100 Greatest Quotes on Leadership

1. A good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible. ~Polybius
2. A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit. ~John Maxwell
3. A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better. ~Jim Rohn
4. A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. ~George Patton
5. A great person attracts great people and knows how to hold them together. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
6. A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. ~Lao Tzu
7. A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. ~Rosalynn Carter
8. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. ~Max Lucado
9. A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless. ~Charles de Gaulle
10. A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent. ~Douglas MacArthur
11. All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. ~John Kenneth Galbraith
12. Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. ~Helen Keller
13. As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth. ~John Whittier
14. As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others. ~Bill Gates
15. Authenticity is the alignment of head, mouth, heart, and feet ~thinking, saying, feeling, and doing the same thing ~consistently. This builds trust, and followers love leaders they can trust. ~Lance Secretan
16. Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others. ~Jack Welch
17. Do what you feel in your heart to be right–for you’ll be criticized anyway. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
18. Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. ~George S. Patton Jr.
19. Don’t waste your energy trying to educate or change opinions; go over, under, through, and opinions will change organically when you’re the boss. Or they won’t. Who cares? Do your thing, and don’t care if they like it. ~Tina Fey, Bossypants
20. Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. ~Stephen Covey
21. Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people. ~John D. Rockefeller
22. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand. ~General Colin Powell
23. Great leaders are not defined by the absence of weakness, but rather by the presence of clear strengths. ~John Zenger
24. He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander. ~Aristotle
25. I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure, which is: Try to please everybody. ~Herbert Swope
26. I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier. ~Oprah Winfrey
27. I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious. ~Albert Einstein
28. I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men. ~Lao Tzu
29. I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers. ~Ralph Nader
30. I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. ~Mohandas Gandhi
31. I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. ~Gilbert K Chesterton
32. If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story. ~Barbara Greene
33. If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader. ~Dolly Parton
34. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. ~John Quincy Adams
35. In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~Thomas Jefferson
36. Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds. ~SEAL Team Saying
37. Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. ~Steve Jobs
38. It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well. ~J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
39. It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. ~Nelson Mandela
40. It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. –Charles Darwin
41. Jesus said several times, Come, follow me. His was a program of do what I do, rather than do what I say. His innate brilliance would have permitted him to put on a dazzling display, but that would have left his followers far behind. He walked and worked with those he was to serve. His was not a long~distance leadership. He was not afraid of close friendships; he was not afraid that proximity to him would disappoint his followers. The leaven of true leadership cannot lift others unless we are with and serve those to be led. ~Spencer W. Kimball
42. Just because something isn’t a lie does not mean that it isn’t deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction. ~Criss Jami
43. Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
44. Leaders are not, as we are often led to think, people who go along with huge crowds following them. Leaders are people who go their own way without caring, or even looking to see, whether anyone is following them. Leadership qualities are not the qualities that enable people to attract followers, but those that enable them to do without them. They include, at the very least, courage, endurance, patience, humor, flexibility, resourcefulness, stubbornness, a keen sense of reality, and the ability to keep a cool and clear head, even when things are going badly. True leaders, in short, do not make people into followers, but into other leaders. ~John Holt, Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling
45. Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal. ~Vince Lombardi
46. Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them. ~John C. Maxwell
47. Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems. ~Brian Tracy
48. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. ~John F. Kennedy
49. Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. ~Norman Schwarzkopf
50. Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another. ~John C. Maxwell
51. Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. ~Warren G. Bennis
52. Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it. ~Marian Anderson
53. Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. ~Charles Swindoll
54. Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing. ~Tom Peters
55. Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better. ~Harry S. Truman
56. My father had a simple test that helps me measure my own leadership quotient: When you are out of the office he once asked me, does you staff carry on remarkable well without you? ~Martha Peak
57. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead
58. Never give an order that can’t be obeyed. ~General Douglas MacArthur
59. Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. ~General George Patton
60. No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. ~Abraham Lincoln
61. Not the cry, but the flight of a wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow. ~Chinese Proverb
62. Nothing so conclusively proves a man’s ability to lead others as what he does from day to day to lead himself. ~Thomas J. Watson Sr.
63. One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency. ~Arnold Glasow
64. Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
65. Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self~esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish. ~Sam Walton
66. People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision. ~John Maxwell
67. Personally, I like it much better when someone else does the decision making. That way you have legitimate grounds to whine and complain. I tend to find both whining and complaining quite interesting and amusing, though sometimes~~unfortunately~~it’s hard to choose which one of the two I want to do. Sigh. LIfe can be so tough sometimes. ~Brandon Sanderson, Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones
68. Power isn’t control at all ~power is strength, and giving that strength to others. A leader isn’t someone who forces others to make him stronger; a leader is someone willing to give his strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own. ~Beth Revis, Across the Universe
69. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~Leonardo daVinci
70. So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. ~Peter Drucker
71. Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today. ~Robert McKee
72. The adventure of life is to learn. The purpose of life is to grow. The nature of life is to change. The challenge of life is to overcome. The essence of life is to care. The opportunity of like is to serve. The secret of life is to dare. The spice of life is to befriend. The beauty of life is to give. ~William Arthur Ward
73. The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes. ~Tony Blair
74. The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self~restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it. ~Theodore Roosevelt
75. The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly. ~Jim Rohn
76. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. ~Colin Powell
77. The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant. ~Max DePree
78. The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things. ~Ronald Reagan
79. The greatest leaders mobilize others by coalescing people around a shared vision. ~Ken Blanchard
80. The leader has to be practical and a realist yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. ~Eric Hoffer
81. The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say ‘I’. And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say ‘I’. They don’t think ‘I’. They think ‘we’; they think ‘team’. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but ‘we’ gets the credit…. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. ~Peter F. Drucker
82. The leadership instinct you were born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it. ~Elaine Agather
83. The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. ~William Arthur Ward
84. The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. ~Ralph Nichols
85. The only way to do great work is to love the work you do. ~Steve Jobs
86. The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
87. The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. ~Reverend Theodore Hesburgh
88. There is no persuasiveness more effectual than the transparency of a single heart, of a sincere life. ~Joseph Berber Lightfoot
89. To do great things is difficult; but to command great things is more difficult. ~Friedrich Nietzsche
90. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
91. To have long term success as a coach or in any position of leadership, you have to be obsessed in some way. ~Pat Riley
92. True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. ~Bill Owens
93. We know that leadership is very much related to change. As the pace of change accelerates, there is naturally a greater need for effective leadership. ~John Kotter
94. When I give a minister an order, I leave it to him to find the means to carry it out. ~Napoleon Bonaparte
95. You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others…. ~Gordon B. Hinckley
96. You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand. ~Woodrow Wilson
97. You don’t lead by pointing and telling people some place to go. You lead by going to that place and making a case. ~Ken Kesey
98. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~Eleanor Roosevelt
99. You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you’re not passionate enough from the start, you’ll never stick it out. ~Steve Jobs
100. Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. ~Bill Gates

