35 Quotes To Transform Yourself Into A Leader

Not everyone has someone directly influencing their transformation into a better leader. This is why I find quotes from some of the most influential leaders to be beneficial to the process.

In need of a bit of inspiration? Use the following quotes to transform yourself as a leader:

1. "To lead people, walk beside them ... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate ... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!”— Lao-tsu

2. "Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” — John Maxwell

3. "Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.”— Winston Churchill

4. "Control is not leadership; management is not leadership; leadership is leadership. If you seek to lead, invest at least 50% of your time in leading yourself—your own purpose, ethics, principles, motivation, conduct. Invest at least 20% leading those with authority over you and 15% leading your peers." — Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus, Visa

5. "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

6. "If a rhinoceros were to enter this restaurant now, there is no denying he would have great power here. But I should be the first to rise and assure him that he had no authority whatever." — G.K. Chesterton to Alexander Woollcott

7. "The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” — Henry Kissinger

8. "The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there." — John Buchan

9. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

10. "The best is he who calls men to the best. And those who heed the call are also blessed. But worthless who call not, heed not, but rest." — Hesiod, 8th Century BC Greek poet

11. "Never give an order that can't be obeyed." — General Douglas MacArthur

12. "Leadership must be based on goodwill. Goodwill does not mean posturing and, least of all, pandering to the mob. It means obvious and wholehearted commitment to helping followers. We are tired of leaders we fear, tired of leaders we love, and of tired of leaders who let us take liberties with them. What we need for leaders are men of the heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. But leaders like that are never out of a job, never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.” — Admiral James B. Stockdale

13. "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

14. "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 Truman

15. "Leadership is intentional influence." — Michael McKinney

16. "The leader is one who mobilizes others toward a goal shared by leaders and followers. ... Leaders, followers and goals make up the three equally necessary supports for leadership." — Gary Wills, Certain Trumpets: The Call of Leaders

17. "All Leadership is influence.” — John C. Maxwell, Injoy, Inc.

18. "You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too." — Sam Rayburn

19. "Your position never gives you the right to command. It only imposes on you the duty of so living your life that others may receive your orders without being humiliated." — Dag Hammarskjöld

20. "The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men, the conviction and the will to carry on." — Walter Lippmann

21. "The function of a leader within any institution: to provide that regulation through his or her non-anxious, self-defined presence." — Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve

22. "People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives." — Theodore Roosevelt

23. "Humans will probably always need the help of especially gifted moral leaders in order to extend the bonds of caring and trust beyond the easy range of the family and the face-to-face community. Such bonds have become essential to the future of humanity." — Paul R. Lawrence, Driven To Lead

24. "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

25. "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

26. "Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall." — Stephen R. Covey

27. "As a leader, you're probably not doing a good job unless your employees can do a good impression of you when you're not around." — Patrick Lencioni

28. "Leadership is not magnetic personality, that can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not ‘making friends and influencing people,’ that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to higher sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." — Peter F. Drucke

29. "Leadership is the ability to establish standards and manage a creative climate where people are self-motivated toward the mastery of long term constructive goals, in a participatory environment of mutual respect, compatible with personal values." — Mike Vance

30. “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” — General George Patton

31. "A leader is a dealer in hope." — Napoleon Bonaparte

32. "Lead and inspire people. Don't try to manage and manipulate people. Inventories can be managed but people must be lead." — Ross Perot

33. "When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a "drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall." — Abraham Lincoln

34."My own definition of leadership is this: The capacity and the will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence." — General Montgomery

35. "High sentiments always win in the end, The leaders who offer blood, toil, tears and sweat always get more out of their followers than those who offer safety and a good time. When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic." — George Orwell

Courtesy:

 Ilya Pozin:

Founder of Ciplex. Columnist for Inc, Forbes & LinkedIn. Gadget lover, investor, mentor, husband, father, and '30 Under 30' entrepreneur. Follow Ilya below to stay up-to-date with his articles and updates!

PickYour Angel Investors Wisely

A great deal has been written about angel investing in recent years. Angel investing has become the sport of choice for many successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley (e.g., Dave Morin,Chris Michel, Ariel Poler, etc.). What's more, it has spawned a whole new class of venture funds -- once called Super Angels, now called Micro VCs (e.g., First Round Capital, True Ventures,SoftTech VC, etc.). And now traditional venture investors (e.g., Greylock Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, etc.) have created programs to invest small amounts of money in large numbers of startups. Unfortunately, as seed investing moves from a boutique practice to more mass market, its value is diminished dramatically.

