Pathways#Innovative Planning#Level5 - Final Speech - Reflect on your Path - From Planning to Purpose: My Innovative Planning Journey

 

Good evening, Toastmaster of the Evening, fellow Toastmasters, and guests.

Today, I am giving my final speech in the Level 5 Innovative Planning path: Reflect on Your Path. This is not just another speech to complete a requirement. It is a chance to pause, look back, and ask myself: What did I really learn, how did I grow, and how will I use this learning beyond Toastmasters?

When I look back at the full Innovative Planning path, I do not see it as five separate levels. I see it as a gradual journey: from introducing myself, to understanding leadership, to telling stories, to managing complex communication, and finally to reflecting on planning, execution, and professional speaking.

In Level 1, my journey started with the Ice Breaker and evaluation speeches. That level taught me the basics: organize my thoughts, stand in front of an audience, receive feedback, and come back again with improvement. It also reminded me of a simple truth: every confident speaker was once a nervous beginner.

In Level 2, I reflected on my leadership style. I started thinking more deeply about how I lead people, how I communicate decisions, and how I balance participation with accountability. That learning became useful later when I had to speak about real project leadership.

In Level 3, I improved storytelling and emotional connection. Through speeches on descriptive language, social speeches, family support, and mentorship, I learned that facts inform the audience, but stories help the audience remember. I also learned that humor and gratitude can make a speech more human.

In Level 4, the projects became more practical and challenging. Managing projects and difficult audiences helped me connect Toastmasters learning with my professional life. I practiced explaining complex situations, handling sensitive messages, and staying calm when the audience or situation was not easy.

By the time I reached Level 5, I could see how the earlier levels had prepared me. The final level was not only about delivering bigger speeches. It was about bringing together planning, leadership, storytelling, feedback, and professional communication.

When I first selected the High Performance Leadership project, I made one classic Toastmasters mistake: I read the manual once and immediately became worried. I thought, “Oh no, do I need to start a brand-new project from zero?” For a moment, Toastmasters felt like my second full-time job.

So I paused for nearly two months. Then I searched, watched examples, asked better questions, and realized I could use a real leadership experience from work. That gave me confidence and my first lesson: do not let confusion become a stop sign; let it become a question mark.

In my first High Performance Leadership speech, I spoke about a delayed technology program under pressure and at risk of losing customer confidence. I explained the root cause analysis, recovery plan, and vision to bring it back on track. That speech reminded me that leadership starts with clarity. When a project is in trouble, people do not need panic; they need direction.

It also taught me to simplify complex stories. The project had many details, but the audience needed the human story: pressure, responsibility, decision-making, and trust. I learned that good communication is not about saying everything you know; it is about choosing what the audience needs to hear.

The most useful feedback I received was about pausing. Until then, I thought pausing meant forgetting the next line. But I learned that a pause is not a mistake; it is a tool—especially when the speaker is secretly searching for the next sentence.

“Vision sets direction, but disciplined execution creates results.”

In the follow-up speech, I shared what happened after the plan was put into action. This second speech connected planning with reality. A plan on paper can look perfect, but a real project always has surprises—and sometimes even the best plan needs a U-turn, a detour, or at least a strong cup of coffee.

From that second speech, my biggest leadership learning was that recovery is never a one-person performance. One person may create the recovery plan, but the team delivers the recovery. We moved from fire-fighting to disciplined execution, and when the team started trusting the process, the energy changed.

One initiative that stayed with me was the “Get to Know Your Team” session. It helped people see each other as human beings, not just names on a status report. A project dashboard may show red, amber, and green, but behind those colors are people with stress, effort, hope, and sometimes very little sleep.

 The next project was Prepare to Speak Professionally, and it was a different challenge. I had to deliver an 18- to 22-minute speech. When I first saw the timing, I checked twice to confirm whether it said minutes or seconds. I chose Building a Long-Term Career in IT in the AI Era because it connected strongly with my professional experience. That speech taught me that long speeches require strong structure, clear transitions, and a topic that genuinely matters to the speaker.

The key feedback I received was to improve transitions. I realized that a speech is like taking the audience on a journey. If I jump suddenly from one topic to another, the audience may still be waiting at the previous station.

That project also helped me practice credibility. Speaking professionally is not only about sounding confident; it is about earning the audience’s trust. I connected the AI-era topic to my own journey from programming to leadership, which made the message more authentic.