Pantai Batu Buruk - Sikap dan Tabiat Pengunjung

Pantai Batu Buruk adalah antara pantai yang popular di Kuala Terengganu. Saban waktu, ianya menjadi lokasi kunjungan tak kiralah oleh penduduk Kuala Terengganu sendiri ataupun pelawat dari luar.

Antara yang ada di Pantai Batu Buruk adalah aktiviti bermain layang-layang, menaiki kereta kuda, menikmati keropok lekor, ikan celup tepung, sate ikan dan lain-lain makanan ringan, ataupun paling kurang, bersantai menikmati angin dari Laut Cina Selatan.

Apa yang ingin diketengahkan adalah sifat tidak bertanggunjawab pengunjung ke pantai ini yang menbuang sampah merata-rata. Di setiap lokasi sepanjang pantai ini, baik dari kawasan berhampiran Hotel Primula, sehinggalah ke lokasi berhampiran Batu Buruk Beach Resort, kelihatan sampah-sampah terutama beg plastik, cawan plastik, pembungkus makanan yang ditinggalkan setelah mereka makan di bangku-bangku atau di mana saja di sepanjang pantai ini.

Apa yang lagi dikesalkan adalah jarak antara tempat mereka makan dan tong sampah yang disediakan oleh pihak berkuasa tempatan amatlah dekat, namun entah mengapa, terlalu sukar untuk mereka bangun dan buang sampah ke dalam tong yang disediakan.

Lihat di dalam gambar, tong biru adalah tong sampah yang disediakan. 

Keadaan menjadi lebih teruk setiap kali bulan Ramadhan dimana terdapat bazaar iftar dibuka di kawasan parking hadapan Kompleks Akuatik. Pengunjung membeli juadah di bazaar dan seterusnya berbuka puasa di bangku-bangku yang disediakan. Selepas selesai berbuka, mereka terus bergerak dari situ dan membiarkan sisa-sisa makanan, pembungkus dan sebagainya ditinggalkan di atas bangku-bangku tersebut tanpa rasa bersalah. Inikah mentaliti yang perlu kita agungkan ? Sampai bila kita akan seperti ini ?

