My expertise is the fusion of Chinese Philosophies and Modern Western Management for personal development and application in business. It is about using technology and the fusion mindset to create business values.

My training is offered on a regular basis through Aventis and other related parties. In-house training or consultancy on any particular topic can be arranged by containing admin@bvotech.com or limliat@bvotech.com directly.

Some topics are：

1. Sun Zi’s Art of War for Business Success
2. Gui Gu Zi’s Art of Alliance for forming long-term partnerships for mutual success, including the Art of Strategic Persuasion.
3. I-Ching for success in an uncertain world
4. The teaching Laozi for creating a Self-Directed, Self-Motivated Organization for the future
5. The teaching of Confucius and the Success of the Confucius Businessmen etc.

Below are additional topics described in greater detail.

Unchanging Wisdom & Principles for an Ever-Changing World
– A modern application of iChing for leadership development & building lasting business

Abstract:

Change is an ever-present reality, but often we fear it because we are uncertain about whether it will be beneficial or harmful. However, growth and development require change, and the iChing 易经, also known as The Book of Changes, is a powerful tool that can guide us in handling change effectively. This ancient Chinese philosophy has been at the root of all Chinese philosophies for 3000 years. iChing is a study of the patterns of change, and it teaches us how to use unchanging principles to navigate a changing world and emerge better for it.

iChing contains 64 hexagrams of wisdom, each one representing a specific situation that we may face in life. It tells us the action and the resulting outcome so that we can make the right choice.

The objective of iChing is to give us the wisdom to handle change positively, develop our characters, and change our fixed mindset to a growth mindset. In this course, we will cover key topics such as leadership, management, relationship building, and the 9 stages of growth of a business from starting to transformation.

The application of the iChing involves identifying our current situation and finding the hexagram that best fits, and then using the hexagram and its stage-line descriptions as guidance.

To facilitate the retrieval of guidance, a softcopy of the iChing wisdom and an MS-windows program will be provided.

Ultimately, the iChing is a tool for personal and interpersonal development that can help us embrace change and grow as stronger individuals and leaders of successful businesses.

Outline:

• • Consulting iChing for Tough Problems: Using the Supplied Program and Casting Lots
  • History and Development of iChing: Understanding the Origins and Evolution of the Philosophy
  • The Basic Binary Building Block of iChing: Yin-Yang, the Complementary Mindset
  • The Structure and Meaning of a Hexagram: Decoding the Symbols and their Significance
  • The Original Text of iChing: Exploring the Key Concepts and Themes
  • iChing in One Minute: Summarizing the Key Principles and Applications
  • The S-Curve of Innovation and the Hexagrams: Using iChing to Navigate the Different Stages of Growth and Development
  • Two Key Hexagrams Covered in Depth: #1 乾 The Creative Heaven and #2 坤 The Motherly Earth
  • Developing Your Leadership Skills: The Four Static Leadership Attributes and Five Dynamic Leadership Orientations
  • Management and Control: Strategies for Facing Realities, Institutionalizing Best Practices, Maintaining Discipline, and Achieving Contentment
  • Relationship Building: The Seven Hexagrams for Developing Strong and Lasting Partnerships, from Encounter to Marriage
  • The Nine Stages of Starting to Transformation of A Company: Hexagrams for Navigating the Different Phases of Growth and Evolution

1. 1. 1. Starting Well: Six Hexagrams
      2. Development and Investment: Four Hexagrams
      3. Waiting for the Right Time and Situation: Three Hexagrams
      4. Overcoming Obstacles and Challenges: Six Hexagrams
      5. Growing and Scaling Up: Eight Hexagrams
      6. Dealing with Abundance of Success: Five Hexagrams
      7. Sharing the Joy: Five Hexagrams
      8. Addressing the Causes of Decline/Decay: Three Hexagrams
      9. Transforming a Failing Business: Five Hexagrams

• • The Right Way to Consult iChing: Best Practices for Obtaining Guidance and Insights

 Key Takeaways:

• • Develop a Positive Attitude to Embrace Change: Gain the Courage and Confidence to Navigate the Unknown with Ease and Grace
  • Wisdom to Live a Successful and Contented Life: Learn to Cultivate the Right Mindset and Behaviors to Achieve Your Goals and Fulfill Your Dreams
  • Wisdom for Character Building: Develop the Traits and Qualities that Define Your True Self and Make You a Better Person
  • Wisdom to Develop Your Leadership Skills: Learn to Lead Effectively, Inspire Others, and Build High-Performing Teams
  • Wisdom to Manage Change without Fear: Develop Strategies and Techniques for Adapting to Changing Circumstances and Thriving in Uncertainty
  • Wisdom to Build Good Relationships and Long-Term Partnerships: Cultivate Meaningful Connections and Collaborate Effectively with Others
  • Wisdom to Start, Grow, Dominate, and Transform a Company: Master the Art of Business Strategy and Execution to Achieve Sustainable Success
  • iChing Mind-map and Program: Receive a Softcopy of the Speaker’s iChing Mind-map and a Windows Program for Randomly Picking a Hexagram and Receiving Relevant Guidance

 Audience:

Anyone who wants to succeed in an ever-changing world develops better character, leadership, management, relationship, and decision-making capabilities in various stages and situations of life.

The Art of Strategic Alliances for Growth & Winning Together
The 6D-Framework of Gui Gu Zi that complements Sun Zi’s Art of War

Objective: to know the complete framework for building successful and long-term strategic alliances

If you want to be better, stronger, and more successful, then you need to form partnerships and stand on the shoulders of others rather than stepping on their toes. You need to master the Art of Strategic Alliances. Strategic Alliances are about the discovery of people’s characters and their talents and then persuading them to join you, strategize, and achieve mutual wins together. It is the synergy of collaborative advantages and hence is extremely powerful.

This course will provide you with a 6D framework that you can follow to find the right partners, design the winning strategies, and persuade them to adopt your ideas. This framework will help you immensely with the many tasks you do in your career or business such as being aware of political and cultural forces at play, identifying the problems, coming out with solutions, making proposals, influencing, selling, facilitating, negotiating, mediation, motivation, team building and leadership in getting the best from people working together. It is the integrated and complete set of soft skills for success in this global and diversified world.

This 6D framework is based on the work of Gui Gu Zi, the Master of Strategic Alliances whose students Su Qin and Zhang Yi essentially influenced the history of China from the Warring Period till the unification of China in the Qin dynasty. Sun Zi’s Art of War is about winning against competitors. Strategic Alliances are about winning together. With Sun Zi, you can formulate the winning dominant strategy. With Strategic Alliances you can achieve the optimum strategy due to collaboration as taught in the Game-Theory. With Sun Zi you can become a good general or a strategist, but with Strategic Alliances you can become prime ministers and influencers that impact the world.

The Fusion of Sun Zi’s Art of War and Modern Management for Building Winning Businesses

Objectives

• • To enable any executive to have the winner’s mindset and attitudes, innovative strategies, effective leadership, and execution framework for building a successful business in an exponentially changing world.

Synopsis:

Sun Zi’s Art of War is not just about warfare but much more. It is about the winner’s mindset and attitude. It gives us the secrets of how an ordinary person can do the extraordinary. It is about a giant killing cautious optimism to strife for great success. We cover the fundamentals of business and business strategies with an understanding of what the customers value and design the right strategies using TOWS rather than SWOT. We walk through the 13 chapters of The Art of War and condensed them into a formula and precis of key ideas for each chapter. We learn creativity from Sun Zi for endless variations of surprises.  We then integrate the Art of War with modern management practices and included the teachings of Porter’s competitive advantages, Moore’s Category Development Life Cycle, Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation Theory, Chan’s Blue Ocean Strategies, Steve Blank’s concurrent Customer & Product Development, Eric Ries’ Lean Start-up with MVP & Innovation Accounting. We use real-world cases of the rise, fall, and transformation of businesses such as BreadTalk, Apple, Nokia, Xerox, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, etc. illustrating the wisdom of Sun Zi. Besides strategy, Sun Zi covers leadership and organizational strengths and sicknesses which we shall cover in detail. Lastly, we include a performance framework using OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and 4G Balance Scorecards for monitoring progress and quick learning to adapt to ever-changing situations. We end with a refresher question to test our learning of the Art of War.

