PRESENT

An organisation’s tangible assets, such as technology and cash, are less potent than the intangible assets, such as the atmosphere and attitude that leaders can build or destroy.

You have no idea how you have changed my life. You will never know how powerful your presentation was for me…

Royal Military College in Duntroon

In 1992 Jonar co-founded (with Gordon Jackson) the New Leaders’ Forum funded by Johnson & Johnson, McKinsey & Company, Qantas Airways, Queensland Rail, and other prominent organisations. For seven years, he was a member of the steering-committee of the New Leaders Foundation. He later served for two years as a Director of the Sydney College of Divinity.

Management

Jonar conducts especial presentations that address the skills that managers will need if they are to survive and thrive in the modern world.

He says, ‘Exceptional managers are those who prepare for victory before they make their first move. As much as humanly possible, they leave nothing to chance. Nothing within their reach remains unchecked.

They allow no-one within their command to tempt fate. Preparing for failure is a pre-eminent way of maintaining success. Preparing for war is a sure way of securing peace. Preparing for an attack is a superior way of mounting a defence.’

Organisations need mature managers who can turn average employees into superstars, and harness extraordinary results from ordinary people so that together, they can grow the organisation.

Do the world’s leading organisations hire the world’s leading employees? Do high-performing businesses employ high-performing people? Of course not! Most of us are average people. Therefore, managers would do well to learn how to work with average employees.

The problems associated with attracting good staff have nothing to do with an alleged shortage of candidates. In this presentation, Jonar will outline the reasons why organisations are finding it difficult to attract and retain staff. He contends that the hiring process is often more abusive than the firing process.

The secret job-market

If organisations can only attract new people by offering more money or fancier cars, then it stands to reason that its existing staff could be lured away by larger salaries. If you are finding it hard to attract good talent, chances are that your existing employees are on the secret job-market. Fix the internal organisation, and the world’s your oyster. Alas, how can organisations achieve this, when CEOs do not understand the depth of loathing that exists within some wayward managers, in whose hands they entrust the delicate hiring process?

Organisations know that job-performance boils down to job-satisfaction. And they know that job-satisfaction depends on the relationships that staff members have with their managers and colleagues.

They also know that attracting and retaining staff is quite a challenge, especially in view of the peculiar work-ethics of the modern now-generation.

In an effort to foster workplace harmony, managers resort to ‘teamwork’ by espousing misguided mantras about diversity in the workplace. Teamwork is about constructing teams that work — not about pleading for people to tolerate each other’s differences.

In this presentation, Jonar will outline his ideas about living a zestful and enchanting life; where work, rest, and play can all be rolled into one. Only then can organisations have any hope of promoting excellence. From excellence, we arrive at expertise. Amidst expertise, we see dynamic work environments that are both enriching and rewarding. It is in such places wherein geniuses are born. It is at the hands of such energised people, that care for our clients’ needs can be genuine.

In most work environments, staff members are afraid to speak up. So, it is likely that they will: suffer in silence; work to rule; lose enthusiasm; feel let down; and eventually leave. Meanwhile the power-hungry manipulators move up and infest the organisation.

Those who believe that, on their deathbed, they will not wish they’d spent more time at work, must lead a boring and uneventful life. What a miserable existence it would be, if work were so bad that one would not want to devote more time to one’s craft.

What organisations need

Jonar says, ‘Solid organisations need stability, not diversity. In my organisation, I do not need diversity of values — I will not work with cheating, conniving hounds. I do not need diversity of ethics — I will not work with liars and thieves. I do not need diversity of culture — I will not work with people who excuse their undesirable behaviour by virtue of their culture. The only time that I tolerate diversity is when people are morally decent, yet have issues that are beyond their control. For example, people cannot control who their parents are, but they can control whether or not they intimidate and bully others.’

Retailing is not only about selling. It is not only about merchandising. It is not only about stock-control or staff-management or the product-mix.

Retailing is the most exciting of all the professions in the sales cycle. A retailer is not someone who on-sells stock from a range of suppliers. A retailer is the last contact with the consumer. This is a most privileged position. Therefore, a retailer is the relationship-builder. This can give the retailer the ultimate power — to know, to educate, and to serve the customer in order to build a long-term relationship. In this presentation, Jonar will focus on retailing excellence, and he will outline the reasons that retailers fail. What are the pitfalls? What can be done about them?