As a general matter, I think that more seed funding is a great thing. It is certainly beneficial -- often times essential -- for small companies to raise a little bit of money to help validate an idea or market. But historically one of the most valuable things about angel investment was that it was accompanied by an angel. That angel wouldn't just invest in the company, he or she would serve as an indispensable advisor to the company as well. Not only did you get money to propel your business forward, you also got the help of someone who had run the startup gauntlet before you.

Regrettably, what once was a boutique business has in many instances become mass market. While there are some angels and Micro VCs can provide meaningful time and attention to their entrepreneurs, there are a number of folks out there who think that angel investing is a volume business. Needless to say, as the number of companies financed by any given investor grows, the amount of help that investor can give to each company diminishes proportionally. These investments become more about the placing of bets than they do about helping entrepreneurs succeed.

Sure, some of these stock pickers will make some good bets and even make some money. But it won't be any thanks to them. As a general matter, early stage entrepreneurs don't just need money, they need help and advice. And if help is no longer part of what you get from your seed investors, I believe the likely success of those investments will diminish.

Worse yet, taking seed investment from traditional venture investors can be counter-productive. It is impossible to imagine how a VC firm that is investing in dozens of early stage startups can find the time to be helpful while also working with their more traditional portfolio. You may get a little of their money and a little of their reputation, but you will get it at the expense of any real help in building your business.

So why have VC funds started investing in seed rounds? They do it because they think it gives them an option on future financings. By putting a little bit of money into a company's seed round, they get a seat at the table. And from that seat, in theory, they can keep track of how well it is going and preemptively finance the "best" companies that they've seed funded. The only problem with the theory is that these traditional VCs don't have the time or capacity to actually keep track of all the companies they've seed funded. So they aren't capable of being pre-emptive. Instead, they expect an early look at any Series A financing, despite the fact that they haven't earned the right by actually being helpful to the companies they have seeded.

More importantly, traditional VCs are incapable of providing one of the most important and valuable angel services -- introductions to future investors. As is becoming increasingly clear, investment is the life blood of the startup world. The problem that companies seed funded by traditional VCs have is that there is a natural assumption that any company that does not receive follow-on funding from its earlier VC investor is fundamentally broken. There is virtually nothing that a VC can say in his or her introduction to other investors that won't raise eyebrows. So taking angel money from a traditional venture investor is a bet on that firm funding your Series A. Unfortunately, if that doesn't work out, you're back is up against the wall. [1]

It is true that money is fungible. But investors are not. The choices you make when raising seed capital can have a meaningful impact on the long-term success of your startup. So find investors who will bring you value beyond the dollars in your bank account. Find investors with the time and inclination to help you. Find investors who will increase your chances of raising additional capital, not diminish those chances. Great angel investors are invaluable. So pick your partners well.

 [1] On the rare occasion that my partners and I seed fund a startup, we work hard to alleviate the concerns I've described above. We only invest in a very small number of seed stage opportunities and we commit meaningful time and attention to those businesses, often going on the board (for example, I was the earliest investor in the likes of WePay and Splunk). Moreover, we take a substantial lead role in the seed financing, so there is no negative presumption when we introduce the company to our VC friends for the next round of financing. We will invest along side the new VC, but have no need to lead the Series A ourselves. Needless to say, this approach won't scale to dozens of startups. But it will increase the likelihood that those business we seed fund are successful.

Courtesy:  http://www.ventureblog.com/2013/01/pick-your-angel-investors-wisely.html

Asia Driving Onwards: how can investors capture the enormous economic potential of Asian economies?

Asia's position as the new growth engine of the world economy is one of the most discussed macroeconomic trends of our times. So how can investors capture the enormous economic potential of Asian economies? After all, capital market developments in Asia have been divergent, both regionally and in different asset classes.