 Outlines:

• • The Winner’s Mindset & Attitudes
    • The Power of the Chinese Mindset – Past & Future Successes
    • The Mindset of Tennis World Champions like Chris Evert, Nadal, and the Art of War
    • Lessons from how young David killed the giant Goliath
    • The Essences of The Art of War through Pictures & Illustrations
    • Sun Zi, Li KaShing, Singaporean & Durians – The common attribute
  • Understanding Business and Business Strategies
    • The History of the Development of Strategies in Western Management
    • Understanding Customers’ Mindset, Business Value Creation & Innovation
    • The Grave Error of Designing Strategy with SWOT
    • The Right Way of Designing Strategy with TOWS
  • Overview & Principles of Sun Zi’s Art of War Book
    • The Art of War Formula of 1A3B5C5M for Building Winning Organizations and Leaders
    • Building Capabilities for Competitive Advantages – 5 Factors & 7 Measures
    • The Precis of Sun Zi’s Art of War Book – The Keys for Each 13 Chapter
    • Endless Variations of Surprises for Creativity & BVITS
  • Beyond the Art of War & Integration with Modern Management
    • Designing differentiated strategies to seize the initiatives & Riding the Waves with Blue Ocean Strategies
    • Creating an Uncontested Market with Blue Ocean Strategies of Kim & Mauborgne
    • How to Ride the Wave with Geoffrey Moore Category-Maturity Life-Cycle, Clay Christensen’s Disruptive Innovation Theory
    • Case Studies: The success of BreadTalk, Apple & Failure of Nokia, Oppo & Vivo dethrone Xiaomi
  • Terrain and Markets for Achieving Market Leadership
    • Porter’s Competitive Advantages 5 Forces + 1
    • Deciding Which Market to Enter with the Six Terrains to Customers
    • Market Entrance Strategy
    • Sustaining Growth Strategy from the Nine Terrains
    • Steve Blank’s Customer & Product Development
    • Eric Ries’ Lean Start-up with MVP & Innovation Accounting
    • the transformation of Apple and Xerox and the Failure of Nokia.
  • The Art of War on Leadership & Organization Power
    • The Five Leadership Attributes and Details.
    • Defining strategic jobs, knowing the people, and matching them with the right jobs.
    • Dynamic Leadership Model – Leadership Lessons from I-Ching
  • Building Organization Power & Organizational Health Check
    • Six Areas of Proficiencies, Four Performance Levers, Five Winning Keys
    • The Three Negligences, The Five Weaknesses, and the Six Terminal Sicknesses
    • The Ideal Organization.
  • The Execution Framework – Corporate Performance Management
    • Common pitfalls of BSC & KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
    • The OKR framework of Objective & Key Results with Strategic Initiates
    • The 4G Strategy Map BSC (Balanced Scorecard) Framework
  • Final Test Question – Where should the CEO stand?
  • Key Strategic Principles of the Art of War

Who Should Attend:

Anyone who wants to know how to start a business, strategize for growth, transform out of survival mode, get investment, and become an effective leader, with a performance framework to build an innovative and high-performance business.

East & West Fusion Management Mindset for VUCAD World.

Objective: to  compare,  integrate and apply East and West management philosophies and methods for building lasting corporations in a turbulent world

The advancement of technology has connected the world of diversities across social strata, races, ages, cultures, and nations creating a new world characterized by the acronym VUCAD representing Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity, and Deception. How can we cope in such a world?  To find the answers,  the speaker has studied the ancient wisdom of the Chinese and fused it with modern Western management thinking. The mindset provides answers to the following questions:

1. How to make sense of this changing and seemingly confusing world?
2. What are the unchanging Patterns of Change, if there be any, to guide us? Is there a database of cause and effect to lead us toward fortune and avoid disasters in any situation?
3. What are the Unchanging values & principles for Life and Harmony for organizations and society?
4. What is the methodology for managing change to get sustainable success no matter what?

The ancient Chinese provides us with the wisdom of the I-Ching, the Bible for Change. It provides the framework to integrate the wisdom of East and West. I-Ching is the predecessor and integrator of all Chinese philosophies such as Lao Zi’s Dao school of following natural order, Confucius’ Ru school of compassion, righteousness, good manners, wisdom, and trust, the Fa School of laws and discipline, and Sun Zi’s Arts of War strategies and others. In this framework, the speaker merges Western management thinking from behavioral and management sciences, E W Deming’s quality and statistical control, Kaplan & Norton’s strategy-driven balanced scorecard, Geoffrey Moore’s Category Maturity Life Cycle, Complex Adaptive System Theory, Gary Hamel’s future of management and more.  The current thinking of inclusivity(for diversities) and sustainability(with the environment) are but a subset of the Chinese concept of the harmony of people with heaven and earth.

