9th September 2013: Drivers of World Change and Change Management and Change Leadership

Hello!

Brief Overview/Summary:

• Prof began the class by clearing up some of the mistakes that were committed by us, gullible and naive students who readily accept information as facts without considering it's credibility and reliability of the source.
• We discussed about the fact that being more globalized, developing countries will be able to adopt technologies better, have greater talent pool from the world and that will help in their development as a country
• The 1st follower is the most important turning point for a leader. You cannot be a leader without followers, that's just being a lone nut

Interesting Observations and Ideas:

• Prof discussed how developed countries are exporting their businesses to developing countries and claim that the latter's carbon footprints are much higher than theirs. While i found this ridiculous, the fact is, people dont know what they dont know! Statistics could be easily manipulated and point fingers at the culprit saying they are destroying the environment. Moreover, America claims that China has been producing too much carbon footprint while focusing on economic development. However, most of us don't realize that much of the damage that has been done were not contributed by China, in fact, China's carbon footprint per capita has been kept below 5 for most years while Singapore is averaging at 15! An astounding fact that prof brought up was that if everyone consumed as much energy as the average Singaporean and the U.S resident,the world's oil reserve will be depleted in 9 years! :O!
•  “It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” ― Charles Darwin . Prof went to explain that it is the specie that can best adapt to its surrounding that will be able to survive! Humans have been on earth for a relatively brief period as compared to cockroach, cockroaches are able to live in the harshest environment. Cockroaches have been around for 250 million years! Even longer than dinosaurs! They would eat almost anything including paper, wood or even glue!! They are proven to be quite intelligent and can learn to adapt to changes in the surroundings, which allowed them to survive till now. They have been bred for use in traditional medicine, and recently over 1 million cockroaches escaped a farm in China (Jiangsu). One freaking million :O!!! Thank God i'm not staying there. http://news.yahoo.com/one-million-cockroaches-flee-china-farm-report-071618130.html
• We made clear the distinction between leaders and managers in class. Manager is one that works well within a paradigm, someone who operates within conditions, while a leader creates the paradigm, he creates the vision and provide the direction for everyone. To my understanding, manager is more mid-management style while leaders are normally CEOs who decide the direction for the company.

Key Takeaways:

• While there has been a big debate on environment issues going on and we constantly look offshore to point our fingers to, there is much to be done in Singapore who has been industrializing and polluting the environment
• There is a tectonic change in how business models are run these days due to the increase in globalization. Traditional models may not work anymore and we cannot afford to 'freeze' our organization, we have to keep vigilant to changes on the ground and respond to it effectively.
• Change is the new constant.

Issues for further discussions: 

• How can developing country continue to pursue their economic interest without polluting our environment? Is it possible?
• A person who is charismatic and driven may not necessarily be a good leader. Example would be Reverend Jim Jones who persuaded 900+ people to commit 'revolutionary suicide'. Therefore how do we select the correct leader to lead us? What are the limitations of existing guidelines?

Presentation:

• I enjoyed the presentation on how social media will affect China. With the explosion of social media, there used to be a voice that the government could silence previously. However, nowadays, China citizens could post online and immediately evoke actions by 3rd parties and thus keeping the government in check. While pursuing the race for economic development, i believe the Chinese governments have a very delicate social environment to handle in order for greater progress to happen.

Personal rating:

• I would give this lesson a 8.5/10 because it was very informative and cleared some of my misunderstandings!