In recent decades the world has been increasingly driven by emerging market economies. They have outperformed the developed world not only in terms of share of global GDP but are also growing more quickly. 
GDP Growth by Country 
enlargeSince the turn of the millennium average growth in the emerging world has surged to rates that are three times higher than in developed economies. This growth has largely been driven by Asian economies. A flourishing Asia has secured an increasing share of global GDP at the expense of the developed world. According to IMF estimates, developed countries will see their share of global GDP decline by 17 percent between 1992 and 2015, an unprecedented deterioration. At the same time, developing Asia's share of global output is expected to increase by 18 percent. 
Asian government debt levels are looking attractive relative to G7 levels 
enlargeIncreasing Resilience to Global ShocksExternal shocks such as the financial crisis, the Eurozone debt crisis or lackluster growth in the US may have slowed Asian growth, but they have not derailed the structural growth story in the region. Equipped with significant cash reserves and policy flexibility, Asian economies have been able to steer through these choppy waters without sinking and have subsequently resumed their growth trajectory. Moreover, the legacy of the Asian crisis in the late 1990s ensured that both companies and governments have focused on balance sheet discipline.¹ Comprehensive reform of their macroeconomic framework and of the financial sector has considerably reduced the region's vulnerability to external shocks. Debt levels for Asian economies are expected to decline further, while the creditworthiness of Western economies is increasingly in question. 
Supportive DemographicsPositive demographic trends have been a key component of emerging economies' growth. While Western economies struggle with ageing populations and higher dependency ratios, the number of people of working age in emerging economies has grown rapidly thanks to population growth. The expansion of the working population in turn has increased the consumer base, thus bolstering private consumption, which is key for economies to master the transformation from an economy reliant on external demand to one powered by domestic demand.²
Advanced Legal Framework Fosters CredibilityIt must be noted that that more than just strictly economic factors, such as low sovereign-debt levels and relatively favorable demographics, have enabled Asian economies to narrow the gap with global economic giants such as Germany and the US. There have also been considerable improvements in political and legal institutions. In recent years, the credibility and transparency of fiscal, financial and central bank structures have improved significantly as authorities have recognized the importance of areas such as property rights in fostering global confidence in Asian economies. 
Appetite for Consumption – Asia Grows, Asia SpendsAsia's future path of economic growth is likely to be determined by how well the region can manage the transition from export-based growth to self-generated growth. Domestic demand expansion can be achieved when consumption and investment increase and the savings surplus is reduced. To achieve this expansion, policymakers need to encourage fixed asset investments, reduce barriers to consumption growth and introduce supportive measures. The improvement of the investment environment, the allocation of government expenditure to infrastructure development and the development of social safety nets, such as health, education and pension systems, will encourage consumption and reduce the savings ratio. 
Long-term observers of Asian economies believe that the rise of the Asian consumer is going to be the next megatrend in the global economy. Experts compare the impact this will have on the world to the rise of the American consumer in the 1950 post-world war era and expect it to have considerable implications for companies, investors and governments across Asia and the rest of the world. 
Focus Shifting to Domestic DemandThe rise of Asian economies that started in Japan already half a century ago has been a story of production. Led by China, increasing prosperity was largely based on export-driven growth and made Asia the world's biggest factory of electronics, toys and automobiles. So far, it was mainly the US that bought Asian products, causing Asian countries to run permanent trade and current account surpluses. The US on the other hand had to deal with ever increasing current account deficits. Almost half of the US deficit has been with Asian countries. In other words, the US consumption engine was the main driver for Asia's production engine. In the past decade, rising wealth particularly in China has created a new consumer for the region's goods. This has made China's economy increasingly less reliant on exports; low wages and cheap currencies are no longer the primary focus. Unsurprisingly, boosting domestic consumption is the key theme of China's 12th five-year plan (for the 2011–2015 period). In fact, if Asian countries manage to shift from being export-driven economies to ones powered by domestic demand, Asian currencies will have plenty of room to appreciate from here, thus simultaneously increasing Asian consumer's purchasing power. 
The Rise of the Asian ConsumerThe Asian consumer has tremendous development potential. While accounting for half of the world's population, developing Asia only produces 30 percent of global GDP. Chinese consumption only accounts for 35 percent of the country's GDP, compared to 65 percent in the US. At the end of 2008, Asia's population of 3.5 billion people spent less than 7 trillion US dollars while the US population of only 0.3 billion people spent 10 trillion.³ Previously held back by high savings rates, there are signs of a cultural shift among Asian consumers. China is already the world's largest market for many household products, such as TVs, refrigerators and air conditioners. China has surpassed the US as the world's largest automobile market. Although lagging behind a couple of years, India's consumer market is seeing similar signs of development. India is already the world's fastest-growing cellphone market in the world. 
Excerpt from the Credit Suisse white paper "Asia – Development, Financial Markets, Infrastructure and Consumption, China"Asia's Middle Class to Become the Centerpiece of Asia's Economic FutureA large part of consumption growth in Asia is expected to come from Asia's new middle class.⁴ Today, Asia accounts for 28 percent of the global middle class in terms of number of people. This share could double by 2020. China's middle class alone by that time would be bigger than the entire residential population of the European Union. By 2030, two billion people are expected to belong to this bracket.⁵The growing affluence goes hand in hand with rapid urbanization. Middle class consumers mostly live in urban areas, which is why Asian cities have been the fastest growing cities since the turn of the millennium. Consequently, the urban Asian-Pacific population is expected to grow by over 21 percent over the next decade.⁶ The OECD⁷ estimates that Asia's middle class accounts for 23 percent of today's total consumer spending. The same estimates peg it at 54 percent by 2020 and it could easily reach 66 percent by 2030.
¹ Aberdeen, Asian Bonds: A misunderstood opportunity, 2012² BlackRock Investment Institute, Are Emerging Markets the Next Developed Markets?, August 2011³ McKinsey Quarterly, Think regionally, act globally – Four steps to reaching the Asian consumer, 2009⁴ It is difficult to accurately define middle class. Homi Kharas, in a study published by the OECD in 2010, defines households as middle class that live with daily per capital incomes between USD 10 and USD 100 in purchasing power parity terms. The Chinese academy of Social Sciences, a state research institution, sets down the yardstick at around USD 7300 in annual income (as of 2009). Other international market researches are setting the threshold at 10,000 or more.⁵ According to Goldman Sachs⁶ Singapore Economic Development Board, Future Ready Today – Understanding the psychology of the new-Asia consumers⁷ OECD, The Emerging Middle Class in Developing Countries, 2010 

