SPRING 2010

NEWPERSPECTIVEGUY LALIBERTÉ ON CIRQUE DU SOLEIL

ON WHAT REALLY MATTERS

KEEPING PERSPECTIVE

IDEASFOR GAININGAND KEEPINGPERSPECTIVE

Now in Urdu - see page 13!

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PrinciPle oF SucceSS

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gain and keep perspective

time and Perspective

Helping teams keep perspective

guy laliberté: creates a new perspective at cirque du Soleil

Knowing what really matters

meet anis Hamdan

Bahrain: Kingdom of two Seas

Welcome to our third issue of Gold, Abudawood Group’s learning Magazine. In this issue we look at the concept of gaining and keeping perspective.

“Go for Gold!” is not just a tagline we have adopted. We aspire and strive to perform at a Gold level all the time. To perform at this world-class level, we all need to know our company’s perspective – our ‘big picture’ – and share in it; personal and company perspectives need to be aligned and kept that way. Imagine what we can achieve when we see things and focus all our actions from the same vantage point!

often, truly visionary organizations and individuals create their own success by having the drive and courage to invent new ways to see things or by designing new things to see. This requires the ability to change perspective through innovation. As much of success is driven by growing, sharing and maintaining perspective, let’s continue to learn and coach each other to gain, maintain, focus and align perspective.

our corporate and individual success is assured when our perspectives are aligned and focused. let’s maintain perspective and focus — and coach others to do the same — as we continue to learn how to succeed. It’s the Abudawood way!

Samir Ishak Vice-President operationsAbudawood Group

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Gold Magazine is part of The Abudawood Way and is published exclusively for Abudawood Group and its employees by execugo!media. Contents copyright © 2010 execugo!media may not be reprinted without prior permission.

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PrinciPle oF SucceSS

gain and Keep PerspectiveIn companies like ours where the focus is on achieving results, it’s easy to get so caught up in execution that we lose sight of the big picture. Within results-oriented organizations, the most highly valued individuals are those who consistently demonstrate an ability to acquire and keep perspective while producing results over the long and short terms. Individuals who are able to do this while keeping personal priorities in perspective add even more value to an organization.

What does it mean?Gaining perspective means finding and, in some cases, defining the bigger purpose of our endeavors. Keeping perspective is an

ongoing process of choosing the best immediate actions that bring us closer to turning that bigger purpose into reality.

Professionally, this bigger picture is usually defined for us and we agree to achieve it by taking on specific roles within an organization. Personally, the bigger picture is for us to create and is based on our own individual goals and relationships. Personal goals and experiences that stretch our world view keep us balanced and make us more valuable within an organization.

Why is it important?Our very existence is based on choosing to be aware of, and working to realize, the bigger purpose behind what we do. Making our lives meaningful includes doing meaningful work. Choosing to remain mindful of the larger perspective in our work, and not viewing our jobs as external to our “real” lives, provides us with many new and interesting life experiences.

For most of us, personal relationships take priority in our big-picture perspectives. These relationships motivate us to achieve our highest potential. They energize us, hold us accountable, and keep us honest by reminding us of who we are and what we value.

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How do we know if we are losing perspective?Gaining perspective is a lifelong pursuit — not an event and there are many warning signs to indicate when we may be losing perspective.

For example, we may become so busy paying attention to details that we lose sight of what really matters or we may experience decreased productivity as the urgency to keep up with timelines and tasks becomes overwhelming. Feeling constantly stressed is a likely indicator that we are losing perspective and that we may not be doing our job well — certainly not as well as we could. At times like these, we need to re-evaluate and realign with our priorities — either personally or professionally.

How do we coach perspective?Learning how and coaching others to keep perspective keeps our organization strong. Perspective can be coached through:

Setbacks: Learning how and coaching others to take lessons from setbacks is important. After any setback, make a habit of asking questions such as: What do I have to offer? What is my inherent value? What has this experience taught me? In answering such questions we and our teams learn to keep perspective by leveraging strengths, improving weaknesses, and gaining support from others who can teach us new things.

Limitations and Uncertainty: Learning how and coaching to admit limitations demonstrates honesty, confidence and strength of character and helps ensure our teams include expertise in areas we may otherwise lack. Being comfortable with not knowing everything is okay as long as we learn how and coach others to ask for help. When asking for help, getting as much information as possible grows our confidence to face uncertainty head on and grows our ability to choose a path forward based on best judgement.

