John Pearson's Buckets Blog

Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt

Issue No. 457 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting squeezes in one more book recommendation before 2021. Fast Times is “extremely useful and relevant” says the CFO of the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and watch for the next issue with my 2020 book-of-the-year honors. Click here to check out the 30 books I reviewed in 2020.



“The Pace of Change Will Never Be This Slow Again”

Here’s your 2021 New Year’s Resolution: order Fast Times (quickly!) and delegate the reading of this transformational book to a senior leader. Or…if you follow the “Think Week” twice-a-year lifelong learning pattern of Bill Gates, add Fast Times to the stack of books you’ll read in your quiet quarantined cabin in 2021.

The four authors of Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt wrote this stunning book “for senior executives who are frustrated by the slow pace and limited return on investment (ROI) of their digital transformations, and are unsure what’s holding them back.”

All senior leaders at McKinsey & Company, the global management consulting firm (for-profit, nonprofit, government, etc.), the four co-authors are based in Paris, London, Copenhagen, and Germany. They warn late-comers to the digital world, “Fast movers win.” They caution, “Time and again we see companies that have taken a fast-follower strategy and not be able to move fast enough.”

The coffee table book’s format and shape is arresting and will be copied by other book designers: short four- to seven-page bite-size chapters, eye-catching graphics, fascinating sidebars from the trenches, ample white space, big quotable quotes, and “Food for Thought” short summaries. Better buy two copies. Your copy will get “borrowed!”

Whether your digital strategy is non-existent, just mediocre, or best of breed—don’t think this book is just about digital. If I were still a CEO today, I’d make this eye-opener required reading by every board member, senior team member, consultant, and middle manager. Example: You want speed? The founder of Spotify says, “We aim to make mistakes faster than anyone else.”

Best of all, in just 141 pages (plus oodles of reference notes), you’ll feast on 18 management practices, organized around four key areas—all perfectly sized for your next 18 weekly staff meetings or Zoom calls. Here’s a taste:

STRATEGY
Q1. Are you rushing your strategy—and slowing your transformation? “…our experience has shown that companies often have only a hazy view of how much value they can squeeze out of what they already do.” Did you know that John Deere, besides selling tractors, also advises farmers on weather conditions? Must read: six questions on “Are you a target for disruption?”

Q2. Are you confident that you have an accurate picture of how your organization is really doing? Is “internal naval-gazing” your challenge? Whoa! In a fascinating sidebar about Procter & Gamble’s effort to raise the company’s digital IQ, a senior VP started “with a digital IQ test to assess base-level understanding.” More than 50 percent of the leaders at the annual top-management meeting did not pass! The result: it put a spotlight on the case for change—and why their business leaders needed to “commit to meaningful digital transformation.” (And P&G was a leader in strategy issues. Read my review of Playing to Win.)

Q3. Will your strategy work in the real world? Mike Tyson: “Everyone has a plan ‘til they get punched in the mouth.”

Q4. Are you clear about which transformation model is best for your company? Can you name the four models? (Yikes! Four?) Learn why a European bank created an HR “war room” to focus on faster hiring of top talent—a big theme in Fast Times.

Q5. Do you know what great looks like? First, get outside “your own four walls to see agile companies in action.” Speed? “When the CDO of a large US retailer said he wanted to launch a new business, the CIO said it would take at least 500 people four years, and cost $100 million.” Instead, the innovative CDO hired a new team and moved to a new location. In just five months (not four years), the new business was generating $150 million per month!

What fast looks like:
• Product launch: 6 months (normal) vs. 2 weeks (fast)
• New hires: 6 months (normal) vs. 3 weeks (fast)
• Marketing campaign: 1/month (normal) vs. 24/day (fast)
• Code release: 1 every 6 months (normal) vs. 1 per day (fast)

CAPABILITIES
Q6. Have you made it safe to fail? The CEO of ShopRunner “has asked executives in their reviews to describe recent failures. If the failures hadn’t cost the company money, the executives didn’t get their bonuses.” Another CEO “mandated that decisions be made within 30 minutes of the start of any meeting.” Yet another CEO, plagued with low risk-taking, scheduled decision-making meetings at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings! “Not surprisingly, teams started making more decisions for themselves.”