He says that the function of the retailer is to own the relationship with the customer. How can this be achieved, especially when many retailers hire junior staff to take care of their business? Sales staff presume that it is their duty to make a sale. Jonar believes that the highest priority for a sales person is not to make a sale, but to make a long-term friend of the store, so that the success of a transaction can be measured over four years.

Managers do not seem to realise that everyone is a retailer. Unless you operate a monopoly, you are a retailer. Jonar defines a retailer as any business where the client has the choice to go elsewhere.

Whether you are a boutique retailer, a retail chain, or a franchise system, Jonar will explain how you can deliver consistency across the board. The giant retailers are concerned with sustainability, while the smaller retailers are worried about stiff competition from the big players.

While retailing is exciting, it is also daunting because it requires hyperactive levels of attention to the so many areas of the business. It becomes delicate to juggle finance, stock-turn, cash-flow, suppliers, staff, customers, shrinkage and pilferage, the sales seasons, the economic roller-coaster ride, and the endless new products and services on offer, especially when the barriers to entry are minimal, or when the Internet complicates the traditional methods.

You would think that customer-service is one of the oldest professions, yet, companies collapse, businesses blunder, and friendships fail, because business operators do not understand that it all boils down to two intangible foundation stones.

Keep in mind that ‘customer service’ has little to do with how well we treat our clients. It’s all about how earnestly we embrace self-improvement.

Excellence in customer-service can only exist if an organisation promotes excellence in all aspects of its operations.

If customer-service were easy, everyone would be doing it! Customers are not always right, but their perception is always real.

Excellent customer-service requires an intimate understanding of modern consumer behaviour, amidst fierce competition and social pressures that are driven chiefly by new technologies, new laws, and global competition.

CEOs whose factories and offices deliver inferior products and services do not deserve one moment’s rest. Executives cannot ethically command a salary when they deliver rubbish, frustrations, and broken promises, in return for good money. Profits are lost every time an error is made or a faulty product is replaced. Such floundering is a disservice to shareholders — and what could be more irresponsible than that?

In most cases, customers hang around due to limited options; not due to loyalty. The moment that they have an alternative, they will take it, especially if they are unhappy with you. It’s about time that organisations face the question of customer loyalty, based not on how many customers they have, but on how many they would have if their customers were given the opportunity to make a meaningful protest. Would your customers leave you, if they could easily leave? This would have to be the most crucial question that any organisation must contemplate.

Jonar says, ‘Before an organisation decides to engage in customer service, it must treat the decision with all the due-diligence that one would afford to the notion of a sex change.’

In life, those who are content, are the richest of all. In business, those who are content, are sitting ducks.

Many organisations are desperately trying to find ways to cut costs, in order to survive. However, Jonar Nader says that cost-cutting is simplistic and dangerous. He points out that clever organisations will be those who can find innovative ways to not only charge their customers more, but have their customers pay the money with pleasure!

What will be more important than the bottom line?

In this presentation, Jonar will outline the world’s most powerful business weapon, and share the secrets to market supremacy.

In the future, what will be more important than the bottom line? Of all your assets, which will be the most important one for survival in the modern world? Furthermore, which of your assets will be the most valuable?

Having worked with large and small organisations, Jonar will explain the nature of the glue that binds customers to us.

The endorsement of ‘continuous improvement’ (kaizen) makes managers lazy because it signals (erroneously) that imperfection can be tolerated so long as one intends to improve over time. Continuous improvement might have worked for organisations that dominated their market for twenty years. It can still work for monopolies that do not feel the pressure to offer a better product or service. The networked world demands that organisations hire workers who will make an extra effort to get the job done to perfection and with a sense of urgency. Continuous improvement is ill-advised because gradual improvement leads to speedy failure.

Prudent executives must confront what must be confronted and reject what must be rejected. Timing becomes the single factor that determines victory. But timing is a perishable state. Its window of opportunity is never the same for any two situations. For that reason, the best time to strike, is the instant that you know you must.

The exciting concept of trading within the market-space (cyberspace) has been widely discussed. What is little understood is the notion of market-pace. Organisations wishing to survive and compete in the accelerating networked world need to grasp the notion of market-pace because it is the pace of change, development, and attack that will weed out the amateurs from the professionals.

Everyone applauds innovation after it succeeds, but who has the perceptivity and foresight to discern between fleeting change and lasting change?