Courtesy: https://infocus.credit-suisse.com/app/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=379887&lang=EN&WT.mc_id=CS%20International%2023%2E01%2E2013-379602

Peter Drucker’s Advice to CEOs:: Don't Hand the Keys to CFOs

by Ron Baker

On December 21, 2006, my mentor, George Gilder, wrote on his blog about the last time he saw Peter Drucker live. It is such a profound piece that goes to the heart of how accounting is becoming increasingly irrelevant to the spirit of enterprise, it is worth quoting in full:

“The last time I saw Peter Drucker, he was keynoting a Forbes conference in Seattle for CEOs. In the auditorium at the International Trade Center next to the bay, they had wheeled out the great man to the middle of the stage in a great fluffy easy chair.

“Close to 90 years old—at the end of the previous century gazing toward the next—he was the numinous name and Delphic presence at the conference. Everyone leaned forward to hear what he had to say.

“Then a gasp shook the rows of CEOs. The conference management stood there stricken, unable to move: ‘For the Love of Malcolm’s motorcycle...What is this?’ The CEOs sat popeyed.

“The hoary sage’s balding pate flopped back in the chair as if he had fallen asleep...or worse.

“Perhaps Forbes had erred in staking a major conference on an aging guru seemingly well over the hill and in parlous health.

“Then his entire body fell forward. I was ready to run up to catch him if he should tumble toward the crowd. But he somehow caught himself. His eyes opened, and he looked out intently at the throng of CEOs. Everyone sighed with relief. He was awake. He had their attention.

“Drucker growled: ‘I have just one thing to tell you today. Just one thing...’

“Wow, I said to myself, it better be good.

‘No one,’ he continued, ‘but no one in your company, knows less about your business than your See Eff Oh.’

“Huh?

“This was the era of the heroic Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Scott Sullivan of Worldcom, Andy Fastow of Enron, clever, inventive folk like that.

“You remember them. Across the country, CFOs were in the saddle. CEOs would not move without consulting them. What could Drucker have meant?

“He was stating law number one of the Telecosm. Knowledge is about the past. Entrepreneurship is about the future.

"CFOs deal with past numbers. By the time they get them all parsed and pinned down, the numbers are often wrong. In effect, CFOs are trying to steer companies by peering into the rearview mirror. Past numbers do not have anything much to do with future numbers.

“Moreover, CFOs tend to focus on internal problems. But most internal problems cannot be solved internally.

“Determining business outcomes are decisions made by customers and investors and both are outside the company and not directly managed by the company. Their views can change in an instant, casting all the existing numbers into oblivion.

