A Brief History of Intrapreneurship by Manoj Sharma
June 30, 2007
To remain competitive and successful in an increasingly challenging world, your organization needs to be highly entrepreneurial. You need to up the ante and continue to benefit from increased productivity, efficiency and effectiveness. That is if you want to remain successful.
You need people who embody the basic characteristics of top entrepreneurs (Proactivity, Responsibility, Innovation, Commitment and Excellence) and you need to promote an entrepreneurial culture within your organization. Within the context of your organization, this entrepreneurial effort can be referred to as being INTRAPRENEURIAL.
The following is a brief history of intrapreneurship for you to get acquainted before your organization takes the Intrapreneurial path to creating wealth.
“In an article in The Economist in 1976, Norman Macrae predicted a number of trends in business - one of them being “that dynamic corporations of the future should simultaneously be trying alternative ways of doing things in competition within themselves”. In 1982, he revisited those thoughts in another Economist article, noting that this trend had resulted in confederations of intrapreneurs.
He suggested that firms should not be paying people for attendance, but should be paying competing groups for modules of work done. One suggestion was to set up a number of typing pools contracted for a certain amount of work over a certain time period for a lump sum. The members of the pool would be responsible for apportioning work, setting pay, setting work hours or even whether to subcontract out part of the work. Applied across the business spectrum such groups would provide the intrapreneurial competition he envisioned.
During the same time frame, Gifford and Elizabeth Pinchot were developing their concept of intra-corporate entrepreneur. They coined the word intrapreneur giving credit for their thinking to the 1976 article by Macrae. Under their model persons wishing to develop an intrapreneurial project would initially have to risk something of value to themselves - a portion of their salary, for instance. The intrapreneur could then sell the completed project for both cash bonuses and intra-capital which could be used to develop future projects. Based on the success of some of the early trials of their methods in Sweden they began a school for intrapreneurs and in 1985 they published their first book, Intrapreneuring, combining the findings from their research and practical applications. (Note: A revised edition of that book, Intrapreneuring in Action is now available.)
By 1986 John Naisbitt was citing intrapreneurship as a way for established businesses to find new markets and new products in his our-of-print book, “Re-Inventing the Corporation” and Steve Jobs was describing the development of the Macintosh computer as an intrapreneurial venture within Apple. The concept was established enough that in 1990 Rosabeth Moss Kanter of Harvard Business School discussed in her book, “When Giants Learn to Dance”, the need for intrapreneurial development as a key factor in ensuring the survival of the company.
And, in 1992, The American Heritage Dictionary brought intrapreneurism into the main stream by adding intrapreneur to its dictionary, defining it as “a person within a large corporation who takes direct responsibility for turning an idea into a profitable finished product through assertive risk-taking and innovation”.
Intrapreneurship was a concept here to stay.”
As usual, please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments to Info@DifferWorld.com. And if you’d like to explore how you, your teams and your organization can benefit from THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP / INTRAPRENEURSHIP CHALLENGE please feel free to call upon me (by clicking on the above hyperlink), at (65) 6338 5669 / (61) 3 9018 6790 or emailing Info@DifferWorld.com now!
The Importance of Solitude by Rene Descartes
June 29, 2007
“I swear to you that my desire to return to my solitude grows stronger with each passing day…
It is not that I do not still frequently wish to serve the Queen, or that she does not show me as much goodwill as I may reasonably hope for. But I am not in my element here.
I desire only peace and quiet, which are benefits that the most powerful monarchs on Earth cannot give to those who are unable to acquire them for themselves.”
Your Challenges by Matthew E. May
June 29, 2007
“Every year, our work gets more COMPLEX.
Business gets more COMPETITIVE.
Jobs gets more SPECIALIZED.
Careers get LESS STABLE.
Goals gets more CHALLENGING.
Budgets SHRINK.
Deadlines TIGHTEN.
And all the while, the pace of change just keeps ACCELERATING.
How are you going to DEAL WITH ALL THAT?
You’re got more to do and LESS TO DO IT WITH.