Behaviors: Actions and mindset affect our outlook, relationships and private lives. Learn how and coach to always stay focused on solutions and to keep in mind the bigger picture of what needs to be accomplished. Simple things like: never blaming poor performance on others; never yelling at colleagues or team members, never putting negative feelings in letters or emails and never making impulsive decisions to give up or quit are all behaviors for coping with everyday frustrations and excessive pressures. Instead of doing something impulsive that could damage a career long-term, practice and coach keeping perspective by leaving the situation to rethink and revisit it when things have calmed down.

Practicing and coaching others to gain and keep perspective is one way to increase our value and opportunities in both our personal and professional lives.

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FocuS on coacHing

It all starts with core values. Ask your people to write down what they see as their own basic personal values. To get started, they may find it useful to think about messages they received from their family in their formative years, such as the values their parents encouraged, the commonly held values of their society and religion, where they currently direct their attention and energy, the values of people who inspire them, or the actions of others that make them angry.

Next, ask them to review their current commitments, which demand their time and energy. They should list all their commitments, being careful not to underestimate the actual number of people and activities they are already committed to or the time that each commitment requires. They need to consider how appropriate the commitments are in view of their core values and available time.

Have your team members consider their current priorities for their lives: business, key relationships, community, self-improvement and long-term goals. If long-term goals are difficult to identify, ask your team to imagine their future five, 10 and 20 years from now. Everything has gone perfectly. What does their life look like?

Finally, have your team check the alignment of their day-to-day lives with the values, commitments, priorities and long-term goals they have identified, making note of where these do not match up. Then, instead of promising massive life changes (which usually leads to disappointment), ask them to commit to small changes that are well within their abilities and resources to accomplish. Small steps demonstrate that our priorities and actions are coming into alignment.

coacHing for perSpectiveCoaches need to make sure team members keep a clear view of their own and the company’s long-term goals.

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goals

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alignmentIn Executive Stamina, executive coach Marty Seldman and his son Joshua, a fitness coach, offer advice on optimizing time, energy and productivity to achieve peak performance. Use their ideas for coaching to keep perspective on one of themost important things we have - our own lives!

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COVER STORY

Creating a new perspective at Cirque du Soleil

Guy Laliberté

uy Laliberté didn’t run away as a youngster to join the circus. But he did quit college to tour Europe as a folk musician and busker, entertaining passersby on

the streets. And that experience led him to a circus of his own making: the globally renowned Cirque du Soleil.

Laliberté learned the art of fire-breathing from fellow buskers, and on

his return home to Canada, he learned how to prance on stilts when he joined the troupe Les Échassiers de Baie-Saint-Paul, led by Gilles Ste-Croix. With Ste-Croix and future business partner Daniel Gauthier, Laliberté organized a summer fair in 1982, a cultural event in which street performers from all over met to exchange ideas and enliven the streets of the small town of Baie-Saint-Paul for a few days.

In 1984, Quebec City was celebrating the 450th anniversary of Canada’s discovery by Jacques Cartier, and needed a show that would carry the festivities out across the rest of Quebec. Laliberté presented a proposal for a show called Cirque du Soleil — Circus of the Sun — which drew the organizers’ support.

Seventy-three people worked for that Cirque spectacular. Today, the

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business employs more than 4,000 people from over 40 countries, including more than 1,000 artists in the 19 shows it is presenting simultaneously around the world. And Laliberté even took his circus outside this world — or at least off the planet — when he rode a Russian rocket into orbit and, wearing a clown nose, joined the scientists on the International Space Station as a tourist in October 2009. From there, he orchestrated a 14-city, five-continent extravaganza featuring former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore and musicians like U2, Shakira and Peter Gabriel in an attempt to focus the world’s attention on the issue of water conservation.

Until Laliberté came up with Cirque, the North American notion of a circus was static. It had elephants and trapeze artists, with constant action in three rings under a tent. Laliberté brought a dramatically new perspective with dazzling artists and his mission to invoke the imagination, provoke the senses and evoke the emotions of people around the world.

Innovation and reinventionHe is an example of what W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, in their book Blue Ocean Strategy, call value innovation.