Seliparku Hanyut

Buat kesekian kalinya
Seliparku hanyut lagi
kerna kelalaianku
untuk meletakkannya
ditempat yang lebih selamat

Seliparku hanyut
kerna air naik lagi
lalu mereka berkata
rumahmu di tanah tinggi
masakan banjir

coba kau lihat
rumahku di tanah tinggi
namun......
setiap kali hujan lebat
longkangku melimpah
lalu membawa seliparku pergi

seliparku hanyut
kerna air naik lagi
lalu mereka berkata
pasti longkangmu tersumbat
justeru rumahmu banjir

coba kau lihat
longkangku tidak tersumbat
namun.....
airnya tetap melimpah
lalu membawa seliparku pergi

lalu, bagaimana seliparmu boleh hanyut
andai rumah mu di tanah tinggi
andai longkangmu tidak tersumbat


lihat di tepi jalan sana
longkangku tidak tersumbat
rumahku di tanah tinggi
namun pihak berkuasa
membina longkang melawan graviti

akhirnya mereka faham
kerja tuhan menurunkan hujan
tapi kebodohan manusia membanjirkan rumahku......

aku pasrah
dilain kali
seliparku pasti hanyut lagi.....


Jalan Kamaruddin
Seusai Maghrib 4 Disember 2013

Why should I change when it is everybody's responsibility

When talk about change, we always think that everybody need to change in one shot. So then the impact of change will be obviously visible. But, that will only be in a dream. Changing everybody should start with a change in our mind first. Change process is not easy, often that we have to face barriers from those who are not ready to change or to adapt changes. Sometimes they are too comfortable with present condition and they perceive that changes will make their situation become more difficult.

So, change has to be started from one mind. That is why the agent of change is greatly required especially at the beginning. Who or what should be the agent of change ? Will elaborate more about this later.......

Change, I Must Change and The World Will Change With Me

Change had been interpreted as a shift or transformation from one situation or state towards another situation or state. Dictionary.com defines change as an act or instance of making or becoming different either in location, situation or even behavior.

Often when we talk about change we stress on the requirement for others to change but along this process, we also often forget that we need to be the agent of change. The phrases "change, I must change and the world will change with me" emphasizes every single person in an organization to become the agent of change. Mahatma Ghandi in one of his speech mentioned about being the agent of change by saying "Be the change you want to see in the world".

So, let us start the journey of change with ourself as the agent of change.

Housing Issue in Pulau Indah

Banks, developers accused of cheating
BERNAMA
Saturday, May 14th, 2011 19:22:00
PORT KLANG: About 1,400 buyers of apartments planned for five sites on Pulau Indah are asking the authorities to investigate allegations that bank personnel and the developers are colluding to deceive them.

The buyers made part payments in 1999 for apartments at Bahtera, Yamin Tower, Indah Heights, Yamin Heights and Mutiara Heights costing RM45,000 to RM120,000 which were supposed to be completed in 2003.

While none of the apartments had been completed, many of the buyers had received letters from banks asking them to pay what they still owed for the units or risk being declared a bankrupt.

Chairman of the committee of Indah Heights, Yamin Heights and Mutiara Heights buyers Wan Zamzahidi Wan Zahid said that some of the banks appeared to have issued the full amount of loans to the developers even though the projects had not been completed.

He was especially concerned because the developers did not seem to have obtained approval to change the status of the project sites from agricultural to residential land.

"A file search showed that the developers had not obtained permission from the Klang Municipal Council to build on the land," he told reporters here.

Chairman of the committee for the Bahtera apartment buyers Anuar Ibrahim said the banks had given loans in full to the developers without them meeting the stipulated conditions.

He said that he had lodged reports with the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Selangor government.

The talent that should be

Another day another challenge

Here start another term of life. Another semester, another challenge.
Hope to have a happy end.

Balanced Scorecard

Article taken from Balancedscorecard.com

Balanced Scorecard Basics

The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance. While the phrase balanced scorecard was coined in the early 1990s, the roots of the this type of approach are deep, and include the pioneering work of General Electric on performance measurement reporting in the 1950’s and the work of French process engineers (who created the Tableau de Bord – literally, a "dashboard" of performance measures) in the early part of the 20th century.

The balanced scorecard has evolved from its early use as a simple performance measurement framework to a full strategic planning and management system. The “new” balanced scorecard transforms an organization’s strategic plan from an attractive but passive document into the "marching orders" for the organization on a daily basis. It provides a framework that not only provides performance measurements, but helps planners identify what should be done and measured. It enables executives to truly execute their strategies.

