Podobas Laws of Success | regentsparkholdings

Podobas' Laws of Business and Personal Success

These laws were developed to guide open-minded students, business practitioners, and academicians to make wiser decisions, personal and professional.

1. You are the only one who defines the meaning of "success".

Understand the concept of "self". All lives are linear in nature.

2. Learn how to think, not what to think.

3. Nobody can predict the exact future. The only thing you can do is to

estimate the range of potential outcomes. Be careful, as forecasting future

is nothing more than a best guess with consequences.

4. Classical economic theories are dead. They are called "the theories" for a reason.

People are not rational and stock market serves just one purpose-speculation.

5. What is Marketing? It is not Operations. You must know the difference.

6. Statistical reasoning is very useful, as long as you understand that the

probability of finding a normal distribution and a truly representative sample,

is close to zero. It is always better to be approximately right

than precisely wrong.

7. Free markets or free trade do not exist. They never have, and they never will.

8. Business is a complex network of interconnected parts. Learn and apply systems

thinking. Remember this point, as you will never hear of a systems thinking

in your business schools. Learn about the Podobas Paradox.

9. Know how to make good decisions in an environment of

constant uncertainty and risk. You will never have perfect information.

Certainty is simply too expensive and too time consuming to acquire.

This is where the " merchants of doubt" with an agenda thrive.

10. The customer is not king, but is an enabler. Ownership rules.

By law, in the U.S., the interests of shareholders (owners) come first.

This is not the case in the most of the world. Re-set and re-align your

thinking accordingly.

11. There are no one-minute solutions to complex cross-functional problems.

Horizontal organizational alignments are where economic value is created.

The "Matrix" management structure destroys productivity.

12. In addition to a focus on accruals and not on cash-flows, accounting

never considers the opportunity costs of lost business.

Hence, as the language of business, accounting too often stutters. Use time-based

dynamics to manage your cash-flow. Know you cash position at all times.

13. No, as an employee, you cannot be what you want to be just by working

hard and being loyal. The individual upward progress is always rationed and

allocated. An organization is a pyramid. There is only so much room at

the top.

14. It is always better to be lucky than good.

15. In the ascent to the C-suit there will be always few winner and many losers.

Calculate your odds, and do not become a roadkill while trying to blindly climb

the career ladder. Learn about the "tragedy of driven people" who neglect to

consider this reality.

16. The ugly truth is that age discrimination (and all other forms of

discrimination) is a part of the system. Either you are moved up by the time you

are 45 or you will be out.

17. As a leader in your organization, institute continuous improvement methods and

standards instead of embracing a revolving door policy. Hire for fit and promote

for merit. Management by fear or greed will ultimately destroy your firm.

18. Remember, all jobs can be outsourced or replaced by technology. Even the CEO's

job can be outsourced. The only ingredient that you own is your brand

(translation-your reputation.)

19. Hold people who work for organizations responsible, not just the organizations.

Avoid people who act the wrong way and seek those who understand

the power of "social competence."

20. The "Six Sigma" method is a hoax. Do not fall for it. You really do not need all of

these different color belts. Case in point. Guess where are these

"Six Sigma" champion companies now: Motorola, Sears, GE, Sun Microsystems,

Bombardier....? Hint: extinct or on life support. Dr. Edwards W. Deming

has explained this fallacy well.

21. Learn how to compete for your customer's choice at "The Moment of Truth."

Understand the concept of "Self" as understanding human psychology is

most important to success in business.

22. Know your business model. This is where your strategy becomes operational.

23. Do the right thing the right way, not simply what you can get

away with. The negative externalities are expensive. Learn what they are and

how to avoid creating them.

24. A dead-end job is not a career, it just a dead-end job. Do not accept

slogans such as "you will grow on your job", "be a part of something

greater than yourself". These are cult-like attempts to put a "lipstick on a pig".

Firms (reference the point 15 above) "churn" employees to simple exploit them.

At the end of the day, nobody really cares where you came from and where

you are going. The only thing that matters is "what can you do for me now."

Keep your competencies current. Be mobile.

25. Learn how to add, subtract, multiply and divide without Siri's help.

You need to know which city is the capital Canada without googling it first.

There is no glory in becoming a member of a dumb-down society.

Think for yourself and learn about everything you can, as much as you can,

whenever you can.

26. Always take the long view in your decision making and dismiss the temptation to

act for short-term gains or be misguided by everyday destructive noise.

27. Learn about Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his ideas. He is forgotten for a reason.

Understand why, as it will change you forever.

28. Know the power of an "Absolute Competitive Advantage" and invest in learning

how to build and sustain it. You need access to growth opportunities, markets,

funds, skill-sets, and know-how. Recognize when any of these are denied to you

and why.

29. Be the CEO of your own life. Architect it to be the way you want it to be.

Always remember that there is a fine line between dreams and hallucinations.

Make sure that you know where that line is. Nobody was ever remembered by

playing it safe.!!!

Following these laws will make you a better and a happier person !!!