South Korea's mysterious Leadership strategy

A few months ago I was asked to speak at the European Regional Economic Forum (EREF) in Slovenia on the topic of Education and the Lisbon Agenda. When preparing for the speech I was surprised to see how many times South Korea came up in all sorts of education rankings. Most recently, in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment South Korea came first in Reading and Problem Solving. When it comes to financing universities in % of GDP, South Korea scored 2,3 % in 2004 (2,03 % going to education and 0,27 % going to research). This was second after the US!!! (US scored 2,9%: 2,03 % for education and 0,87 % for research). Belgium scored a mediocre 1,2 % (0,8% for education and 0,4% for research).

Today South Korea is third in the ranking of the Olympic medals! This could change over the next couple of days, but fact is, after nearly a week of Olympics, South Korea scores a surprising third place after China and the US.

What is the secret here? What is going on in South Korea that brings this country to top positions in education and sport ? Is the answer hidden in the question ? Is their dominance in education also responsible for their dominance in sports ?

A centralized administration in South Korea oversees the process for the education of children from kindergarten to third grade high school. Mathematics, science, Korean, social studies, and English are generally considered to be the most important subjects and are considered compulsory. South Korea was the first country in the world to provide high-speed internet access to every primary, junior, and high school. South Korea's national IQ is estimated at 106, the second highest in the world after Hong Kong. Education in South Korea is regarded crucial to success and competition is consequently very heated and fierce.

If you have more answers, do not hesitate to contact me.

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership

The Law of the Lid - Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness
The Law of Influence - The True Measure of Leadership Is Influence– Nothing More, Nothing Less
The Law of Process - Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day
The Law of Navigation - Anyone Can Steer the Ship, But It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course
The Law of E.F. Hutton - When the Real Leader Speaks, People Listen
The Law of Solid Ground - Trust Is the Foundation of Leadership
The Law of Respect - People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Then Themselves
The Law of Intuition - Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias
The Law of Magnetism - Who You Are Is Who You Attract
The Law of Connection - Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand
The Law of the Inner Circle - A Leader’s Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him
The Law of Empowerment - Only Secure Leaders Give Powers to Others
The Law of Reproduction - It Takes a Leader to Raise Up a Leader
The Law of Buy-In - People Buy Into the Leader, Then the Vision
The Law of Victory - Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win
The Law of the Big MO - Momentum Is a Leader’s Best Friend
The Law of Priorities - Leaders Understand That Activity Is Not Necessarily Accomplishment
The Law of Sacrifice - A Leader Must Give Up to Go Up
The Law of Timing - When to Lead Is As Important As What to Do and Where to Go
The Law of Explosive Growth - To Add Growth, Lead Followers–To Multiply, Lead Leaders
The Law of Legacy - A Leader’s Lasting Value Is Measured by Succession

Laws from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (John C Maxwell)

Bob Parsons 16 Rules for Success in Business and Life in General

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone.
I believe that not much happens of any significance when we're in our comfort zone. I hear people say, "But I'm concerned about security." My response to that is simple: "Security is for cadavers."

2. Never give up.
Almost nothing works the first time it's attempted. Just because what you're doing does not seem to be working, doesn't mean it won't work. It just means that it might not work the way you're doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn't have an opportunity.

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.
There's an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: "The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed."

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be.
Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of "undefined consequences." My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, "Well, Robert, if it doesn't work, they can't eat you."

5. Focus on what you want to have happen.
Remember that old saying, "As you think, so shall you be."

6. Take things a day at a time.
No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don't look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward.
Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide.
Remember what General George S. Patton said: "A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow."

9. Measure everything of significance.
I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate.
If you want to uncover problems you don't know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven't examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing.
When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around.
In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you're doing as anyone else, provided that what you're doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair.
Life isn't fair. You make your own breaks. You'll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems.
You'll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you'll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: "You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others." There's also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: "A wise man keeps his own counsel."

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There’s always a reason to smile.
Find it. After all, you're really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time, we’re here for a good time!”

Copyright © 2005-2007 Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.





Biography:
Bob Parsons is the CEO and Founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc.
Go Daddy was named the fastest-growing privately held technology company (ranked # 8 overall) on the Inc. 500 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Privately Held Companies in 2004. See for more details:

Marketing, Advertising and the Art of Collecting Contacts for WSJE in the Provence, France

My former boss at The Wall Street Journal Europe, Rick Zednik, gave me a WSJE windshield sun shade, before he moved on to a new company. I never knew we had these kind of gadgets. Since my family says I live a life without a separation between private and work time, I decided to try the WSJE sun shade on my holiday in the South of France, in an effort to teach my kids about marketing, advertising and the art of collecting contacts.

