The Principles...Part 4

Ahhh...a cup of freshly brewed Vietnamese coffee... This will be a very significant milestone for chuntoicracks.blogspot.com as the post was actually completed in Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 28th May 2010. The fourth and last of my original principles "Use Common Sense"...there are actually more than 4 principles...after making Adjustments to new requirement and scenario...lain kali saja lah...

Common Sense is a very huge and deep subject...as it is a very subjective matter. In fact, a few years back, I had a 3hours long debate with Stephen "The Botak" Tan where he argued that a person's Common Sense might not really be another person's Common Sense...that is actually a totally different argument altogether...

Anyway, there are however, quite a few universally agreed "Common Sense"...like a boiling pot, naturally, Common Sense tells us that it is very hot, therefore, do not touch or you'll burn your hand...you don't really need proofs or case study because some dumb prick touched it a long long time ago...hehehe...

Isn't it also a Common Sense that we would handle something fragile carefully because it'll break easily?

Before crossing the road, looking to you left & right & left again would be a Common Sense in Malaysia because of our road system...however, in our neighbouring countries like Vietnam & Cambodia, it would be the reverse...left hand drive mah...better yet, you don't really need to look as the drivers or motorbike riders should be looking at you and "Siam" you while you cross...strange...

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The term "Common Sense" is explained in the Dictionary as "Sound judgment not based on specialized knowledge; native good judgment." while Thesaurus as "The ability to make sensible decisions: judgment, sense, wisdom. Informal gumption, horse sense.".
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A 19th century Swiss philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel quoted "Common Sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life.".

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Another great mind also from the 19th century, Henry Ward Beecher also quoted on the subject, "The philosophy of one century is the common sense of the next.".

Now, how will this fourth principle works...looking back at the earlier 3 principles, they are very much measurable and objective driven while Common Sense can be very "Subjective" yet "Judgment Based"...which gives the principles a balanced.
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Take working on a BAT project for example, the inexperience juniors in the Brand team will not know the full Standard Operating Procedure that G2 personnel needs to go through in order for a request as simple as purchasing 300,000pcs of Lighters.

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Using Common Sense, the logical next steps would be identifying the Lighter design, the material, the type, the sample, the colour combination, the brand language, the message (If any), the quantity, the budget available, the unit price, the delivery date, the method of delivery, the packaging, the Indirect Procurement policies, the competitive quotes, the Production Estimate, the approval process, the Purchase Orders, the Invoices, the FA files, the Colour Separation files, the production, the QC...With all the steps mentioned above, using Common Sense again, it would be vertually impossible to complete everything in one month's time...unless they are talking about the RM1 Cricket Lighters...
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With Common Sense, Covering All Angles and Attention To Details through a thorough Thinking Process, it should give you enough bullet to convince the client by using the skill to Manage their Expectations rather than agreeing and taking that instruction or request without providing any suggestion or better solutions...
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Furthermore, those steps mentioned above, are pretty much applicable to almost everything requested by BAT personnel, be it a Pack Insert, a Point Of Sales Material, a Packaging, an Activity or even an Event...therefore, even though they can also be categorised as processes, they should be part of the G2 BAT personnel's Common Sense...

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In fact, it should also be BAT personnel's Common Sense too...the lack of it in this context, would result in demanding for crazy requests to be fulfilled...which could cause a lot of unnecessary stress...unfortunately (For some weaker or inexperience G2 BAT personnel), that is the case...as they (Both G2 BAT personnel and BAT personnel) are unable to rationale or negotiate with the client or their superiors. Eventually, most of the stress and pressure are being transferred to other G2 BAT departments as well as suppliers...

Circumstances require the blogger to go deeper into explaining the final principle and possibly, revisit and edit some of the earlier posted subjects as there are potential "Danger" when one missed the plot completely...
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Finally, don't just take my words of the 4 principles, read more articles, books or google them on the internet, you will get a lot of website that dedicate and advocate the same concept...possibly delivering the same message slightly differently.
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Vietnam did give me some inspirations, a different perspective even...their history gave the Vietnamese some very strong characters and it shows...I was a Chun Toi experiencing their country for the 1st time, thanks to Nick Lee, Yee Mei and Daniel for showing us the rope...Although I have a very strange concept of Common Sense but after all, I'm still me...a Chun Toi with Cracks.