Q7. Do you know what it takes to scale an agile culture? Worth the price of the book—the components of an agile budgeting process. Plus: “…the CEO of one of the world’s largest banks spends a day a month with the bank’s clients and encourages all members of the C-suite to do the same.”

Q8. Have you hired digital stars? Whew! “Get comfortable with bigger pay gaps” when hiring top digital staff. But they will be “magnets for successive waves of high-quality talent.” The authors quote Red Adair, the American oil well firefighter, internationally known for extinguishing and capping oil well blowouts. “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” Warning: the tenure of digital workers is 36 months—and shrinking.

Click here to visit the Fast Times website and complete the “Digital Transformation Health Check” on your organization’s digital program. You can also read Chapter 6, "Have you made it safe to fail?"

Q9. Is your workforce up to the task? The trend: customized and individualized continuous learning—in bite-size segments. P&G created an enterprise-wide Digital Genius Academy (DGA). Warning: when you’re successful, other companies will be recruiting your digital stars! (The book suggests how to “rethink HR.”)

Q10. Do digital stars consider your organization a graveyard? “…a RiseSmart study found that 84 percent of employees would consider moving to an employer with a fantastic reputation even without a big jump in salary.”

Q11. Do you know how to use new tech to rebuild your core IT and data platforms? Oops!
“Imagine a modern-day Formula One team that chooses to seat its driver in a race car from the 1990s.”

Q12. Are your own people developing your most important tech? Re-think outsourcing. “This ‘build-it-here’ approach is a key characteristic of successful digital companies.”

Q13. Is cybersecurity part of your IT transformation team or simply a control function? The authors note a popular axiom. There are two types of companies: “those that have been hacked, and those that don’t know they’ve been hacked. And things might be getting worse.”

ADOPTION AND SCALING
Q14. Is your transformation team filled with change bureaucrats or builders? The Western Union Way team—WU Way—created “capability-building teams” with 10 high-potential team members from around the company. Transformation began with 10, then to a first wave of 50, then 200, and ultimately to all 12,000 people.

Q15. Can everyone in your company easily access everything your people have learned? Are you good or guilty? “All that learning isn’t worth much if no one can find it.” Another axiom: “If my company only knew what my company knows.” P&G launched a video platform called “Fastest Learner Wins”—five-minute or less “snackable” content. Amazon has an internal wiki site and an internal video site, “Broadcast.”

Q16. Does your commitment match your bold statements? Are you gutsy enough to pull the plug on new projects run by stars? Check out the five questions under “A Litmus Test for Commitment,” including “Are you spending at least 20 percent of your working day on your digital transformation?” Also, have you made any big bets? (However, let me push back a bit. Don’t discount the wisdom of Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries. Read my review.)

Q17. Are you communicating in a way that’s meaningful to your people? I’d encourage every major city mayor and state governor to read this chapter. During COVID, I’d give our political leaders a C+ (at best)—on their communication competencies (preachy, incoherent, inconsistent—yikes). The authors quote Virgin’s Richard Branson, “Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.” Plus, read why one CEO invests an hour per week calling former customers.

Q18. Are you ready to see your transformation through to the end, no matter what? Warning signs: transformation fatigue, devising too many metrics, absence of explicit buy-in from the board, and not hitting the tipping point for a successful transformation (10 percent must hold an “unshakable belief”). And this: “We had more people talking about coding than actually coding.” LOL!

Suggestion: pick one of these 18 questions and pilot-test a short “Fast Times” segment at your weekly staff meeting. If it engages your team to think differently about the digital landscape, you’ve got the fixin’s for 17 more weeks. Plus—don’t skip the innovative final two pages. Rather than impress readers with co-author bios, each McKinsey senior leader shares his “parting thoughts” in a brief personal perspective. Brilliant.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt, by Arun Arora, Peter Dahlstrom, Klemens Hjartar, and Florian Wunderlich. And thanks to Fortier Public Relations for sending me a review copy.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) “Failing is not always acceptable” in the pursuit of speed, say the Fast Times authors. They list three times “it’s plain wrong” including when “the thinking is lazy or flawed.” What is our team’s culture concerning speed, competencies, failure, and risk?
2) On July 9, 2004, Amazon banned PowerPoint presentations at the core executive team level—and honed the “Six-Page Narratives” (sometimes two pages) approach. Click here to read my review of The Amazon Management System. What’s our approach for vetting new ideas and enhancing speed?
______________________________________________________

Systems That Serve People—Not the Bureaucracy!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Here’s the core competency in the Systems Bucket: “We are passionate about systems thinking and process management. We encourage systems people to use their gifts and mentor others for the benefit of our Cause and our Community arenas. We are careful not to tinker or over-tweak, yet we are tenacious about tickler systems. We have a heart to create systems that serve people, not the bureaucracy!”