You have no choice other than to get MORE CREATIVE, MORE RESOURCEFUL.”
– Matthew E. May
What is True Wealth by Manoj Sharma
June 29, 2007
As usual, please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments to Info@DifferWorld.com. And if you’d like a FREE PROFESSIONAL COACHING SESSION WORTH $450/- on how you, your teams and your organization can benefit from the above please feel free to call upon me (by clicking on the above hyperlink), at (65) 6338 5669 / (61) 3 9018 6790 or emailing Info@DifferWorld.com now!
DifferWorld WEALTH TV - Your #1 Source for Wealth, Leadership, Management, CEO Interviews and Professional Coaching Insights and Entertainment
June 26, 2007
It is very exciting times here at the moment as we are in the midst of launching DifferWorld WEALTH TV - Your #1 Source for 24 hours Wealth, Leadership, Management & CEO Interviews, Executive Education, Professional Coaching, Corporate Training & Development, Business & Money Related Insights and Entertainment.
On DifferWorld Wealth TV you will find some of the world’s best free sources to learn about…
* Wealth creation, wealth accumulation, wealth protection, wealth redistribution and more from the world’s top billionaires such as Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Carlos Slim Helu, Ingvar Kamprad, Lakshmi Mittal, Sheldon Adelson, Bernard Arnault, Amancio Ortega, Li Ka-Shing, David Thomson, Larry Ellison, Liliane Bettencourt, Prince Alwaleed, Mukesh Ambani, Karl Albrecht, Roman Abramovich, Stefan Persson, Anil Ambani, Paul Allen, Theo Albrecht and many more….
* Global leadership interviews and insights from the world’s top CEOs, senior executives, movers and shakers such as Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Jon Von Tetzchner, Al Gore, Steve Ballmer, Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, H. Lee Scot, John Chambers, Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt, Craig Newmark, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezo, Alan Meckler, John Chambers, Narayana Murthy, Lakshmi Mittal, Jonathan Schwartz, and many more…
* The principles that influence the global social, economic and political landscape such as colonization, the industrial revolution, economic value of creativity, invention & innovation, the cold war, economic theories, the impact of immigration and brain drains, financial freedom & financial independence, the wealth - poverty gap, socialism, capitalism & democracy, international banking, central banks and the federal reserve and predictions about the future
* Introductions to ground breaking technologies, venture capital insights, start up challenges and business growth
* Latest updates of financial markets, stock picks and global banking
* Issues involving corporate social responsibility, sustainability, profitability, performance and fulfillment challenges along with global warming and what you can do about it as an organization and an individual
* Psychological and Philosophical insights from Carl Jung, Ayn Rand, Bruce Lee, and many, many more
* Interspersed with light musical and comedic entertainment from Dire Straits, Bruce Springsteen, Abba, Meja, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, Jesus Jones, Donna Summers, Cyndi Lauper, Seinfeld, The Chasers, The Simpsons, The Office, Monty Pythons, The Office, Mind Control Cults, The Family Guy, and many, many more…
So come back and check out the programs in the feed below (if it is not up and running on your browser at present) and I would love to hear your thoughts on how to make it better and also what you would like to see on it.
Just one word of caution for now - it is still in beta, so please bear with the hiccups as the feeds below are in trial and may not always be up. Thanks!
In Praise of Generosity from The Rig Veda
June 25, 2007
“The gods surely did not ordain hunger alone for slaughter; various deaths reach the man who is well-fed. The riches of the man who gives fully do not run out, but the miser finds no one with sympathy.
The man with food who hardens his heart against the poor man who comes to him suffering and searching for nourishment - though in the past he had made use of him - he surely finds no one with sympathy.
The man who is truly generous gives to the beggar who approaches him thin and in search for food. He puts himself at the service of the man who calls to him from the road, and makes him a friend for times to come.
That man is no friend who does not give of his own nourishment to his friend, the companion at his side. Let the friend turn away from him; this is not his dwelling place. Let him find another man who gives freely, even if he be a stranger.