This is after I had to explain to my kids that my company car, a Fiat Multipla, plays the role of a running joke at The Wall Street Journal Europe, because it doesn't fit the Audi, VW, BMW category of company cars of my peers.

Sault, market, 30 contacts per hour for 4 hours: 120 contacts

Rousillion, lower parking, 50 contacts per hour x 3 hours: 150 contacts

Our garden, Mont Ventoux in the background, 13 contacts per hour for 1 hour: 13 contacts


Crosspoint Simiane La Rotonde, Revest du Bion, 40 contacts per hour, for 15 minutes: 10 contacts


Road to Simiane La Rotonde: 20 contacts per hour for 30 minutes: 10 contacts (but of high quality because they all thought we were picking lavander)

Simiane La Rotonde, Center, 60 contacts per hour for 1 hour: 60 contacts

Beautiful little town, please do visit.

St Christol d'Albion, sheep market, 100 contacts per hour for 2 hours: 200 contacts.

We bought 'cheese, honey and escargots'.

Apt, city parking nr 2, parked in the wrong direction to generate a lot of contacts, 15 contacts per hour for 2 hours: 30 contacts

Total: 593 contacts

From these 593 contacts at least one third was from foreigners (non-french speaking people)(let's say 200), the rest was native (ca 393).

Then I realised, by joining my family when shopping in the local supermarkets and magazine stores, that our product was no where to be found in the greater area of the Vaucluse. That is a very hard one to explain to kids.

Simiane

On holiday in the South of France, Simiane La Rotonde.
Posting on management and leadership issues will resume second week of August.

European Regional Economic Forum (EREF) elects Gert Van Mol as new member of Steering Committee

President EREF, Dr. Boris Cizelj, asked Gert Van Mol to become member of the Steering Committee behind The European Regional Economic Forum (EREF). Gert is the first non regional memer of the committee. He has been asked to join the committee as media expert.

EREF is a platform of European regions on knowledge economy and society, and has also acted as a bridge between EU Member states and countries of South-Eastern Europe supporting them in their efforts of gradual integration with the Union through discussing policies and measures aiming at implementing the Lisbon Strategy and through the presentation of good practices from European regions. EREF organizes a yearly Forum in Nova Gorica, Slovenia.

The fifth Forum in Nova Gorica in 2009 will bring together about 250 representatives of the economic, research, innovation and education spheres, as well as local and regional actors from EU regions and countries, and regions from South-Eastern and Eastern Europe.

On behalf of the EREF Network the Forum is organised by the Municipality of Nova Gorica, the Government Office for Local Self-government and Regional Policy, together with the Slovenian and Business Research Association in Brussels, under the patronage of the Committee of the Regions and sponsored by HIT Nova Gorica. Members of several European networks will actively participate in the Forum, such as: Lisbon Regions Network, NIROC, IGLO, ERRIN, RIBN, and others,

The EREF Network consists of the following 16 regions: Stockholm, Lapland-Oulu, Flanders, Wallonia, Scotland, Baden Württenberg, Styria, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardia, Emilia Romagna, Valencia, Cataluña, West Pannon, Slovenia, Croatia, Turkey.

British Library

Days as today make my job stand out. It humbles me to look back at what I could do working for The Wall Street Journal Europe, and what I probably will be able to do in the future, when at the same time a lot of my colleagues will have to leave that same company because of the restructuring in Brussels. It is difficult; it is re-living the life of the Dazed and Confused generation. My first meeting today in London took place at the British Library (picture), an idea from the person I was going to meet, the press officer of Palgrave Publishing. Palgrave has a list of outstanding publications, some of them I hope to welcome in the Thursday editions of the WSJE Future Leadership Institute Boxes. It all reminded me of the essay on libraries of Umberto Ecco, which came into our lives when my classmates and I fought historical battles with the conservative Antwerp libraries to write our school essays. His essay was like a pamphlet of Che Guevara, demanding coffee, copiers, humor, design and long opening hours from modern libraries. Actually something that looked very similar to the British Library today.

I end the day unexpectedly in a Christian Guest house, all serious hotels in the neighborhood being sold out, in the blue dining room, because that is the only spot with wireless internet access tonight. I am not alone, in the other corner, in the dark, 4 Italian girls, curled up in sofas, eating candy, drinking tea, watching The Phantom of the Opera. How much more Dazed and Confused can it get?

