Jeannifer Filly Sumayku | The President Post

Passion, Concept and Perseverance are three important factors that are needed to become an entrepreneur, according to Prita Kemal Gani, the recipient of Enterprise Asia’s 2009 Outstanding Entrepreneurship Award for Asia Pacific.

With her strong passion for public relations, she opened a training school on that subject with only 30 students and classes held two or three times a week.

Today, the small PR training school has been transformed into the most credible graduate school of communications, STIKOM London School of Public Relations (LSPR).

She also has a huge passion for education related to her childhood dream of becoming a teacher.

“My activities in managing LSPR allow me little time to teach. But my dream is to continue teaching when I retire later,” says Prita.

Prita, whose father hails from Surakarta, Central Java, and mother from Padang, West Sumatra, was born in Jakarta in 1961.

She was raised mostly by her mother after her father’s death when she was five.

She fell in love with PR when she realized that being a PR person is a great profession since she could meet ambassadors and famous and important people.

In the past years PR has undergone very advanced developments. The media information era is growing very fast, requiring organizations to become more transparent and communicative with targeted communities.

Therefore, the role of PR is very important, because every organization will have to package the information in presentable, accurate and timely ways.

“The duty of a PR person is not just talking to the media or the public, but also designing an overall public relations strategy within an organization, including evaluating designed and implemented programs,” explains Prita.

After graduating from Trisakti Hotel Management School in Jakarta, she continued her PR studies at the London City College of Management, Britain, and then earned a Master’s degree in business administration at the International Academy of Management and Economics in Manila, the Philippines. Later, she became the PR Director of Clark Hatch International Jakarta for three years, from 1989 to 1992.

It was during this time that she met her future husband, Kemal Effendi Gani, who was then the editor of Swa magazine. To Prita, journalism goes hand in hand with PR and she found she had a lot in common with Kemal. Amid her activities as a professional businesswoman, this wife and mother of three still finds time for her family.

Her background and experience enabled her to understand the concept in starting a PR education institution.

She used her networking with Clark Hatch members, who are mostly expats, to become freelance teachers.

The first three-hour classes were held at Wisma Metropolitan two or three times a week. Now LSPR has more than 5,000 students in four campuses.

The Bachelor program of LSPR has five majors, namely Public Relations Studies, Mass Communication Studies, Marketing Studies, Advertising Studies, and Performing Arts Communication Studies. The Master Program was opened in 2003 offering four majors: Corporate Communications, Marketing Communications, Journalism and Media Studies, and Mass Communications.

The curriculum is 60% international referring to London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Examination Board, The City and Guilds of London Institute and University of Cambridge International Examination.

Through March 2010, a total of 10.970 have graduated from LSPR.

Last but not least is perseverance, as it is needed the most in facing problems.

“I have proven that perseverance gives good results; when I lose my perseverance I start losing my grip,” said Prita.

Like others, LSPR also experienced growing pains, facing difficult problems along the way.

“During hard times, I pray, and I always ask God to lead me in everything I do,” she says.

Prita always shares with the teachers and staff members problems related to LSPR.

As a message to Indonesian women entrepreneur, Prita states: “Every woman must have dreams and goals and never be afraid to have any dream; the most important thing is to find the right way and to persevere in achieving those dreams.”

(The President Post printed edition July-August 2010)

The President Post. Dr. Karan. Singh MBA,DBA presently Management Development Director at the President University, writes an interesting article on Leadership entitled “Can you do it? The Transition from Supervisor to Team Leader” in the 12th edition of The President Post. The paper will be published on May the 12th of May 2010

By Alci Tamesa

Indonesia has for decades been recognized as a nation that reads very little, meaning that reading is not a habit in society. This is an anathema that must be eliminated if Indonesia is to become an advanced nation.

Against this backdrop and the belief that reading is the key to knowledge and expertise, a tragic lack of society’s interest in reading means that this nation will continue to stand at the receiving end. The reason is the inability to absorb and develop new technologies and competitive business practices that propels a nation’s economy.

With such a philosophy in mind, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the ruler of Yogyakarta, recently launched a new initiative to spur reading habit in society.

This was done when he inaugurated a mobile library called “Guru Bangsa Gus Dur” (Teacher of the Nation Gus Dur) to perpetuate the memory of Indonesia’s former president and champion of pluralism and democracy, Abdurrahman Wahid, who passed away on December 30, 2009.