“It did not win by taking customers from the already shrinking circus industry, which historically catered to children,” they note. “Cirque du Soleil does not compete with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey. Instead, it created uncontested new market space that made the competition irrelevant. It appealed to a whole new group of customers: adults and corporate clients prepared to pay a price several times as great as traditional circuses for an unprecedented entertainment experience. Significantly, one of the first Cirque productions was entitled, We Reinvent the Circus.” In other words, Laliberté brought a new perspective to an old business, and created something exceptional as a result.

To gain this kind of new perspective, the authors say you need to ask four questions:Eliminate: Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?Reduce: Which factors could be reduced well below the industry standard, without consumers minding?Raise: Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard? Create: Which new factors should be developed that the industry has never offered?

Laliberté eliminated several factors from traditional circuses, including expensive circus star performers, costly and controversial animal shows, aisle concessions, and the three-ring format, which the public found frustrating and required a lot of performers to keep all the rings active.

He reduced the fun and humour, and the thrills and dangers that used to excite traditional circus fans. He raised the level of circuses by moving out of a canvas tent to unique

entertainment venues, sometimes halls custom-built for the production.

Finally, he created several new elements for a circus, including a theme for each presentation, a story line with intellectual richness. Although the theme is intentionally vague, it brings harmony and an intellectual element to the show. The shows feature abstract and spiritual dance, as in theater.

Cirque provides a refined environment, with a higher level of comfort than the traditional circus. Laliberté offers multiple productions, allowing fans to come back again and again for different shows rather than the same show.

Laliberté’s new perspective differentiated him from traditional circuses and also allowed for lower costs, although obviously today’s splashy performances are anything but inexpensive.

“Is Cirque Du Soleil then, really a circus, with all that it

eliminated, reduced, raised and created? Or is it theater? And if it is theater, then what genre — a Broadway show, an opera or ballet? It is not clear. Cirque du Soleil reconstructed elements across these alternatives, and, in the end, it is simultaneously a little of all of them and none of them in their entirety,” Kim and Mauborgne write.

Indeed, as they note, there is no agreed-on industry name for what Laliberté created. And that, of course, helps in defending Cirque from competitors.

Laliberté’s new perspective came out of his background — who he was and what he had been learning as a street performer. He didn’t sit down and consciously ask, what should be eliminated, reduced, raised and created? But he conformed to that model, unknowingly.

In creating a new perspective in our own work, we also need to reach within ourselves and our own training, and imagine new possibilities. We can also try the Blue Ocean model of eliminate, reduce, raise and create. Who knows? It might unleash an imaginative new offering that, like Cirque du Soleil, will take the world by surprise.

Laliberté took his circus outside this world when in 2009, as a tourist, he rode a Russian rocket into orbit to join scientists on the International Space Station.

Opposite Page: Cast of Cirque du Soleil; Performing OVO and "O"

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tiMeperSpective

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Being stuck in the past – or always daydreaming about the future without taking action to achieve it – makes us ineffective at work. That’s why it’s helpful to understand our time perspectives or how much of our psyche is devoted to six different mind-states delineated by psychologists Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd.  

Zimbardo and Boyd believe the six time-mind perspectives are:

The Past Positive: This involves our positive feelings about the past, which influences our present thoughts and behavior. The Past Negative: This expresses the extent to which we remember events in a negative way, whether they were actually negative or not. The Present Hedonistic: If we don’t wear a watch, spend more than we earn, and are always ready to party, we are probably immersed in this time perspective, seeking immediate gratification. Present Fatalistic: This detects how much we believe our lives are controlled by forces we cannot influence. This outlook may produce a learned helplessness, with resigna-tion and cynicism overwhelming hopefulness and optimism. Future Time: Here we’re willing to sacrifice immediate gratification for future rewards. People who are high in this perspective tend to be conscientious, consistent and concerned about future consequences. Transcendental-Future: This perspective tests the extent to which beliefs about the goals, rewards and punishments that await us after we die affect our present behavior. It is higher in religious and spiritual people, par-ticularly those who believe in life after death.

To determine which time perspective best matches your outlook visit www.thetimeparadox.com and take the test.

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ears ago, James M. Kilts’ mother answered the telephone and told him it was for him and he was in big trouble. “It’s the foreman at the plant. There are no

more cartons. They’re shutting down the line. I think you’re going to be fired!” she declared.