Bibliothèque Nationale de France - François Mitterrand

After a diner in Paris my contact takes the time for a nightly visit of the Bibliothèque nationale de France - François Mitterrand.

From what I understand the library was designed by French architect Dominique Perrault and consists of 4 towers, all 79 metres high. Every tower has been dedicated to a literary aspect; the tower of Law, the Tower of Literature, the Tower of Numbers and the Tower of Time.

Around the Library a whole new area of interest was developed, commonly called Paris Rive Gauche. At this Rive Gauge two universities found a new home: Paris VII and L'INALCO.

EU Bubble Dinner Party with Wall Street Journal Europe Networking Table

It is the first time I organized a Wall Street Journal Europe Networking Table. I invited interested readers via the daily WSJE Future Leadership Institute Box I have in the newspaper. An innocent hand picked 3 readers out of all emails I received via the daily FLI Box. The quality and level of our readers still amazes me. One can question our organization these days, but one can not question our readership. Our clients, our readers are top level. When I was heading the distribution operations for The Wall Street Journal Europe for 5 years I often wondered how our clients would look like, especially when I coincidentally received the results of a survey into the average income of our readers (240.000$/year). Today I have the opportunity to reach out to them, to speak with them, to learn from them. The power of our brand can not only be attributed to our journalists and editors but has also to be attributed to our readership.
I have decided to take the concept of a Wall Street Journal Europe Networking table into my negotiations with the conference organizers who are interested to sponsor the daily FLI Box. One of the returns I will ask is the introduction of such a networking table into their lunch or dinner schedule.
The EU Bubble Dinner Party turned out to be a classy event, a perfect setting for a Wall Street Journal Europe networking table. Organizer Patrick Stumm (picture) did a marvelous job.

NEW! Blogs by Leaders

Blogging is everywhere. And it is rising to the top of famous brands. I started a small section on "Blogs by Leaders" in the right hand margin of this Impactroom blog. Find out more about a.o. Randy Tinseth, the VP Marketing of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, or William Marriott J. Jr, the CEO of Marriott International, or the Federico Minoli, the President of Ducati as you scroll down.

Leadership Framework: BE KNOW DO Theory

BE KNOW DO

BE a professional. Examples: Be loyal to the organization, perform selfless service, take personal responsibility.
BE a professional who possess good character traits. Examples: honesty, competence, candor, commitment, integrity, courage, straightforwardness, imagination.

KNOW the four factors of leadership - follower, leader, communication, situation.
KNOW yourself. Examples: strengths and weakness of your character, knowledge, and skills.
KNOW human nature. Examples: Human needs, emotions, and how people respond to stress.
KNOW your job. Examples: be proficient and be able to train others in their tasks.
KNOW your organization. Examples: where to go for help, its climate and culture, who the unofficial leaders are.

DO provide direction. Examples: goal setting, problem solving, decision making, planning.
DO implement. Examples: communicating, coordinating, supervising, evaluating.
DO motivate. Examples: develop morale and esprit de corps in the organization, train, coach, counsel.

Wall Street Journal Europe relocates to Financial News Offices

The Wall Street Journal Europe is relocating to the premises of Financial News in London (blue building on picture). The FN office is a statement. It is the office of the challenger. Look and feel is completely different from the former WSJE Long Acre offices. I was very impressed with the salesdepartement, with its open landscape structure, with its directors seated in the middle of their teams (not in closed corner offices), with all the last quarter results individually, clearly and openly posted on a big board. I probably will learn a lot from this departement.

Working on the ferry

On the road to the new head office of The Wall Street Journal Europe in London to meet my new bosses. Since I plan to visit some universities around London, which invariably means taking along a spare stand in case our old WSJE stand has to be replaced, I will take my car to drive around. One of our salespeople suggested to try to take a ferry, Norfolkline, out of Dunkerque. Indeed a good sugesstion. Not expensive, departure every 2 hours, access to a VIP lounge with wireless internet for a small extra amount. Travel takes a bit longer than Eurotunnel but price difference is substantial and one can work during the crossing.

The Big Blue Lady and Solvay Business School

The first thing I noticed at the end of the long drive way was ‘something’ big and blue. When driving up to the ‘blue’ thing I suddenly realized it was the statue of a gigantic woman in bathing suit. It was as if I entered a parallel universe.