The mobile library actually belongs to Galangpress publishing company in Yogyakarta, which fills the car with 720 titles of book for its tour of the city every day.

In spite of the fact that Gus Dur was partly blind in the latter half of his life, he was widely recognized as a broad-minded statesman with an international horizon and long-range vision. Strangely, though, he was also an intellectual who used to read a lot of books in his own way.

So the inclusion of his name in the mobile library is apparently meant as a stimulus to encourage everybody with normal eyesight to read more books than Gus Dur did, especially those on science and technology, because even a near-blind person such as Gus Dur was fond of reading.

Sultan Hamengkubuwono X is himself a staunch advocate of holistic education as proven in his continuous attention to the entire process of education, from elementary to university levels.

But as the Sultan champions the campaign to stimulate reading habit in society, other parts of Indonesia are waiting for similar champions to emerge. In the capital city of Jakarta, for instance, no significant breakthrough has come to sight in terms of arousing society’s reading habit.

According to Bose Devi, chief of the Jakarta public libraries network, only a maximum of 200 people show up at 30 public libraries in this metropolitan city every day. In Beijing, the official says, some 10,000 people visit public libraries every day.

In a way this indicates that Jakarta residents do not like to read books; they prefer to watch television, or read newspapers and magazines that contain hot or controversial issues.

Such a tendency is not very helpful in the nation’s drive to compete in the global market because mastery of science and technology that can be done through reading books is the primary engine of modernization. And yet, this is where Indonesia lags far behind other countries in Asia.
Factors Causing Poor Reading Habit

The question is, why don’t Indonesians like to read? According to Jakarta educators, there are many reasons behind this situation.

Firstly, even though the focus of education since independence in 1945 was to combat illiteracy, it has not been easy to do so due to cultural reasons. Even today Indonesia is not yet totally free from illiteracy.

North Sulawesi has the lowest illiteracy rate: only 0.94% of the population. Iti is followed by Jakarta (1.04%), Riau (2.25%), Central Kalimantan (2.73%), West Sumatra (2.86%), South Sumatra (3.16%), and North Sumatra (3.1%).

On the contrary, provinces with high rates of illiteracy are those inhabited mainly by ethnic tribes of Java, Madura, Bugis, and Papua, according to a statement from the Ministry of Education and Culture.

One of the reasons is that in those high illiterate provinces, people use their mother tongues instead of the national language in daily life. Given that most books are written in the national language as well as English, such people have difficulty reading them.

For instance in Bone regency, South Sulawesi, which is the home village of former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, the rate of illiteracy is still 12.87%.  Even East Java, which has produced three presidents—Soekarno, Abdurrahman Wahid and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono—still has a high rate of illiteracy, says Prof. Bambang Soedibyo, the former minister of education.

Nationally, the highest rate of illiteracy remains in Papua (16.50%), followed by West Nusa Tenggara (13.05%), East Nusa Tenggara (10.47%), West Papua (10.22%) and Central Java (9.42%) even though Central Java is the biggest “producer” of Indonesia’s ministers of education.
 
The second factor that causes a lack of reading habit in society is a change in the orientation of family spending. Books are not on the priority lists of every family except compulsory books as required by school teachers.

The parents themselves are not fond of reading; they prefer to watch television, so it is difficult for them to persuade their children to read books. This is unlike in Japan, for instance, where mothers are required to read for at least 20 minutes before sending children to bed.

Even in presenting birthday gifts, very few—if any at all—would buy books as most Indonesian parents prefer to provide mobile phones and luxuries. Thereby, children get the message that reading is not important.

The third factor causing a lack of reading habit is society’s sudden shift from oral transmission and absorption of information as done through folk tales to electronic and digital methods.

With the electronic media now dominating family life across the country, only parents who understand proper child upbringing require children to read books. Most parents do not take action even when their children hate reading.

A lack of regular school assignments, which require a lot of reading, is to blame as the fourth factor causing students’ rejection of reading as a necessity. And to make things worse, public libraries are not being promoted as a good place for the younger generation to visit. These are challenges Indonesia needs to overcome to elevate itself as a reading-minded nation.

Alci Tamesa | The President Post, Jakarta | Education

The Government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has in recent years increased the amount of assistance for the development of public libraries—a move that has been greeted with guarded optimism by holistic educators.