This new approach to strategic management was first detailed in a series of articles and books by Drs. Kaplan and Norton. Recognizing some of the weaknesses and vagueness of previous management approaches, the balanced scorecard approach provides a clear prescription as to what companies should measure in order to 'balance' the financial perspective. The balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve center of an enterprise.

Kaplan and Norton describe the innovation of the balanced scorecard as follows:

"The balanced scorecard retains traditional financial measures. But financial measures tell the story of past events, an adequate story for industrial age companies for which investments in long-term capabilities and customer relationships were not critical for success. These financial measures are inadequate, however, for guiding and evaluating the journey that information age companies must make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation."

(Adapted from The Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan & Norton)

Perspectives

The balanced scorecard suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives, and to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives:

The Learning & Growth Perspective

This perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organization, people -- the only repository of knowledge -- are the main resource. In the current climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to be in a continuous learning mode. Metrics can be put into place to guide managers in focusing training funds where they can help the most. In any case, learning and growth constitute the essential foundation for success of any knowledge-worker organization.

Kaplan and Norton emphasize that 'learning' is more than 'training'; it also includes things like mentors and tutors within the organization, as well as that ease of communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it is needed. It also includes technological tools; what the Baldrige criteria call "high performance work systems."

The Business Process Perspective

This perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be carefully designed by those who know these processes most intimately; with our unique missions these are not something that can be developed by outside consultants.

The Customer Perspective

Recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good.

In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analyzed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.

The Financial Perspective

Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and accurate funding data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever necessary to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized and automated. But the point is that the current emphasis on financials leads to the "unbalanced" situation with regard to other perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.

Strategy Mapping

Strategy maps are communication tools used to tell a story of how value is created for the organization. They show a logical, step-by-step connection between strategic objectives (shown as ovals on the map) in the form of a cause-and-effect chain. Generally speaking, improving performance in the objectives found in the Learning & Growth perspective (the bottom row) enables the organization to improve its Internal Process perspective Objectives (the next row up), which in turn enables the organization to create desirable results in the Customer and Financial perspectives (the top two rows).

Balanced Scorecard Software

The balanced scorecard is not a piece of software. Unfortunately, many people believe that implementing software amounts to implementing a balanced scorecard. Once a scorecard has been developed and implemented, however, performance management software can be used to get the right performance information to the right people at the right time. Automation adds structure and discipline to implementing the Balanced Scorecard system, helps transform disparate corporate data into information and knowledge, and helps communicate performance information.

Benefits of Implementing Balanced Scorecard

Increase focus on strategy and results
Improve organizational performance by measuring what matters
Align organization strategy with the work people do on a day-to-day basis
Focus on the drivers of future performance
Improve communication of the organization’s Vision and Strategy
Prioritize Projects / Initiatives

Return on investment is an important consideration before investing a significant amount of money to build and implement a new strategic management system.

What are the Primary Implementation Success Factors?

Obtaining executive sponsorship and commitment
Involving a broad base of leaders, managers and employees in scorecard development
Agreeing on terminology
Choosing the right BSC Program Champion
Beginning interactive (two-way) communication first
Working through mission, vision, strategic results, and strategy mapping first to avoid rushing to judgement on measures or software
Viewing the scorecard as a long-term journey rather than a short-term project
Planning for and managing change
Applying a disciplined implementation framework
Getting outside help if needed

Definitions of Balanced Scorecard Strategic Planning & Management Terms

Customer Value Proposition

The Customer Value Proposition is the unique added value an organization offers customers through its operations; the logical link between action and payoff that the organization must create to be effective. Three aspects of the proposition include Product/Service Attributes (Performance/ Functionality considerations such as quality, timeliness or price), Image and Relationship.

Mission

A mission statement defines why an organization exists; the organization's purpose

Performance Measures

Performance Measures are metrics used to provide an analytical basis for decision making and to focus attention on what matters most. Performance Measures answer the question, 'How is the organization doing at the job of meeting its Strategic Objectives?'

Lagging indicators are those that show how successful the organization was in achieving desired outcomes in the past. Leading indicators are those that are a precursor of future success; performance drivers.

Perspectives

A Perspective is a view of an organization from a specific vantage point. Four basic perspectives are traditionally used to encompass an organization's activities. The organization's business model, which encompasses mission, vision, and strategy, determine the appropriate perspectives.

Strategic Initiatives

Strategic Initiatives are programs or projects that turn strategy into operational terms and actionable items, provide an analytical underpinning for decisions, and provide a structured way to prioritize projects according to strategic impact.

Strategic Initiatives answer the question, ‘What strategic projects must the organization implement to meet its Strategic Objectives?’