Let the stronger man give to the man whose need is greater; let him gaze upon the lengthening path. For riches roll like the wheels of a chariot, turning from one to another.
The man without foresight gets food in vain; I speak the truth: it will be his death. He cultivates neither a patron nor a friend. The man who eats alone brings trouble on himself alone.
The plough that works the soil makes a man well-fed; the legs that walk put the road behind them. The priest who speaks is better than the one who does not speak. The friend who gives freely surpasses the one who does not.
One-foot surpasses Two-foot; and Two-foot leaves Three-foot behind. Four-foot comes at the call of Two-foot, watching over his herd and serving him.
The two hands, though the same, do not give the same thing. Two cows from the same mother do not give the same amount of milk. The powers of two twins are not the same. Two kinsmen do not give with the same generosity.”
Can Money Buy You Love and Happiness? by Manoj Sharma
June 25, 2007
The 1964 Beatles Hit “Money Can’t Buy Me Love” ended with the following words…
“Say you don’t need no diamond ring, and I’ll be satisfied,
Tell me that you want those kind of things that money just can’t buy,
For I don’t care too much for money, for money can’t buy me love,
Can’t buy me love, love, can’t buy me love, no.”
Most people, with the exception of the most daft and shallow (and unfortunately there are quite a few of them around), fully understand the maxim, “Money Can’t Buy Me Love” with or without credit to The Beatles bringing it into social awareness, through their catchy song from more than 4 decades ago.
But, what alarms me most in the work I do with top executives, professional, business owners and their staff is that a ridiculous high percentage of people still delude themselves and hold on to their own erroneous belief that somehow money can and will buy them happiness - in the sense that money is a means to an end called happiness.
My general experience has been that those without adequate money are most likely to believe that money will buy them happiness. From my numerous coaching case studies, it seems their reason for believing so is a combination of sheer hope, media portrayals, lack of ethical appreciation in the course of their upbringing, lack of personal reasoning and unclear thinking.
On the flip side, it is usually those who have more than adequate money who come to the sad but clear realization that money does not actually buy them happiness. That their position in society, financial wealth, accumulated assets, luxurious living and supposed financial freedom, does make them temporarily happy. But, only to ultimately realize that they are mostly on one fabulous ego trip, that has done precious little to make them truly happy over a prolonged period of time.
But here is the catch that perpetuates this truth. If you are not in the money - you won’t catch another financially wealthy person confess the above to you. It is after all a key refuge of the “haves” over the “have nots”. The underlying thinking being, “I too may not be happy, but at least I have more money than you. And that makes me better than you.”
Here is another perspective through extracts from a study done by the University of California Berkeley’s Institute of Personality and Social Research, across a span of 20 years and published in June 2006. I trust it will assist you to appreciate the dynamics of Money, Love and Happiness further.
“Once enough is earned to meet basic needs, money in relation to happiness is a very personal equation.”
“Employees who are primarily motivated by the love of their work become less happy the more money they make.”
“We found that income had a positive relationship with both well-being and job satisfaction for individuals high in extrinsic orientation. That is, if money is what you value, then money, indeed, will make you happy.”
“We found a more surprising pattern regarding intrinsic orientation. Specifically, for those high in intrinsic orientation, money actually had a negative effect on well-being. In other words, among those who had a relatively strong tendency to value work because they enjoyed it or it fulfilled them, those making more money were actually less happy than those making relatively little money.”
“In a capitalistic society, people generally believe that - all other things being equal - being rich is better. But that is not what we found.”
“Earning a lot of money might, to some extent, be a marker of having chosen a job based on what it pays, neglecting factors such as how fulfilling it is.”
“We suspect that neglecting these intrinsic factors would be harmful to a person’s happiness. Conceivably, this detrimental effect is especially strong for those who have strong intrinsic work values in the first place.”
“Perhaps making a lot of money in your job can actually cause you to question why you are working at the particular job you have, even if you chose the job for intrinsic reasons.”