Innovation is a respected and revered concept. The word sits alongside ‘leadership’ and ‘customer-service’. All CEOs desire innovation with the same intensity they hanker after profitability. Everyone wants it, yet few know how to generate it.

Innovation is not something that can be applied selectively. Managers cannot turn to innovation for survival. Jonar says, ‘Innovation is not a project or a program. It is a way of life. Boards cannot turn to managers and ask for innovation, no more than they can turn to them for honesty and ethics. We do not have an occasional honesty-drive. If it is to exist, honesty must be all-encompassing, all-consuming, and totally invisible, yet ever-present. Similarly, innovation must be engrained in the culture. Unfortunately, even with intense desire, innovation is difficult to attain because it requires both intent and skill.’

Let Jonar take you on an exhilarating journey into the dark world of innovation. During this presentation, Jonar will explain why everything is different, even though nothing has changed. He insists that we are actually slowing down because the more that a society develops, the slower its innovation. Jonar will outline the drivers and the limiters to innovation, including the law of saturation, the law of propensity, and the law of annihilation, and how these impact an organisation’s ability to achieve excellence.

Jonar will reveal the result of three years of research. He will outline why organisations do not know how to innovate. He will spell-out the obstacles and the limitations. More importantly, he will share the solutions and demonstrate how, like everything else in life, it’s easy… if you know how. Jonar adds, ‘Some people brazenly admit to not being in the business of innovation. Alas, every enterprise must learn how to innovate. Without innovation, we cannot grow. Unfortunately, many organisations confuse ‘growth’ with ‘expansion’. Growth points to infrastructural soundness, while expansion is like an inflating balloon: sooner or later… kaboom!’

Innovation does not come from conformity. Genius is not harnessed by mediocrity. Yet conformity and mediocrity dominate the forest.’

If futurists do a good job, the masses will doubt them. If they do a great job, the masses will heckle them. If they do an excellent job, the masses will hang them.

As a futurist, Jonar can give you information and insight that very few people have access to. He advocates that organisations can engineer their future if they understand the secrets to success in the networked world. Jonar can help you to build bridges so that you can enter the future with ease.

He says, ‘A futurist is someone who understands the current strengths and weaknesses of the here and now, and is able to see the strengths and weaknesses of the next destination. As such, a futurist is able to assess which of the two locations will dominate, and offer suggestions about what can be done to prepare for, and adapt to, the new environment, should it prove victorious. The hallmark of a futurist is being able to understand the differences between fleeting and lasting change.’

Preparation will remove the sense of urgency that blinds many organisations when faced with the shock of change. By understanding the new world, one is able to build solid foundations and flexible infrastructures so that one is able to react with purpose, not respond with surprise.

He says, ‘Many organisations suffer the sitting-duck syndrome. They wait for problems to happen or for markets to shift, and then they convene a meeting, wondering what they can do to react. However, if they can learn to think like a futurist, they can prepare for the future or better still, they can engineer it.’

Come on an exhilarating journey into the 21st Century as Jonar shares his ideas about the next 30 years. He will outline where the rich and powerful will invest their money and show you how to make your business attractive to future investors. He will help you to assess if you will survive the merciless networked world where consumers and societies are placing new pressures on organisations and governments.

There was a time when companies appointed specialist sales-people, and soon they learned that everyone in an organisation can make-or-break a sale, so in effect, we were all sales people. Then they appointed customer-service managers, and they soon realised that every employee should focus on delivering service excellence. The same happened when they appointed quality-assurance managers, until they realised that quality is everyone’s responsibility.

Companies will soon learn that every staff member ought to be a security officer. We must all comprehend the risks and the threats. We can only do this when we can understand ‘the mind of the hacker’ and ‘the motives of the terrorist’.

How many organisations know how easy it would be to ‘take them out’? How many managers and security officers possess a healthy level of paranoia? Jonar warns that we remain vulnerable until all employees and citizen learn that information is easily snatched from the hands of those who do not know its significance.

In this presentation, Jonar will explain the anatomy of terrorism, and he will discuss the risks in relation to fraud, scams, and sabotage that could bring cities and organisations to their knees.

What are the risks of us losing our way of life? What civil unrest could we face?

The future of terrorism is inextricably linked to technology. The superpowers of the future will be those who can conquer the three pillars of wealth-creation, being Nano-Technology, Bio-Technology, and Chemical-Technology. Fuse all three upon their maturity, and the world will change to such a degree, that all previous inventions would rate as insignificant and inconsequential. The nuclear bomb would look like a cumbersome oaf when compared with the tri-technology terrorist (T3) of the future.