Nick Nicholaou of Ministry Business Services says there are three reasons you should never create your own software solution: 1) it will never be completed; 2) it will be difficult to support (and maybe your developer will die, without leaving any documentation); and 3) it will be very expensive.

That’s from my 2016 review of his book, Church IT. Good news, the publisher, Christianity Today International, released an updated edition of Nick’s book last year.

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Church IT: Using Information Technology for the Mission of the Church, by Nick B. Nicholaou (2019).


For more resources in the Systems Bucket, click here.
___________________________________________________________

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Nick Nicholaou says there are “four disciplines” of church IT, including web and graphic design. Do you have the right person leading all four disciplines? Ask Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

Ho! Ho! Ho! This is funny!

Bonus Blog! Enjoy this bonus blog post with a funny cartoon and a WSJ writer's response to my letter to the editor. You won't believe it! I posted this sign in my front yard this week with this memo and cartoon!

HO! HO! HO!

DATE: December 14, 2020

TO: All Neighbors, Dog Walkers, & Cell Phone Conversationalists!

FROM: John Pearson’s Home Office (overlooking Calle Guadalajara!)

RE: Laugh-Out-Loud! (…or maybe TALK-Out-Loud!)

This is funny! On Dec. 9, The Wall Street Journal featured a fascinating article by Alexandra Samuel, “How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home.” It suggested you walk around the neighborhood and make your office calls then. I couldn’t resist—so I submitted a letter to the editor with a tongue-in-check mention about listening in on YOUR calls! LOL!

The Editor
The Wall Street Journal

RE: “How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home” (Dec. 9)

During this coronavirus marathon, dozens of my work-at-home neighbors have been following Alexandra Samuel’s advice for sensitive office calls: “a walk around the neighborhood—out of earshot of my neighbors as well as my family—allows me to speak freely and get some exercise, too.” But, hello? My home office faces the street and with my office window open, I can hear every “sensitive” office call! Unfortunately, the neighborhood dogs have designated my mailbox area as their favorite rest stop—so I hear everything. “Hey, Joe! Just deal with it. Stop whining to Pedro about Jennifer’s Zoom manners!”

John W. Pearson
San Clemente, Calif.

Amazingly, the writer emailed me on Dec. 10—and sent a cartoon!

Oh gosh, John— you have made me realize I am a blight on the neighborhood!

Your description of the predicament was so vivid that I commissioned the attached cartoon for you from my husband and in-house cartoonist, Rob Cottingham. Perhaps if you post it on your front gate, the neighbors will get the hint?

Thanks so much for writing!

Alex

Laugh-out-loud! I thought you would enjoy her response—and this hilarious cartoon from her husband and "in-house cartoonist," Rob Cottingham.

P.S. Merry Christmas and enjoy your walks along Calle Guadalajara. Maybe some day—after COVID—we can get acquainted! (And, by the way, your sensitive office call conversations are safe with me!) Read Alexandra Samuel’s article online.

How to Protect Your Privacy When Working From Home
There are ways to keep colleagues from intruding on your home life, and family members from intruding on your work life

“Walk it off: For sensitive office calls, take a walk around the neighborhood with your phone and headset so that you can talk freely out of earshot of your family and neighbors. You’ll get some exercise, too.”

P.P.S. That’s me in the cartoon, in my second-floor home office—listening in on your “sensitive” phone calls! LOL!

Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank

Issue No. 456 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting recommends a page-turner that checks all the buckets. Read Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my previous review (giving equal time to North Korea!), The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un.



Therapy for the Negotiator’s Nightmare: Whac-A-Mole!