“To reach customers and investors takes outside vision and leadership, not internal problem solving.

“Tech companies should not try to solve problems. Solving problems sounds good, but it is a loser. You end up feeding your failures, starving your strengths and achieving costly mediocrity.

“Don’t solve problems — that’s the CFO’s forte and pitfall. Pursue opportunities.”

A Deteriorating Paradigm

Approximately 70% of the average company’s value cannot be explained by traditional Generally Accepted Accounting Principles financial statements.

Adding more arcane and picayune rules to GAAP, requiring mark-to-market accounting, or converging existing GAAP with international accounting standards, will not solve this problem.

The accounting model is suffering from what philosophers call a deteriorating paradigm—it gets more and more complex to account for its lack of explanatory power.

In all fairness to accounting, it never was meant to predict value prospectively, only to record transactions retroactively. In effect, accounting can only measure the price of exchanges after they have taken place. Abraham Briloff, a professor of accounting, contended that accounting statements are like bikinis: "What they show is interesting, but what they conceal is significant." Accounting can audit the drunk’s bar bill but can’t explain why he’s an alcoholic.

This is why accounting can only record the “goodwill” of a business until after is has been sold. Accounting has no way to place a value on that goodwill until a transaction takes place. That is why my late colleague, and Chartered Accountant, Paul O’Byrne said goodwill is the name accountants give to their ignorance.

The best an accountant can do is to extrapolate the past into the future, and unless one’s theory is that the future is going to be the same as the past, this technique is fraught with hazards. This was Drucker’s point at the CEO conference in Seattle.

CEOs and entrepreneurs have to create the future, not relive the past. The only way to effectively do that is with a theory of the business, which requires one to get outside of the four walls of the organization and connect with external reality — where all value is created.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130113204047-38251380-peter-drucker-s-advice-to-ceos

How to Fabricate Biocompatible 3D Microstructures in Seconds? A Quantum Jump in Nano Manufacturing & Regenerative Medicine

Nano-engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have developed and demonstrated a novel and highly innovative technology that can fabricate three dimensional (3D) micro-structures out of soft, biocompatible hydrogels in a matter of seconds.  The Chen Research Group — spearheaded by nano-engineering professor Shaochen Chen — is bringing nano and structural engineers, medical device labs and visual artists into a collaborative environment under one roof to pioneer a 21st century renaissance in next generation technology.  The synthetic fabrication of complex natural structures like spirals, flowers and hemispheres, has now been demonstrated via this new technology.

Regenerative Medicine: Repairing Damage caused by Heart Attacks and Replacing Organs by Printing Them

1. The goal of many biomedical researchers is to find a way to grow new tissues or even organs for those patients who need them.  To do that, the cells involved need to have a structure they can grow on, like plants growing on a cage or trellis.  

2. Near term, the 3D microstructures technology which is now being pioneered, could lead to better systems for growing and studying cells, including stem cells, in the laboratory.  

3. Medium term, the goal is to be able to print smaller biological tissue patches for regenerative medicine. For example, in the future, doctors may be able to repair the damage caused by heart attacks by replacing damaged tissues with newly printed biocompatible synthetic tissue.  

4.  In the long term scientists hope to see this new technology, or indeed an evolution of this technology, used to actually print complete tissues and organs, ready for implanting into patients.  

5.  The key future goal in the development of this innovative technique is for humankind finally to acquire the capability of biological tissue and organ printing for use in full fledged regenerative medicine and advanced body repair.  This could extend the average life span of human beings by decades.

Quantum Jump in Speed of Fabrication

The key benefit of this brand new technology is the ability to print microstructures in a few seconds whereas up until now other three-dimensional fabrication techniques — like two-photon photo-polymerisation — used to take hours to fabricate a similar structure.   This type of new technology has already been the subject of science fiction: many “replicants” have been fabricated instantaneously via “3D replicators” using advanced laser controlled technology.  Are we almost there? 

Significance of Biocompatible 3D Micro-Manufacture

Why is this new bio-fabrication technique “Dynamic Optical Projection stereo Lithography” or DOPsL so significant? The immediate application of this technique lies in the growth and study of the cells of living organisms, especially stem cells in laboratories.  DOPsL has three main advantages over photolithography and micro-contact printing, the two main techniques currently used to build microstructures:

1.  Operates with high resolution which is needed when trying to mimic fine details found in nature, such as blood vessels;

2.  Creates complex 3D structures, instead of the simpler 2D patterns the other methods are mostly limited to; and 

3.  Fabricates faster than other methods to produce 3D micro-structures.  

How does DOPsL work?