At the time, he held an entry-level position at the General Foods Kool-Aid plant in Chicago, trying to put himself through graduate business school at the University of Chicago. He was responsible for ordering supplies and simply forgot to order cartons for one of the beverage lines. He scrambled to fix the problem. He called the salesman from the box company at home that evening and pleaded for cartons. That same night, he helped to load a truck, brought the cartons to the plant and managed to keep his job.

The lesson stayed with Kilts as he rose through the ranks to become CEO of Nabisco, Kraft and ultimately Gillette: to be successful in business, you must focus on what really matters and ignore what doesn’t matter.

In his first job, cartons mattered. As a CEO, it was bigger strategic issues, like budgets and the fate of Gillette’s Duracell batteries, that were really

important. For us it will be something else, depending on our current role. But in every job, we must know what really matters — what leads to success — and act decisively.

How do you know what really matters? Throughout his career, Kilts routinely fell back on what he calls the fast-track quick screen elimination process. It helped him work though conflicting opinions that generally accompany important problems by answering a few critical questions that allowed him to eliminate most, if not all, other options.

Putting Duracellin perspectiveIn his book What Really Matters, written with John Manfredi and Richard Lorber, Kilts gives as an example his early days at the helm of Gillette in 2001, when he was the first outside CEO in 70 years, taking over a struggling company where it was important to gain and keep perspective on the larger-priority issues, notably what to do with the fabled Duracell battery.

It was a $2-billion business that Gillette had spent around $8 billion to purchase just four years earlier, and post-acquisition performance had been miserable. Duracell had slid from one

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of the best-performing brands in the consumer products sector to a basket case, its market share had slipped by almost 15%.

One option was to divest Duracell, as many analysts were suggesting. But that would mean Duracell had to be worth more to someone else than to Gillette. And that wasn’t the case. Other companies didn’t want to jump into the irrational battery market, and

Gillette’s price-earnings ratio — the price investors will pay for a stock, measured as a multiple of its net earnings — was higher than theoretical buyers’, so Duracell was worth more to Gillette. By quickly thinking through the possibilities, Kilts could eliminate this option.

What about slashing the prices on Duracell, and marketing it as just any other battery? When Kilts had overseen Kraft Singles cheese slices, that product had carried, on average, a 25% price premium over private-label products. Duracell batteries seemed analogous — a brand that consumers saw as preferable to private-label batteries. “So why give up on Duracell, a branded product with great equity and an impeccable 20-year record of high growth and profitability, simply because it had stumbled for the last three years? Again, the quick screen took us to the right answer without having to slog through a swamp of detail,” he says, while adding of course that his team eventually did a major study, but at least initially they knew they had to support the brand.

The quick screen approach does not eliminate all options. A variant of the 80-20 rule applies: you almost always can screen out 80% of the choices, which means that what matters is the remaining 20%. In effect, something that in this case seemed larger than life when Kilts became Gillette’s CEO — at least seven complicated options to consider — was scaled down to manageable proportions.

Finding your own perspectiveIn using the quick screen method to determine what really matters and gain a true perspective, we inevitably must weigh our own experience in making a decision. Our assessment must be well thought through and fact-based. We can’t rely on intuition alone. At the same time, we can’t let what are supposed to be facts or solid judgments — but really are nothing more than industry legends — overwhelm our experience and common sense.

That happened to Kilts after Gillette’s Mach 3 Cool Blue razor increased sales of the Mach 3 line by a remarkable 15%, even though it was little more than the typical Mach 3 razor in a blue color. In a planning meeting on new products, he suggested repeating that approach, this time with a red razor. The reaction was outrage: didn’t he know that red was the color of blood? Anything suggesting blood, he was informed, would not only flop but also probably hurt the entire Mach 3 line.

He dropped the subject, unconvinced, but raised it again a year later when Schick trumped the Mach 3 line with a four-bladed cartridge called Schick Quattro. With Gillette’s next product breakthrough 15 months away, he asked his team to test a red razor. The results were staggering: marketed as the Mach 3 Turbo Champion, it became the most successful new product extension ever introduced at Gillette and stopped Quattro in its tracks.

Kilts routinely used the fast-track, quick screen elimination

process to help him eliminate options and work though

important problems.