After the co-chairman of the private equity firm Newbridge Capital (now TPG) interviewed Weijian Shan, former professor at the Wharton School, David Bonderman told a colleague, “This guy has no clue what private equity is about.”

But he liked Shan’s personality and hired him anyway. “I figured you could learn,” the chairman told Shan years later! And, oh my, he did learn. As a partner at Newbridge and co-managing partner of what became TPG-Asia, Shan led the team that facilitated a huge buyout deal—the acquisition of what used to be South Korea’s largest bank.

Honest (honest!)—this is a riveting read! If you’ve ever negotiated anything—or plan to—you and your team members must read this hot-off-the-press page-turner, Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank, by Weijian Shan.

First—some fascinating facts for context:
   • The Asian Financial Crisis (starting in July 1997) had devastated the economy of South Korea—and the profitability of their nationalized banks was extremely low. The return on assets “was just one-tenth that of world-class banks.”
   • South Korea was on the verge of defaulting on its foreign debt—money was fleeing the country and “its foreign exchange reserves had plummeted to just $8.9 billion by December”—just enough to last a week or two.
   • The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank offered a $58 billion rescue package—but with “conditions on austerity and restructuring, including a mandate to sell off to foreign investors two failed banks, Korea First Bank and Seoul Bank.” A new credit culture was desperately needed in the banking system.

Yikes! The author’s firm had been invited to buy a bank—but what was the upside? The author asked himself, “Who would want to buy a failed bank in a failed economy in the middle of the worst economic crisis the country has ever experienced?” I’m not a finance guy, but this technical term came to mind: lose/lose/lose!

Yet, “David Bonderman, co-chairman of Newbridge, had experience with failing banks.” His colleagues appreciated his contrarian style—“buying businesses most other investors would shun.” And if you’re still reading this review, indulge me with at least one more paragraph on why you and your colleagues must read this book.

In the contrarian book, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Steven B. Sample, the former president of USC, writes about the discipline of reading outside your routine—and why younger leaders, especially, should look for ideas outside of their established fields. So don’t reject Money Games because it appears to be a finance book. It is not. Money Games literally checks all of my 20 management buckets (core competencies). Check. Check. Check. It’s amazing! I couldn’t put it down. Here’s why:

STREET CRED. The author, Weijian Shan, is now chairman and CEO of PAG, a leading Asia-focused private equity firm that manages US$40 billion in capital. Prior to his role at Newbridge (the book’s setting from 1997 to 2004), he was a managing director of JP Morgan, and an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His previous book (2019) chronicles several years, in his youth, working as a laborer in the Gobi Desert of China—and his journey and career in America. Shan holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

METICULOUS METAPHORS. Concerned you won’t understand the financial terminology? No problem. In addition to his helpful appendix, “A Primer on Commercial Banking,” the author is a master at meticulous metaphors—serving up understandable pictures of complicated scenarios. Stunning, actually! Example: when the government lawyers wanted to use legal language unacceptable to Newbridge, Shan’s team added the phrase “to enable…” The author explains the term to the reader with a running shoes metaphor. (Shan’s a disciplined morning runner). Ah, now I understand! Brilliant!

WHAC-A-MOLE! Have you ever been up to your eyeballs in a never-ending negotiation only to groan—as Shan did when rushing to close the deal? “Hashing out deal terms with the FSC [the government regulators] was like playing Whac-A-Mole: As soon as we agreed on one issue, another would pop up.” Enriching the book’s novel-like suspense (deal or no deal?) are dozens of negotiating tactics (wrapped in integrity).

FULL REFUND OFFER. This one is spectacular! At one point, the negotiations had slowed to a snail’s pace because the government’s bureaucrats and lawyers were painstakingly reading every sentence and obsessing on every word—for fear they would “make costly and irreversible mistakes.” So the author made a radical offer. “We would not mind if they retracted their decisions if they later thought they had made a mistake; meanwhile, our side would keep our word for whatever we proposed.” (His metaphor to the reader: the “full refund offer” he gave his wife—she could return any gift he bought her when she didn’t like it, which was apparently often!)