Anyone who subscribed to the philosophy that ‘September Eleven changed the world’ is lacking a large measure of understanding about world affairs. Indeed, everything is different, but nothing has changed.

We declared war-on-poverty, yet thousands of people die daily from hunger. We announced the war-on-waste, yet millions of children can’t find water to drink. And what’s our track record regarding the war-on-drugs? Surely nothing short of abysmal! In any case, we would do well to understand that we are not in a war-on-terror. Terror is different from terrorism, which is not the modus operandi of all terrorists. During this presentation, Jonar will answer a series of questions, including:

• What are the risks of losing our way of life?
• What would be worse than not catching a terrorist?
• In the age of terrorism, what must we fear most?
• For terrorists, what is worse than death, and what do they value more than life?
• What is the difference between a criminal and a terrorist?
• What is the anatomy of terror?
• What are the characteristics of the top-ten different types of terrorists?
• How will terrorists impact organisations, governments, and societies?
• How will traditional terrorists and hackers infiltrate corporations?
• How does globalisation make terrorism and hacking easier?

We are neither suspicious enough nor paranoid enough. We quickly forget about the dangers, and we are easily lulled into a false sense of security. Most of our colleagues have not had to suffer the atrocities of major attacks, so they do not even know what looks suspicious. They don’t stop to think about the loopholes and the backdoors, because they are blind to them.

The fact that Internet scams can still net millions of dollars for fraudsters, shows how gullible our society is. Despite all the education and public warnings about identity-theft, people will still answer the phone and divulge information to a total stranger.

Organisations invest heavily in physical infrastructures, yet they don’t stop to think that a thief can wait downstairs to apprehend the courier who hand-carries the backup files containing all the vital information. And when a drama occurs, they promise a full investigation. How about some healthy paranoia pre-drama rather than post-event!

In this presentation, Jonar will ask if the average organisation is capable of foiling an attack. He will point to real examples that show why hackers are good at staying one step ahead of most organisations. Security is not just about fortification.

If we value honesty, we must teach everyone what dishonesty looks like, lest a dishonest person operate undetected. If we value peace, we must teach people how to fight. If we value stability through security, we must train everyone what attackers might do, and how they might do it.

Jonar’s wide range of skills enable him to delve deeply into specialist areas to assist small and large organisations. His presentations are crafted after extensive briefings so that he can customise his keynotes or workshops to your specific industry or discipline.

Depending on client demands, Jonar is always adding new programs and topics. Here are some of the latest subject areas:

Excellence

Managers should stop trying to employ brilliant people. Instead, they should focus on injecting the winning spirit so that their existing employees can do brilliant things. Brilliance emerges when Enthusiasm is supported by Energy, within a framework of Excellence. Jonar describes these as ‘E3’.

Excellence cannot be attained in one major leap. It results from miniscule increments whereby each day, we strive for a one-percent improvement in everything we do. One Percent EXcellence is what Jonar calls ‘OPEX’. The second part to this presentation looks at ‘E3’ which stands for Enthusiasm, Energy, and Excellence.

Zestful living

Jonar says, ‘Living peacefully means not allowing others to upset your good nature. Living generously means injecting energy into other people’s lives. Living mercifully means allowing others to cope with their frailties. Living gracefully means not draining others of their emotions. You can express your peace, through forgiveness. You can express your generosity, through civility. You can express your mercy, through clemency. And you can express your grace, through courtesy.’

Through his personal development seminars and self-optimisation workshops, Jonar will point out the keys to success and happiness whereby we can make every day count.

Technology

Corporations are wondering how the digital landscape might affect their business, and how consumer-behaviour might change within the online world.

The function of technology is to ‘create an advantage’, meaning that if you are using technology, and you are not doing so for the purpose of creating an advantage, you are either a victim of the ‘law of saturation’ or you are lost in the woods, wondering which new bandwagon will provide hope.

However, Jonar says, ‘Technology has no mercy for the haphazard. The Internet and all its peripheral technologies will not make you efficient, if you are now inefficient. It will not make you faster if you are now slow. It will not enable you to deliver better customer-service if you currently deliver none. In fact, if you are inefficient, e business will amplify your inefficiencies for all to see. If you are slow, it will slow you down even further. If you do not currently delight your clients, it will help you to drive them away faster than ever before.’

