The other day I brought up the topic of ‘execution’ in this blog. In fact, this is a subject that is familiar to my students, especially those taking my OL328 Leadership course this semester. We have learned about Jack Welch and the 4E’s. The discipline of the 4E’s in fact, has helped Welch to find and develop leaders who would fit into GE’s high-octane, performance-based culture. The fourth E is ‘execution’ (and the other 3 E’s are energy, energize, and edge). People who execute effectively understand that activity and productivity is not the same thing. The best leaders know how to convert energy and edge into action and results. In short, they know how to execute. That’s why execution is so vital to any organization that wants to succeed!
My students are well-advised to pay attention to the above...
Dr. Paul Chan highlighted news from the University of Melbourne regarding job cuts. This news is bound to hatch some anxiety because jobs in the education sector are supposedly recession-proof. I suppose in today’s world, everything has become unpredictable and volatile, and anything can happen. Given that this university is No. 38 in the THE.QS World University Rankings 2008, I was intrigued and even puzzled. And so I searched the Net to find out more about this cost-cutting exercise.
On webpage http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/melbourne-uni-to-cut-220-jobs-20090728-dzy1.html (accessed July 29, 2009), I was dismayed to read that the university remains in the black but because it does not want to compromise its long-term viability – whatever that means – Vice Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis announces that the axe is about to fall on 220 jobs through a voluntary redundancy program. The impending job losses, amounting to about three per cent of the university's 7,500 staff, are expected to cost around $15 million, and they are among a number of measures designed to save $30 million a year. Other measures include a senior staff wage freeze, a hiring freeze on non-academic staff, job sharing and cuts in travel. But of course, the university is executing this "with a heavy heart".
On webpage http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/melbourne-uni-to-cut-220-jobs-20090728-dzy1.html (accessed July 29, 2009), I was dismayed to read that the university remains in the black but because it does not want to compromise its long-term viability – whatever that means – Vice Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis announces that the axe is about to fall on 220 jobs through a voluntary redundancy program. The impending job losses, amounting to about three per cent of the university's 7,500 staff, are expected to cost around $15 million, and they are among a number of measures designed to save $30 million a year. Other measures include a senior staff wage freeze, a hiring freeze on non-academic staff, job sharing and cuts in travel. But of course, the university is executing this "with a heavy heart".
“We anticipate that if we are successful in holding down expenditure then we can come through this with no further loss of jobs and without having to go through a further round of voluntary redundancies," Prof Glyn told reporters.
"Most Australian universities have gone through a process like this, or are going through the process but we've decided to go public and be upfront about ours”.
This is plain horsefeathers. Still this is also today’s reality.
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