Five Secrets of Charismatic Leadership

Even if you lack charisma, you can still mobilize your team by following a tried-and-true formula, writes Nick Tasler, who points out that introverts often outperform extroverts at the top.

Displaying charismatic leadership is one of the most effective ways to boost everything from motivation and creativity to productivity and plain old satisfaction. It's the manager's job to get those things done. But what if you fall somewhere between Ben Stein and Alan Greenspan on the charisma scale?

The good news is that you are not doomed to fail as a leader. A new study shows that the more reserved style of introverted leaders can actually inspire better performance in followers. If the employees are extroverted, the team will perform better under the leadership of an introvert. Introverted leaders are more likely to take a team approach to problem-solving and to let talented team members spread their wings. However, if you need to light a fire under a more reserved group, a little charisma in your messaging can go a long way.

The Charismatic Narrative

Anyone can use this structure to present a charismatic message. Just follow these five steps:

1. Define the main character: Your story must be about your audience or someone your audience cares about.

2. Describe the happy ending.

3. Describe the not-so-happy beginning.

4. Describe what action you want them to take.

5. Just add watery eyes: Use emotions to rouse the team

Kratie & Rattanakiri Visit

If You Want to See Entrepreneurs, Go to China

It's not the institutional environment, taxes, or ease of hiring. To explain the country's astronomical entrepreneurship rates, Scott Shane digs into the data.

As MIT political scientist and China expert Ed Steinfeld says, "China [is] one of the most entrepreneurial places on earth." Perhaps this observation doesn't surprise you, given what's been happening to the Chinese economy in recent years. But you might not recognize how widespread entrepreneurship is in China, or why the country is so full of entrepreneurs.
What the Data Show
The latest numbers from the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) show that China's rate of self-employment far exceeds that in the U.S.—51.2% versus 7.2%—a gap that hasn't changed much since 2001.
Lest you think that self-employment represents something other than entrepreneurship, consider some other statistics. According to the 2009 GEM report, China exceeds the U.S. in its rate of nascent entrepreneurship, rate of ownership of new businesses, and rate of ownership of more established businesses.
China Has More Growth-Oriented Entrepreneurs
China doesn't just have more small business owners than the US; it also has more growth-oriented business founders. China had the highest rate of high-expectation entrepreneurship of any country covered by the study. More than 4% of the Chinese working-age population is engaging in high-growth-expectation entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, China scores higher than the U.S. (and many other nations) on realized rates of new business growth. So it's not just how much people expect to grow, but also what they accomplish in creating jobs that marks China's entrepreneurial activity. In China, the number of people plan to become entrepreneurs is 23%.
China Has Vibrant Financing Markets for Entrepreneurs
The 2009 GEM report also shows that the informal capital market is extremely vibrant in China. Approximately 6% of Chinese people between ages 18 and 64 made an informal investment in the past three years, compared with less than 4% in the U.S. One place where the U.S. remains ahead of China is in venture capital.
Why Is China So Entrepreneurial?
It isn't because of the size of the country's private sector. It also isn't the ease of business formation, favorable institutional environment, tax system or hiring employees.
Getting Rich Is Good
Keming Yang, a sociologist at Durham University, and author of the book Entrepreneurship in China, thinks the high rate of entrepreneurship in China results from a national focus on getting rich. "The Chinese people have a very strong desire, perhaps the strongest among all nations in the world, to lead an enviable material life," he explains. "It is a life-long struggle as they constantly compare their standard of material life with that of others around them."
The 2007 GEM Report supports the notion that Chinese entrepreneurs are motivated by the desire to make money. The GEM data reveal that fewer than 40% of Chinese entrepreneurs start businesses to have more independence, and more than 60% start businesses to increase their income.
Plus according to Steinfeld: "Chinese entrepreneurs, whether because of cultural or other factors, have consistently proven willing to establish businesses … in a number of high-risk, deeply unstable environments."
Maybe it shouldn't surprise anyone that China is so full of entrepreneurs. But the evidence that China is a go-to place to see entrepreneurs suggests we might learn something from studying Chinese attitudes toward starting businesses.

Click on the title link to read full story.

NIPPON PAINT AND STO'S EXHIBITION IN CAMBODIA

Just wanna share some photos taken during my company's exhibition at Koh Pich, which is the first biggest marketing project I'm directly in charge. It was fun and promotional: attracting visitors from all walks of life without expensive media campaign, celebrities or big prizes as employed by other main exhibitors. Worried that not many people visit our booth cus of the nature of the products, but it turned out to be crowded most of the time!