Li Ka Shing, one of the richest men in the world, said that integrating Chinese Philosophy with Western Management was his key to success. With the Fusion Mindset, we shall be able to apply it to design strategies and make wise decisions to manage the changes in the VUCAD world to achieve sustainable high performance and growth.

Corporate Performance Management Blueprint for Sustainable High Performance

Objective: To create a blueprint for a corporation to follow for achieving growth and sustainable performance.

This course covers the unified corporate performance management framework for building a high-performance company. Starting from a re-look at defining the mission statement, creating the visions, and defining the values. This is followed by a Situation Analysis to design the strategies to achieve the vision. The strategies are made operational by mapping out the cause and effect linkages over multiple views of customer value proposition, financial objectives, key processes, supportive processes, job role specifications, organization structure, staff skills set, motivations and developments, and culture. With measures and targets set, the corporation can create specific initiatives and projects to close the gap between the present and the desired targets. Divisions, departments, and staff individual goals can be cascaded and aligned toward attaining the vision.  Regular monitoring of progress and learning from the situational changes ensure success over the long term.

Innovation Road Map and Management

Objective: To create an Innovative Organisation with strategies, offerings, and culture.

The key to overcoming the challenges brought about by competitors and enjoying better margins is to have innovation. Yet our common understanding of innovations does not lead us to breakthrough success. Innovation is more than just new products or even new services. It is not about just having more features,  better technology, or engineers. Such thinking could not explain why computer-based Apple is able to dethrone the phone leader Nokia in the Smartphone market. Come to learn about the real secrets of successful innovations. Innovation is about creating value. Customers don’t buy products but an outcome through a wow experience. Decision-making doesn’t just follow economic reasoning alone. Emotional and social factors are more important. You don’t need more features but just a few meaningful features implemented in greater depth. Great-lasting companies cannot rely on one-off success in innovation, they must know how to create a culture of innovation.  There are more secrets to surprise you.

This course covers Understanding of Innovation, New Product Development and Market Development Life Cycle, Technology and Management Trends, Creative Thinking Skills, Organization & Culture for Innovation,

Effective Knowledge Management with Visual Mind Mapping

Objective: Using Mind-map and Concept Mapping techniques to help organize knowledge to improve the clarity of thinking and effective decision-making.

The challenge of this present age is making sense of the overwhelming information that is fed to us. There is a need to filter out, organize and evaluate the information. The is the need also to have a framework where an incremental knowledge base of wisdom can be built so that we can improve our decision-making capability over time. The answer is to use visual mind maps to be the framework to organize and incrementally refine knowledge over time. Many powerful visual maps can be built to use as templates to guide thinking, planning, and decision-making.

Freely available mind-mapping software like Freemind, Freeplane, Xmind, CMaps, and VUE are used to teach mind-mapping techniques. The various uses of mind maps are covered. Mind map templates for SWOT analysis, Fishbone, Business Planning, Project Management, Presentation, Minutes, etc are covered.

This course stresses building reusable knowledge to enhance decision-making.

Commercial software like Mindjet’s MindManager and Axon can be used at customers’ request to teach mind-mapping techniques.

BVITS Innovative Thinking Method – Systematic Creativity on Demand

Objective: To enable creative and innovative thinking on demand through using BVITS

This course debunks the myths of creativity as a gifted talent and shows how creativity needs not to depend on chance. It teaches a systematic creative thinking method called BVITS (Business Value Innovative Thinking Symbols). BVITS is an integration of many creative and innovative thinking methods, visual and mind mapping, axiomatic design, system thinking, and others for breakthrough innovative thinking. It is useful for generating new innovative ideas, problem-solving, process re-engineering, new products and services, and even Business Strategies and policies.

How to Write a Successful Business Plan

 Objective: To be able to write a business proposal and a plan for starting a new business

In this course, participants learn about business viability first, followed by the format and the content of a business plan. It begins with looking out for business opportunities, evaluating, and then the plan for the business. The participant will learn to organize and create a coherent business proposition that will serve as the road map for the entrepreneur or the intrapreneur and as a guide for investors or corporate bosses. The plan will cover the business model, value proposition, target customers, market and related industries, competitors, marketing, operation, management team, and financials. An understanding of venture funding and the investors’ mindset will be covered to ensure the business plan is written to meet the needs of the investors as well. A Spreadsheet-based program module for Financial Statements generation is provided to allow the participant to concentrate on the testing of assumptions and doing a sensitivity analysis of the business model rather than tedious writing and computations.

