How to Manage People in 15 Minutes a Day !!

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The Social Networking Revolution…Facebook

A Web site started by a student as a way of staying in touch with friends celebrated its fifth birthday Wednesday as a billion-dollar business and a global phenomenon.

Around 15 million users update their statuses on Facebook daily.

Mark Zuckerberg was 19 when he launched Facebook from a Harvard dorm in 2004. Within 24 hours, more than 1,000 of his Harvard classmates had signed up for the social-networking site and one month later half of those on campus had a profile.

Five years on, the Web site claims more than 150 million users worldwide while Zuckerberg, now 24, was named the youngest billionaire on the planet — with an estimated fortune of $1.5 billion — last year by Forbes magazine.

Writing in Time on Zuckerberg’s inclusion in the magazine’s 2008 list of the most influential 100 people in the world, Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, said Zuckerberg had created “a social network that not only reflects your life but maybe expands it.”

Along with sites such as MySpace and Bebo, Facebook has also been credited with bringing social networking into the mainstream, with politicians, businesses and celebrities jumping on the bandwagon.

According to Facebook figures, around 15 million users update their statuses daily. More than 850 million photos are added to the site each month while the average user has 120 friends.

Meanwhile, Web sites such as Facebook were widely credited with helping Barack Obama secure victory in last year’s U.S. presidential election by helping him connect via the Internet with younger, previously disengaged voters.

In a blog published Wednesday to mark Facebook’s birthday, Zuckerberg said the site offered a way of making the world more open and giving people a voice to “express ideas and initiate change.”

“The culture of the Internet has also changed pretty dramatically over the past five years. Before, most people wouldn’t consider sharing their real identities online,” Zuckerberg said. “But Facebook has offered a safe and trusted environment for people to interact online, which has made millions of people comfortable expressing more about themselves.”

In a new Facebook first, the Web site featured at last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos with users contributing to live discussions and polls that were flashed onto big screens during sessions with world leaders.

Speaking to CNN, Randi Zuckerberg, Mark Zuckerberg’s sister, said politicians and businesses were looking to Facebook as “a place for insight and to get a real time pulse.”

Yet questions still remain about the finances behind Facebook’s remarkable expansion. The company has attracted more than $200 million in investment from venture capitalists while in 2006 it rejected a reputed $1 billion bid from Yahoo!

In 2007 Microsoft paid $250 million for a 1.6 percent share, a figure that gave Facebook a total projected value of some $15 billion.

But with the global financial crisis hitting Web advertising — Facebook’s core revenue stream — those sort of figures now appear to belong to a bygone age.

“What Facebook isn’t yet is a slam-dunk success,” said Adam Lashinsky of Fortune magazine last month. “It is selling advertising, it is bringing in revenue but it’s not wildly profitable even if it is profitable at all.

“There is no question that it has entered the zeitgeist but that doesn’t mean that it has progressed beyond the stage of being cool or viral or exciting to being a mega-business success the way that Google, Microsoft or even its arch-competitor MySpace is.”

Yet in an industry prone to short term fads and rapid evolution, Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday he remained committed to making sure that Facebook remained as relevant in the future.

“Building and moving quickly for five years hasn’t been easy, and we aren’t finished,” he said. “The challenge motivates us to keep innovating and pushing technical boundaries to produce better ways to share information.”

Source ; cnn.com

Biggest Snake Ever To Have Lived On Earth!!!

Scientists in Colombia have unearthed the remains of a true prehistoric monster believed to be the biggest snake ever to have lived on Earth.

An artist’s impression of what Titanboa cerrejonensis would have looked like.

Named Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the snake would have weighed 1,140 kilograms (2,500 pounds) and measured 13 meters (42.7 feet) nose to tail tip — dwarfing the largest modern pythons and anacondas which can grow to 6 meters (19.5 feet).

Scientists believe it slithered around the planet between 58 and 60 million years ago.

Geologist David Polly, who identified the position of the fossil vertebrae which made a size estimate possible, said in a statement Wednesday: “At its greatest width, the snake would have come up to about your hips. The size is pretty amazing.

“But our team went a step further and asked, how warm would the Earth have to be to support a body of this size?”

Titanoboa’s fossilized remains were discovered at a coal mine in the tropical Cerrejon region of northern Colombia by an international team of scientists.

“Truly enormous snakes really spark people’s imagination, but reality has exceeded the fantasies of Hollywood,” paleontologist Jonathan Bloch, who co-led the expedition, told reporters.

“The snake that tried to eat Jennifer Lopez in the movie ‘Anaconda’ was not as big as the one we found.”

Based on the snake’s size, the team was able to calculate that the mean annual temperature in equatorial South America 60 million years ago would have been about 91 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 degrees warmer than today, Bloch said.

“Tropical ecosystems of South America were surprisingly different 60 million years ago,” said Bloch. “It was a rainforest, like today, but it was even hotter and the cold-blooded reptiles were all substantially larger.

“The result was, among other things, the largest snakes the world has ever seen…and hopefully ever will.”

According to Nature.com, snakes are poikilotherms (cold-blooded) that, unlike humans, need heat from their environment to power their metabolism. Therefore research suggests that at the time the region would have had to be no less than 86 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit for the snake to have survived.

Most large snakes today live in the tropical regions of South America and south-east Asia, where the high temperatures allow them to grow to impressive sizes.

Meanwhile, Carlos Jaramillo — who was also part of the expedition — said the tropical rainforest at Cerrejon appeared to have thrived at these temperatures.