Strategic Objectives

Objectives are strategy components; continuous improvement activities that must be done to be successful. Objectives are the building blocks of strategy and define the organization's strategic intent. Good objectives are action-oriented statements, are easy to understand, represent continuous improvement potential and are usually not 'on-off' projects or activities.

Strategic Result

Strategic results are the desired outcome for the main focus areas of the business. Each Strategic Theme has a corresponding Strategic Result.

Strategic Theme

Strategic Themes are key areas in which an organization must excel in order to achieve its mission and vision, and deliver value to customers. Strategic Themes are the organization's "Pillars of Excellence."

Strategy Map

A Strategy Map displays the cause-effect relationships among the objectives that make up a strategy. A good Strategy Map tells a story of how value is created for the business.

Strategy

How an organization intends to accomplish its vision; an approach, or “game plan”.

Targets

Desired levels of performance for performance measures

Vision

A vision statement is an organization's picture of future success; where it wants to be in the future

Last minute tip for exam questions

Question 1 : Business Intelligence

by definition : BI refers to any activities or skills or compiling, processing, storing or providing access to data to bring out a timely and precise information that make impact to overall business performance.

factors :
1. Alignment of the system to the business objectives
2. Type of system being used - suitability to organizational needs
3. Knowledge in handling the system
4. Accesibility and availability of data/information

Question 2 : Hardware and Software

by definition : Hardware are components of the system that perform the processing, storing, input and output to and from the system. Software are programs or applications that runs on the hardware.

Selection should be based on :
1. Organizational needs - too less = can't function, too much = waste of effort
2. System's capability and limitation - what it can do and what it can't.
3. Software compatibility to the hardware. e.g if you only can afford RAM 256MB then you should not go for Vista.
4. Organization readiness to the system - if user too slow, should look into a simpler solution.
5. System suitability for future upgrade

Question 3 : Data Communication Evolution

Data communication evolved. Take an example, some few years ago, purchaser had to send the PO through despatch or courier service. Take time to arrive to supplier. Evolve to fax system when can immediately arrive supplier. Some organization uses computerized PO which linke them with the supplier.
Reverse that to the supplier perspective. Last time, when you search for something, have to ask the supplier to come and bring the catalogue. Current system by database sharing through internet permits fast and accurate selection of parts through electronic catalogues.
In daily operation it saves time, cost and also effort.

Question 4 : Integrated Information System

By definition : Integrated Information System is a set of system that interact between each other without human intervention. Output of one system immediately become input to another system.
By example, if we can integrate maintenance reporting system, production report and breakdown record, any stoppages happened in production that reported by maintenance personnel will directly appeared in production report and breakdown record. So total downtime will be tally between this three reports. If output of maintenance report had to be key in manually into production report, then there are possibility of mistake or error to happen so output of production report will be different or not accurate. Action that may triggered from the report may not be accurate.

Strategic Information System and Its Role in Enhancing Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness - Introduction

Introduction

Information system played a rather important role in most organizations ranging from small business up to large multi national companies. Information system as a basic act as a support in documentation and most of administrative works. Information system can be defined as a set of information resources that interconnected and under same management control and also shares common functionality. This system usually consists of hardware, software, data, information (processes data), applications, communication and user1

Somewhere around late 60’s to early 70’s, some type of information system had been identified to have a strategic importance to the organization. Avison, Eardley and Powell (1996) named Kriebel (1968) and Whisler (1970) as the first two researchers that identified and discussed about strategic importance of information system and linkage between information systems to business framework. Based on the discussion, it can be concluded that information system that have this kind of linkage that enable the organization to perform specific business strategy are called Strategic Information System.

Basically, strategic information system can be described as an information system that has intention to enable the organization to achieve and later to sustain its competitive advantages against their competitors under a variety of environmental conditions. Pant and Hsu (1995) concluded that there is a strong realization by organizations that implementation of information system to the organization’s strategic activities had become one of effective way to improve business performance.

In this review, we are going to establish a hypothesis on the function of strategic information system in enhancing the organizational efficiency and effectiveness. By literature, efficiency means the ratio of output over the input and in depth; efficiency can be explained as achieving the intended result without additional effort, time or expenses. Effectiveness is a measurement of a degree where effect can be attained or how much influence to achieve the effect. To make things simple, efficiency means doing the thing right and effectiveness refers to doing the right thing.

It is important to look into the link, between the system and the businesses strategic objectives.

Basically, review will cover on linkage part which among all will discuss about the alignment of information system to the business strategy, selection of information system to be implemented, knowledge in implementing and handling the information system and also on the factor that either to enable and ease up the implementation or, in the other hand, created hurdles along the path of implementation.