 Leadership & Management Skills

 Objective: To learn how to lead and manage staff to increase effectiveness and performance

This course covers the essential skills and practices for being a leader. A clear definition of a leader and leadership model is presented first. The key differences between leading and managing are shown and a true leader must be able to handle both tasks well. The influencing power of leaders, personality traits, and strength-based approach helps the development of high-quality leadership. Leadership style should not be fixed but situational dependent, founded on serving, and with vision will lead to the highest form of self-management teams. Basic leadership skills of goal setting, people motivation, organization, delegation and coaching, and change management will be covered. Popular and proven methods like 7+1 habits for effective people and One-Minute Manager are touched upon for attendees to improve themselves over time. Many corporate case studies will be used for illustrations, discussions, and learning purposes.

Creating a Learning and Innovative Organisation

Objective: to create a learning and innovative organization for long-term success.

With the shift to a Knowledge and Concepts Economy and the increased pace of change due to technology and globalization, it is of vital importance that the organization understands and builds a Learning and Innovative Organisation(LIO) to meet up with the challenges and sustains its growth. This course starts with a few key reference models of the gurus like Peter Senge of what makes LIOs and then proposes a unified model integrating the best. The components of the model are then covered in detail. This allows one to create a plan to implement an LIO aligned with its corporate strategies. An assessment model is proposed for auditing, assessing the maturity level, and guides for making improvements to the LIO. Such governance ensures the continued success of an LIO.

Strategic Human Capital Management for Corporate Performance

Objective: to enable a human resource manager to shift into strategic human capital management for greater corporate effectiveness

Strategic Human Capital Management is about aligning workforce, culture, talents and competencies, policies, and systems towards corporate strategies and achieving corporate success.  Structures, systems, and strategies do not execute. It is people that execute them to achieve success. Human resources should not be seen as a cost but as capital, whose value can appreciate by aligning with the corporate strategies for success.

It begins with understanding the Corporate Performance Management Framework and the strategies to achieve financial, customer, operation, and workforce success with the fulfillment of corporate social responsibility. From the strategies, we can identify the strategic jobs and required competencies. This is followed by the fitting of talents to strategic jobs and supported by the right leadership behavior, culture, HR systems, and practices. Development and execution of HR department cascaded Strategy Map and scorecard is then developed to ensure HR Department accountability and success.  A good understanding of performance measurement systems on the behavior of people will help in setting the right measurement and rewards systems. There is also the need to control the variation of staff performance for the same strategic jobs across business units in various locations. A differentiated competitive advantage can only be achieved by employment and developing one’s strengths in strategic areas. This strengths-based approach is preferred over the weakness-fixing approach. Overcoming weaknesses only results in producing average companies and not leaders. Such successful practices will increase the intellectual capital and human capital of the corporation.

Chinese Philosophies and Management for the 21st Century

 Objective: To understand and apply Chinese Philosophies for the management of business corporations for sustainable long-term success

British historian Arnold Toynbee said that “the 19th century belonged to the UK, the 20th century belonged to the US, and the 21st century is to belong to China.” He predicted that the civilizations that could save the world were the Chinese civilization of Confucianism and Mahayana Buddhism. This 21st century is characterized by changes, of great magnitude, speed, frequency, diversity, and complexities. The answers to handling such big changes can be found in the Ancient Chinese Classics and Philosophies.  The rapid rise and success of Chinese Corporations have, to a great extent, been due to the long-term influence of Chinese Philosophies and their values on their people. To work well with Chinese Corporations or manage Chinese managers and workers, one needs to understand their philosophies, values, practices, and other Chinese Culture uniqueness.

This course will cover the main Chinese Classical Philosophies starting with i-Ching, then Lao Zi’s Dao School of “following nature”, Confucius’ Ru School of compassion, righteousness, good manners, wisdom, and trust, Mo’s School of universal love and quality, Han Fei Zi’s Fa School of laws and discipline, and Sun Zi’s Military school of strategies in Arts of War. These will provide the background for understanding today’s Chinese culture, behavior, and management practices. Case studies on leading Chinese Corporations like Huawei and MengNu will be covered to provide a better understanding.

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BvOtech is a business registered in Singapore with Reg No: 53011449J.    Contact Info:  admin@bvotech.com.