Project management

Management with cultural barriers

Working with a group of people with diverse cultural backgrounds is both exiting and challenging. In my job as manager with international company, I interact and manage people from different parts of the world and each group of people from specific geographical region has their own unique characters that a manger must be aware of.

There are People who are reluctant to accept leadership positions, they brought up in societies where they always told what to do and not use their own judgments, with this group, I have to always monitor them closely and give them clear guidance on what is expected of them. The good thing about this group is that they listen and follow instructions.

There are People who seek leadership positions and willing to make judgments and take risks, with this group a manager has to be a bit careful, since he may end up with people in leadership positions without adequate experience, this group of people can be trained gradually to assume higher positions plus the manager can use them as to fill in on his absence since they require little supervision. These groups of people come from societies where men usually have to assume leadership positions and it expected of them to rise quickly in the corporate ladder.

The last group is of people is those who want to only excel in what they do, they are experts in their professions and willing to learn and advance as long as they remain focused on what they can do best. These groups of people come from societies where “excellent work and professionalism” is expected from every member of the society, they trained to excel in certain fields and remain focused on what they do best.

Of course this is my personal experience and it applies to this part of the world, the Arab world.

Eliminate stress on your business cycle

Business cycle consists of many elements such as (workers, equipments, business processes, management, and laws), all these and other components must work together to complete a business cycle.

A stress on the business cycle happens when one or more of the elements are not functioning efficiently. Faulty equipment such as slow computer systems may put a stress on the business cycle, a poorly trained employee may put a stress on the business cycle, outdated laws could put a stress on the business cycle, etc.

Finding and eliminating stress factors can greatly improve business cycle and make it more efficient.

Some areas to consider:

• Ongoing training of employees
• Ongoing maintenance and upgrade of equipment
• Ongoing review of business process to find room for improvements
• Work with the government and industry leaders to eliminate laws that stress the system

Management must continually review business cycle and look for stress elements that create stress on the cycle and work rigorously to eliminate these elements.

Management must be based on facts and not on Public sentiments

Public opinions play important role in shaping corporate policies in many organizations, more than facts and statistics. This doesn’t only apply to organizations but also to governments.

Some areas where decisions, mostly, are based on sentiments rather than facts:

Foreigners taking jobs from locals: ongoing debate I have experienced in many countries where public sentiments about foreign labor drive corporate and government decisions making process about hiring foreign labor.

Terrorism: the constant fear environment that has been created on the last few years and how many government passed laws based on perceived terrorism rather than actual terrorism.

Public profiling: some people are subjected to more search, at airports, than other based on their names or origins.

Racism: the notion that some races are smarter than others or certain group of people can work better than other group.

Gender equality: certain jobs are seen to be better performed by men than women.

Every public sentiment mentioned above is based on perception rather than reality, a successful company or even a successful government must base decision on facts rather than sentiments.

Yes to customer service, but set the limits

I am an avid advocate of a great customer service, your customer deserves the best, but you must sit the limits. Over the past couple of weeks, I hit a road block with one of our most important customers. We were not able to complete a service request on the promised time because of some government regulations which keep changing, the customer would not accept my explanation and threatened me that he will take his business somewhere else.

What to do? I know that our company could have used its social network and we would have resolved the customer issue at this time, but that would have set our limits too high and the customer would expect that each time. I thought this was a bad policy.

So, I sat with the customer and explained to him the importance of his business to us and we strive to give his company the best customer service for his money, but there will be limits to what we can deliver and I want to make that very clear.

The customer didn’t feel very good about that, but I had to stand my ground and make sure I don’t promise what I can’t deliver.

At the end, the customer was able to digest what I said and he felt more confidence in our service.

So, don’t promise what you cannot deliver.

Don’t let team conflict ruin a good project

Being in a management position, I have seen first hand how conflict with in a group could cause substantial damages to rather a great project. At the beginning of most projects, the morals are usually high and everyone is filled with energy and enthusiasm.

But project progression lead to conflicts for the following reasons:

1-Approching deadlines
2-As project outcomes become more clear, individuals become more concerned about the
reward and the recognition
3-Mistakes that took place at early stages of the project were not corrected
4-Manager loses control as pressure mounts

These are some of the major points I have experienced in various projects, some of rather very good projects and ideas never saw the light because of ugly team conflict.