1 http://www.bricker.com/legalservices/practice/hcare/hipaa/164.304.asp

Strategic Information System and Its Role in Enhancing Organizational Efficiency and Effectiveness - Alignment of System

Alignment of Strategic Information System to Business Strategy

The alignment of Strategic Information System and Business Strategy has been a consistent topic in the academic and business literature for decades. It is a challenge to link business strategy in this dynamic business world with the fast pace of evolving technologies in information system. Hence, it has to be a continuous process because of continual changes is internal environment that affect the information requirement and the external environment that influences the technological, competitive and manpower availability parameter. This requires a full commitment from top management as it required continual investment to keep abreast with the evolving technology.

It is critical to choose the right technology because it will involve investment and the different between the right and wrong decision can be a pivoting point for the survival of the organization in long run.

The alignment of information technology (IT) and the business goals (hereafter referred to as alignment) is crucial to the success of organizations. Recent studies, however, show that organizations are struggling in addressing alignment challenges (Levy et al., 2003). According to a METAGroup survey of CIOs globally, alignment and value management were ranked as the top issues of concern to CIOs in 2005 (CRM Today, 2005). The Standish Chaos report of 2003 indicates that 71 per cent of all projects were challenged or delivered late and that US IT projects had a waste of $140 billion. Stanleigh (2005) also cites a report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers (2004), which indicated that only 2.5 per cent of global businesses achieve 100 per cent project success. The major reason for these failures has been attributed to poor alignment of projects with core strategies of the organizations (Stanleigh, 2005).

Understanding Strategic Information System.

Strategic information system is a strategy where information systems is used to assists in making timely business decisions and formulating feasible strategic plans. In other words, the synergies of the information systems to business strategy, so that the later will be further enhance with the application of correct information systems.

In 80’s and 90’s there has been a surge in the realization of strategic importance of information systems to an organization.

Strategic Information System comprises a number of modules including strategic prerequisites, competitive priorities, strategic directions, strategic decision areas, strategy choices, strategic options and business transformation, all of which are integrated together seamlessly to form a unified system (Henry C.W.L. et al., 2000). To facilitate the efficient function of the whole system, a free information flow among various modules of the system needs to be achieved.
According to Business Week article, ‘The Technology Payoff’ (Business Week, June 14, 1993), throughout the 1980s US businesses invested a staggering $1 trillion in the information technology. This huge investment did not result in a commensurate productivity gain - overall national productivity rose at a 1% annual rate compared with nearly 5% in Japan. Using the information technology merely to automate routine tasks without altering the business processes is identified as the cause of the above productivity paradox. As IT is used to support breakthrough ideas in business processes, essentially supporting direct value adding activities instead of merely cost saving, it has resulted in major productivity gains.

Strategic Information System Planning

A Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is the blueprint that forms the basis for the initiation and development of information systems in any organization. Without a clearly defined SISP, computers would merely become an expense which does nothing to add value to an organization.

Strategic Information Systems Planning is the analysis of a corporation’s information and processes using business information models together with the evaluation of risk, current needs and requirements. The result is an action plan showing the desired course of events necessary to align information use and needs with the strategic direction of the company (Battaglia, 1991).
SISP thus is used to identify the best targets for purchasing and installing new management Information systems and help an organization maximize the return on its information technology investment. A portfolio of computer-based applications is identified that will assist an organization in executing its business plans and realize its business goals. There is a growing realization that the application of information technology (IT) to a firm’s strategic activities has been one of the most common and effective ways to improve business performance.

Information system has been evolved since the inaugural part of its implementation. It started as a basic data processing system and after time, several stages of realization of system’s utilization which lead to more specific and more business-focus nature of the system. According to the three-era model of John Ward, et al.(1990), there are three distinct, albeit overlapping, eras of information systems, dating back to the 60’s. The relationship over time of the three eras of information systems is shown below :

60’s - Data Processing (DP)
Standalone computers, remote from users, cost reduction function.
70’s & 80’s Management Information System (MIS)
Distributed process, interconnected, regulated by management service, supporting the business, user driven.
80’s & 90’s - Strategic Information System (SIS)
Networked, integrated systems, available and supportive to users, relate to business strategy, enable the business - business driven.


A portfolio model derived from McFarlan (1984) considers that the contribution of IS/IT to the business now and in the future are based on its impact to the industry it belong or in a simple word, to a certain extent, reflects by nature of the business it being involved. Based on this model applications are divided into four categories, as shown here:

Strategic - Applications which are critical for future success. Examples: computer-integrated manufacturing, links to suppliers, etc.
Turnaround - Applications which may be of future strategic importance. Examples: electronic
data interchange with wholesalers, electronic mail, etc.
Factory - Applications which are critical to sustaining existing business. Examples: employee database, maintenance scheduling, etc.
Support - Applications which improve management
and performance but are not critical to the business. Examples: time recording, payroll, etc.

