REMARKS FROM THE EDITOR

In  the early days of 2001, government officials, business executives, economic and political observers were busy responding to the demand of regional autonomy in this country, however, towards the end of the year the application of this new concept remains debatable. Today, we see more  and more people are showing less interest in following economic and political debates on television or newspaper. What we know that in reality there is urgent demand for new fields of employment. Millions of job are lost. A clear indication points out to the fact that it takes longer period for job seeker to find a proper job suitable to his academic background. Mergers, Acquisition, downsizing has made companies employ less people with better brain and skills. Human resource empowerment becomes a focus of discussion in government, business undertakings, and professional organizations and in any walks of life. It is not simple though, but take the wise man’s advice: Don’t work harder, but smarter!

Apart from the so many success stories, we have to be realistic. We need to face the challenges of today which demand more focus and priority. And only those who encourage themselves ‘change’ by giving away all day dreams will be then able to cope with this unpredictable future. Nothing can change us, likewise – nothing will wait for us. There is nothing we can do for the  time being, but to empower ourselves to the maximum.

The issues of paradigm, mental change and self development have been the focus of EGA briefings since the initial edition launched in January 20^th this year. We are providing our readers with new ways of thinking, new challenges, new strategy and new tactics particularly in dealing with self development. Through activities, EGA briefings encourage us to have more positive attitude, to have greater self confidence, to exercise more self expression, to be more assertive rather than aggressive, to read more rather than talking and to be more exposed to global language rather than the local one. There is no such thing as global rather multi locals as we experience day by day that there is stronger tendency towards returning to indigenous culture in this global situation. In short, we have to be more Indonesian that we used to be.

In completion of one year issue, I would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the Sponsor, Corporate and Individual Member who have shown deep concern and interests particularly in staff development issues raised in each edition. To the speakers of Roundtables, participants of EGA briefings activities, supporters and enthusiastic readers we really appreciate your support. A special thank is addressed to CAKRAM Magazine and staff who have shown their constant support in assisting us promoting our activities. Last but not least to prospective members we wish you could join us in our activities in the near future.

Let us welcome this coming year with new expectations, strategies, tactics with new bosses, counterparts, colleagues and friends. Let us evaluate what we have done so far and what we want to achieve in the following years.

Selamat Idul Fitri 1422 H,
Seasons Greetings and Happy New Year 2002.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth Goenawan Ananto
Editor

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PUBLIC RELATIONS

Some public relations issues taken from the International Public Relations Associations (IPRA) Conference, Global Public Relations Managing Cultural Diversity held in Berlin, 14-17 October 2001

• There is tendency to return to indigenous culture
• There is correlation between economic development and Interpersonal Trust
• Modernization is not westernization but many different modern cultures

(Prof. Samuel Huntington of Harvard University: Toward One Global Culture)

Real professional sets priority of job, not background

• Networking, preparedness to share and not underestimate
• Cultural diversity is a spacegoats, it is an excuse of not having been successful for doing things.
• Stay focus on top priorities ahead.

(Dr Christop Waithler, Chrysler : One Stock, Many Cultures, One Voice)

• Think local, Act local as local market understand local customer best
• Reputation is management of quality and innovation
• Understanding strategy, relationship, creativity and networking. More focused.

(Jonathan Chandler, Coca Cola : Think Local, Act Local)

• Each global standard must focus on local level
• Access to the world means to the world responsibility
• Business enterprise should apply the concept of holistic responsibility and should leave window dressing strategy.
• How to build the ‘top soil’ issues, how these people selected.

(Eberheard von Kroeber : World Ethics and Global Standard)

The Role of CEO in Corporate Building Reputation

Today is the Age of Everyone, the Age of Celebrity where CEOs are superstars. The role of headhunter has a significant impact toward the growing tendency that celebrity becomes CEO. The role of CEO has a twofold effect : how to manage stakeholders confidence in the age of uncertainty and how to win the war of talent and to cope with the age of diversity. If ones becomes a CEO, he has to be both a business leader and a global nature who concerns with everything from environment protection to personal family reputation. He has to be able to win the battles among the internal prospective CEOs within one company.

• Reputation is more important than money
• The trend of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) NOT personal power and integrity.
• True leaders are the successful story tellers. How to make others listen and do what he is telling.

It is the task of each professional on how to deal with new challenges, new markets, new quality and new performance as the demand toward the establishment of relationship customers is greater.

NGOs on the Frontline

Highlight of Richard Edelman presentation, President and CEO of Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in IPRA Berlin Conference last October.

• The attack of World Trade Centre or the 11^th September has brought tremendous impact worldwide.
• On the other hand, the empowered consumers : self directing, sharing experience with better educated expect relationship with BRAND, they can no longer persuaded by advertising, rather they need more dialogues.
• Business so far is unsuccessful in applying only science, technology and gaining profit. There comes the NGOs role. Why these NGOs win the battles? The answers as simple as the following : They are most trusted than the government, media people, CEOs. NGOs have positioned themselves better than governments and media as a source of information in the field human rights, work and environments.
• Business people are arrogant, PR people are hiding the facts. (64% of respondents of Edelman survey said that the influence of NGOs increased in the past decade)
• NGO is Global Superbrand. It is easy to understand, factual, selected intelligent persons, generating media attention
• Public relations people should be particularly aware of their existence. We have to establish good communication, seek out dialogues with them, implement programmes and develop our strategies.
• If the NGOs on the frontline where are the PR people in creating public opinion?
• Therefore…. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is MANDATORY, no longer image building as it was in the past.

