THE WINNERS CODE

GEORGE CHINGARADE | Monday April 28, 2008 00:00

A few years ago, who would have dreamt of a day in which the front runner in the US presidential elections would not be a white male but a black American and a white woman? Who would have foreseen a day on the commodities market in which the price of rice would be higher than the price of gold? In the world of ATP tennis, who would have predicted an Australian final featuring neither Federer nor Nadal? What about an FA cup final without all the four major powerhouses in English football?

This seems to be the season of the underdog who dares to challenge for honors. In sports, politics, and business and in fact in every field of human endeavor these are times in which a genius would wish to live. This is the age of competition, uncertainty, surprises and turbulence. What does it take to enjoy enduring success in such a season? This is our focus in this issue.

A few centuries ago, an ancient writer widely believed to be king Solomon wrote, 'Wisdom is the principal thing. In all you are getting; get wisdom and get understanding.' These words have never been more relevant than they are in this age. More often than not winners know and do things, which losers neither know nor do. Put differently they acquire some wisdom that the losers neglect to acquire. This wisdom, or to put it more correctly, this insight is the winner's edge. It is the difference maker and the source of competitive advantage.

It is so important that I will be so presumptuous as to say that every organization that is serious about success should have a C.I.O. Every person serious about making it big in this age should himself become a C.I.O. By that I simply mean a Chief Insight Officer. In the age of turbulence and uncertainty one should not be taken by surprise. The cruel net of turbulence and uncertainty always entraps those without insight. This begs the question; what is insight and how can one acquire it?

Insight is the unfair advantage among people that are equals. It is what separates winners from losers, and the simple from the wise. By definition insight is the ability to perceive the hidden and true nature of things. It is important to note that there is the superficial nature of things, and the deeper, profound and sometimes hidden true nature of things. Things are not always what they seem to be on the surface. What shapes the world is not the superficial, but the hidden nature.

Becoming insightful is an imperative to everyone who desires to be successful in this age. Becoming insightful is also a process. The first stage in this process is scanning the environment. The truth is that there is nothing like a perfect surprise or a true secret. Before anything happens there are always some people that are in the know. Before Buffet overtook Gates as the richest man there were some people who had already seen it coming. Before the food price inflation hit the world, and before the energy crisis hit southern Africa some economists had already issued warnings. Scientists tell us that before the devastating Asian tsunami a few years ago there was enough evidence to predict one.

This is true about almost everything. The Africans have a proverb which when translated means a tree does not just fall in any direction, but it falls in the direction towards which it is leaning. In politics no one comes to defeat by surprise. In business no one comes to loss and the poverty by the hand of fate and similarly in every aspect of human effort no one comes to prominence by fluke. The first step in becoming insightful is to gather information. In turbulent times winners are those that carry a notebook with them always. They read newspapers, magazine headlines, company reports, books and everything that is readable and not profane. They listen to conversations between people near them. Every waking minute they are busy acquiring information. They do not limit this to their areas of expertise because this is the mistake that most educated people do. At this stage they do not judge the information, they simply note it down in the notebook. The first stage is therefore a thorough and continuous scanning of the environment. In a fast paced world the situations are always fluid and allegiances shift very fast. Without scanning the environment.

The second stage in the process is to ponder on the information. At the end of everyday a winner must never go to bed without pondering on the entries in his journal. The purpose of pondering is to make sense out of the information. It is to glean understanding and insights from the information. For example a journal entry that records that people were saying that things were getting difficult and times are hard is dissected from every angle in order to decipher what really is happening. Some information such as figures and analyses readily yield insights but some other information needs to be subjected to rigorous treatment before meaning can be deciphered.

The third stage is to convert the information into an opportunity. There is an opportunity in every bit of information. A catastrophe is an opportunity to provide counseling services; a funeral is an opportunity for the undertakers; a football match is an opportunity for the vendors and every piece of information and every encounter is an opportunity to the insightful. Most opportunities are hidden in information. Finally, winners draw up an action plans based on the information they acquire and act on those action plans.

This week scan the environment, make sense out of what is happening and seize on the opportunities presented thereby. You need not be taken by surprises when the signals are abundantly clear.
winningmantra@yahoo.com