Some characteristics of strategic IS planning are:

• Main task: strategic/competitive advantage, linkage to business strategy.
• Key objective: pursuing opportunities, integrating IS and business strategies
• Direction from: executives/senior management and users, coalition of users/management and information systems.
• Main approach: entrepreneurial (user innovation), multiple (bottom-up development, top down analysis, etc.) at the same time.
Method of Strategic Information Planning.
A number of strategic issues need to be addressed to build an SIS model that will support the realization of business goals.

Michael J.E et. al., (1993) recommends that SISP should target the following area:

Aligning investment in IS with business goal
Exploiting IT for competitive advantage
Directing effective and efficient management of IS resources
Developing technology policies and architecture.

One of the major obstacles to achieving strategy alignment is that many organizations do a poor job of communicating their strategy. When people who are key to executing strategy don’t know what the strategy is or understand how their day-to-day activities contribute to strategy execution, it’s highly likely overall enterprise performance is going to suffer. Strategy maps are one way to shore up communication about strategy with a visual representation.

Strategy maps are:
· Derived from the Balanced Scorecard. Strategy maps emerged as part of Robert Kaplan’s and David Norton’s seminal work with the Balanced Scorecard.1 At their simplest, strategy maps describe how the organization creates value — the missing link between strategy formulation and strategy execution. Using the four balanced scorecard perspectives as a starting point, the strategy map shows the cause and effect linkages between the four perspectives:
Financial — to succeed financially how should we appear to our shareholders?
Customer — to achieve our vision, how should we appear to our customers?
Learning and growth — to achieve our vision, how will we sustain our ability to change and improve?
Internal business process — to satisfy our shareholders and customers, at what business process must we excel?

A strategy map is a generic architecture for describing strategy that helps organizations develop a holistic, integrated, and systematic way of viewing their strategy. The strategy map forces an organization to think about its strategy from the four perspectives, to develop the outcomes and drivers of the strategy, and to draw the linkages between them.

· Developed within a top-down process. Strategy map development is a top-down process beginning with the financial (value) perspective and ending with the learning and growth (future orientation) perspective. Developing a strategy map is a forcing function that drives an organization to first reach a consensus on its strategy and related objectives, and then to develop expected outcomes and their dependent drivers. Financial and customer perspectives represent the expected outcomes of strategy (i.e., make money and have happy customers), while the internal process and learning and growth perspectives represent the drivers of those outcomes.
· A growth strategy drives revenue. Companies in new or emerging markets will be likely to pursue growth strategies. Developing new sources of revenue through new markets, new products, and/or new customers as well as increasing the “wallet share” of existing customers (i.e., expand the relationship through cross-selling, upselling, etc.) are central to a growth strategy. By growing top-line revenue faster than expenses, organizations can expand margins and improve their profitability — typically leading to stock appreciation.
· A productivity strategy focuses on cost and efficiency. Favored by companies in mature industries, productivity strategies work on the expense side to lower the costs of products and services and improve the utilization rate of assets. This too can also lead to improved margins and profits.

Environment for the Success of Strategic Information System Planning.

Rich communications in organizations reflect the intangible cultural traits and tangible strategic practices (Canessa and Riolo, 2003; Carmeli and Tishler, 2004). Effective information flows require high level of congruence between organizational culture and strategic practices (Leisen et al., 2002; Gallivan and Srite, 2005). Outstanding organizations integrate their organizational value architecture and strategic information system (Wagner, 2004; Avison et al., 2004). identifying styles of strategic information system as caretakers, defenders, analyzers and prospectors. This classification is adapted from the works of Miles and Snow (1978) and Apigian et al. (2006).

This integrative framework of organizational culture and Information System is further extended to identifying styles of strategic information system as caretakers, defenders, analyzers and prospectors which are briefly explained.
Caretakers have a consistent and stable internal focus that processes organizational routines with great efficiency.
Defenders try to protect their particular strategic resources and markets.
Analyzers are highly organized according to their goal-driven results.
Prospectors continue to seek and locate new market opportunities while sustain their current markets with resilience. The strategic information system has a profile in the context of integrative framework of Information System and organizational culture.

