What Is Strategic Thinking?

Strategic thinking is a way of thinking strategically, Duh! ;) Strategic thinking focuses on IDENTIFYING opportunities in developing their organization into a better one. The problem with student leaders is because they are not thought to develop their thinking process, making their mind sharper. Their always been taught to DO stuff (just do projects, no thinking) and TALK stuff (be like politicians, "Salam Muhibah, Salam itu, Salam ini")

A good thinking process to start thinking strategically is to think according to these Elements:

• Competencies and Skills
• Products and Offerings
• Environment and Industry
• Markets and Customers
• Competitors and Substitutes

Obviously, there some of the elements that cannot be applied in the student leadership context but we can modify it.

Competencies and Skills: In other words, your members. What are your members are capable of doing. Every club desires do a fancy and big projects but they always forget to consider the capability of their organizing committee.

Products and Offerings: In this case, the club's activities. A Karate club would offer Karate Classes right? What does your club want to offer?

Environment and Industry: This I won't say much, but maybe you can consider the economical and political surrounding. It might affect your club.

Markets and Customers: This is much more important. Your customers are the students who might want to join your club. Do you really know what they want? Entrepreneurship Club! Are you sure your members want to open stall and sell dadih or they want to learn about personal finance and investing?

Competitors and Substitutes: Do I need to explain this?

Ask questions pertaining to these 5 elements so you can see the opportunities and threats that exist. Create plans to overcome. Bottom line, Strategic thinking is about solving problems before it happens. Something a lot of student leaders don't have, the ability to solve problem and the ability of foresight.

Be.You.

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Cone Pizza

Got this new outlet near my house which sells cone pizza. Yes, pizza in the shape of a cone like an ice cream. The restaurant is called:

A few pics from it's website and some from my camera. Sorry la bad quality pics, I just wanted to share this new kind of food.




The set above includes the cone pizza, mushroom soup, Pepsi and garlic bread costs about RM14.90

I like it. Had it once a week for the previous 2 weeks.

If you're around Selayang, call me and I show you the place. It's at Selayang Mall actually, just google map it. You can find more info at their website here.

Be.You.

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What is Strategy?

Previously, I have shared why student representative councils lack strategic thinking skills. Hope you didn't feel offended but please thoroughly consider my points. Anyway, today I want to share about strategy and its context in student organizations.

When you guys see a football match or a chess game you would see some people take the defensive game plan, and others would be very aggressive in trying to score goals and etc. That is strategy.
Strategy concerns more with 'why'. It concerns with making the smaller action steps come together to help you achieve with your ultimate goal. For example, a football team would take an aggressive strategy when the opponents defences seems tired or weakened.

Strategy differs from tactics, tactics is action steps. It concerns with how and what you do. A football team with an aggressive attacking strategy would change their positions with more players becoming strikers and etc.

"a strategy is the pattern or plan that integrates an organization's major goals, policies, and action sequences into a cohesive whole." As James Brian Quinn indicated in The Strategy Process: Concepts and Contexts,

If you don't have a strategy, you will waste your resources on things that don't really help you on achieving your ultimate goal.

If your strategy does not help you in:

• planning effectively
• helps you allocate resources (man power) wisely

...then that strategy of yours is useless.

Strategy is long term. When I say long term I mean 3 to 5 Years. That's why I have problem believing the competency of the MPP when they have a new vision and mission every year. That's why they have no progress. They change their goal, when their supposed to be building on the foundation of their seniors.

For other student leaders, strategy at its best details 3 - 5years of the club's future direction. Any less than that is just normal planning which doesn't make you special. I even doubt the ability of student councils to plan a year ahead. I know of many student councils that use funds to go holiday at a resort to think of a 'strategy'. Yeah, right...

Thinking long term is an important factor in becoming a leader. Imagine what would happen if our previous Prime Ministers didn't think of investing in the citizen's education, setting up long term policies, creating business through GLCs and etc. What would Malaysia be without PETRONAS, Proton, and FELDA? You might complain stuff, but without them how would Malaysia's economy be like? Leaders for tomorrow have a big responsibility. We are those leaders.

Be.You.

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Seeds of Success: Why what people want is not what they REALLY want?

A lot of people say they know what they want, but actually they do not. Only way a drastic event would lead them to make a drastic realization that life is too precious to spend on trivial things. Below are why they get it wrong.


Strong Consumerism Sentiments

Have you heard of the term 'retail therapy'? Have you seen MLM commercial with a guy posing next to a Mercedes? Today, society puts so much pressure on us to have branded clothes, expensive cars and fancy hangout places (star bucks). All of these are things we don't need. But they have shaped our lifestyle. These are all done through advertising to convince you that you 'need' these products. But is that important to you? Is there nothing more important?

Peer Pressure

When you buy a new fancy phone, what would you do afterwards? A lot of you show it to your friends. Once you finish showing off to all your friends, you get bored with it. And then your friend goes buy a better hand phone, and shows off too. So, what is the point of all this.

"Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about."-anon


What you REALLY want is not what others want, and because of that the journey would be different. If your friend's life involves showing off his new hand phone, does that mean you have to do the same?

They don’t know why they want and never stop to know it

I explained this in an earlier article here. But basically it's just that these people never really take the initiative to invest some time to think about what they really want in their life. If they do not do so, then, their life would control them, and not they themselves who are controlling life.


Above is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This is taught in basic management lectures, but almost all do not understand its significance. Let me put all the three points into the Maslow’s hierarchy context.

Peer Pressure: Belonging And Love Needs - You want to be accepted by your group of friends. Don't worry, real friends won't care what hand phone you have.

Consumerism: Esteem Needs - Buying a Gucci bag does not make you a better person. You're image or reputation is not necessarily better nor do people really care. If you really achieved something, it speaks for itself.

Observe the top most section of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Self-actualization: Personal Growth and Fulfillment. That is the answer. We just need to focus our time and efforts in developing ourselves. Don’t care about having no friends. I’m sure you will find great people as your friends, on your journey on self-improvement. You don’t need to care about recognition, getting ‘apex university’ title or a ‘datukship’, just focus on growing.

Anyway, I’m sure you get titles and recognition along the way (My father's friend threw it away because he says it makes him feel old, do we really need it?). This is the noblest cause. This is what I mean as ‘Doing Things for right reasons’ not money, not status, not shallow friends but the lifelong pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.

Be.You.

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Vlog Pertamaku!

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