The assistance has soared significantly from a mere Rp14.9 billion allocated annually since 2007. For this year there is a further increase in the total allocation for libraries because of the 20 percent allocation in the total portion of educational spending in the national budget.

Library spending for this year is focused on development and restoration of facilities in remote areas, especially in provinces with high rates of illiteracy, according to Sularsih, an official from the Ministry of National Education.

She explains that Indonesia currently has 440 public libraries but only half of them are reasonably furnished.

Nevertheless, according to independent observers, many of the furnished libraries, including those in the capital city of Jakarta, do not have reasonable and up-to-date titles or reading materials. In fact, many libraries are still poorly equipped with old books that fail to attract the younger generation or arouse society’s reading habit.

The government of President SBY has, as of 2007, begun to upgrade public libraries, giving priority to development of 100 big libraries across the Indonesian archipelago. Each library will receive at least Rp75, 000,000 in assistance annually.

In order to encourage reading habit in society, the Government has also provided around 100 mobile libraries, 50 of them were released in 2007 in remote regencies. Each car is worth around Rp200 million.

This strategy has been adopted by the private sector, especially publishing companies, which provides mobile libraries to provincial capital cities.

The latest instance occurred recently in Yogyakarta, where Galangpress publishing company launched a mobile library called “Teacher of the Nation: Gus Dur”, inaugurated by Sultan Hamengkubuwono X.

The dire need for good libraries is felt most obviously by Islamic boarding schools, educators say, adding that most books provided at such schools are out of date and that students are not interested in reading them.

These calls for concrete action come from the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which is responsible for developing religious schools.

On another front, however, the Government is working to promote society’s reading habit by building small libraries at public health centers.

This year, the Special Region of Yogyakarta has taken the lead, having equipped at least 10 public health facilities with a library. The aim is to provide good reading materials for patients and their relatives visiting health centers.

But here is the good news from Kompas-Gramedia Group (KGG). As of this year, they will increase assistance for up to 200 libraries across Indonesia, with special focus on facilitating libraries in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi.

Under a project called “Books for All”, KGG will help renovate library buildings apart from providing books. Funds for this come from the stakeholders of Kompas and independent donors.

But what is more important, according to Ria Purwiati, chairperson of KGG’s Information Center, is the need to build a small library in every house; thereby children will be encouraged to read books instead of wasting time on unproductive activities.

She says that a family library will have educational, informational, recreational, and research functions so every family must start building it now.

Given the fact that the private sector is now working hand in hand with the Government in arousing society’s awareness for reading, it is perhaps fair to say that there is still hope for Indonesia to see a reading generation emerge in the not-too-distant future, despite the onslaught of a digital lifestyle in society.

(The President Post printed edition. February 24, 2010)

source: Jakarta Globe

Nurfika Osman

Bad breath, or halitosis, is usually considered little more than a social faux pas, but it could in fact be a warning sign of a serious health problem.

“Bad breath needs to be addressed,” Nyoman Selvi, a dentist, said on Tuesday. “It not only affects the people around us and our interactions with them, but having bad breath can also point to a serious matter.”

She said halitosis could be caused by any number of illnesses, from pneumonia, bronchitis and chronic sinus infections, to liver and kidney problems and diabetes.

“Even people with gastritis can have bad breath because of high acid levels in their stomach,” said Nyoman, who practices at Puri Medika Clinic and Tugu Medika in Depok.

“Consistent bad breath cannot be regarded as a trifling matter,” she said during a weekly health discussion hosted by the KBR68H radio network.

“People tend to ignore bad breath because they believe it is not a serious issue. They think that they only need some mouthwash or a peppermint to make the smell disappear,” Nyoman said.

She added that halitosis could also be caused by constipation or chronic acid reflux.

“Basically, they have to fix their systemic problems to make the halitosis disappear,” she said.

“If bad breath persists even after brushing one’s teeth properly, flossing, using mouthwash and avoiding foods with strong odors such as onions and petai [stinky green beans], then it must be regarded as a sign of serious problems,” Nyoman said.

Dania Sari, not her real name, said she experienced regular halitosis despite brushing her teeth regularly, flossing and using mouthwash.

“I have tried everything, including chewing gum, but it just doesn’t go away. It only disappears for a while,” she said.

“I am ashamed and I think my boyfriend is annoyed by it,” she added.