Across all five levels, I noticed a pattern: I faced uncertainty, created structure, received feedback, and improved. Every speech became a small leadership laboratory where I could experiment with ideas, delivery, structure, humor, pauses, and vulnerability.

Looking back at the full path, I would summarize my learning in five lessons.

1.      First, seek guidance early. Do not suffer alone after reading a project objective. Ask mentors, fellow Toastmasters, or look for examples. Sometimes one small clarification can remove a big mental block.

2.      Second, choose topics connected to real experience. When we speak from something we have actually lived, our credibility increases and our delivery becomes more natural.

3.      Third, structure matters. Whether it is a 5-minute speech or a 20-minute speech, the audience needs a clear path: where we started, where we are going, and why it matters.

4.      Fourth, feedback is a gift—sometimes wrapped in uncomfortable paper. Feedback on pausing and transitions helped me improve not only in Toastmasters, but also in my professional communication.

5.      Finally, planning and communication are leadership skills. They help us not only on stage, but also in meetings, customer discussions, team management, and daily life.

These five lessons show that my growth was not only in speaking style, but also in self-awareness. I became more aware of how I prepare, where I hesitate, how I handle feedback, and how I can convert real-life experience into value for others.

This path reminded me that communication is not a side skill. For leaders, communication is part of the work itself. A plan can fail if people do not understand it, and a good idea can disappear if it is not explained clearly.

Outside Toastmasters, this has helped me become more intentional at work—especially in how I present problems, explain plans, and connect strategy with execution. It is also useful in family conversations, although at home not every stakeholder approves my project plan immediately.

My next growth area is to make my delivery more natural and engaging—to move from “delivering a script” to “sharing a message.”

If I were advising a new Toastmaster, I would say: start before you feel fully ready, speak from real experience, and improve through feedback.

John C. Maxwell said, “Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” For me, this path helped convert change into growth.

As I complete the Innovative Planning path, I feel grateful for the projects that challenged me, the evaluators who guided me, and the audience who listened patiently.

Most importantly, I learned that planning is useful only when it survives reality. Real planning means listening, adjusting, and still moving toward the objective.

So my final reflection is simple: I entered this path thinking I would complete a set of speeches. I am leaving it with better structure, stronger confidence, and a clearer understanding of how planning and communication work together. Plans may guide projects, but communication moves people.

To my fellow Toastmasters still in the middle of a path, my message is simple: continue. Each speech may look small on its own, but together they quietly change the way we think, speak, and lead.

Thank you.

Pathways#Innovative Planning#Level5 - High Performance Leadersip #Prepare to Speak Professionally - Future-Proof: Building a Long-Term Career in IT in the AI Era

 Future-Proof: Building a Long-Term Career in IT in the AI Era

Opening: The Big Question

Good evening, Toastmaster of the Evening, fellow Toastmasters, and guests. Let me begin with a question: if your child, your younger colleague, or even your younger self asked, “Is IT still a good career for the next 20 years?” what would you say? Many of us entered IT because it promised growth, global opportunities, and better income. But today, after Generative AI, AI agents, and Agentic AI, that question has become more serious. Will AI take away IT jobs, or will it create a new generation of IT careers?

Objective and Personal Credibility

Tonight, I want to share my point of view on “Building a Long-Term Career in IT in the AI Era.” My objective is simple: to show how IT work was done in the past, how it is being done today, and how it may be done in the future. More importantly, I want to reflect on what each of us must do to build a meaningful, future-ready career in IT. I have spent more than 20 years in this field, starting as a junior programmer and growing through technical and management roles. From that journey, I learned one lesson: in IT, the people who survive are not always the most intelligent; they are the ones who keep adapting.

Roadmap: Past, Present, Future

My speech has three main parts. First, I will look back at the past, when IT careers were built through programming, delivery discipline, offshore execution, and a clear career ladder. Second, I will explain the present, where Gen-AI, AI agents, and Agentic AI are changing how we code, test, document, manage, and support technology. Third, I will look ahead to the future and share what professionals must do to remain relevant for the next 10, 20, or even 30 years. Let us start with the past.

Part 1: Past — Manual, Structured, People-Intensive IT

In the past, IT was largely manual, structured, and people intensive. Twenty years ago, if someone learned basic programming, database concepts, or web development, it was often enough to enter a large IT services company. The world was digitizing. Banks, insurance companies, manufacturers, retailers, and governments needed software systems. They needed people to build, maintain, test, support, and improve those systems. IT was no longer a back-office function; it became the backbone of business operations.