Information Management Environment IME refers to the organizational environment for IT/IS management. As observed by many, IT application in organizations generally goes through various stages, from inception to maturity. Nolan’s information systems development stage theory provides the theoretical foundation for evaluation of information management environment maturity (Nolan 1973, 1979). Some scholars further proposed the measurement techniques and parameters based on Nolan’s model. For example, Benbasat (1984) summarized and proposed 19 criteria for measuring maturity. They include such criteria as the degree and the scope of IS application in business, level of senior management knowledge and involvement in IS.

In a rapidly changing business environment, although the formation of networks is important, the cultural patterns are less clear and more undistinguishable. Firms may not easily grasp the complexity that exists between organizational culture and Information System. However, a successful formulation and implementation of Information System may need to consider deeply-held cultural traits and intangible behavioral response patterns of supply chain participants. In this sense, this paper clarifies how a particular type of organizational culture may fit better to a particular Information System and furthermore suggests an appropriate style of strategic information system.

However, the consistent challenge for researchers is how to connect organizational culture in the implementation level of business goals and practices (Denison and Mishra, 1995; Flamholtz, 2001). Here lies the need for rigorous examination of organization culture in the context of ever expanding strategic business reality. In particular, as firms interact and align with the diverse network of suppliers and customers as their supply chain partners, rich dynamics of organizational culture become more illusive and less understandable. In this sense, organizational culture in the context of Strategic Information Systems deserves a careful research

Critical Success Factor

Due to the importance of aligning IS plans with business plans, it is useful to examine the critical success factors (CSFs) for such alignment. Briefly, CSFs are those factors that management need to pay special attention to (Rockart, 1975) in order to enhance the chances of successful IS planning alignment. Past research has investigated CSFs in manufacturing resource planning (MRP) implementation (Ang et al., 1995; Burns et al., 1991), quality management (Black & Porter, 1996; Saraph et al., 1989), strategic alliances (Rai et al., 1996), data management (Guynes & Vancecek, 1996) and strategic IS planning (Ang & Teo, 1997). However, none of the existing research has examined CSFs in IS planning alignment and this paper is an initial attempt to do so. The results should prove useful in enhancing our existing knowledge on how to better align IS plans with business plans, thereby facilitating successful IS planning efforts.
A survey done by Thompson S.H.T et. al., (1998) conclude the rank of critical success factors below. It is a result of response from senior IS executives from 169 firms. It rates the degree of importance of each item on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). The results are shown below:

CSF#1: Top management is committed to the strategic use of IT (mean"4.34)
The importance of top management commitment to IT is emphasized by an IT director who commented that it is difficult to use IT strategically because top management do not view IT as a strategic tool for competitive advantage. Consequently, alignment between business and IT is weak.
CSF#2: Information Systems (IS) management is knowledgeable about business (mean"4.26)
Note that IS management knowledge about business is even more important than top management knowledge about IT (which is ranked CSF#10). CIOs with high strategic IT and business-related knowledge were found to enjoy significantly greater participation in top management teams. Furthermore, such knowledge also significantly influenced the extent of IT deployment in business strategies and value chain activities. Note that business knowledge encompasses business strategies, organizational work processes, products and services, industry’s recipes for success, and competitors’ strengths, weaknesses and potential actions.
CSF#3: Top management has confidence in the IS department (mean"4.20).
This item is related to CSFd1 above since top management needs to have confidence in the IS department in order to be committed to the strategic use of IT. Without such confidence, it will be very difficult for top management to allocate appropriate resources (in terms of funds, personnel, etc.) for the planning and development of strategic IT applications.
CSF#4: The IS department provides efficient and reliable services to user departments
(mean"4.12)
CSF#5: There is frequent communication between user and IS departments (mean"4.07)
CSF#6: The IS staffs are able to keep up with advances in I¹ (mean"4.10)
CSF#7: Business and IS management work together in partnership in prioritizing applications development (mean"4.06)
CSF#8: Business goals and objectives are made known to IS management (mean"4.06)
CSF#9: The IS department is responsive to user needs (mean"4.03)
CSF#10: Top management is knowledgeable about IT (mean"4.00)

The list of CSFs enables practitioners to concentrate on a set of factors that will enhance the alignment of IS plans with business plans. By evaluating each CSF in the context of its organization, practitioners will be better able to design appropriate strategies for better IS planning alignment.

Researchers can investigate the reasons why there appears to be an emphasis on content linkage rather than personnel or timing linkages. Practitioners should realize that by placing less emphasis on timing and personnel linkages compared to content linkages, they could be missing out on other important or potentially effective mechanisms for aligning IS plans with business plans. This is especially relevant in cases where there is an absence of business plans, or lack of comprehensiveness of business plans, for such content alignment to take place. In such situations, both timing and (especially) personnel linkages may often serve as useful surrogates for content linkage.