thealphaswarmer_retrospects

Selfish Defection or Cooperation? Series Launch – Thealphaswarmer Retrospects

There are inherent tendencies in human beings to to be ostensibly cooperative but inherently selfish! Jealousy is rooted deep in the abyss of human desire, and surfaces itself when there is comprehension that one cannot beat or match the capabilities of the opposing party. The contrast here is almost oxymoronic whilst concurrently revealing an inherent truth. In fact, it’s a paradox and at times, almost Machiavellian scheming like! These tendencies then naturally prevents the forces of self-organisation and destroys any notion of team-work, especially when the art of defection becomes more rewarding than cooperation!

In this post, I change the modality of writing and simplify it to be retrospective in the first persona. This will allow you to understand what I would term as thealphaswarmer retrospect series which will be a literary tapestry of memoirs that retrospectively articulate my own observations in in the corporate world – well before I joined forces with the family business. They often say you should find your own path in life (and trust me – I was very well on this path – having an ready to sign for Manager of Innovation and Change); however, its my desire to continue the legacy of which my grandfather started at the young age of 18 when he travelled across the world and landed in the Fiji Islands! There is just too much noise at the moment and there are certain rights that need to be employed in the name of sucession!

My professional working career is quite vast (and I am sorry I do not share it all on my Linked In as you see – I always had an eye to drive ideas bottom up than accept them top down – which was sometimes, due to corporate politics, the root cause of my despairs). I have worked commercially since the age of 19 kicking off my career with HSC tutoring. Here, I successfully nurtured 6 HSC students (year 2005) into achieving band six (the highest percentile) of their respective subjects across Advanced English, Extension 1 English, Economics and Business Studies. Whilst pursuing academia, I also then worked in financial planning administration in the year 2006 at MLC (360 financial planning) before foraying myself back into the monolithic entity society calls university. From here, professionally, I traversed the paths of call-centres in banking, rental finance, telecoms and wealth management before finally settling into financial planning technology at the vendor level. At its core, my time there when I reflect on it actually fine-tuned my analytical capabilities and inspired a voracious desire to constantly challenge established corporate paradigms. Whilst I had already immersed my intellect years before this across various strategic management, innovation and technology literature; my tenure at an almost monopoly like technology vendor truly opened my eyes to what I attribute as the as the sins of the corporate world. I saw boys club and factions being formed. There were people ‘For Max’ or ‘Against Max’ and the very notion of emergent bottom up innovation was inherently absent (or at least, very slow on the uptake to the point that this was a fundamental driver of their heavy turnaround). Now I was (and still am) a strong believer in front-line intelligence. True, I did start in technology support – however, its at this level where you understand end user frustration and listen to the intricacies and shortcomings of specialised application and purpose based software. It was not, however, until my second and half year into this organisation where I truly saw beyond the façade of my direct managers (and their bosses). The “high shots” I call them were recruited on ad-hoc basis, often coming from large technology projects but had so much disconnect with what was happening on the front line – that it astounded me! How can someone come in to repair, transform (or whatever corporate epithet was attributed to the project at the time) processes, systems and technology when they fail to understand people make enterprises? It was a travesty of management to the point where even when something was launched that was professed to bridge the divide and enable teamwork and idea-curation across global departments, my very own efforts here were cut-out (akin to caging a bird and clipping its wings so it cannot fly). People were throwing up conspiracies against me, gossips was an omnipresent dialogue and most significantly – there was no support from my direct managers to support my evolving needs as an employee. At this stage, I started dreaming intensively about the prospect of reviving Swarm Consulting (you can check it out here in this link) but then thought about the very fact that this again would be shot at point blank range! I left this company, in rather disheartened spirits, despite giving them everything I had. I was in tears (literally) on many days to my own father with the faith that he would rescue me from the matrix and allow me to flourish in business with my own control, my own ideas, my own way of doing things and mainly – the application of the abundance of knowledge I had garnered over the years through academic and my own self-pursuit of knowledge.

I used to read blogs that are only directed for an executive audience; then download a cornucopia of presentations and podcasts that not only talk about strategy but also reveal actual real life case studies. My personal commitment and investment on the path of knowledge helped me, however, it also hindered my ability to fly high like the eagle or shoot a laser beam so powerful and focused that it reaches the moon! All bets were basically off and I realised I never had a chance at these types of organisations. I yearned for the prospect of someone at the likes of IDEO or McKinsey throwing a saviour hand out to me similar to how Morpheus rescued Neo in the Matrix. It was daunting to learn that the corporate world here in Australia is not as receptive and I was starting to think maybe its due to my race and origination that my ideas are not being embraced.

It was this very moment that sparked an epiphany in me. I acknowledged that I was destined to execute and deploy knowledge in unique and novel ways so as to inspire others around me whilst in parallel defining evolutions of business models and innovation frameworks that the world has yet to see. Yes, many individuals over the years attributed me as arrogant, or superficial or somewhat ‘up in the dreamland’;however I assured myself (and trust me – I still do) that my own pursuit of happiness, knowledge and transcendence will take me places. I always say don’t judge my path if you have not walked my journey and this is a poignant point of reference for me that will always be sacrosanct in my heart.

It is now 28th November year 2018. I have over the course of almost three years transformed what was fundamentally a dying business in the specialist wholesale travel space. I rejuvenated digital assets, amplified our share of voice, implemented value laden CRM and web development systems, transformed internal processes, managed distributed teams (and people I’ve never met personally to this date), put in place various business development support models, recruited professionals (and inspired and reformed many ordinary people) into what is now a business model poised for unprecedented growth. Analytically and from the perspective of business studies, I have taken all roles and worn many hats. I have developed and revolutionised the existing business and generated tangible and measurable outcomes that should please any stakeholder. At the end of the day though, its difficult to battle distractors and those that are present as wasteful resources in the entity (but which are beyond my immediate control) and for this very reason, I am more inspired and determined than ever to ensure that my name is forever engrained in history. Call me arrogant if you don’t know me – but those who work closely with me will clearly assert it as passion! Remember, don’t judge my path if you have not walked my journey!

P.S. I am finalising a journal article which will be published in an academic journal that is showcased around universities worldwide. As a hint, its about the paradox of scale and how to maintain your competitive advantage in an environment of supernormal growth. You will, off-course, hear about it here on thealphaswarmer.com!

One thought on “Selfish Defection or Cooperation? Series Launch – Thealphaswarmer Retrospects

  1. Jay Shree

    Re: current 28th November, 2018

    Very good work and summary and makes me proud as your mother to read an intelligent , honest and perfectly timed piece of of biodata and inspirational reading ,perfectly planned and presented.

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