This created a global opportunity. Offshoring opened doors for skilled professionals in countries such as India, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other Asian markets. Companies gained access to talent and cost efficiency. Employees gained better salaries, international exposure, and new career mobility. For many families, IT became a ladder of social progress.

The career ladder was also clear. A person could start as an intern or junior programmer, then grow into programmer, senior programmer, lead, manager, and senior manager roles. As experience increased, responsibility increased. Many engineers aimed to move from execution roles to leadership roles where influence and decision-making were higher.

Frequent job changes also became common. When demand was high and skills were scarce, professionals could change companies and receive better opportunities. People with five to eight years of experience were especially attractive because they had both technical knowledge and delivery experience.

For many years, this model worked well. Businesses needed more software, IT companies needed more people, and professionals built careers by adding skills and moving up the ladder. Work was done mainly by human effort: coding, documentation, testing, support, and status tracking. But every strong career model eventually faces disruption. For IT, that disruption became visible in November 2022, when ChatGPT was launched and Generative AI entered everyday conversation.

Part 2: Present — Gen-AI, AI Agents, and Agentic AI

This brings me to the present: how IT work is being done today. The IT industry can now be understood in two broad periods, the pre-AI era and the post-AI era. We are only a few years into the post-AI period, but the speed of change is already enormous. What makes this change different is not only the technology itself, but the fact that ordinary users can now interact with AI through simple language.

Marker: Explain Gen-AI Simply

ChatGPT is one of the best-known examples of Generative AI, or Gen-AI. In simple words, Gen-AI can create new content based on our prompt. Earlier, software systems mainly stored data, processed transactions, searched information, or generated fixed reports. But Gen-AI can write text, summarize documents, translate languages, create presentations, write code, and explain complex topics. For the first time, ordinary people could interact with advanced AI using simple natural language. Other major players followed OpenAI, such as Gemini from Google, Copilot from Microsoft, Claude from Anthropic, and many more. These tools made AI accessible not only to engineers, but also to students, managers, and business users.

ChatGPT reportedly reached around 100 million monthly active users within about two months of launch, showing one important point: when technology becomes easy to use, its impact becomes exponential. People did not need a manual. They simply typed a question, gave instructions, and received help immediately.

Gen-AI also led to many tools that use these models in the background, including coding assistants, meeting summarizers, translation tools, design tools, customer service bots, and automated documentation tools. In IT, Gen-AI is changing how people write code, test applications, analyze logs, prepare reports, create user stories, and support customers. But Gen-AI is not magic. It still needs human judgment, domain knowledge, data quality, security controls, and responsible usage.

Marker: Move from Gen-AI to AI Agents

The evolution of Gen-AI led to the invention of AI agents. An AI agent is not just a chatbot that answers one question at a time. It is a software assistant that can understand a goal, break it into steps, use tools or data, and complete a task with limited human guidance.

For example, instead of only asking AI to draft an email, we can ask an AI agent to read a customer request, check system information, prepare a response, create a task, and remind the owner to follow up. In the workplace, AI agents are already supporting customer service, document summarization, testing, workflow automation, and knowledge search. The future employee will not only use AI as a search tool but work with AI agents as digital teammates.

Marker: Clarify Agentic AI

This evolution leads us to Agentic AI. If Gen-AI creates content, and an AI agent completes a task, Agentic AI pursues a larger goal more independently. It can understand the objective, plan steps, use tools, observe results, adjust its approach, and continue until the work is completed or human approval is needed. In simple terms, Gen-AI answers and creates; AI agents act on specific tasks; and Agentic AI coordinates actions toward a bigger outcome. This is powerful, but it requires governance, security, data quality, and human oversight.

The impact on IT is massive. Tasks once handled by entry-level engineers—basic coding, documentation, test case creation, log analysis, and first-level support—can now be accelerated or partly automated. Some management activities, such as reporting, meeting summaries, planning drafts, and follow-up tracking, are also being supported by AI. This does not mean every job will disappear, but every role will change.

Part 3: Future — Humans Working with Digital Teammates

This takes us to the future. A future IT team may look very different from the past. A manager may lead both people and AI agents. A developer may guide an AI coding assistant, review the output, and ensure quality. A tester may design the testing strategy and validate AI-generated test assets. Productivity will increase, but expectations will also increase. We may deliver larger projects faster, with smaller teams and more automation. The value of a professional will shift from doing repetitive work to thinking clearly, asking better questions, validating outputs, managing risks, and making responsible decisions.

