Saturday, October 29, 2011

Leadership Style, ENTP

I have been chosen to attend EDAD "Preparation in Arabic"program that was organized by Mckinsey and Company in Boston , during this year. One of the thing they requested us to do , even before the program started is to go online and take the MBTI questionnaire. They made sure to tell every participant that this is not meant to be part of the recruitment or evaluation processes.
MBTI reports tell you your preference for each of four pairs:
  • Extroversion or Introversion E or I
  • Sensing or Intuition S or N
  • Thinking or Feeling T or F
  • Judging or Perceiving J or P1
If there was nothing valuable than knowing my self "knowing my type" , I would still consider that weekend program as one of the best in my life.
I knew what I really like, specially when dealing with others , and how I can be more effective by modifying what I do to others and allowing others to know me and deal accordingly.
MBTI has a pool of 16 personality type, I was ENTP type.
Quick, ingenious, stimulating, alert, and outspoken. Resourceful in solving new and challenging problems. Adept at generating conceptual possibilities and then analyzing them strategically. Good at reading other people. Bored by routine, will seldom do the same thing the same way, apt to turn to one new interest after another1.

This is one of the many reasons that I really would like to join Mckinsey as it is a firm that truly provide its employee with what they really need to be at their peak , then challenge them.
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http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/the-16-mbti-types.asp

the future of humanity ... and payements

Friday, October 28, 2011

Riyadh Startup Weekend (Networking event virtual attendance)

I was a amused when following - although wirelessly -  the Start-up Weekend in Saudi Arabia, Riyad ..
it is a free 3 days program for young entrepreneurs to gather , exchange ideas, form teams , get guidance from experts in a competition environment, where in the final day , "Friday , since the weekend in Saudi Arabia is Thursday and Friday".
First, I was happy because of the event being in place,  in away that hopefully can help young entrepreneurs fulfill their needs of ourcue their dreams , regardless of wither they fail or succeed.
Second, it is full of youth, from both initiators, planners , organizers and participants. However, I noticed there was no Joint Venture Capitals, banks, investors and alike...
This movement along with all what is going on in the entire Middle East area is promising , of course after things settle down, Looking at the young populations in that area, it is dominated by youth.
going back to my country Saudi Arabia , with so many investment opportunity and interest free loans provided from the government and other non-profit agencies.   On top of this,  it is a tax free country , this is really charging me with a huge momentum to go back home as soon as possible and indulge in those opportunities equipped with all the knowledge I am getting from WPI.

Friday, October 14, 2011

comment on New Research Study Uncovers Product Innovation Challenges Facing Consumer Goods Manufacturers article

the article can be found at this link:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/New-Research-Study-Uncovers-bw-1046211944.html?x=0&.v=1

First , we need to be smart enough to know that there might be a bias in this study , "author bias" as they call it in the academia world. This study has been prepared by two bodies , one of them is a software solutions provider, this should be clear from the first recommendation they provided ( Information gaps that undercut new product investments), this by no means that I am saying this study is not valuable.

I would liek to challenge tha following qute:
"The good news is that solutions to these challenges are within nearly every company’s reach". I guess this is under estimating the challenge to be providing an innovative product. This, by definition, is contradicting with simplest innovation principles. In other words , if everyone of us is able to provide an innovative product , then we must have understood innovation incorrectly.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Losing Steve Jobs

I have to admit that I did not expect that I will feel sad the way I felt when they announced that Steve passed away. I could not find anything to reduce this sadness except that now I have to work harder to replace his empty chair ..... I mean it 

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Stop annoying me by mails, and please stop cutting trees


It all comes to wither customers will find what they need or companies will search for what they need regardless of the different names: inbound or outbound marketing. My thought is, it is not either black or weight, for a start up company, they need good amount of outbound marketing for people to know that there are different providers for the thing they are looking for, once a given company has been know in the market, then I see that the outbound marketing get ineffective for various reasons. First, people are subjected to a huge amount of marketing materials that causes headache, and the best evidence is that people are willing now to pay for ad-free radio!
Another reason is that it is not environmentally friendly specially considering the amount of papers consumed in mail-in adds for example, it is huge, and soon there will be movement to stop such irritating behavior of sending unwanted add to people direct mail boxed.
Third, consumer’s behavior is greatly shifting, being able to make smarter purchasing decisions due to the availability of needed information through INTERNET. One can spend 10 minutes to evaluate all of a given product or a service by clicks, where hundreds of reviews are already in placed details other consumers’ experiences.
At the end, you cannot fool the consumers any more, all what you can do is that you really concentrate on providing what he/she needs, then, and only then, he/she can easily finds you.