Dania said her bad breath made her self-conscious, especially when meeting new people at social functions.

“I’m afraid that I will make the situation worse and they will smell something bad coming from my mouth.”

Nyoman said that 80 percent of halitosis cases were caused by mouth-related illnesses, but that few people here made regular visits to the dentist to look after their oral health.

Commonly, Nyoman said, halitosis is a warning sign of gum disease, caused by the buildup of plaque on teeth. If the gum disease goes untreated, it can lead to further damage to the gums and the jawbone.

She said bad breath could also indicate serious tooth decay, cavities, gingivitis and also dry mouth (xerostomia), which is caused by a lack of saliva.

Nyoman said halitosis could also be a symptom of oral cancer, which some studies have shown may be linked to the prolonged use of mouthwashes containing alcohol.

“Alcohol is dangerous and basically we have good bacteria in our mouth to keep it odorless,” she said. “All we have to do is brush our teeth properly and make sure all areas of our teeth are brushed, including the inner side.” She added that it was also important to brush the tongue.

“Please keep in mind that many of these mouthwashes only provide a temporary way to mask the unpleasant mouth odor.”

Alci Tamesa, The President Post, Jakarta | Education

In an effort to reduce the unemployment rate and simultaneously satisfy rising market demand, the government is encouraging vocational schools to upgrade quality and multiply their output as of this year. The aim is to have at least 70 percent of graduates absorbed by the job market by 2014.

The vocational schools are now receiving increased attention from the government for the simple reason that they are the producers of below-university skilled workers for various lines of industry.

As the new government approaches the end of its first 100 days, all eyes are directed at the ways in which government departments handle this particular issue.

Given the fact that unemployment is a complex issue, the government has to intensify inter-ministerial coordination to formulate a comprehensive policy that will ensure employability of vocational graduates, educators say.

Graduates from general high schools usually have difficulty competing in the labor market because their expertise is very minimum compared to that of vocational schools’ graduates.

They only have two options: pursue higher education to elevate their employability prospects, or attend short-cut industrial training courses in order to be employed. This has been the case for decades.

But today, with the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) starting to gain momentum, high school graduates will have even greater difficulty competing because under the agreement that covers ASEAN and the People’s Republic of China, regional governments have the obligation to ensure free flow of goods, services, and people, including foreign expertise.

This situation poses an extra challenge to vocational schools in Indonesia because their graduates will have to compete with those from foreign countries who may have a higher level of industrial expertise and experience.

This is why the government is pushing vocational schools to upgrade their quality and linkages with industry to make sure that graduates from local schools will not be outmatched by their competitors from abroad.

But then a big problem looms large here. Up to 2008 only 10 percent of graduates from vocational schools were absorbed by the market. That translates into some 80,000 people.

In 2009 a total of 891,184 students graduated from vocational schools but the percentage of job market absorption did not improve.  So the real challenge is not in the production of graduates but in their absorption by the job market. And this has to do with the graduates’ quality of expertise.

Nevertheless, for this year a total of 1,087,098 students will participate in vocational school exams and about half of them are expected to be employed by local industries.

According Joko Sutrisno, the official in charge of vocational education at the Ministry of National Education, there is a constant five percent increase per annum in the graduates’ absorption by the private sector.

So, there is optimism that more and more vocational graduates will find their way to survive tough global competition.

For this year alone the government expects to see a market absorption rate of up to 70 percent of vocational graduates whose mandated passing mark is 7.00 for on-the-job practicum.

This comes before they sit for the National Exam to do five tests—for Indonesian Language, English, Mathematics, Vocational Theory, and Vocational Practice. The average passing mark for the National Exam is 5.5 for all subjects tested.

Vocational practice exam will take place on February 15, 2010 and this will be conducted individually—unlike in the past when they did it in group.

“We just want to make sure that the graduates will really be able to work,” said Joko Sutrisno, when asked why his office changed the mechanism.

(The President Post printed edition. January 28, 2010)

The Jakarta Post   |  Sat, 01/16/2010 9:14 PM  |  National

At least four private universities in West Java will change their status to state institutions, Antara state news agency has reported.

“In March or April a number of private universities will sign a change of their status, including four in West Java,” Governor Ahmad Heryawan said in his speech at the inauguration of new graduates from Swadaya Gunung Jati University (Unswagati) in Cirebon on Saturday.