Career Question: How Do We Stay Relevant?

If this is the direction of the industry, the important question is: how can we build a long-term career in IT in this AI era?

Career Action 1: Become AI-Literate

First, we must become AI-literate. AI literacy does not mean everyone must become an AI scientist. It means we should understand what Gen-AI can do, what AI agents can do, where Agentic AI can help, and where these tools can fail. We must learn prompt writing, responsible usage, data privacy, security, and validation. In the AI era, blindly trusting AI is risky, but ignoring AI is even riskier.

Career Action 2: Strengthen Domain Expertise

Second, we must strengthen our domain expertise. AI can generate answers, but it does not automatically understand the full business context. A person who understands insurance, banking, healthcare, manufacturing, cloud operations, cybersecurity, data governance, or project delivery will remain valuable because they can judge whether the AI output is practical, safe, and aligned with business needs. Domain expertise plus AI capability will be a powerful combination.

Career Action 3: Own Outcomes, Not Just Tasks

Third, we must move from task execution to outcome ownership. In the past, doing assigned tasks well was enough for many roles. In the future, professionals must understand the goal, design the approach, use AI tools effectively, validate the result, communicate clearly, and take responsibility for outcomes. This is where human strengths—judgment, ethics, empathy, leadership, creativity, and accountability—become more important, not less.

Personal Reflection: My Own Reinvention

Let me connect this to my own journey. I started in the pre-AI era, where programming and delivery discipline gave me a strong foundation. Today, I am in the transition phase of the post-AI era. I cannot depend only on what worked 20 years ago. I must unlearn some old ways and learn how to use AI in project management, reporting, analysis, documentation, testing, and decision support. For mid-level managers like me, this is especially important. If our role is only to collect status, prepare reports, and forward emails, AI will reduce the need for that role. But if our role is to solve problems, manage stakeholders, guide teams, use AI responsibly, and deliver outcomes, our value will remain strong.

Key Takeaway: Learn, Adapt, Specialize, Lead, Humanize

So, what is the career formula for the AI era? I would summarize it in five words: learn, adapt, specialize, lead, and humanize. Learn AI tools continuously, not as a one-time training but as a regular habit. Adapt your work style quickly, because old methods may not always be enough. Specialize in a domain or niche skill so that your judgment becomes valuable. Lead humans and digital teammates together, because the future workplace will include both. And humanize technology by applying ethics, empathy, and responsibility. If we do these five things, AI will not simply be a threat; it can become a career multiplier.

Conclusion: IT Is Still a Great Career — If We Reinvent

In conclusion, IT has always evolved. In the past, programming and offshoring created opportunities for millions. In the present, Gen-AI, AI agents, and Agentic AI are changing how work is done. In the future, long-term careers in IT will belong to people who combine technology skills, business understanding, learning agility, and human judgment. So, if someone asks me, “Is IT still a good career for the next 20 years?” my answer is yes—but not for those who stand still. IT will remain a great career for people who reinvent themselves. The future will not be human versus AI. The future will be humans with AI, guided by wisdom, responsibility, and purpose. Thank you.

Pathways#Innovative Planning#Level5 - High Performance Leadersip #2 - Project Plan and Vision - Results and Lessons Learned

 

Innovative Planning – Level 5 – Speech 2: Results and Lessons Learned

Dear Toastmasters and guests,

In my first speech, I shared the vision and recovery plan for a project that was in serious trouble. (pause)

At that time, the project was under pressure from missed expectations, low morale, and declining customer confidence. (slow down)

Today, I would like to share what happened after that plan was put into action, what results we achieved, and what this experience taught me about leadership, teamwork, and execution. (pause)

At that point, the challenge was no longer only to design the right recovery plan. The real challenge was to turn that plan into visible progress and rebuild confidence step by step. (slow down)

Once the customer accepted our go-to-green plan, we moved quickly into execution. We strengthened the team by assigning clear ownership, adding business analysis support, and improving coordination between onsite and offshore members.

We also tightened our Agile discipline. Daily scrum meetings became shorter and more focused, requirement walkthroughs were recorded, and team questions were handled more systematically. (pause)

We paid closer attention to dependencies, clarified priorities early, and made sure unresolved issues did not stay hidden for long. These changes may sound small, but together they created rhythm, accountability, and momentum. (slow down)

We also followed up consistently on open actions. We tracked issues closely, escalated when needed, and made sure decisions were taken in time.