The bio-fabrication technique called “DOPsL” uses a computer projection system and precisely controlled micro-mirrors to shine light on a selected area of a solution containing photo-sensitive biopolymers and cells. This photo-induced solidification process forms one layer of solid structure at a time, but in a continuous fashion, like a 3D printer. 

Existing Fabrication via Printing

Micro-contact printing and photolithography are existing fabrication techniques which can only produce two-dimensional structures and simple geometries. Another technique that can print three-dimensional structures called stereo lithography is best suited for large objects such as car parts and tools.  The new DOPsL technology leap-frogs all these existing solutions both in terms of refinement of 3D resolution at a micro-scale and speed-of-delivery of manufacture or fabrication via high speed printing!

Conclusion

Nano-engineering specialist Chen Research Group has essentially demonstrated the capability of printing three-dimensional blood vessels and tissue in mere seconds out of soft, biocompatible hydrogels. Being able to print blood vessels within tissue is essential to achieving the promise of regenerative medicine because this is how the body distributes oxygen and nutrients.  An engineered biomaterial without the blood vessels is not of much use to a living organism including human beings. 

Source: http://dkmatai.tumblr.com/post/31618706630/how-to-fabricate-biocompatible-3d-microstructures-in

Doing business with Americans? HSBC has some (hilarious) cultural advice

by Tamsin McMahon

So you want to do business with Americans, but worry about overcoming the cultural nuances that separate us from our neighbours to the south? HSBC bank has a handy Expats Guide to doing business in different countries that offers an (unintentionally) hilarious glimpse at the subtle differences between Canadians and Americans, including Canadians’ apparent unease with giving their dinner guests a house tour and Americans’ love of using sports analogies in business negotiations.

Here are some of the cultural traits HSBC recommends you keep in mind when doing business across the border (and we are quoting):

ETIQUETTE FAUX PAS

Canada:

Avoid the “V” for victory and the “thumbs-down” gestures.
Use your entire hand to point, not just your finger.
Don’t compare Canada with the US
U.S.:

[Avoid] anything that might be misinterpreted as sexual harassment
[Don't] boast about your accomplishments and achievements, salary, income or belongings
[Don't] stand too close to someone you’re speaking with, lest you impose on their sense of personal space
 CULTURE

Canada:

People from the Atlantic Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland) tend to be a bit more reserved and provincial.
Ontario is Canada’s business hub, and its inhabitants are generally businesslike and conservative.
Western Canada (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan) tends to be open, friendly and relaxed.
British Columbia can be thought of as being somewhat unconventional, and often is touted as the future of the nation.
Quebec’s people have a proud French cultural identity, and tend to be highly independent.
People from the north retain a strong pioneer spirit.
U.S.:

Americans are raised from childhood to see themselves as distinct, separate individuals who create their own destinies and are responsible for their own lives. As such, they consider themselves accountable for their decisions. They view themselves as independent and self-reliant, and for this reason can appear self-centred to those from less individualistic cultures.

ATTENDING A DINNER PARTY

Canada:

Be punctual, though 15 minutes late is fine for a small gathering or party.
Offer to help prepare before or clean up after.
Don’t ask for a house tour, since Canadians are private and only allow guests in their public rooms as a rule.
Don’t rest elbows on the table, and always keep your hands visible.
Continental style reigns, with fork in left hand and knife in right, though American style (switching your fork from hand to hand) is permissible.
U.S.:

Be on time for dinner, and no more than 10 minutes late for small gatherings.
You may be told to make yourself at home, and you’re expected to do so, and to ask for anything you require.
You may be given a tour of the house.
American table manners involve holding the fork in the right hand and using it to eat. Hold it tines up. The knife cuts and spreads things. To use it, switch the fork to your left hand. To eat, switch your fork back to your right hand.
BUSINESS MEETINGS

Canada:

Most Canadians prefer business to be concise, and meetings begin with a minimal amount of small talk. However, there may be more time spent on relationship-building in Quebec.
Meeting with Anglophones are more democratic. Meetings with Francophones may include less involvement of lower level employees.
Feelings are not considered important in business. It is better to state information with the words “I think” rather than “I feel”.
U.S.:

Meetings generally start with little or no small talk.
Americans may be blunt when countering ideas that others put forward, and interruptions may be common in an animated discussion.
When Americans say “Yes” or “No” they mean it. “Maybe” means “It might happen”; it does not mean “No”.
BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS

Canada:

Communication is generally direct. Canadians have no difficulty saying “no.”
Strive to create compromises.
French Canadians will carefully analyze every detail of a proposal, regardless of how minute.
U.S.:

American negotiators can become frustrated if too much time is devoted to relationship building rather than negotiating.
Unlike many cultures where eloquence is important, Americans are more concerned with making their point.
It may at times seem that American negotiations are run by lawyers. This is because there is strict government legislation concerning many facets of business.
COMMUNICATION STYLES

Canada:

Communication is moderately indirect. Although most Canadians can disagree, they prefer to do so with tact and diplomacy. They prefer to maintain an understated demeanour. Their communication style is pragmatic and relies on common sense rather than aggression. If you come from a more direct culture, you may wish to soften your demeanour and tone so as not to appear threatening.

Greetings tend to be relatively informal, which demonstrates Canadians’ belief in egalitarianism.
Canadians enjoy debating issues. Being able to argue your position with informed opinion will help you gain respect.
Making eye contact during conversation adds to the credibility of the communication. Sustained eye contact throughout a conversation is expected.
U.S.:

For the most part, Americans do not hesitate to ask direct questions. These are not meant to be offensive. Their reliance on speaking concisely and relying on facts can make American speech seem rude, aggressive, blunt or impatient to people from cultures that are more relationship-oriented. Since many Americans speak only English, they are not always sensitive to the challenges someone faces when communicating in a foreign language. Americans often used sporting analogies that are not easily understood. The following are ones frequently used in business:

Ballpark figure: Give a good estimate
Play hardball: Compete well
Drop the ball: Make a serious mistake
Monday morning quarterback: Someone who tells you what you should have done after the fact.

Source:http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/07/20/doing-business-across-the-border-hsbc-has-some-hilarious-cultural-advice/

Mr. V. Kurien: India’s White Knight

Bring me men to match my mountains, Bring me men to match my plains, 
Men with empires in their purpose, And new eras in their brains.
-- Sam Walter Foss, from "The Coming American", July 4, 1894

Y K Alagh, former member of planning commission and a long time associate of Verghese Kurien, has an interesting anecdote to share if you ask him how Kurien was different form the several intellectuals India has produced.

“Once Kurien told me, ‘You are a friend and you are very good but you are much too general Yoginder – you don’t concentrate on one thing.’”

To which Alagh replied, “I know, you are a Spartan and I am an Athenian! I think.”

While both Spartans and Athenians belonged to Greece, Spartans were a militaristic race, which believed in expanding their area of control and preferred the rule of few (or even one) over many. Athenians, on the other hand, were a more democratic lot.

As a person, Kurien was a man in hurry. He had a vision and he was out to achieve it.  He laid a lot of stress on covering the last mile. As such, he was known to start in the reverse order when planning for a new venture like introducing a range of cheese.

He was very hands on with everything he did. In fact, once when a crane went out of control, Kurien flung himself and avoided any mishap. He did not care that in doing so he actually cut his thigh and bled profusely.

“That typified the man,” recalls Alagh.


The Kurien Doctrine  
Kurien’s main emphasis was on improving the marketing opportunities for the Indian farmer without which the farmers were dependent on middlemen, who cornered most of the profits and stunted the growth of rural India.

Therefore, he not only worked hard in creating the best marketing platform for farmers himself, he also founded the Institute of Rural Management at Anand (IRMA) in 1979 to create a cadre of professional managers imbued with his understanding of the rural India.

Many young professionals like Sanjiv Phansalkar, Program Leader at the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, started his career from IRMA just to be associated with Kurien.

“The simplicity and power in his argument that unless you put the means of production in the hands of the producer you cannot change their fate was simply great,” says Phansalkar who joined IRMA in 1982.

Ironically, it is this very thought that was questioned towards the fag end of Kurien’s career when there was a push to delinking production and marketing functions of the co-operatives. 

His protégé, Amrita Patel, who succeeded him as the Chairman of NDDB in 1998 was spearheading the move to turn co-operative to producer companies and hiving off marketing side of business into separate entities.