He added that Unswagati, Siliwangi University in Tasikmalaya, Singaperbangsa University in Karawang and an unidentified university in Sukabumi would be among the private universities that would be acquired by the government.

The West Java government will cover the operation of the new state universities and other expenses resulting from the change of status.

Ahmad said his administration had allocated funds from the 2010 regional budget to buy 30 hectares of land needed to build a new campus for Unswagati in Cirebon.

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Tue, 11/10/2009 12:23 PM  |  National

The Indonesian Teachers Association (PGRI) has told its members to do away with conventional teaching methods and develop new teaching paradigms allowing for more active student participation.

PGRI’s representative for international affairs, Unifah Rosyidi, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of an international seminar in Jakarta on Monday that it was high time Indonesia’s teachers answered to the new demands and challenges of developments in education.

“Education in the old days placed teachers in the center, but today, the learners, or students, are the center. Today, education is not just a matter of transfering knowledge, rather it is more about facilitating the students to get better, and to actualize themselves,” she said.

Monday’s seminar on developing a child-friendly school invited hundreds of teachers and lecturers from schools and universities from all over the country. Teachers from countries such as China, Egypt and Zambia also attended the event to share their experiences.

Unifah said efforts to disseminate information on students’ rights and conducive learning environments had been made over the years through seminars and training workshops.

“Changing teachers’ teaching paradigm is a long process. We need to continuously sensitize our teachers to how education has developed and how it brings new demands and challenges,” she added.

Lund University of Sweden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency have been training teachers from various countries in developing child-friendly schools.

Bodil Rasmusson from the university said during the seminar that such schools were the ones encouraging students’ participation.

An example of students’ participation, he said, was the establishment of child rights clubs where children had the opportunities to express themselves in many different ways – through poems, drawings, or festivals that involve the whole school and community.

“There are also examples of children being involved in the creation of new school rules. We have also seen many examples of improved relationships between students and teachers in the classroom,” he said.

Unifah said to improve students’ participation in the classroom, teachers needed to establish a teaching method that was meaningful, fun, creative and inspiring for the students.

“Also, they need to design the curriculum so that it could be flexible enough to allow creativity in the teaching process,” she told the Post.

Rasmusson said developing a child-friendly school also required a provision of children’s rights.

“We also have examples *of the provisions of child’s rights* in opportunities provided to pregnant teenagers to return to school after delivery,” he said.

Unifah highlighted that it was important to establish inclusive education in the country. “It is the right of every child to get quality education without being discriminated *against*,” she said. (adh)

Source: Harvardbusiness.org

Thursday September 17, 2009
by Amy Gallo

Turning Negativity into Productivity
Dealing with a pessimist on your team can be a frustrating and time-consuming experience. Attempts to ignore or counter frequent negative comments may simply incite further negativity. Good news: by being proactive you can help the pessimist change his behavior and enable your team to achieve greater productivity.

What the Experts Say
The first step is to figure out what is causing your team member’s negativity. Roderick Kramer, William R. Kimball Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, says that it is the role of the leader to understand the underlying cause of the pessimism before acting. “Some people are dispositional pessimists whose knee-jerk reaction is to see the negative in everything, while others may be expressing a pessimistic point of view based upon informed logic,” Kramer says. Some common sources of pessimism include resentment at not having been promoted, a need for attention, or a need to cover for a lack of knowledge or skill.

Whatever the source of the pessimism, the key to responding constructively is to focus on the impact of the individual’s behavior, according to Marshall Goldsmith, executive educator and the author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There. Changing behavior is much easier than trying to reform a person’s long-held beliefs and values.

Here are three approaches to managing negative behavior:

1. Create awareness. This is best done by pulling the team member aside and explaining how his comments are received. The rule when giving this type of feedback, says Jon Katzenbach, author of Wisdom of Teams and founder of the Katzenbach Center at Booz & Co., is to “be at least as positive as you are negative.” Explain why the person is valued on the team and make clear the impact of his behavior. For example, you can say, “When you make negative comments, the team gets stuck and we aren’t able to move forward.” Kramer points out, “This kind of conversation can be useful from a diagnostic perspective.” Once you understand the underlying reason for the pessimism, you can provide additional support or information if it’s needed.