This taught me that recovery does not happen through one big action. It happens through many small actions followed with consistency and discipline. (pause)

“Vision sets direction, but disciplined execution creates results.”

Just as importantly, we improved the working environment. We reduced long daily meetings, avoided unnecessary weekend work, and created better work-life balance for the team.

We also introduced a bi-weekly “Get to Know Your Team” session, where each member shared something about themselves beyond work. That simple practice helped people connect as human beings, not just as roles in a project plan.

Trust improved, energy improved, and gradually the team stopped behaving like two separate groups and started working as one unit. I realized that technical recovery alone is never enough. If people remain disconnected, even a good plan struggles to survive. (slow down)

As morale improved, people became more open in raising concerns and more willing to help each other. That shift reduced friction, improved collaboration, and made problem-solving faster. (pause)

The most important result was delivery. The release timelines were tight, and even a small delay could have pushed the project into the next year. (slow down)

We did face minor hiccups, but we stayed disciplined, solved issues quickly, and remained focused on the larger objective. By the end of December 2024, we completed all planned releases on schedule.

For a project once seen as a potential sunk cost, this was a major turnaround. More importantly, it restored customer confidence and changed stakeholder conversations from concern and escalation to solutions and progress. (pause)

“A team becomes strong when trust becomes its foundation.”

This experience taught me several important lessons. (pause)

These lessons were not abstract ideas. They were tested in a real situation, under pressure, where delays, confusion, and low trust could easily have pushed the project further into difficulty. (slow down)

First, people perform better when they enjoy their work. Delivery is not driven only by processes and plans. It is also driven by motivation, clarity, and a sense of belonging.

Second, leaders must build camaraderie within the team. When people trust one another, communication becomes easier, support becomes natural, and performance becomes stronger.

Third, psychological safety matters. Team members must feel safe to raise risks, ask questions, and propose ideas without fear. That openness helps problems surface early, before they become crises. (pause)

Fourth, bottlenecks in key roles must be identified and addressed early. A project can lose months when important decisions or clarifications depend on one overloaded person.

Finally, leaders at every level must be empowered to make decisions within their responsibility, guided by the project objective and timeline. Recovery becomes possible when ownership is real and decisions are timely. (slow down)

Looking back, I realize this project was not only about saving a delivery. It was about turning uncertainty into direction, frustration into teamwork, and a damaged situation into shared success. (pause) Innovative planning is not just about creating a plan on paper. It is about listening carefully, acting decisively, and leading people through complexity with courage and discipline. This experience reminded me that leadership matters most when circumstances are difficult and uncertain. (slow down) That is the lesson I will carry forward from this experience. Thank you.

“Great recoveries happen when people stop working in silos and start working with shared purpose.”

 

Pathways#Innovative Planning#Level5 - High Performance Leadersip #1 - Project Plan and Vision - Turning Crisis into Confidence

 Turning Crisis into Confidence

Dear Toastmasters and guests,

As part of Innovative Planning Level 5, I am completing a High-Performance Leadership project. This project requires two speeches. In this first speech, I will share my project plan and vision. In the second speech, I will share the experience, results, and lessons I learned.

Leadership expert Warren Bennis said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”

My project began in April 2024, when I was called into an escalation meeting with a customer. Their message was direct: the project was not progressing as planned, confidence was falling, and a significant amount of money had already been spent without the expected results.

The project involved migrating an on-premises web application to the Microsoft Azure cloud environment. Because the existing application was built on an outdated technology stack, the team had to rewrite it using modern technology and deploy it securely in the cloud. The project started in October 2023 with an onsite-offshore team of around 10 to 12 members, and it had to go live by December 2024 to address security vulnerabilities and support better online accessibility for end users.

After six months of execution, the project was still not moving in the right direction. That made this more than a delayed delivery issue. We were a major strategic partner to the customer, so if this escalation grew further, the impact could reach global leadership on both the customer side and the vendor side. The business risk, relationship risk, and delivery risk were all very real.

Because I had worked closely with the customer manager before, I was asked to step in and help recover the project. My responsibility was not just to solve a technical problem, but to lead a turnaround. I needed to study the operating model, identify requirement gaps, understand skill gaps, improve communication, and create a realistic go-to-green plan that could restore control and rebuild trust.