"In the end, how you get to the heart of what matterswill define you as a leader." - James Kilts

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emPloYee ProFile

Abudawood Group’s joint venture with Mohammed Ebrahim Al Saffar (MES) in Bahrain has seen strong growth since February 2006, and is now one of the Kingdom’s foremost distributors of fast-moving consumer packaged goods. The joint venture, known as Abudawood Al Saffar Company (ASC), has developed into one of the strongest sales and distribution partners in Bahrain. Its diverse product portfolio includes more than 30 world-class brands from principals such as Procter & Gamble, Clorox International, Quaker, Doetsch Grether and Burnus. It is in Bahrain that GOLD Magazine catches up with ASC Operations Manager, Anis Hamdan. GM: Hi Anis! Please tell us a little about yourself.AH: I was born in Beirut, Lebanon. I am married and have two sons—Zouheir (3) and Zeid (2). One of the

A Man of Convictionanis Hamdan

joys of my life is spending time with them. Life tends to take a different perspective when I am with them. I also enjoy watching movies and reading works of fiction. GM: How did you come to join Abudawood?AH: After graduating from university, I went to Riyadh to visit my parents and there I heard about Abudawood as a company and its market status from a friend of the family, who is one of the company’s main customers. I applied for a job and, after an exam and four interviews, I was offered the position of a sales section manager based in Riyadh. GM: In this issue or GOLD we talk about the importance of perspective. How do you think perspective relates to achieving goals?AH: Perspective is the road that guides my actions to ensure I achieve the goals and objectives that I have

set. It highlights the relationship of the different aspects required and their importance to one another with regard to achieving goals. GM: How important do you think perspective is to an individual’s success? AH: I believe that it is crucial for an individual, as it acts as a measure for his success—personally and professionally. Perspective dictates an individual’s behavior, current and future actions and is a means of self-criticism and evaluation. GM: In your opinion, what are some indicators someone has lost his sense of perspective? AH: Clear signs are when an individual is de-motivated, stuck with his day-to-day job details, and simply wants one task to finish and to start another. There is no clear direction on where the individual is heading. GM: What advice would you give on the best way to coach others to gain and keep perspective? AH: There is no single method to coach people on developing perspective. On a formal functional level, there are courses to help one develop the ability to identify, set and manage big priorities such as “Setting Goals and Objectives,” “Priority Setting,” and “Time Management.” On the ground, a manager should ensure that, via regular revisions of action plans, his subordinates are always made aware of the big picture and what it takes to achieve it. GM: What would you like others to know about you?AH: Family comes first for me. I never accept things from other people that I would not accept from myself. I believe success is a journey and not a destination. And I believe belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction.

Name: anis hamdanRole: operations managerlocation: bahrainYears with Abudawod: 12Favorite Author: Khaled hosseini

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Should you have an opportunity to visit Bahrain here, in his own words, are some of the sites and activities Anis recommends you see and experience.The Kingdom of Bahrain is the smallest nation within the GCC yet there are numerous things to do and see here.

Bahrain is well known for its Formula 1 race which happens every April. This is a major event that attracts people from all over the GCC and Middle East.

On the cultural side, museums are popular with the most-visited being the Pearl, the Oil and the National Museums.

Fun is in abundance in Bahrain and there are numerous places to go to like the “Lost City of Delmun” – the largest water park in the GCC; the famous City Center Mall – the largest city center themed mall in the GCC. There are also a variety of high-end restaurants and clubs.

Bahrain is also known for its high quality jewelry –– mainly pearls and gold – which is available from a number of stores within the Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Bahrain is known as the Pearl of the Gulf. The name means “two seas,” and refers to the freshwater springs found within the saltwater seas. An archipelago, it consists of 33 islands and has an area of 665 square kilometers. Its four largest islands are Bahrain Island, Muraraq Island, Umm an Nasam and Sitrah.

As a constitutional monarchy, Bahrain is ruled by the Al Khalifa royal family and has a population of about 791,000 people. Its economy is one of the fastest growing and freest in the region. The capital of Bahrain is Manama.

Several causeways connect the country’s islands. The King Fahd Causeway connects Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, and the Qatar-Bahrain Friendship Bridge will connect Bahrain to Qatar. Bahrain International Airport is located on Muharraq Island, and serves as a major airport hub.

Bahrain: Kingdom of two Seas

anis Hamdan’s Bahrain

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