2. Reposition negative statements. Negativity can fester and eventually kill a team’s momentum and motivation. Don’t let negative comments linger. Ask for clarification or more information about what the speaker means. For example, if a team member says, “This project is never going to make it past Finance,” ask the speaker to explain why she thinks that. Better yet, you can ask for alternative solutions: “What can we do to make sure the project does make it past Finance?” You can also ask team members to use “but statements.” Ask them to follow skeptical or critical sentences with “but.” For example, your team member could say “This project is never going to make it past Finance, BUT it’s worth laying the groundwork now because next year, Finance is apt to approve more tech projects.” It’s helpful to model this type of behavior for the entire team. Offer your own constructive criticism while providing an alternative solution.

3. Involve the whole team. It can be damaging to single out a team member in front of the entire team. Peer pressure is a far more effective tactic. According to Kramer, “Sometimes social sanctions work better than leader sanctions.” Set team norms and ask everyone to observe them. Goldsmith suggests that individuals ask themselves before they speak, “Will this comment help our customers? Will this help our company? Will this help the person or team we’re talking about? Will this help the person we’re talking to?” As Goldsmith points out, “Honesty may be the best policy except when it’s destructive and unhelpful.” Once you’ve agreed on norms, ask the team to hold each other to them. This approach can be used when you’re not the team leader as well. If a fellow team member is regularly negative, you can appeal to what Kramer calls “the collective wisdom” of the team by modeling positive behavior and using peer pressure to show the pessimist a more productive way of contributing. Of course as a peer, your influence is limited and you may need to talk with the team leader if your attempts to redirect the pessimist don’t work.

When All Else Fails
All of the experts agree that if a team member is continually disruptive and does not respond to coaching or feedback, you may ultimately need to remove her from the team. Sometimes people are not a good fit for a team or a project and it’s your job as leader to make that distinction.

Negativity Can be Useful
It’s important to remember that the goal here is not to rid the team of any skeptical sentiment. Not all negativity is bad, despite how it sounds or feels. According to Kramer, habitual pessimists’ concerns may in some cases be well informed and rational and “based on an intuition or insight that could be extremely helpful to the group.” For example, there were pessimists at NASA who didn’t feel the Space Shuttle Columbia was ready, especially after the Challenger disaster seven years earlier. We need dissenting voices to check our assumptions and push our ideas. Katzenbach says, “An irritating member adds a dimension to teaming. As long as he or she is not strong enough to derail progress, he or she may offer thoughts that otherwise wouldn’t come in.”

Principles to Remember
Do:

• Find the source of the pessimism
• Differentiate between the person and the behavior
• Involve the whole team in setting norms for team behavior

Don’t:

• Single someone out in front of the whole group
• Allow negative comments to go unaddressed
• Assume all pessimism is unproductive

Case Study #1: Turning Negative Comments into Constructive Ones
Lisa Schneider, a sales director at an online media company, was leading a team to organize the company’s sales inventory and identify operational efficiencies in the way they leveraged the inventory in new sales. Many of the team members were not Lisa’s direct reports but people from other departments. Fred worked for Operations and from the beginning of the team’s work together was skeptical of the project. He said over and over, “This isn’t going to work.” Lisa could see that Fred’s attitude was having an effect on the other team members and was concerned he would ultimately impede the team’s progress. She pulled Fred aside and explained that whenever he made negative comments, the team looked deflated and the conversation stopped. Fred was receptive to what she had to say, but he believed that Operations would not be able to execute on the ideas they were putting forth. Lisa told Fred that his boss, the head of Operations, believed in this project and had asked him to join the team for a reason. She asked him to offer alternatives to the ideas being proposed in addition to raising concerns. “I explained to Fred that what he was doing felt like continually putting up roadblocks, without providing a detour sign. I asked that he propose additional solutions to overcome the obstacles he was raising,” Lisa said. He took Lisa’s advice to heart and began engaging with the team on new solutions. Team members were relieved to see Fred contributing in a positive way and openly debated the merits of the solutions he proposed.

Ultimately, the team’s recommendations were implemented with many of Fred’s alternative solutions incorporated. Lisa believes the end results were more rigorous because of Fred’s contributions. The project was considered a success and the new system has saved Operations 100 hours of work each quarter.