My vision was clear: bring the project back to a stable and predictable path, restore customer confidence, and still achieve the planned go-live by December 2024. But my vision was bigger than meeting a deadline. I wanted to build one team instead of separate onsite and offshore groups, improve the quality of requirement communication, reduce avoidable rework, and create an environment where people could perform well without constant crisis.

To make that vision real, I wanted the team to work with clarity, discipline, and mutual respect. I wanted developers offshore to receive detailed and accurate requirements, without losing meaning in translation from Japanese to English. I wanted the team to follow Agile ceremonies with purpose, not as routine events, so that issues could be surfaced early and decisions could be made quickly. I also wanted team members to have a healthier work rhythm, with less weekend work and better work-life balance, because sustainable productivity is always stronger than burnout.

Another part of my vision was to make this project a learning opportunity for the team. If we improved our delivery model, people would not only complete this project successfully but also carry stronger skills into future assignments. At the same time, I had to stay practical. The customer had already invested heavily, so my revised plan had to be effective, efficient, and sensitive to both cost and confidence.

That reminds me of a timeless truth often attributed to the former president of America Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”

So, my first step was to understand the root causes behind the delay and then translate that understanding into a practical recovery plan. If an existing process was helping, I would strengthen it. If it was slowing us down, I would change it. If it was not adding value, I would stop it.

The former CEO of Wells Fargo & Company Richard M. Kovacevich said, “A vision and strategy aren’t enough. The long-term key to success is execution. Each day. Every day.”

To turn this vision into action, my project plan had seven steps:

1.      Conduct a root cause analysis to understand the reasons for delay, confusion, and low confidence.

2.      Create a realistic go-to-green plan based on facts, priorities, and recovery milestones.

3.      Align internal leadership and secure support from my management and project leads.

4.      Present the recovery approach to the customer with transparency and accountability.

5.      Rebuild trust by gaining customer approval and commitment to the revised direction.

6.      Execute the plan with strong governance, clear communication, and disciplined Agile delivery.

7.      Lead the team to deliver the project successfully by the December 2024 deadline.

 

This was my project plan and my vision: not only to recover a troubled project, but to lead people, restore trust, and create better results for both the customer and the team. In my next speech, I will share what happened when this plan was put into action. Thank you. 

Pathways#Innovative Planning#Level4#2 Managing Difficult Audience - 2024 Variable payout/Merit increase Outcome Discussion!

 2024 Variable payout/Merit increase Outcome Discussion

 

Good evening, folks and pillars of the organization. I welcome you all to the announcement on the outcomes of this year’s appraisals and Variable pay & salary increment. First thank you all for all the hard work for last year and for all the successful execution of the projects. We have not got any major escalations from our major clients which showcases our continuous dedicated support. Majority of our customers have renewed the contracts with us which showcase their strong belief in us as a strategic partner.

Now Generative AI & AI Agent is in the trend, and we are successfully integrating this technology internally and to our customers. We have invested heavily on these technologies and we have started bearing fruit now.

Ours is a global company and the global business environment, economic conditions, and the achievement rate of KPIs for the entire company, not just Japan, affect the variable bonus payout rate.

For the last financial year, our company’s top line was $23.9 billion, which represents a 1.9% decrease YoY. Our bottom line is $1.81 billion, which is a slight increase of 0.5% when compared to the previous year, with an operating margin being 13.3%, which is way less than our competitors’.

This year we saw Trump administration taking control of the white house. Already we are seeing so much uncertainties day by day due to this. Since US contributes to most of our business, we are not clear on the effect of making in US enforcement to our group companies as we have interests in both engineering and services.

 Our board discussed and debated various scenarios considering changing uncertainties in the parts of the globe today where our primary business happens. As announced by our CEO, our company’s overall revenue decreased by 2%, Additionally our Japan unit also experienced a decline, with a 5.3% negative growth, marking the first in 11 years since the establishment that we did not achieve growth. In this context, the Business performance factor(BPF), which is the indicator of calculating variable compensation, was in the 80% range. As a result, with those Exceeding or higher performance rating received more than 100% of the bonus target, those with Succeeding rating did not reach 80%.

Individual communication regarding compensation by managers started last week, but we would like to share the situation with everyone here. Despite the challenging global economic conditions and the tough business environment for the consulting industry, urgent actions are being considered to bring Japan unit back on growth mode, including discussions with our CEO who visited Japan last month. We ask for your understanding of the circumstances in response to the business situation in 2024 and for your continued contribution and cooperation towards growth in 2025.

