Yesterday in my System Dynamics class, I heard Prof. J. Bradley Morrison mentioned the acronym MBWA, an enormously popular buzzword in the early 80's (according to the professor) that is short for management by wandering around. Intrigued by the term, I did a search on it and found a slew of articles written about MBWA. Make no mistake, MBWA is a non-sophisticated virtue that advocates business leaders to engage actively with the employees to make things happen, much like Alexander the Great who personally led his troops to the battlefield. Speaking of the military, I think that MBWA comes more naturally with people who have military background. As a sergeant in the infantry many years ago, I was taught to practice participatory leadership with my troops. We didn't use the term MBWA, instead we use a less catchy phrase called leading by example. Throughout my career in the military, I have witnessed a difference troops' morale and performance whenever I rolled my sleeves up and got involved with them in the tasks that I asked them to do. Ultimately great teamwork was fostered through my active engagement with the people that I supervise.

But is MBWA still relevant in today's business context? Personally, I think that it is needed more today than ever before. In my humble opinion, I feel that today's business leaders are just too fixated on interacting only with people whom they have direct relationships with - direct reports, customers, shareholders, and investors. Worse, in the advent of video conference, email, and web cast, it has become ever easier for business leaders to appear as remote figureheads, further alienating them from their organization. Instead of showing the employees a video cast of their CEO presenting the company's quarterly earning announcement, the CEO should personally be on site and address the company's rank and file. Be genuinely interested in what people do and learn about what they do and feel. If nothing else, share your vision with them. Read this article for more details on MBWA. Anyway, it is getting a little touchy-feely already (yikes ); but my point is that business leaders can't afford to be out-of-touch with the realities and the people who make up a major portion of an organization.

7/7/2006 8:06:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Business

These days, we hear the term "globalization" mentioned frequently in almost aspect of our life. But has anyone wondered about the originality of the term. Well, as reported by the Boston Globe, Theodore Levitt, who coined the term, has died. According to the article:

"Levitt first used the term 'globalization' in a 1983 Harvard Business Review article about the emergence of standardized, low-priced consumer products. He defined that globalization as the changes in social behaviors and technology which allowed companies to sell the same products around the world."

7/6/2006 6:08:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Business

I had wanted to spend a quiet July 4th weekend at home reading and watching TV. However, I decided the last minute to visit my buddies Siobhan and Steve over that weekend in New York City instead. It was great catching up with the both of them. Steve was busy preparing for his New York bar examination, which will be take place at the end of the month. Siobhan was in the midst of her well-deserved two month long break between her graduation from NYU Stern and her new job. Nonetheless, both of them were gracious enough to hang out with me last week. Thank you for hosting me.

The first night in NYC was a night out with Fernando, Nick, Serge, and Will - all whom happened to be in town the same night as I was. The second day was spent at Jones Beach in Long Island. That day, I was badly burned from not using sunscreen lotion at the beach even though I knew full well that I should have. Today, the redness and burning sensation have subsided but my whole body still itches like crazy. Moral of the story is: don't be a hero, use the sunscreen lotion. On the brighter side of things, we joined Brian and other close friends on Independence Day to watch the fireworks on a roof deck of an office building in Mahattan. What a spectacular view of the city and fireworks!

I have been visiting NYC a lot lately and starting to like the city. The city appeals to me because as an energetic person, I am attracted to the exuberance that the city has to offer. I think I would fit right in NYC. I am now seriously considering living and working in NYC for a few years.

7/5/2006 11:52:10 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Travels

As a World Cup junkie who has been watching the most beloved game in the world as of late, I have been itching for a real game so that I can, too, bend it like Beckham. I had suggested a friendly football match between LFM and SDM to satisfy my itch but the reception from my SDM class has been less than enthusiastic at first. I finally got a team of about 12 people from SDM but I now have scheduling problems as not all of us can play at the same time. Arghhh... It looks like we might finally get that match scheduled for the weekend of July 14-16.

Not willing to wait, I played in an LFM organized football pick-up game yesterday. Despite being the holiday weekend, there were 24 people playing on the MIT AstroTurf at one point of the game. Most players are LFM students and there were a few MBA and ESD students. Ankur and I were the only people from SDM. I played my usual position as a defender. Even though I have not played for more than 5 years, I was very happy with my performance. I was fast and well coordinated. I was feeling confident by the second half. It was a fun game and I plan to continue playing this pick-up game every Friday.

7/1/2006 3:31:47 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Sports

I barely have enough time to keep up with my readings of the magazines I subscribe to (The Economist and BusinessWeek), yet I have recently decided to order more magazines. I have read a few Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles as part of the required readings in some of the classes that I took at MIT. A month ago, I caved in and ordered a year's subscription of HBR to try it out. I have already received two issues of HBR and so far, I like what I have read. Most of the articles are written very thoughtfully and certainly has an academic tinge to it. Unlike BusinessWeek, which reports about the latest trends and news in the business world, HBR focuses on findings from the latest research in management science as well as issues that are nascent. Such characterization should be of no surprise since most of the contributing authors are faculty members of established business schools.