So my advice, keep the above mentioned points in check.

Stop Planning and start implementing

One of the hardest challenges to over-come in any project or business plan is the planning stage, many managers and investors with brilliant ideas get stuck in the planning stage, they seem as they will never stop planning. I personally fail victim to this symptom from time to time, your mind is constantly planning but nothing is being materialized.

Planning stage sometimes become the comfort zone, we don’t want to leave the known to the unknown. I have met many successful business people and read many articles on successful people and one thing common to all of them is “they take actions.”

Many difficult problems at the planning stage seem to get resolved as work progress; I have tried this many times. So, “Stop Planning and start implementing.”

Re-visit your Business Process often

As a manager, the best gift you can offer to your boss is to lower costs and improve efficiency. I try to make it a habit to re-visit business process in my company as often as my time permits. Employees tend to fall back on their old habits before the new process was put in place, as a manager, you may thing everyone will stick to the new business process that was put in place.

Constant review to the business process must be on going practice even in small firms, I am often surprised by the amount of money the company saves each time we re-examine a business process and find ways to cut costs.

Since most small firms don’t have to follow stringent legal requirements, they often under estimate the need for regular review for their business practices. Take few hours every few months and review your business practices, you will be surprised by the results.

Thoughts in Management and Cultures- Part 4

Most companies are family owned companies: large numbers of companies here are closely held by family members, either the founder or his family members are in control. Although there is a trend to establish more publicly held companies, the major players are large corporations run by families. Usually in this type of settings, in any company around the world for that matter, the change can only happen if the owner see the need for a change, managers or change advocate may face stiff resistance from top management.

Foreign companies and institutions who don’t know the culture of the region: another block in change management process is the lack of understanding by many foreign companies and teaching institutions of the local culture. The course that I am taking at Carnegie Mellon is being taught as if we were in the US, the organizers failed to address local business climate in the region. The course materials are based on the assumptions that students will face the same problems setting up their new ventures as would their peers in the US, which proof a lack of understanding of the region and its culture.

Thoughts in Management and Cultures- Part 3

Demanding quality from low skilled labor: the other area that of a big concern is the quality of labor, there is a big number of low skilled and poorly paid laborers in the region; most businesses want to cut cost by hiring low paid labor. Unfortunately, a change management that requires high skilled labor can not rely on this type of labor. There is a gap in the skills set, at one end, highly educated managers who demand quality and at the other end very low skilled labor force that can not deliver.

Pay rates based on nationality: other area where change management may have difficult time is pay rates. In this region it is a common practice to tie pay rate to the individual nationality and not only to his skill levels. This un-equality in pay create difficult situation inside the company, when the same level of work is required but different rates are paid

Labor movement is restricted: managers are not free to go head hunting, every foreign worker comes into the country with a work permit that is issued by his employer and only his employer can authorize him to work for another company, this restrictions on free labor movement limit the ability of managers to hire the best talent available on the local market.

Thoughts in Management and Cultures- Part 2

I believe in order for change managent to work, many aspects of the entire culture must change, from how people view change to how truly they are ready to embrace change. Change management doesn’t only happen inside corporate rooms, but there are many areas in the society at large must support that.

The mindset: change requires change in mindset, there are many advocates of change, but few who are willing to change the status que. As I mentioned before, the culture here doesn’t support innovations, it will only allow limited change that will not disrupt the balance of power in the organization. At the moment, most organizational decision making process is slow and centralized.

Local laws and local culture: although all the countries in the Arab world, especially in the Gulf area, are advocating transparency and encouraging foreign direct investment, the reality is bit different. Local laws still give preferences to local citizens in leadership positions, many foreign talents leave the region because of the glass ceiling that limit their ability to reach certain positions, change management make take years to produce results and the rate at which foreign talents are leaving the region will not help process.

Local laws and local culture still look at foreign investors and foreign workers as outsiders who are coming into the country to deprive the locals of their resources. In my class at Carnegie Mellon, most of the foreign students who are working on innovative projects are not comfortable to have any long time investment in the country, they don’t feel comfortable about how the local culture and the local laws view them.