My friends ask me: "You've been the CEO of a company for some months. How is running a company different from what you were doing earlier?"

As someone who made the transition from the profession of offering business advice to that of executing corporate decisions, I find it hard to respond easily. On the one hand, a few months add up to a pitifully short time in any company. But then, just as the morning signals the day ahead, the first few months at the helm of a company indicate the sort of management path the company is likely to take in the future. Still, here is what I have observed, learnt and adapted to so far.

Job vs Career: I used to believe that employees should focus on doing their jobs well. I have now started to believe that employees will do their jobs better if management takes time to explain and re-explain what career paths the company can offer. Given today's job market in Nepal, skilled employees, especially those who have to produce ideas and have to play with numbers, do not work hard for the sheer love of late nights or because they want to make money for others. They work hard because their diligence is meaningful to them in the context of a career path.

The sooner management learns to frame narrow job-related discussions within broader career-related goals for each individual, the quicker a motivated employee sees how their present job, with certain results, leads to where they want to go next. I do not waste time these days explaining what jobs employees should do. I worry about not being able to show clearly which jobs are likely to lead to which career paths, and what employees can and should do to get there.

Weakness vs Strength: One thing I have noticed in many Nepali companies is that people are hired from outside for their strengths. Once inside, they are then hounded by management and colleagues for their weaknesses. But as the late management guru Peter Drucker never tired of explaining, for any employee it is hard to improve on a weakness. It's much easier to focus on a strength and build on it. I have found this to be true.

The more an employee is taken to task for his weaknesses, the more his performance suffers. But the more management takes time to ask: "What are you really good at?" the better the result. After all, people take pride in what they do well - not in activities for which they have neither talent nor interest.

Secrecy vs Openness: Most Nepali companies are secretive to the point of being financially sick. This is not surprising. When management spends too much time hiding information and playing one group against another, employees have no choice but to use up their working hours to obsess over management's every gesture. Factions form, loyalties are fragmented, and products and customers are neglected. The antidote is to install a communication system that lets employees focus only on selling what the company produces.

Previously, the \'market' was a theoretical construct. These days, I find it in the phone calls of customers.