These days, I am still trying to make sense of the war and America's foreign policy. More importantly, in a highly globalized world and as a student of policy, I simply can't ignore the political and policy matters at the world stage. So I subscribed to Foreign Affairs, a magazine about international affairs, a month ago (about the same time I subscribed to HBR). Similar to HBR, a good portion of the articles in Foreign Affairs are written by professors as well as prominent players in the international affairs scene. Unfortunately, I have only received my first copy of the magazine yesterday, so I will defer my review of the magazine till a later time.

7/1/2006 1:36:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Personal

This is not going to be another long winded essay on business strategy but rather a quick blog entry to capture a recent thought of mine.

I remember hearing this being mentioned in one of my classes before (probably Prof. Tom Allen's class): "Before you can build world class innovations, you need to build a world class organization." When I look at the Internet today, I see the success of MySpace, Wikipedia, and Del.icio.us (just to name a few). Yet all these sites share one thing in common, which is: they all have a rich community of users and contributors. Indeed, web sites can no longer compete solely on content alone, especially single source content. In the world of Web 2.0, websites are becoming more social-centric. Users are drawn to web sites that offer rich social interaction with like-minded people. From my observation, almost every new site that debuted in the last two year or less have grown significantly when it has a rich component of social interaction or social networking feature. In other words, the competitive advantage of a web company, especially a startup, may indeed lies in the community that it builds and the people that it attracts. Maybe the new pointer, appropriate for today's Internet business environment, should say: "Before we can build world class websites, we need to build a world class community."

6/30/2006 12:24:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Business

I have always been perplexed by Game Theory and know very little about it. That is why I am interested in learning more about it. So when I learned that a course on the subject was being offered at the Harvard Summer School, I decided to go check it out. Yesterday, I attended the first class and learned a few things about Game Theory.

I had always thought that Game Theory is just another form of probability; but it is not. Here's the distinction that I learned yesterday: Game Theory is applied to a game of strategy like chess and poker as Probability Theory is applied to a game of chance like roulette. It makes perfect sense after the professor mentioned it. The professor lectured most of the session before ending the class by playing a modified form of the prisoner's dilenma to illustrate the concept of game equilibria. After the game, I can see why Game Theory is an integral part of a negotiation course - something that I plan to take next semester. After all, negotiation process is a calculated game of choices that can lead to optimal behavior that benefits all negotiating parties. Appropriately, Game Theory can be applied in such situation. However, as the instructor has explicitly stated yesterday that learning Game Theory does make you a better player as it does not tell you how you should play the game but rather it tells you how rational players will behave or real players actually behave.

The lecturer for this class is Robert Neugeboren who is clear and concise in his instruction. Game Theory is an interesting topic; unfortunately, I decided not register for the class since I am seriously tied up with a summer course and a thesis project at MIT already. I really don't have time for another class. I just have to defer learning this subject till the fall semester when I sign up for a negotiation class or a Game Theory class.

6/29/2006 12:44:54 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

Since the World Cup opening on June 9, there has been a series of televised football matches on TV. For the last 19 days, watching World Cup matches has become a daily staple for me with at least one game per day. However, I was dumbfounded earlier today to find that there won't be any matches scheduled for today and tomorrow. YEP, THERE'S NO FOOTBALL TODAY AND TOMORROW. This means that I have some time now to read parts of the bibliography that my thesis advisor had compiled for me.

6/28/2006 12:04:40 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Sports

Now that I am officially working on my master's thesis, what did I do last weekend. Honestly, absolutely nothing - I did zip, nil, nada, diddly-squat this weekend. My time this weekend (Thursday to Sunday) was spent watching the World Cup, playing computer games, and partying with the boys: Fernando, Nick, Serge, Sorin, and Will.

Speaking of the World Cup, I am becoming quite a World-Cup junkie these days. I try to watch every game whenever I can. Last weekend was no exception. I watched every game that was televised. For the Argentina vs. Mexico game, I suggested to the boys that we watch it at the Phoenix Landing. I expected the place to be crowded but not jam-packed with people. We were one of the last few people to get into the pub and we barely found standing room to watch the game. We love it though. It's like being in the stadium. There was a large contingent of Argentinian supporters, all wearing the Argentinian national football jersey, chanting throughout the game. Surprisingly, the Mexican contingent was not as lively but nonetheless enthusiastic. The atmosphere was definitely spirited. I think all 6 of us agree that the Landing is now our offical location to watch live World Cup matches. The Argentina vs. Mexico was an excellent game. I have to compliment the way Latin Americans play the game. They really play with a lot of passion and energy, and all their moves are so fluid. It was always fun watching them play.