The reason why I seemed to be driving to a blue big woman was a complaint email I received a couple of weeks ago. A man complained about the invoice we had sent to Solvay business school, one of the leading business schools in Belgium. I called the man, something that surprised him, and he grabbed the opportunity to not only complain about the invoice but also about our roll in one of their events in the past. Apparently we hadn’t delivered what we promised. Since universities are my thing, I proposed to meet him and sort everything out.

So here I was, driving up to the office of the man who made the complaint, a man who seemed to nurture a 2 stores high big blue lady in his front yard. I parked next to the woman, she was gigantesque.
The entrance hall of the office was even more of a surprise. It was actually an art gallery. Now, in my eyes you have modern art and modern art. The first kind of modern art is the kind you completely fail to understand, the kind you think you can produce yourself if you invested a little time in it. The second kind of modern art is that art that amazes you because you see the point, but you would never be able to create it. The gallery was full of this second kind of modern art. Brilliant stuff. A M A Z I N G.

The whole building seemed empty, besides the presence of 1 woman who modestly opened the door and asked me to wait for my appointment. This was not an office, this was a sanctuary. Whatever business man was behind this building, the set up proved beyond a point that I had entered the environment of a free spirit, somebody who couldn’t care less about his name and fame, who else dares to welcome his suppliers and clients with a big fat lady? The bigger surroundings, i.e. the immense gardens, drive ways, ponds and outdoor monumental art also suggested power and wealth.
In the back of my mind a petite voice whispered I had already seen the image of the reception-turned-art-gallery, but I wasn’t able to remember correctly, was it from television, or pictures in a glossy magazine, …?

When I met my contact I quickly learned I was in the building of one of the benefactors of Solvay Business School (SBS). We talked about the past and the future, until my contact received a phone call. Instead of asking me to leave his office, he walked out. This gave me the time to look around in the broad clean office (absolutely paperless rest assured). A simple poster with 4 lines attracted the eye:

“First Say Yes.”
“Keep Things Simple.”
“Make Decissions.”
“Never Regret.”

While I silently contemplated about the 4 lines, my contact re-entered (through a door without handles). He looked at me and said “I am so glad we are still a small family. I just had Albert on the phone”. Then all the pieces of the puzzle fell together, I was in the office of the richest man in Belgium, Albert Frere (also in the Fortune 500 worldwide). And my contact turned out to be his right hand.

(sculpture of the big blue lady is from artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002))

Former F15 fighter pilot turns into publisher

Former F15 fighter pilot John Thompson is living his life in Germany, consciously growing his publishing house 'AdvantiPro'.

AdvantiPro makes newspapers for the military stationed in Germany. He found himself a well defined target audience of 150,000 American military consumers in Germany who enjoy all of his publications free-of-charge.

John will soon end a 3 month intense 'search' campaign, a campaign he designed himself to look at all ins and outs of his own business, 'searching' for all possible ways to make the business more efficient. This meant looking at cost side, but also looking at sales side and HR. He rolled up his sleeves and is actually going out in the night distributing his own newspapers with his team to check up on all exisiting processes, questioning them one by one. He told me he found numerous ways to significantly reduce logistical costs.

Because of the fact he has a lot of American customers and advertisers, all working with a weak dollar, he needed ways to boost business. He hired more sales people and asked good people already working for him a long time to adapt to a more sales oriented roll. These employees are now bringing in more and new revenue.

On the picture, John holds a new newspaperstand for one of his new pubications "The Reporter".
He publishes newspapers such as The Saber Herald, The Herald Union, The Kaiserslautern American and The Reporter, as well as the popular Find-It Guide, a yellow pages for American Military living in Germany. AdvantiPro and The Wall Street Journal Europe collaborated successfully in Jan- Feb of this year, whereby we as WSJE started tapping into the American military community in Germany through AdvantiPro's newspapers.

Networking with The Wall Street Journal Europe

Networking with The Wall Street Journal Europe ?

Win 1 out of 5 seats at our Wall Street Journal Europe table at the EU Bubble Dinner Party.

To win a seat email us your full contact details with“BUBBLE” in the subject field.

Reply by noon CET, July 2, ’08 to the address below. Winners will be informed by email.

For rules and responses contact: gert.vanmol(at)dowjones.com

EU Bubble Diner address:

4 July Rhode-Saint-Genèse, Waterloo, Belgium

Start: 20h

www.bubbledinnerparty.eu

UK London

See sticker at window: "No Insurance means NO CAR!"
I like it when government or local authority is very clear in their communication.