“There’s a substantial psychological literature showing that receiving monetary rewards for doing a fun task can make the task seem less enjoyable. This past research suggests that your sense of how fulfilling and personally rewarding you find a task is very fragile, and money can shake this delicate sense of enjoyment.”
“Individuals have a fundamental psychological need to feel as though their actions are freely chosen, in other words, we all need to feel that we are not just doing the work for the money, and intrinsically motivated individuals need to feel this even more so.”
“However, further up the income ladder, at the levels where basic needs are satisfied, the effect of income on well-being diminishes, it is at these higher income levels that we expect higher order psychological needs - such as those represented by intrinsic orientation- to have implications for how income affects happiness.”
“When prioritizing life goals, people should think carefully about which outcomes will have the strongest effect on their well-being and allocate their efforts accordingly, also, people should be aware of how organizing their lives around making money can have implications for their other values. For example, will having lots of money impact your well-being enough to justify you spending 12 hours a day, every workday, doing something you hate?”
As usual, please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments to Info@DifferWorld.com. And if you’d like a FREE PROFESSIONAL COACHING SESSION WORTH $450/- on how you, your teams and your organization can benefit from the above please feel free to call upon me (by clicking on the above hyperlink), at (65) 6338 5669 / (61) 3 9018 6790 or emailing Info@DifferWorld.com now!
A Beautiful Chinese Saying About Money
June 25, 2007
“With money you can buy a house, but not a home.
With money you can buy a clock, but not time.
With money you can buy a bed, but not sleep.
With money you can buy a book, but not knowledge.
With money you can buy a doctor, but not health.
With money you can buy a position, but not respect.
With money you can buy blood, but not life.
With money you can buy pleasure, but not happiness.
With money you can buy an acquittal, but not forgiveness.
With money you can buy sex, but not love.”
Critical Wealth Creation Questions by Manoj Sharma
June 24, 2007
Has Anything Really Changed in 2,500 Years by Manoj Sharma
June 22, 2007
Your Reality
Almost 2,500 years ago Socrates said these immortal words… “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
While it seems 2,500 years is a long time from a human life-time perspective, it really is not in the bigger scheme of things. Looking at the expanse of these 2,500 years, you would have every right to say that things have changed.
But, have things really changed?
It is very interesting to note, when we look at the challenges human beings have faced over the past 2,500 years, that quite possibly very little of real significance has actually changed.
We have advanced in many respect, evolved for sure, but at what expense?
In truth upon deeper examination, it is possible that very little has changed. A case in point is that regardless of our external pursuits and overall greater comfort, the same three questions still haunt all of humanity…
“Who am I?”
“Where am I?”
“What am I (supposed to be) doing here?”
If, you have yet to seriously encounter these questions and are having difficulty getting a sense of what they are about, just know that you either probably have forgotten encountering them or that you ultimately will.
Regardless of your economic, social and political status, you as a modern human being, face even more challenges than your ancestors of 2,500 years ago and just like everyone around you , you will grapple with endless challenges throughout the remainder of your life - all other things being equal. The nature of your life is that for every challenge solved, new more sophisticated ones jump up in their place to challenge you further! There is of course a good reason and clear solution for this!
We can debate a great many things but, one thing is for certain, the average life was far simpler 2,500 years ago, just like it is far more complicated today and truthfully you and I cannot imagine what it will be like in another 2,500 years (if we are still around as a civilization). But in all of this, there is one mysterious certainty - you, I, we are instrumental in both the working problems and the workable solutions.
We all live in the same physical world, on a little blue dot of a planet we call Earth, but each of us inhabits a different mental world. There is a reality to both the physical and mental world and then there is our distinct reality of them both. A distinct reality that is different for every human being and yet binds us.
The Evolutionary Biologist and Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, Richard Dawkins (who is reputed to be one of the top three intellects of our time along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky), in the last minute of his interview with Charlie Rose on the 11th of April 2000, was asked, “What is the one question you most want to see answered?” and with an ever so brief pause for thought Richard Dawkins replied, “How does subjective consciousness work? How does it evolve? What’s going on, when I have my own private feelings and you have your own private feelings, what happens when I see something red, what is it that makes the redness, what is it that makes the smell of onions, what is it that gives the subjective sensation that I know I have, and I suspect you have, but can never know what’s going on inside your head.”