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TIPS OF THE MONTH

How to Assess Your Interests, Skills and Values

• Take vocational tests administered by a qualified career counselor
• Complete self assessment exercises provided in many popular career guidebooks
• Ask people to know you well what they think your interests, strengths, and values are
• Think about what made you happy and what you did particularly well in past jobs, internships, volunteer experiences or class projects
• To assess skills, try to remember looking back through past performance reviews to see what your past or current supervisors and peers have commended you for.
• Simply make a list of top ten things you like, do well, and consider to be important.

How to Assess Work Progress

• Do I have greater scope of responsibility?
• Do I have brighter boss and more intelligent colleagues?
• Do I spend less hour for similar work I did last year?
• Do I get wider knowledge and skills?
• Do I dare to say more NO to my superior?
• Do I receive more salary and benefits rather than I did last year?
• Do I have new colleagues, new challenges, new expectations and new ways of dealing with such unpredictable problems?
• Do I encounter more surprising events in the last six month?
• Do I tend to work or smarter lately?
• Do I add more to the list of business travelling at home and overseas?
• Do I get more clients and receive more complaints in a more complicated manner?
• Do I exercise more influence and have more impact on what I am doing to more people?

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HUMAN RESOURCE

60 to 80 percent of organization’s success depends on the following factors:
(1) Clear direction (2) The right players (3) Sound financial standing.

Tips on How to avoid recruiting new employees

• Those who are accompanied by 
  (a) his/her maid (b) lawyers (c) bodyguard (d) bear doll and (e) his/her mother.
• Those who are boasting themselves upon the last bad-manner superiors
• Those who show more than 5 pages curriculum vitae
• Those who speak faster than the advertisement of Federal Express
• Those who often speak improper foreign languages
• Those who cannot say : NO
• Those who try to impress you with dirty joke

5 Principles on How to Recruit the Best Team

1. The smaller the organization, the more significant the recruitment process
2. List the 20 characteristics of person you need (1) positive attitude (2) energetic (3) personal pride (4) integrity (5) commitment (6) personal image (7) tough (8) leadership (9) capacity to be a subordinate (10) free from personal problem (11) empathy (12) have a sense of humor (13) persistent (14) track record (15) ambitious (16) self discipline (17) creative (18) flexible (19) holistic (20) intuition
3. Have the knowledge of person needed:

Frontliner vs Follower? Generalist vs Specialist? Producer vs Caretaker? Human Resource vs Administrative management? Leader vs Supporter? Veteran vs Early Beginner? Creative Thinker vs Dreamer? With or Without intensive supervision? Team vs Individual player? Short vs Long term employment?

4. Know what each of prospective members of the team needs
5. Should you unable to employ the best personnel, employ the youngest whom you think can be the best

(Source: John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader within You)

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SELF DEVELOPMENT

10 Priorities of Personal Organization

1. Establish your top priorities > no wise man wastes his time unnecessarily
2. Write down the priorities in your calendar > make a list of priority on paper, revise it
3. Be ready for unexpected incidents > the more we interact, the longer time we need
4. Do the project one after another > avoid overload work
5. Organize your working environment > set up creative and administrative room
6. Do the work according to your personal mood > are you an early riser? Make sure everything in the morning
7. Find easy access to light job and self development > relax is important
8. Develop your system > set up the infrastructure : computer, staff etc.
9. Allocate time effectively > make a list of everything you will have to do
10. Be result, not action oriented > no matter how you work, smarter work will result better than hard work
    • Try best to work effectively on your 80% allocated time
    • Try best to have self study on you 15% allocated time
    • Just spend 5% of your time on things when you are not in the mood.

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LEADERSHIP

Development and human resource empowerment are the two challenges of today’s leadership. There are some methods on how to assess the success of a leader

• You can predict a leader’s intelligence by looking at the people around him. This is not a matter of IQ, but he believes that a growing successful leader will improve personally and organizationally by exercising his/her influence towards more people and develop more variety of his team. (Niccolo Machievelli)

A good leader will avoid these seven deadly sins:

1. Trying best to be popular, rather than to be respected
2. Ignoring internal advice and assistance of team
3. Developing personal characteristics by stressing rule and regulations, not competence
4. Avoiding criticism even if it is constructive
5. Applying top down management style
6. Treating each personnel equally
7. Controlling information as to his people’s interest.

• A good leader will employ the best staff. The ‘eagles’ do not flock together. He has to find them one by one. He cannot make a strong team with weak personnel.

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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Entrepreneur are risk takers. They have a strong desire to be their own boss rather than work for someone else. These hard-working individuals first make a business plan and then form an organization to achieve the objective. Some entrepreneurs set up new companies or business while others revitalizing existing ones.

Just in case you lost your present job, the following questions will add to your confidence for being an entrepreneur. Answer Yes or No. After you finish, look at the scoring key at the bottom of the page. Assign a score to each question and then add up your points to see if you are a real entrepreneurial!

1. Does money motivate you?
2. Are you a risk taker?
3. Do you get disappointed and discouraged easily?
4. Is status important to you?
5. Are you attracted by challenges?
6. Would you like to have your income limited only by your abilities and energies?
7. Do you mind working extremely long and irregular hours?
8. Would you like to answer only to yourself?
9. Are you creative and innovative?
10. Is the financial security that corporate employment provides is very important to you?
11. Do you always set goals in your life and strive to accomplish them?
12. Are corporate benefits, such as paid vacations, sick leave, insurance benefits and regular paycheck very important to you?
13. Are you considered persuasive and influential in your dealings and relationship with others?
14. Do you have a strong need to direct or a need to do everything yourself?
15. Is emotional satisfaction in your work life extremely important to you?