Interloper View

I came across the phrase “constructive dissatisfaction” while listening to Knowledge@Wharton podcast. It was on the topic of the four behaviors that define successful leaders where one of the CEOs defined his job is not to please the three groups of stakeholders (shareholders, customers and employees) but instead to keep all of them constructively dissatisfied. At first I find it strange that he should say that but later decided that it makes sense, only those who are constructively dissatisfied will seek change and find ways to improve. If we are already happy and contented with what we already have then we will stay within our comfort zone. Many organizations like Blockbuster and Kodak have failed because of their failure to adapt and change. They remained within their comfort zone for too long. We can also create the feeling of constructive dissatisfaction so that we are motivated to make changes in our lives and look for opportunities to improve. Simple dissatisfacti...

Have you seen children who will spend lots of time creating excuses or tricks just to avoid doing something they don't like? For example, a boy wants someone else to bring him a cup of milk. He will scream and shout until he gets his way. The amount of energy wasted that could be saved if he just walks over to the fridge to get it himself (especially since he is like just 5 meters) from the fridge. In another example, you can observe people jay walking to cross a very busy road. They are willing to risk their lives to cross when they could just easily just use the overhead bridge which is just beside them or even the zebra crossing which is just 5 meters away. They will even cut through the iron bars on the divider just to cross over. When you ask them why they do it, they say it is for convenience. I wonder if it is, if you look at the risk factor or economic factors, it is like spending RM 50/- just to save 10cents. (RM0.10). If we take the time to think, there is a lot of e...

This is the third year for e-Filing for Malaysia's Income Tax and I have to say that the process has improved dramatically. In the first year, it was necessary to download the PDF for each person you want to file it for. There was also problems and teething issues in submitting the form. On the second year, due to the above problem, the whole process completed ported to web based instead of dependent on Acrobat Reader. This made the filing much simpler but the printing was terrible. The pages did not align properly. Also with the electronic certificate, if you made a mistake and tried to get a new certificate, you had problem with Windows and had to create another account to redo the certificate. The other issue was since the certificate was embedded into your PC, you could not change the computer without losing the certificate (or for that matter lost it if you had to reinstall Windows). This is the third year, it looks like the certificate is now stored on the server. The...