THERAPY. Whew. You think your negotiations have been arduous? This book is helpful therapy for all negotiators. Your life is easier! The Newbridge deal to buy Korea First Bank was breathtakingly complicated—and involved painstaking detail with hundreds of people. There’s the teaser invitation, then the MOU, then the TOI (Terms of Investment), then the final document 15 months later (not a typo). Add in missed deadlines, marathon all-night sessions (pizza for lunch and dinner—three days straight!), conference calls at inconvenient hours (Hong Kong, London, Seoul, and San Francisco time zones—all hands on deck!), innumerable international flights, and one officer’s preference for faxes. (Oops— the hotel's fax is on the fritz. Oops—no paper in the receiving fax machine. Oops. Oops. Oops.)

THORNY. “Even though the TOI served as a basis for the final agreements, the documentation process was like turning a book outline into a real book. Imagine the thorny process of two proud co-authors who must agree with each other on every word. Now imagine if each author also had to consult a team of editors and assistants who also had to agree.” (As the co-author of five books, I now wonder what my co-authors really felt about me!)

Here are more leadership gems—don’t skip ‘em!

Seriousness Meter. Hong Kong’s weather service measures typhoons on a scale of intensity: 1, 3, 8, 9, and 10 (10 is the strongest). When the author (who lives in Hong Kong) decided not the take an official’s “seriousness serious anymore,” I thought…maybe leaders should use those numbers for a “Seriousness Meter” when negotiating.

Push Back. I won’t divulge the details or issue a spoiler alert here, but there’s a fascinating chapter, “The Hard Part,” that discusses a leadership misstep based on a cultural norm prevalent in Korea, also discussed in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers. Shan pushes back on Gladwell’s analysis—another reason to learn from contrarian thinkers. (Click here to read my review of Outliers.)

SMART Goals. In the chapter, “Change Agent,” read how one bank CEO set an easy-to-remember corporate target and how he would “explain it in meeting after meeting with both executives and employees, for hundreds of hours, until everyone was on board with his objectives.”

Slow. Normal. Fast. Was it a negotiating tactic, or did the South Korean regulators seek to slow down the sale of Korea First Bank for other reasons? They should have read this 2020 book (had it been written!): Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt, by four McKinsey & Company leaders. Example: a normal product launch takes six months, but per Fast Times, a “fast” product launch should take only two weeks. (Watch for my review this month.)

The fast pace at Newbridge reminded me of Patrick Lencioni’s comments on “urgency” in his HBR article on core values (read my review). “The CEO who claimed his company’s core value was a sense of urgency, for instance, was substituting an aspirational value for a core one.” Newbridge actually lived their values!

Rocket Science. I had the privilege of serving on the Supervisory Committee and then the board of Christian Community Credit Union from 2007 to 2019, including six years as board chair. I’m not a finance guy (I’m a governance guy), but I did manage to pass the U.S. regulator’s financial literary examination. So I suppose that perspective heightened my interest in Money Games, but—trust me—your CFO, your CEO, your board members, and any curious leader or manager will appreciate this fast-moving book. (Did I mention “riveting?”) With 400 bank branches, you’ll learn why the new CEO formed a “Decision Science Department” (aka Rocket Science Dept. or today—AI Dept.). Stunning!

Finally, I was unprepared for the author’s “James Bond movie” reference when a banker showed Shan photos of a damaged car, riddled with bullet holes and a car seat stained with blood—the banker’s blood! (He had been HSBC’s bank head in Argentina.) Shan writes, “I had never thought of banking as a life-threatening occupation.” Ditto and Yikes!

To order from Amazon, click on the title for Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea's Most Iconic Bank, by Weijian Shan.



YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) When you study the relational interactions (think the four social styles) and the cultural nuances in Money Games—you’ll experience a crash course in all 20 core competences (the management buckets). For example, the author learned (after a negotiating session) that his forceful defense of a methodology left little room for the other side to challenge him. But when a colleague told Shan that his methodology was incorrect, the author immediately apologized the next morning. How do you invite feedback—and what do you do with it?
2) Weijian Shan is a master at metaphors especially when explaining complex information and scenarios. Example: “…instead of cutting the oversized clothes to fit the body, he would grow the body into the clothes.” Think back over recent staff meetings—what was the most helpful metaphor someone used to explain a complex issue or challenge? 
______________________________________________________

Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands?
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Weijian Shan, the author of Money Games, has an artist’s eye for detail, and an entrepreneur’s nerves for deal-making. Every chapter is embellished with fascinating cultural references and there’s something for everyone: Asian food delicacies, Hong Kong architecture (his 57th floor office overlooked Victoria Harbour), why the eldest Korean is given deference, the credit culture (few had checking accounts and credit cards in Korea in 2000), and much more.