Kurien bitterly opposed the move as he feared the private players like Nestle and Britannia will eventually take over the marketing yet again.  In a sense, he felt his life’s work was being destroyed.

But the relative weakness of the cooperative movement in other parts of the country as well as the newer trends of business management only underline the fact that the success of Kurien’s model in Gujarat was both a product of his own leadership as well as the existing economic climate in the country.

Another episode when he found himself swimming against the tide was in the late 1990s when there was a growing demand to amend the Milk and Milk Products Order (or MMPO), which regulated the milk processing business in the country. As the head of NDDB, Kurien had restricted the milk processing business to the existing co-operatives. The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which he headed, and its brand Amul benefitted hugely from such a restriction. But it was an untenable stand in an increasingly liberalized economy were many private players who wanted to enter the business.

Ultimately, after prolonged deliberations the NDA government diluted the MMPO in 2000. Experts who were close to the deliberations believe it helped increasing the productivity by 5% to 10%.  


A Reluctant Start
In her book, “The Amul India Story,” Ruth Heredia states that Verghese Kurien was actually quite an “unlikely recruit” in the field of dairying. 

It was 1945 and the Second World War had just ended. The government in India approved 500 new scholarships in UK and US for young Indian professionals who would be required in the post war reconstruction.

24 years old Verghese Kurien, a mechanical engineer from Madras University had barely completed a year of apprenticeship with the Jamshedpur based TISCO (Tata Iron and Steel Company). But he wasn’t enjoying his time there.
As he sat before the interview board, he was hoping to get an opportunity to study metallurgy. 
“What is pasteurization?”
A surprised Kurien gave a half-baked reply, “A process of boiling milk at a certain temperature.” 
“Thank you,” said the interviewer. “You have been selected for ‘Dairy Engineering’”
Reluctantly, Kurien said yes since it was the only scholarship left available by then and went on to complete his Masters from Michigan State University.

However, no one could have imagined how this odd event would shape the future of millions of farmers in Independent India.

Upon his return to India, Kurien was sent to a remote district of Gujarat to help a milk co-operative under instructions of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, India’s first Home Minister.

The little known town, Anand in the Kaira district, did not hold a lot of promise for the young and impatient Kurien. But at the last moment, he was persuaded to stay back by the founder of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Ltd., Tribhuvandas Patel, a tall leader in his own right. After this there was no turning back for Kurien.

He dedicated himself to the task of strengthening the co-operative and relieving the milk farmers from the clutches of intermediaries. It was not an easy task. India had just gained independence and there was a natural suspicion surrounding anything that resembled the colonial rule. Moreover, there were deep-set caste divisions and gender biases that Kurien and his team had to deal with. Not to mention the resentment among the existing middlemen who tried everything in their power to derail the nascent efforts.

“It was nothing short of a miracle,” says Shreyans Shah, editor and publisher of Gujarat Samachar  

By 1955, Kurien led to the development of the iconic Amul brand for selling the milk of the co-operative.  In 1965, Kurien’s leadership caught the attention of the Prime Minister Lal Bhadur Shashtri, who was great sympathizer of the farmers.  He asked Kurien to lead the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and replicate the Co-operative success story of Amul across the country. In 1970, with the help of the World Bank, the NDDB started “Operation Flood” which, over the next 26 years, transformed India from a milk importer to world’s top most milk producing country. 

Kurien came to be known as the “Milkman of India” and the “Father of White Revolution” apart from being awarded the Magsaysay Prize (1963), Padam Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), Wateler Peace Prize (1986) and the World Food Prize (1989). 

Today close to 14 million farmers are organized in over 133000 village co-operatives and produce over 25 million litres of milk everyday. Milk production in India has risen from just under 21 million tonnes annually in 1970 to 117 million tonnes in 2010. In comparison China’s production could only rise from 2 mn tonnes  to 41 mn tonnes over the same period.

Veteran filmmaker, Shyam Benegal, regards Kurien, along with M S Swaminathan (father of India’s Green Revolution), as the two greatest heroes of independent India. Benegal directed the Oscar nominated movie on the rise of milk co-operative movement from Gujarat.

 “His work was charged with idealism and he completely changed the economics of milk production in the country,” says Benegal.


Source: http://forbesindia.com/article/special/v-kurien-indias-white-knight/33719/1
Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/special/v-kurien-indias-white-knight/33719/1#ixzz26XVoHaUp