After lots of deliberations, it was decided to approach this year with very caution. For this year, Only Exceeding & Exceptional rating will get the salary increment. Succeeding & below rating will not get the salary increment. This is in line with the above-mentioned market conditions. We are far better than our competitors when compared to the variable payout percentage and salary increases for this year. This shows the prevailing market conditions and our company’s cautious approach.  

From this year onwards, we have introduced new processes to provide more controls to the individual accounts for merit distribution. We are introducing the role of pay plan manager who can distribute the hike % within their team members according to the account’s needs and stability.

Hopefully we believe that within another couple of months, we will have clarity on Trump’s import tax details, and we can plan well. Since we operate as a local entity in most of the regions, we do not have much impact in the services industry, but we will have an impact on the engineering side where we do import engineering goods to the US.

I request you all to have a detailed discussion with your team members on the variable payout percentages and salary increments. We should explain clearly to them and make them understand the decision by our board considering last year’s financial outcome and prevailing market conditions.

We have also rolled out Microsoft co-pilot for all our employees considering the Generative AI & Agentic AI trend in the market even though the license costs are high. Kindly cascade with all your team members to utilize this opportunity to learn copilot and start enhancing their skillsets. It is going to be a game-changer in the upcoming years. It is good for the employees as well as our organization.

Kindly identify key members in your team, maybe 5% of which we can have special negotiation for them for Salary increments in case of resignation. We should anticipate attrition and plan efficiently so that it will not affect the delivery to our customers.

I once again thank you for all your contributions for last year and hope the same for this year also. Thank you.

Pathways#Innovative Planning#Level4#1 Managing Projects - Saving the Project!

 Good evening Toastmaster of the evening and fellow toastmasters. Today I am going to explain the recovery of an IT project at my work.

Last year April, I was asked by the customer to join a management meeting, in that meeting I was told that the client project manager wants to scrap the project as our team at offshore was not able to deliver even a single delivery as planned in the last one year. He requested the money spent on this project to be considered as sunk cost to his management as he doesn’t have confidence to deliver the project by December.

The customer has already spent more than a million dollars on that project. His management was totally surprised and afraid of the consequences from their senior management. If we go and tell the management that we are incurring a million-dollar sunk cost, then it will raise various questions on their management capabilities as well as us.

To save the face, we told the customer that we will analyze the root cause of this issue and come up with Go To Green plan. I started working on the root cause analysis. I started having extensive discussions with the customers and our team members and documented the issues and sorted them into the highest priority order. Some of the key issues identified are

1.      There is no dedicated offshore project manager for the 15-member team. Since we operate in Time and material mode, the customer thought that they could control the team from onsite directly.

2.      There is no dedicated technical lead who knows the existing system and helps the team with any queries.

3.      Requirements are not clear from the developer perspective.

4.      The current lead at onsite was overloaded and not able to reply to the team’s queries on time.

5.      Daily scrum calls are extended for hours, and the total daily meeting hours are around 3-4 hours on average due to various reasons, and it completely spoiled the team’s productivity.

6.      Daily extended working hours and weekend work have affected the team’s morale.

Due to all these issues, the team morale is low, and senior resources want to move out of this project.

Against these issues, we started writing our action plan. Dedicated project manager at offshore, Business system analyst at onsite and offshore for requirement clarity, dedicated technical lead at onsite. We presented this to the customer & the customer was convinced of the identified issues and the action plan from us. We projected the final release date within December with phased monthly releases in the subsequent months.

The only constraint we faced was that the customer clearly told us that they couldn’t pay for additional resources as they already burnt more than a million dollars into this project.

So, we had many discussions internally with our management and were convinced to invest non-billable resources in this project as part of our recovery plan but ensured that the profit margin won’t go below standard. Our management also agreed, and we added one Business System Analyst at onsite and re-mapped existing lead at offshore as project manager and added a replacement for him. We also added one Business System Analyst  at offshore. I took control as PM from onsite. 

We started strictly adhering to Scrum ceremonies. We ensured that the daily scrum meetings do not go beyond 20-30 minutes. Requirement walkthrough sessions are recorded and kept in the common repository for future reference. Requirement clarification queries from the team are properly addressed and the members started enjoying the work. We ensured to avoid weekend work and extended work hours to have the work-life balance. We also introduced a bi-weekly session on “Get to Know your team” where every team member will present about themselves nothing about the work. This session played an important role in getting to know each other and it really gelled the team together. The team members loved these sessions as they started hearing different life paths & ambitions of their colleagues.