When working internationally, understanding your customer is crucial. I’ve been blessed to visit more than 50 countries (often working with nonprofit ministries) and I’ve found two books, especially, to be immensely helpful:

• Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More than 60 Countries, by Terri Morrison and Wayne A. Conaway, will help you avoid the proverbial faux pas. In South Korea: “Be careful not to overly admire an object belonging to another person. He or she may feel obliged to give it to you.” And “do not sign a contract or write a person’s name in red ink. This indicates that the person is deceased.”

• Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church, by James E. Plueddemann, asks what if your church desires to “partner” with a church in another country? Watch out, warns the author. “The idea of ‘equal partners’ is foreign to most of the world. Partnership in much of the world assumes a junior or senior member.”

For more resources in the Customer Bucket, click here.
___________________________________________________________

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. As you grow, are you planning to partner, locally and internationally? Don’t go it alone! Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.

The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un

Issue No. 455 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting features a Pop Quiz on an absolutely fascinating book on North Korea, The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for another unconventional book pick in 2009 on the second largest country in the world, Being Indian: The Truth About Why the 21st Century Will Be India’s.



Succession, Self-Criticism, & Dennis Rodman!

Looking for Christmas gifts for the readers (and listeners) in your circle? The Great Successor checks all the boxes and it arrives with a Christmas-red book jacket:
   [x] Page-turner! Couldn’t put it down.
   [x] Absolutely fascinating leadership biography!
   [x] Memorable and eye-opening stories! Unbelievable! Concerning.

How will the White House team relate to North Korea and Kim Jong Un in 2021 and beyond? Stay tuned, of course—but this 2019 bio by Anna Fifield (former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post) is off-the-chart captivating. Once you read her subtitle, “The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un,” you’re hooked. How’d you like “Brilliant Comrade” on your business card?

POP QUIZ! I’m thinkin’ the best way to lure you into the book is to surprise you and your classmates with a True or False Pop Quiz. (See below.) But first…you can cram for the exam with this helpful guide to the three main characters—Grandpa Kim, Father Kim, and Grandson Kim:
   • KIM IL SUNG (1912-1994) founding Supreme Leader of North Korea at age 36—ruled from 1948 to 1994. Died in office at age 82.
   • KIM JONG IL (1941-2011), named Supreme Leader at age 52 and ruled from 1994 to 2011. Died in office at age 70.
   • KIM JONG UN (born 1984), named Supreme Leader at age 27 in 2011 (He will be 37 on Jan. 8, 2021.)

FACT OR FAKE?
How Much Do You Know About North Korea and Kim Jong Un, “The Great Successor”?

___True or False? 1) YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE. North Korea’s equivalent of a defense minister disappeared in 2016 “and was reported to have been executed for insubordination and treason,” including “falling asleep while Kim Jong Un was speaking.”

___True or False? 2) TEN COMMANDMENTS. North Koreans are required to memorize the “Ten Principles on the Establishing of the Monolithic Ideology of the Party”—and “be able to recite them on demand.”

___True or False? 3) SELF-CRITICISM SESSIONS. “Every Saturday, and sometimes more often, citizens must also attend self-criticism sessions, where they are required to detail their own short-comings of the previous week and often offer up those of the people around them.” Per the author, the sessions can also be helpful when retaliating against an annoying neighbor!

___True or False? 4) DICTATOR-FOR-LIFE. The Kim family’s durability is stunning—compared to other dictatorships. During Kim Il Sung’s reign (1948-1994), the U.S. said hello and goodbye to nine presidents (Truman to Clinton). “Japan cycled through twenty-one prime ministers. Kim Il Sung outlived Mao Zedon by almost two decades and Joseph Stalin by four. North Korea has now existed for longer than the Soviet Union.”