Here are other football matches that I watched last weekend. The England vs. Ecuador match was just plain boring. The English players played a tepid style of football - the players look tired and unenthusiastic. Even the Germans who are traditionally boring, mechanic, and stiff on the field played a more interesting game in their matchup against the Swedes last weekend. The Germans seem to be playing very well as a team. They have good team dynamics and have been playing consistently well so far. I like this German team and I am looking forward to the quarter final game where Germany plays Argentina.

Last but not least, there is the Portugal vs Netherlands game. I got one word for that game: tragic. I have never seen so many yellow and red cards given out in a single game; 16 yellows and 4 reds. Sure, FIFA rules may have been changed in this year's World Cup and consequently led to more yellow cards being issued; but I think that the referee ultimately did a terrible job in officiating this game. After the first goal by Portugal, the game was marred by the erosion of sportsmanship. With tension mounting on both sides, the referee can't just issue yellow and red cards and expect to clam the situation down. Especially, not when it is not done in a inconsistent manner.

6/26/2006 11:46:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Sports

Sweet... My thesis advisor finally signed my revised thesis proposal earlier today. This means that I can now officially start working on my thesis. However, the revised thesis is bittersweet. I am thrilled to be working on a thesis that applies System Thinking and Chaos Theory to a management and policy context - a topic befitting for an MIT thesis. On the other hand, the work required to complete this thesis is daunting. There will be substantial literature review, research, analyses, and syntheses in the process.

I have already started reviewing relevant literature for the thesis project. What I really need to do now is to start writing summaries for all the books, articles, and journals that I have read. I think writing abstracts of reviewed literature is a key part of the thesis research process. It will help me tremedously when I start writing my thesis later this Fall. To facilitate the literature abstract writing process, I have ordered the academic version of Endnote earlier today. Unfortunately, the software is backordered for another 2 weeks.

My friend, Yoav, introduced me to the concept of using a wiki to facilitate thesis research and writing. A wiki will enable me to add notes or ideas for my thesis. Even better, a wiki can help solicit valuable feedback from other people who may offer further insights or different viewpoints to my thesis. Alright, I will create a wiki tomorrow.

6/22/2006 3:26:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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School

The acronym KISS traditionally expands to "keep it simple, stupid." But I have a new definition for it and it's "keep it short, stupid." That's right, the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle should be applied to any communication. One thing that I have observed that is consistent among all bad presentations that I have delivered or seen while studying at MIT is that they are often too long. According to this BusinessWeek article, 15 minutes is the length of the average attention span for most people. That's right, less is more.

Yet, time and time again, I have neglected the mantra of keeping it short in my communication (writing and presentation) and ended up with some dismal performances. But I learn; after much reflection, I think I know where my weaknesses are. Sure, I can always improve on my showmanship during a presentation. But more importantly, I need to resist adding unnecessary content to presentation and recognize that it is perfectly okay to cross out extra content. So I need to strive for clarity and brevity in any communication.

6/21/2006 11:04:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Personal

To me, the whole notion of System Thinking is motivated by the phrase: "The whole is more than sum of its parts." In other words, System Thinking seeks not only to understand the parts that make up the system but also the interactions that bind these parts together to become the whole system. I will talk more about System Thinking later in my blog since I will be writing a thesis on applying System Thinking to gain additional insights to a Disruptive Technology phenomenon.

One of the challenges of my thesis is to tackle the question on why so many business strategies generate disappointing results or failure? Sometimes, well-intended policies lead to results that differ drastically or are often opposite from their original objectives. Furthermore, in a business environment or in a public policy context, organizations need to embrace change in order to be competitive or successful. Only by understanding how changes take place can we prepare for the consequences and to generate sensible strategies and policies. This is where System Dynamics, a version of System Thinking, comes into play by providing a set of frameworks and tools that examines feedback loops in a dynamic system, be it social, economic, organizational, or business.

This summer, I am taking a course on System Dynamics at MIT. The course is taught by Prof. J. Bradley Morrison, an adjunct professor at MIT Sloan and an assistant professor at Brandeis Univesity. I took the same course last summer before I dropped it by the third week as I couldn't stand sitting through the entire three hour long class session. Even though I have written very positively about System Dynamics in this blog entry, the subject is nonetheless dry and mechanic. To get me through a System Dynamics class, I need someone who is not only animated and articulated, but engages actively with the class. Prof. Morrison does all of the above very well. He doesn't speak in a monotonous voice (a good start) and engages in lively discussions with the class with keen interest in listening from students on how System Dynamics relates to their professional experiences. In comparison, I like this year's System Dynamics course much better than last year's course. Besides, how can I go wrong in taking a class that has direct relevance to my thesis.

6/20/2006 12:41:07 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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Business

Nice... my favorite TV show - The Daily Show - is now available from iTunes.

6/20/2006 12:00:16 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

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The Daily Show