The Battle of Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo reenactment is an annual recreation of the 19th Century Battle of Waterloo on the original battlefield in Waterloo, Belgium. I am usually not a fan of the military, but I didn't want to miss this historic re-enactement of the Waterloo battle, with ca 1,200 re-enactors coming from some 15 countries. I hadn't heard about the event until late last Friday night at a diner table full of American expats who always seem to know more about your country than you know about it yourself.

The historical society who organizes the re-enactement is so concentrated on the historical side of the event, that they tend to forget to think about the comfort of the visitors. I think there must have been at least 10.000 people lined up along the battlefield, in the burning sun, many of them on a steep slope to be able to see something over the heads of the people in front of them. Tip for the society next time: MOW the slope!

I developed an interest in the army because of the specific leadership culture in such an organization. I am planning to roll out a 'WSJE Management and the Military Lab' in a couple of months at The Wall Street Journal Europe. It will be a research project looking into the transfer of coaching techniques from the military commanders to the industry.

The Battle of Waterloo took place at 18 June 1815, 15 years before Belgium came into existence in 1830. The Battle ended the Napoleonic era. Napoleon's dream to unify Europe under French leadership died at Waterloo after his troops were beaten by an alliance of UK and Prussian troops under the command of Lord Wellington. It was actually the second time that Napoleon was defeated. In 1813 he lost the Battle of Leipzig and also some campaigns of 1814 in France after which he was exiled to the Island of Elba. Ironically, the EU has nowadays her headquarters about 8 kilometers from the battle field.

The Wall Street Journal Europe

Sad day today. My boss Rick Zednik decided to leave The Wall Street Journal Europe. He will join the Brussels based EU policy website Euractiv. Today he organized a farewell lunch. Instead of giving a farewell speech he wrote a short play featuring a 'normal' working day at WSJE and the daily actors he had to work with as a boss. Brilliant. He managed to capture the essence of each and one of us and put it in the script. One of my new -higher up- bosses captured the 'essence' of RZ and called him a true 'gentleman'. I couldn't agree more. RZ made our quaterly meetings more interesting by inviting guestspeakers from other departments. I will never forget how RZ pointed out what was happening with the 'Randy Paush' story on the internet after he invited a Dowjones.com editor to come and speak about our .com endeavors. I haven't had many bosses in my life, so it is difficult to compare, but I have learned a lot from this man. His email follow up on all my requests and ideas, and his general 'care' for our company, brand and people was exemplary.

About the obsession with detail by great leaders.

From the book: "Allan Leighton on Leadership".
See further for more posts about this book.

Following testimony from Allan Leighton explains about his first meeting with Rupert Murdoch and the obsession with detail to be found in truly great leaders.

Allan Leighton: "The voice on the other end of the mobile phone is friendly, but immediately comes to the point. "Allan, it’s Rupert. l’d like to meet with you tomorrow to discuss your joining the board of BSkyB."
"Id love to see you," I replied, doing my best to hide my amazement at the call from this business icon who, until then, I’d never met. "But I’m going to be in Hull visiting an ASDA store."
"Fine, I’ll see you there," came the reply. Then he added, "Is it OK if I get there at lunch time?"

Rupert Murdoch, the most powerful media baron in the world, immediately put a line through his obviously frantic schedule to walk the aisles of a supermarket in northern Britain. He had made a decision about the BSkyB board and wanted to act on it immediately. His action that day encapsulates everything I admire about good leadership -seizing the opportunity, focusing and getting the job done.

But when Rupert walked into the ASDA supermarket that day, much to the shock of all the store staff who recognised him, the first thing he did was not to bend my ear. Instead he strode over to the newspaper display. Seeing that the Sun, the flagship title of his publishing empire, had sold out he picked up his mobile and phoned the then editor, David Yelland.

"I’m in an ASDA in Hull, it’s lunchtime and there are no copies of the Sun," he barked. "Find Out why."

You can only imagine the head-scratching at News Corporation’s HQ in London’s Wapping. What could Rupert Murdoch, presumed to be safely ensconced in his London base, possibly be doing at a supermarket in Hull counting, or more to the point not counting, copies of tabloid newspapers? But it isn’thard to guess the effect.

You could call this an obsession with detail! And it certainly is. Whenever I visit a store or a depot, I never fail to pick up the phone to the office with a question for the man or woman who is responsible for something that isn’t quite right. Not only does it get the problem sorted — and fast — but it also lets everyone know I don’t miss a thing. It’s also part and parcel of getting things right for the customer.