___T or F. 5) CHRISTIAN ROOTS. Kim Il Sung, the grandfather, was born on April 15, 1912—the same day the Titanic sank. “At the time, Pyongyang was a center for Christianity, so much so that it was called the Jerusalem of the East. He was born into a Protestant family, and one of his grandfathers served as a minister.”

___T or F. 6) AMATEUR HOUR. On Sept. 9, 1948, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was founded and Kim Il Sung was installed as its leader. “No sooner had he been appointed than Kim began a personality cult so pervasive it would soon make Stalin look like an amateur.” Soon, statues of “the Great Leader” began to appear—“and history began to be rewritten.”

___T or F. 7) BAD TIMING. In 1991, Kim Jong Il was named Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army. “It was hardly an auspicious time to cement the succession. The Berlin Wall had just come down. Just two days after his promotion, the Soviet Union collapsed. The Communist Bloc that had supported the North Korean regime, both economically and ideologically, was no more.”

___T or F. 8) AND HE NEVER TOLD A LIE. “To bolster the case for hereditary succession in these challenging circumstances, the regime created a fantastical story about Kim Jong Il’s provenance that borrowed heavily from both Korean mythology and Christianity.” Example: “They said Kim Jong Il was born in a wooden cabin [not quite a manger!] and that a single bright star shone in the sky at his birth.” The author adds, “But, for good measure, they added a double rainbow spontaneously appearing over the mountain.”

___T or F. 9) SORRY. THAT’S TAKEN. To prepare for the succession to Kim Jong Un, the regime began calling Kim Jong Il’s son, “Beloved and Respected Comrade General.” Next, “the authorities reportedly ordered that no babies from then on could be called Jong Un, and any North Koreans who already had that name [a relatively common name]…had to change it.”

___T or F. 10) STICKS & STONES... Apparently, dictators work hard at branding. While the butt of many jokes outside his borders, Kim Jong Un enjoys many honorary titles today:
   • Invincible and Triumphant General
   • Guardian of Justice
   • Best Incarnation of Love
   • Decisive and Magnanimous Leader
   • Guiding Ray of the Sun, the Sun of the Revolution, the Sun of Socialism, the Bright Sun of the Twenty-First Century, and the Sun of Mankind

Yet…in China, “he was quickly named ‘Kim Fatty the Third,’ despite the belated efforts of the Chinese censors to scrub the moniker from the internet.” (Read the story here.) For more Onion-like “true” stories (scaling mountains in dress shoes!), don’t miss Chapter 5, “A Third Kim at the Helm.” Oh, my.

___T or F. 11) LET THEM EAT CAKE. Anna Fifield interviewed a “money transfer merchant” who was unconvinced that the Great Successor could raise living standards. “When Kim Jong Un said he was going to make the country strong and prosperous, no one believed it. How could we be strong and prosperous if we didn’t even have toilet paper?”

___T or F. 12) DICTATOR DICTUM. Kim Jong Un “had to embody the dictum laid out five centuries earlier by the Italian politician Niccolo Machiavelli in his book The Prince: that it is better to be feared than loved.”

___T or F. 13) SPECIAL, SPECIAL. “Every home, every school, every hospital, every public building, and even every subway car must contain framed photos of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, which must be cleaned every day with a special cloth that is kept in a special box.”

___T or F. 14) BIG BROTHER’S BROADCAST. “Every household has a radio attached to the wall that can never be turned off and can never be tuned to a different station.”

___T or F. 15) WHAT? NO INTERNET? “There is no alternative point of view [from the Brilliant Comrade’s regular commentary and advice on everything from catfish farming to bean paste to missile programs]. And, for all but a handful of the elites who get Kim Jong Un’s explicit permission, there is no internet access. Cell phones are not connected to the outside world.”

___T or F. 16) WILL THIS BE ON THE TEST? When the Brilliant Comrade became leader, high schools added a new curriculum—81 hours of lessons on Kim Jong Un, in addition to the existing courses on his father, grandfather, and grandmother!

___T or F. 17) BRUTAL. There is no orthodox rule of law that “the outside world would recognize as a fair trial. There’s no defense attorney, no jury of one’s peers.” And “severe beatings and torture are commonplace, including pigeon torture, whereby prisoners’ hands are tied behind their back, and they’re hung from a wall, forcing out their chest. They’re made to stay that way for hours, often until they pass out or vomit blood.”