Outside of the wonderful genuineness of his questioning process , I would like to digress just to bring to your attention the process by which Richard Dawkins has become great at what he does. At the most basic of levels he delightfully demonstrates the desire to look for great answers by asking great questions, where others only see trivialities. (This is also a trait Albert Einstein demonstrated in abundance, with his child like questions) Incidentally, while I do not always agree with what Richard Dawkins says, I am able to gain great insight from so much of what he says and for that credit must be given to Aristotle’s brilliant quote. “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” I encourage you too to keep Aristotle’s quote in mind as you read on as it will make what I’m saying so much more beneficial to you. After all, you neither have to accept what I’ve got to say and frankly you also do not have to not accept what I say. So, read on with an open mind.
Now, in light of all of the above, you should be able to appreciate that your reality is an intangible phenomena of consciousness, and that it takes a highly conscious mind to identify what happens, takes place, is taking place and will take place, in the realm of collective consciousness, hyper consciousness, consciousness, subconsciousness, unconsciousness and collective unconsciousness.
This basic points I am makings here are based on a series of realization I had in late 1980s. These realizations revolve around the common point that we all inhabit a unique mental world, we are active participants in the creation of our unique mental world and because we are, we also have the ability to recreate a different world for ourselves. A different world that is both in alignment and not at conflict with our deepest internal values, passions, vision, mission, rewards and identity and that is independent of external circumstances and situations. It was quite a realization and is why when I founded my company in 2002 I called it DifferWorld.
The Value of Principles
The other thing, I would like to bring to your attention for now, are principles.
Principles are critically important to the quality of your finances, career, business, relationships and life. Why is that so? Simply because principles are contextualized truths and the universe operates upon a foundation of truth (not your truth or my truth, but the truth. Which is almost impossible to comprehend within the realm of the languages available to us - I’m suspect Noam Chomsky would agree) - whether you are conscious of this or not.
Allow me to draw the best parallel I presently can.
The Game of Chess and The Game of Life
Let’s take a look at the game of chess as an analogy. The game of chess is played today based on certain fundamental rules, the rules were created to allow the game of chess to be played uniformly across the board (pun intended) by anybody who choose to. The rules were originally conceived, written and displayed somewhere in some form. The quizzical part is that even if you play chess, chances are very high, even you do not know when the rules were conceived and written, where the original rules were exhibited and are kept, and furthermore chances are very high that you’ve never actually read a reprinting of the rules. You probably know the rules, because someone taught them to you and you probably play the game become somebody, somewhere (or a group of people) ultimately coached you on how to.
The next point I am going to play is hugely important so pay even closer attention. What if the person or people you gain this knowledge from did not fully appreciate the intent of the game, were not absolutely clear on the rules and are not really playing it the way it was meant to be played. If you can engage this thought you will start the process of getting clear on why the world is in the state it is today. The problem is ignorance, the solution is knowledge and the challenge is getting past the trivial everydayness of life.
Now, for arguments sake lets say nobody ever taught you the rules or coached you to play chess. Would it be possible for you to learn them and play the game as we know it today?
Yes! But only if you had the opportunity to repeatedly observe knowledgeable experts play the game, and then, possibly, at a very slowly pace, with much diligence and a huge investment of time spent on endless trial and error, you may come close (with no guarantee whatsoever) to fully knowing how to play the game of chess. While this is a very remote possibility, it is a possibility nonetheless. A few more important things to keep in mind. That is the game of chess which you would be attempting to decipher has a restriction to the movement of the pieces, with while varied are still limited on a two dimensional plane, demarcated by an absolutely finite 64 spaces, 8 x 8 board.
Life is a lot more dynamic, sophisticated, multi-dimensional and intangible to say the least, and in no one place are there a complete set of instructions for life to be found. Yet they exist with no bias to your knowledge or ignorance. Now what if you had a highly knowledgeable coach, master and/or guru illuminating the principles and showing you the ropes?
