency even if they have potential if they think it’s just a bunch of business, every corporation must understand that core competency is more than just business.

The article is well framed by the author to make the reader keep in track during the course of reading but is unable to do so in reviewer point of view, despite the fact that one can take a lot of positives out of this article. Especially for new players aspiring to enter into the corporate world and those aspiring to be an entrepreneur. Because entering into a business or a corporate world is not everything but the real test begins once you get in. Keeping up the pace with latest technology and changing business environment is very challenging task. And one is bound to fall if they are myopic. A corporation should be able to see their position in long run. Can they maintain the same market share and can they remain as innovative as they are now? Will they keep their core competency changing according to the need of time? Every corporate person going through this article will have these questions in mind.

The corporate world has witnessed several examples of how brutally can it hit the corporation if they are not willing to change and keep up the pace of change in technology and events around the globe. Nokia, Kodak, Xerox are the recent very good illustration to the immediate world to explain the extent of brutality. The market share and valuation of the company pays nothing if corporation is not willing to address the current need of the market. No matter how good your product and service are, what matters is whether you are willing to update and change according to the trend and need. So, what every corporation need is core competencies not only to stand out against the competitors but also to gain a long term sustainability through regular revision.