___T or F. 18) LOCATION. LOCATION. LOCATION. South Korea’s intelligence agency estimates that Kim Jong Un has at least 33 homes in North Korea. His main compound in northeast Pyongyang covers almost five square miles.

___T or F. 19) IT NEVER HAPPENED. While the official government salary remains at about $4 a month (taxi meters start at one dollar!), the creativity of many to earn money on the side is stunning. Not legal, but stunning. The author interviewed a “North Korean Fat Cat,” now living in Virginia. “Every North Korean breaks the law. Kim Jong Un breaks the law as well. Because everyone does it, the authorities just close their eyes,” he told her. The Great Successor keeps his supporters happy by keeping them rich. (Must-read: Chapter 8, “The Elites of Pyonghattan”)

TRUE OR FALSE? All of the above statements are TRUE and these are just a small sample of the unbelievable perspectives you’ll gain by reading the entire book.

So…from Kim Jong Un’s private schooling in Switzerland to his addiction to basketball and his bizarre relationship with former NBA star Dennis Rodman (Rodman was on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice show twice), to the execution of Kim Jong Un’s uncle (a high-ranking official), and the 2017 poisoning of his older half-brother at the Kuala Lumpur airport—what should one make of the Great Successor?

The author quotes Ian Robertson, a clinical psychologist and professor of neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He believes Kim Jong Un is not a madman, but a “reasonably psychologically stable individual”—but he is a “classic narcissist.” Robertson added, “Most people who don’t get scared off by their conscience or the stress of being a leader develop narcissism.” Fifield summarized Robertson’s thoughts: “Because it’s an acquired narcissism, it’s a personality distortion rather than a personality disorder.”

Think Lord Acton’s insights, she adds: “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Hence—nuclear ambitions (joining the H-bomb club in 2017), American hostages (including the tragedy of Otto Warmbier) and more.

Chapters 14 and 15 are prescient. One expert doesn’t believe that Los Angeles will be bombed by North Korea and explains why. (Whew!) “The Charm Offensive” is fascinating with commentary on the First Sister (“the Ivanka Trump of North Korea”) and why no traces of DNA are left when Kim Jong Un or his family stay at hotels outside North Korea. He even brings his own portable toilet.

So who’s the successor to the Great Successor—and can he keep this family gig going? The next leader won’t be a woman, say the South Korean experts. And according to Yale scholar Milan Svolik, who studied 316 dictators, “more than two-thirds were overthrown by their rivals.” Think how Nikita Khrushchev in 1964 and Robert Mugabe in 2017 both lost power. “Their one-time allies seized it from them.”

To order from Amazon, click on the title for The Great Successor: The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, by Anna Fifield. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (11 hours, 37minutes), narrated by Olivia Mackenzie-Smith.

YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS:
1) In his brilliant chapter, “You Are What You Read,” in The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership, Steven B. Sample, the former president of USC, writes on the importance of reading outside your routine—and why younger leaders, especially, should look for ideas outside of their established fields. What’s the value of one great idea gleaned from a source your colleagues will never discover?
2) Are our tribal stories, passed from generation to generation in our organization, still legit, or—embellished by repetition and our founder’s or copywriter’s rhetoric—do they tilt toward the fantastical?
3) TRUE or FALSE? Is your succession plan current? Click here for a resource.
______________________________________________________

50 Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook

Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon pioneered a stunning breakthrough between the U.S. and China in 1972. No one thought it was possible. Could a similar breakthrough happen in North Korea?

In the Customer Bucket, we urge you to become zealots for researching and understanding your markets. If—miracle of miracles—North Korea opened up, how much do you know about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)? How about India? Check out:

• Open Doors World Watch List: The 50 Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus (Click here to download the 13-page 2020 list. North Korea is rated #1: the most dangerous.)

• CIA World Factbook: One Page Summary of North Korea (as of September 2020)

For more resources in the Customer Bucket, click here.
___________________________________________________________

JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. A frank outside assessment of your branding and communication pieces will often cause you to make important tweaks that will generate significant upsides. Need help? Check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________

Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.