So to you, like almost 100% of the chess playing world, the rules of chess are abstract and are not visible in the game of chess itself. Yet, there is no mistaking that the game of chess is played by the rules of chess (as opposed to the rules of soccer), but the game of chess is not the rules of chess. The two are not the same. Playing the game of chess by rules that are not the rules of chess is a violation of both the rules and the game of chess. And in the event you continue to play chess by your rules, you cannot both call it chess and not be rejected by the tournament officials (if you are playing in a tournament). In effect, you will either be playing a different game or you’ll end up getting kicked out of the game called chess. The consequence being you will forgo your opportunity to win at the game called chess. All of the above is a direct parallel of life.
Principles, as we are using the term - are contextualized truths and are of far greater significance than man-made rules. Principles are the underlying rules on which life is based. They are natural laws and most of them are very subtle. It often goes amiss that principles govern everything. Let’s explore some examples and I leave it to you to identify the principles in operation.
Why have you not fallen through your chair or the floor?
Why is it you haven’t floated off into space?
Why are you able to read these word?
Why does your mind work the way it does?
Why do you talk and act the way you do?
Why do you have to die?
Why do you have the quality of finances, career, business, relationships and life you do?
Why do plants not move?
Why does the building not topple over?
Why are you thinking what you are thinking?
Why does a boat float on the ocean?
Why are planets round?
Why do you fall in love and out of love?
Why does all life on this planet evolve?
Why are you at this juncture of your life?
Why does one person communicate better than another?
Why is what’s beautiful, beautiful?
Think beyond the superficial and you’ll discover that all of the above are so because there are principles at play. Principles govern everything! Everything! Even things as esoteric as the skill sets of communication and leadership have principles behind them.
So, have you been playing this game called life mindful that the game is governed by principles?
Are you aware that if you violate the principles something is bound to go off track in your finances, career, business, relationships and life?
Are you aware that a violation of certain principles might even get you kicked out of the game itself?
Not playing the game by principles does not even give you a chance to win. And if you do win, the win is short-lived anyway, as many who worship their financial position exclusively have discovered to their detriment.
So, the truth is that any struggle through life, is a function of not knowing the principles. Knowing principles and aligning yourself powerfully with principles not just gives you a chance to win, but also creates true wealth and happiness for others too. It’s pretty straight forward and simple once you break the habit of not thinking and learn to grow in consciousness!
Consolidate This
Something brought you here and something has gotten you to read this far. A certain attraction is at play, a call to a principle-based life if you will. Do not treat this ‘coincidence’ lightly as life has a habit of delivering us to gifts or bringing gifts to us by “accident”. These gifts present an opportunity to take us to the next few levels of our lives. Levels which logically are unidentifiable to begin with. After all, if you have never been somewhere and don’t even know it exists, then you can’t identify it. This point is an estension of the work done in what is commonly known as the Johari Window which was invented by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in the 1950s.
Here is a irrefutable principle for you, as you embark on unraveling many more.
The Principle of Choices, Causes and Consequences
Your choices and your causes (thoughts, words, actions and in-actions) have consequences that have resulted in your present life situation. This principle of choices, causes and consequences also influenced your past life situation and will be instrumental in influencing your future life situation.
Know that you make hyper conscious, conscious, subconscious and unconscious decisions and choices all the time. The choices you make now will impact the rest of your life. If you don’t choose carefully now you will continue with the “same-old, same-old” life you have lived all this while and if you choose carefully now you have an opportunity to pursue the “different-new, different-new” and give yourself the chance to live in a different world.
The choice is yours and only yours.
As usual, please feel free to send me your thoughts and comments to Info@DifferWorld.com. And if you’d like a FREE PROFESSIONAL COACHING SESSION WORTH $450/- on how you, your teams and your organization can benefit from the above please feel free to call upon me (by clicking on the above hyperlink), at (65) 6338 5669 / (61) 3 9018 6790 or emailing Info@DifferWorld.com now!