Why Markets Love Dictators

By Chan Akya, Asia Times

When a political party that has been in power for a long time suffers a sudden reverse in its fortunes, inevitably the financial media look to market reaction as a gauge of whether such moves are positive or negative. This of course goes with the longstanding principle of markets being a voting machine over the short term but eventually always being a weighing machine. In other words, fundamentals always triumph over near-term popularity questions. In Asia though, the political economy is more than a passing fad - indeed, in most countries it contributes to the bulk of fortunes enjoyed by businessmen. Thus it is that starting from the region's most developed economy, Japan, to its least developed countries like Pakistan, markets pay close attention to the composition of government, frequent statements, policy actions and the like. Going back to the first paragraph above, it becomes clear that the weighing machine and the voting machine become the same thing, in practice across Asia.

Click on the title to read the whole article.

What Matters With The Word ''Youn"?

There was a hot debat on Ki-Media regarding a recent Phnom Penh Post article accusing SRS a racist by using the word ''Youn''.

Personally or subjectively, I totally disagree with anyone who politicise or mischaracterise a word which is neutrally and commonly used. Whether the word has a racist origin or carries any negative connotation does not matter, as it is commonly used by all Cambodians without any prejudice. ''Youn'' just simply means Vietnamese. In another word, I could say Youn is informal and Vietnam (Vietnamese) is formal. There maybe some people who use it to express anger because of Vietnamese mistreatment and invasion on Cambodia for centuries, but the word itself is theoritically or practically neutral.

Don't Khmer know their own language? Should we be afraid just to use our own language? Should foreigners teach Khmer how to use Khmer?

Below are some of the most logical reasoning from Ki-Media regarding the word ''Youn'':

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010020831721/National-news/yuon-whats-in-a-xenonym.html

http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/02/protest-to-phnom-penh-post.html

http://ki-media.blogspot.com/2010/02/pejorative-terms-yuon-and-mien.html

My New Job

Perhaps I don't need to tell the name and business of my new company. It is a well-recognised and straight-forward name. However having studied in Japan for over three years, I found that I am not familiar with the way most Cambodians and my colleagues pronouce the name: it sounds like Thai rather than Japanese.

This is my second job upon returning to Cambodia. It seems that I like the job more than the previous one. Of course, it is not because the businesses are completely different. I feel that I like color so much (maybe because my eye-sight is not good!). The slogan: Working Beautifully Everywhere is also stimulating and rewarding.
It seems that my position is bigger than before, but having worked for a while, I dare say that the position and the job description on the paper do not really stipulate your authority and your job duties. Although my title in the previous company is an Assistant Manager, my real responsibility and authority are like General Manager, having access to all information and have the right to stamp!
Anyway to have a good start, I care more about the nature of the job rather than the size of the company and the position. At last, I get the job I want: holding a managerial position in sales and/ marketing. The next step is to learn all the tips and tricks and overcome awaiting challenges, while preparing for my next plans.

Asia's Export Dependency Has To Change

The article gives insightful ideas for Cambodia's policy makers. I agree with both scholars, but more with Huang than Kruman. Which model is best for Cambodia, the Chninese or VN?

While westerners are busily building up their depleted savings, can export-dependent Asian economies adjust to a world in which the US consumer is no longer the buyer of last resort?

Economists are asking whether countries such as China will be able to reorient their economies so that domestic demand becomes the main driver of growth.

Why is Chinese household consumption so low and what can be done to fix it?

Mr Krugman pins much of the blame on a threadbare social safety net, which has shrunk even as China has grown richer. Most Chinese build up precautionary savings at the expense of consumption, he says.

Erecting a safety net, however, may have only a marginal effect on spending, says Mr Huang. He pins the blame not on high savings but rather on declining incomes, especially in rural areas where 700m people still live. He advocates a push to increase rural incomes by legalising micro-finance, abolishing the city registration system that prevents migrant workers from receiving social benefits, and accelerating land reform.

Classic Jokes

Here are some classic jokes just to break the ice:

1. A man went to apply for a job. After filling out all of his applications, he waited anxiously for the outcome. The employer read all his applications and said, "We have an opening for people like you." "Oh, great," he said, "What is it?" "It's called the door!"
2. A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on strangers, which he was. When he finished his drink, he found his horse had been stolen. He went back into the bar, handily flipped his gun into the air, caught it above his head without even looking and fired a shot into the ceiling. "Which one of you sidewinders stole my horse?!?!?" he yelled with surprising forcefulness. No one answered. "Alright, I'm gonna have another beer, and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I finish, I'm gonna do what I dun in Texas! And I don't like to have to do what I dun in Texas!" Some of the locals shifted restlessly. The man, true to his word, had another beer, walked outside, and his horse has been returned to the post. He saddled up and started to ride out of town. The bartender wandered out of the bar and asked, "Say partner, before you go... what happened in Texas?" The cowboy turned back and said, "I had to walk home."
3. A guy sticks his head in the barber shop and asks, "How long before I can get a haircut?" The barber looks around the shop and says, "About two hours." The guy leaves. A few days later, the same guy sticks his head in the door and asks, "How long before I get a haircut?" The barber looks around the shop full of customers and says, "About two hours." The guy leaves. A week later, the same guy sticks his head in the shop and asks, "How long before I can get a haircut?" The barber looks around the shop an says, "About an hour and half." The guy leaves. The barber looks over at a friend in the shop and says, "Hey Bill, follow that guy and see where he goes." In a little while, Bill comes back into the shop laughing hysterically. The barber asks, "Bill, where did he go when he left here?" Bill looked up and said, "To your house."
4. A man is walking down the street and he sees a boy riding a wagon. The boy has his dog pulling it with a rope attached to the dogs balls. The man says "You know if you tied it around his neck, it would go faster." The boy replies, "I know but then I wouldn't get the cool siren."
5. A man hasn't been feeling well, so he goes to his doctor for a complete check-up. Afterward, the doctor comes out with the results. "I'm afraid I have some very bad news," the doctor says. "You're dying, and you don't have much time left." "Oh, that's terrible!" says the man. "How long have I got?" "Ten," the doctor says sadly. "Ten?" the man asks. "Ten what? Months? Weeks? What?!" The doctor interrupts, "Nine..."
6. Tom had this problem of getting up late in the morning and was always late for work. His boss was mad at him and threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it. So Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he went to bed. Tom slept well, and in fact, beat the alarm in the morning. He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work. "Boss", he said, "The pill actually worked!" "That's all fine" said the boss, "But where were you yesterday?"

My Northwestern Trip

Asia's Top Business Schools

Staying in Asia for an MBA

As B-schools in China, India, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and other parts of Asia make their programs more global and establish partnerships with schools overseas, more Asian students are staying home to get their MBAs

For years, Asians interested in entering the best business schools had little choice but to head to the West. Now, though, business schools throughout Asia are trying to become more competitive with the top schools in the U.S. and Europe. B-schools in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and other parts of Asia have been making their curricula more global and recruiting more professors from abroad. At the same time, Asian business schools increasingly are partnering with one another or with schools from the West to offer more options to their students.With the global economy in the doldrums, the competition to enter business schools is growing far more intense as students look to escape the dire job market and improve their chances of getting a well-paying position when the world recovers. So even though Asian schools are still no match yet for the Whartons and Kelloggs of the world, more and more Asian students are now looking to them as alternative places to get their MBAs.

For more on the best business schools in Asia, click on the title link.

The global politics of swine flu

Adapted from Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Lesson: Crises could create opportunities, more crises, or both.
We may be at the incipient stage of swine flu's deadly spread across the globe, but already signs of new trans-Atlantic fissures over EU travel advisory to the United States and Mexico.
Swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease that usually affects pigs. "Hysterical", "unwarranted", "overreaction" and "ineffective", were the top choices of words used by US officials in reaction to the EU health officials' alarm bells, and the stern US responses to the Europeans' health disaster response reminds one of China's similar response when the US Center on Disease Control, put this statement on its website in response to the early reports of the SARS epidemic in Asia: "Don't go to mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Hanoi unless you really have to.
Hundreds of US flights to and from Mexico have continued unabated since the swine flu outbreak, and there has not been any attempt by the US government to either close some borders with Mexico or even reduce the substantial human traffic crossing those borders, fearing the adverse economic impacts in today's climate of global economic recession. The trick is undoubtedly not to make policies based on worst-case scenarios, but then again there is also the grave risk of avoiding a painful "great reshuffling" of policies. "A severe pandemic might encourage us to rethink the deadly pace of globalization and biological trade in all living things," wrote Nikforuk. Clearly, Third World Mexico's lack of an integrated strategy to combat the infectious disease with adequate resources has a lot to do with the flu's high mortality rate compared to its impact in US and Canada. As usual, the North-South gaps reveal themselves with glaring and oppressive clarity in such outbreaks of public illness. At the same time, by posing the US as a "risk society", a whole new fertile field of discourse on America's (health) identity has been opened by the threat of swine flu. An imagined pandemic may sting the US nearly as much as a real pandemic and the sheer indeterminacy of the flu's potency and future growth simply adds to its dispensation of a new unhealthy image for the US. Swine flu points at the growing linkage between foreign policy and health policy, as well as the nexus between health and security. Should it turn out that we are merely witnessing its first phase of attack, which is pregnant with multiple subsequent waves causing greater and greater disruptions in world trade, transport and trans-border human movement, something impossible to pre-calculate at this stage, then a whole new logic of de-globalization may be inevitable. On the other hand, this flu has the potential to be labeled as a "metropolis disease" that does not contaminate much of the the Third World. On the whole, swine flu can take one of two directions, it can either act as a circuit-breaker for a renewed globalization in terms of collective response, or a potent source of "international solidarity" as envisioned by UN chief Ban. Or, finally, it may have the contradictory effect of pushing both chariots simultaneously, at least in the short run.

Link to Swine Flu: http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/flu-guide/20061101/swine-flu-faq