Case Study #2: Pessimism as Cover
Rutger von Post, a Principal at Booz & Company, recently led a team with a difficult team member. Joe was a junior consultant reporting into Rutger on this particular client project. Joe continually expressed skepticism about how the team was sizing the market for a new healthcare product. The team met several times to go over the project, clearly divide up the work, and set goals and milestones. Joe did not productively contribute to any of these discussions. In fact, he would cross his arms and say things such as, “I don’t see how this is useful for the client.” Rutger pulled him aside in an attempt to understand what was causing Joe’s negativity. Only after Rutger gave him direct and stark feedback about his behavior and the impact on his performance, did Joe make clear that he was acting skeptical because he didn’t know how to do what was asked of him. Rutger spent a half day with Joe going over what he needed to do and practicing the work with him. Together they sized 5 of 30 sub-segments of the market so Joe would then be comfortable doing the rest of the work on his own. Rutger said, “Once he was shown how to do it his skepticism evaporated.” Joe eventually became a productive member of the team once Rutger understood and addressed the real source of his pessimism.

Source: CNN.Com

September 21, 2009 — Updated 1316 GMT (2116 HKT)

LONDON, England (CNN) — With fears over job security and widespread pay freezes, recession can prompt some people to think about starting their own business. And despite the common perception, for the right start up, it could be the perfect time to go it alone.

“People automatically assume it’s a bad idea to start out in a recession, but for a great many businesses it’s much the best time to start,” David Lester, founder of startups.co.uk and author of “Start Your Own Business: the Good, the Bad and the Unexpected,” told CNN

Lester says there are valid reasons to be cautious, including a lack of demand in some sectors, but that needn’t put off budding entrepreneurs.

“People need to be clear about their expectations and be sure there is still sufficient demand for their business,” he said.

“As long as that caveat is well understood, it’s an absolutely amazing time to start a business.”

So if you think the time has come to be your own boss, here’s some advice from the experts.

1. Make the most of low costs.

The recession means business start-up costs are lower than in boom times. Lester started his first business during a recession and says it meant he could afford employees who would otherwise have wanted too much money, or found other jobs. It also meant he could rent office space for substantially less money and that his advertising budget went much further.

“For almost all business that start up it takes longer to build sales than they expect, but if you can adjust expectations it’s much cheaper to start in a recession and work towards a long, slow build,” he told CNN.

2. Be efficient.

Sophie Kummer, of the Federation of Small Businesses, says that if you can work from home you may be able to reduce your running costs. And if your employees can do the same, you can do without office space altogether.

“Working from home means you don’t have to pay overheads,” Kummer told CNN. “The recession is also a good time to think of energy efficiency — fighting climate change and saving money go hand in hand.”

3. Take strength from adversity.

Hayley Williams, of the National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA), says the pressures of recession can help focus your business mind.

“When times are good it can be tempting for someone to start a business without thinking it through,” she told CNN.

She says that in a recession it’s more important than ever to have the right product, mind set and support, but that need for solid foundations will stand you in good stead for the future.

Williams said that at a recent NFEA conference, Josephine Fairley, the co-founder of Green & Black’s chocolate, explained that her business had been made stronger by starting in the recession of 1991, simply because the tough economic environment meant it had to be.

4. Test the waters.

Williams says a big trend is for people to start a business in their spare time, working on them in the evenings and at weekends. She says it can help keep down costs, as part-time enterprises are usually run from home, and adds that some people will use the experience to realize that self-employment is not for them.

“The recession means that some people are playing it safe, making sure they can build a business on sound principles before quitting their job and going it alone,” Williams told CNN.

“In the next few years we’re hoping to see some of those businesses that have started part time developing into fully fledged businesses.”

5. Think local.

Buying from local suppliers and encouraging shoppers to buy locally can build customer loyalty, says Kummer. Equally, taking the time to build relationships with local suppliers will build trust and could help you to get better deals.

6. Manage costs and cash flow.

Because some big businesses are struggling to get credit and are experiencing cash-flow problems, the small firms supplying them may find themselves kept waiting for sorely needed payments.

“Some big businesses will lean on smaller suppliers, using small businesses as a kind of credit. To prevent late payments you must be very clear about which date you need to be paid by,” Kummer said.

7. Be nimble.

Lester says that businesses starting in a recession need more cash reserves than in other times, and he stresses the importance of being flexible.

“Don’t commit to a five-year lease on an office — there’s plenty of very short term office space around. Rather than taking on a lot of employed staff, work with consultants and freelancers,” he said.