The timelines for the phased releases are very tight so that even one slippage could push the project end date to the next year which the customer doesn’t want. We all stick to the plan though we had minor hiccups in the releases. At the end of December, we have done all the releases as planned. It is a great achievement for all of us who planned meticulously and worked very hard for this.

What I learned from this project are.

1.      Members in the team should enjoy working on the project.

2.      The leader of the team should enable the camaraderie within the team.

3.      Psychological safety should be provided so that the team will not be afraid of taking risks and showcase it as a safe environment.

4.      Key roles/Bottle necks of the project should be identified and addressed as early as possible.

5.      All the leaders within the project should be allowed to take decisions in their capacity considering the project objective and timeline.

Over to the TMOE!

Club-ISC - Feb 2025 - When life hands over a lemon…

One day I went for a walking in a nearby park. My attention was grabbed by. Waoh! Waoh! Waoh! Waoh! (Barking) .

The dog enthusiastically jumped like a bouncing ball, twirled like a twister and played with the fellow dogs. It played enthusiastically with the owner.

Suddenly I found something odd with that dog. I watched him closely and astonished to find that he has only three legs. It seems that the dog has lost a leg due to some accident. The dog showed no sign of handicap or remorse. I got awe inspired.

Good evening contest master, fellow toastmasters and guests.

On a warm Sunday morning, I got a call from my cousin.

He said “Next week … our Singapore uncle is coming for his house warming ceremony”.

I got very excited on hearing that our Singapore uncle Mohan is coming.

Immediately I started to think about my Singapore uncle Mohan. He was born and brought up in a middle class family. He finished his schooling and was very much interested in doing engineering. But, due to his financial situation he joined polytechnic. After that he worked in a mechanical lathe in Chennai. Seeking a better livelihood he went to Bangalore. When he reached Bangalore he didn’t have any money. He even slept in the railway station for 3 days with limited food like a pauper. Then he got a job in a company and worked like a bumble bee to become the top performer in his job.

After a couple of years working in Bangalore, he found an opportunity to work in Singapore and moved to Singapore. He was the top performer in that job also. After a brief stint in that job, he switched over to sales in another company. During the course of the job he frequently travelled all around the globe and he was regarded as the best sales person in the entire sales community in his field. In the meantime, he started his own venture in Chennai. Within five years the company progressed northwards and now at the age of 60, he is a multi-millionaire owning assets in both Singapore and India.

On the other day, I met him in an event. I wished him and asked ,

Me: Uncle, What is the major reason behind your success? Didn’t you ever worry when life handed you just a diploma?

Uncle: Thani, I was worried when I had just a diploma. At many times I thought how I am going to have a good life with the meager salary and with a diploma education. All my worries vanished and I was reincarnated after reading a story by Dale Carnegie.

Me: Oh! Can you please share with me the story uncle?

Uncle: Definitely!

Once upon a time a man lived in Chicago and had five sons. One day he called his five sons to a meeting and handed over a share of his father land to all his sons. The next day all his sons eagerly visited the land and shocked to find, that the land is present near the forest and is fully occupied by the most venomous rattle snakes. Four out of the five sons consider the land as barren and left. But one son thought he can do something with it. After couple of years, he started exporting the poison of rattle snakes across the globe to all the pharmacy companies manufacturing antitoxins. He also exported the canned rattle snake flesh.

When life handed him the most venomous poison in the world, he accepted it graciously and become a successful person. “Be the best in your job, everything will be taken care”.

When life handed him a small lemon - a diploma, he accepted it and went on to become a successful entrepreneur.

Nelson Mandela says, “It is what we make out of what we have … not what we are given, that differentiates one person from another”

Dear Fellow toastmasters, what is the thing that life handed over to you?  Are you worrying that the thing you received in life is worthless or very small?

When I introspect my life so far, Am I not given fairly by life? I really agree that life has given me far beyond when compared to my uncle.

My parents gave me a wonderful start to me by which I had done my master’s in computer applications, 18 years later I had done my MBA, through the course I got professional certifications. This month, I got my Japanese language certification N2. Though my lemons may not be comparable like other achievers, but I am trying my best to make it a lemonade.

Don’t worry about the lemon handed by the life; strive hard until you make lemonade.

What is your lemon?