Education

Over the years, Jonar has worked with primary schools, high schools, and universities, as well as school boards, principals, teachers, and students.

Jonar has worked one-on-one with policy makers, educators, and faculty staff to help to develop better school environments and exceptional teaching methods.

He has addressed international conferences on how to design school systems that will inspire young and old.

In these presentations, Jonar helps to answer a range of important questions, starting with:

• What is the function of a primary school?
• What is the function of a high school?
• What is the function of tertiary studies?
• What is the function of a tertiary institution?
• What is the role of the teacher?
• In terms of education, what is the role of the parent?
• In terms of a child’s development, what is the role of society
• What is the responsibility of the student?
• What is the role of the principal?

Career development

Following the release of ‘How to Lose Friends and Infuriate Your Boss’, Jonar delivers a suite of programs to help people to think of ways to take control of their career. He assists students, entrepreneurs, and professionals and provokes important debate around the sensitive and often heated issues of careers, office politics, racism, remuneration, and education.

He obliterates long-standing theories such as the supposed benefits of university — suggesting that for many, it’s merely a form of ‘adult kindergarten’. He highlights the futility of ‘networking’ and the tendency to blame ‘discrimination’ and other factors for one’s predicament. He explores the nine modern ‘diseases’ responsible for personal failure, yet he also advises readers on how to build an enriching career via the 15 new skills that every executive will need to acquire.

Jonar contends that it is never too early or too late to build a rewarding career. His lectures address personal-development, career advancement, discrimination, performance reviews, corporate cancer, networking, mentoring, and how to handle the boss from hell. He adds, ‘If you choose to be a success, you’ll be a success at whatever you choose, so long as you can follow your heart and watch your back.’

Relationships

Jonar is not a relationship guru. However, it has occurred to him that everything in life all boils down to how people relate to each other. Often, his consulting assignments start around the boardroom table, and somehow then continue around the kitchen table because it seems that all success and failure have their roots in relationships, whether these be between friends, colleagues, or lovers.

We all know that lover hurts. For some of us, it hurts longer and the pain becomes stronger as we seek and search and look and delve and dream and fantasise and, with great intensity, wish for a happy ending. Love baffles. Love torments. Whether we are young or old, love takes up much of our attention.

During these presentations and mentoring programs, Jonar outlines the results of his years of research into how self-esteem, personal confidence, and human weakness contribute to, or detract from, a blissful life.

Many organisations place great emphasis on personal development and educational advancement, yet few know how to tackle the roots of dysfunctional behaviour. Working in groups and late with individuals, Jonar acts as a mentor to help people to realise how their behaviour might be sabotaging their own success, or even destroying their relationships with the people around them.

In his book, ‘How to Lose Friends and Infuriate Lovers’, Jonar writes, ‘I know that people are hurting. Most are beautiful. Many are lost. Some have lost the plot. Others have lost something much more precious… hope. Almost all of them cry for affection and direction and acceptance and clarity and joy and simplicity and laughter. And they think that all this will come when they can snuggle in the arms of not only someone whom they love, but someone whom they love and who happens to love them back in equal measure, simultaneously. If only. Oh, if only those whom we loved, could love us in return. All the world’s troubles would lift and drift. All of these things are compounded by the difficulties and challenges that stem from our career, our work, our finances, our fears, our pressures, our loneliness, our insecurities, our age, and the ticking clock. Worst of all, they are complicated by the loss of hope. Losing hope is the final death knell.’

Jonar does more than deliver crowd-pleasing presentations. Apart from his keynote presentations, he conducts workshops of varying lengths.

Jonar can also prepare and lead or chair debates, round-tables, or general conversations and discussion groups. He can conduct study tours and even entertaining yet educational treasure hunts.

You can rest assured that all of Jonar’s assignments will be executed to the highest standards to meet your specific brief.

In addition, Jonar is known as a ‘mood setter’ who can work with you behind the scenes to construct powerful programmes for your next conference or educational seminars.

He can help with themes, music production, stage direction, lighting design, and theatrical extensions so that your event become captivating and enthralling. It’s all a question of timing, and this is an area that few know how to engineer to perfection.

With over ten years of experience, Jonar has seen some of he biggest budgets wasted on grand set designs that are neither functional nor practical. If you would like to experience a new level of attention to detail, talk to us about how we can assist you to devise, develop, and design the most captivating workshops, product launches, conferences, or conventions.