“This data challenges the view that tropical vegetation lives near its climatic optimum, and it has profound implications in understanding the effect of current global warming on tropical plants,” he said.

Source ; cnn.com

Asia to lead global recovery in late 2009: S&P

MUMBAI: The Asia Pacific region will lead a tepid recovery in the global economy, starting in the second half of 2009 as fiscal and monetary

stimulus measures take effect, Standard & Poor’s said on Thursday.

That growth momentum will be consolidated in 2010, when U.S. economic growth_crucial to the region’s exporters_returns to positive territory, said Subir Gokarn, the credit rating agency’s Asia-Pacific chief economist.

The combination of fiscal and monetary policy suggests stabilization and perhaps the beginning of a recovery toward the end of 2009,” he said. “The revival of export demand by the U.S. and to some extent in Europe will help to reinforce the positive impact of monetary and fiscal policy in the region.”

Asian economies made a miserable showing in the last three months of 2008, thanks to the lagging effects of tight monetary policy and a broad slowdown in exports and capital flows, Gokarn said.

By any yardstick it has been a significantly negative quarter,” he said. Virtually every macroeconomic indicator has moved sharply down.”

Strong domestic demand in China and India and its positive spillover effects are likely to help pull the region out of its rut before demand rebounds in the U.S. and Europe, Gokarn said. But he cautioned that a sustainable recovery in Asia won’t happen until the world’s largest consumer markets rebound.

We do not expect those growth rates to return anywhere near the boom years of 2006 and 2007,” he said.

S&P predicts that China’s growth will slip to around 6.7 percent in 2009, down from 9 percent in 2008, while India will clock about 6 percent growth this year, down from 7.5 percent last year.

S&P predicts Singapore will contract by about 3 percent this year, while Japan and Hong Kong will shrink some 2 percent. Gross domestic product in South Korea and Taiwan is expected to fall by roughly 0.7 percent.

Central banks in the region spent most of 2008 battling record-high prices of food, fuel, and other commodities by raising interest rates just as global growth was beginning to slow, Gokarn said. The threat of inflation began to wane in August, but the quick liberalization of monetary policy that followed probably won’t be felt until the middle of the year, Gokarn said.

Finding new ways to finance growth as foreign capital flows wither also remains a challenge.

To the extent that global financial markets are going to be relatively sluggish for the next year I would not expect too much activity in terms of emerging market investment activity in 2009,” Gokarn said.

That is bad news for countries like India, whose economic boom was fueled in part by a rush of foreign investment. The Indian government was counting on the private sector to help fund infrastructure projects; now much of that money probably won’t materialize, Gokarn said.

The dependence on private sector foreign investment we were banking on for the infrastructure sector is now something we have to compensate for,” he said.

That could lead to a revival of lending institutions like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank and a fresh wave of privatization, as the government scrambles to find replacement funds, he said.

We will have to find some way of substituting for the reduction in foreign savings,” Gokarn said.

Source : economictimes.com

Daughter Attempted Suicide For Saving Father !!!!!!!!

A 13-year-old Chinese girl tried to commit suicide because she wanted her family to donate her liver to her cancer-stricken father, state media reported Thursday.

The girl, Chen Jin, swallowed more than 200 sleeping pills after she discovered a medical note in her mother’s purse that said her father was dying of liver cancer and had three months left to live, the news agency Xinhua said.

Jin’s mother returned home after visiting her husband in the hospital to find the front door locked. The mother climbed in through a back window and found two empty bottles of sleeping pills.

“Mom, I’m sorry I couldn’t stay with you any longer,” read a note that the teen had left next to her. “Please give my liver to dad and save him after my death.”

The incident occurred January 24 in Jiangsu province in china. The teen was taken to the same hospital as her father, where she remains in intensive care, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Doctors say that even if she pulls through, she will need surgery for burns she suffered from an electric blanket on her bed when she lost consciousness, the China Daily newspaper said.

According to Chinese media reports, the family — whose monthly income is about 1,000 yuan ($146) — has already spent nearly 100,000 yuan ($14,600) in medical expenses since the father was diagnosed with cancer more than a month ago. The mother, who is also in poor health, retired early more than eight years ago.

The woman told China Daily she is now trying to keep her husband from learning of their daughter’s desperate act of love.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Source : cnn.com

 

 

 

 

 

Posted via web from It’s My Professional Life

Shooting Eagles Down..To Earth!!!

Obama to cap executive compensation
By Alan Beattie in Washington
 
The White House on Wednesday announced strict limits on executive pay for financial institutions receiving “exceptional assistance” from the US government, part of its drive to tighten up the rules for bailing out Wall Street.
 
An administration official said that pay would be limited to $500,000 for the senior executives in institutions such as Citigroup and AIG that were receiving targeted relief from government funds.
 
Executives could also receive restricted stock, but it could only pay out after government support had been repaid.But administration officials said the pay curbs applied only to the top executives, suggesting that they could continue to pay other employees more.
 
President Barack Obama said: “For top executives to award themselves these kinds of compensation packages in the midst of this economic crisis is not only in bad taste – it’s a bad strategy – and I will not tolerate it as president.”
 
The restricted stock strategy would assure that senior executives of companies receiving exceptional assistance had incentives aligned with the long-term interests of shareholders as well as minimising the costs to taxpayers, the official said.
 
The administration also said that banks would face tougher rules on transparency including the use of corporate jets, office renovations, entertainment and “golden parachute” payments to departing executives.”
 
We will have to do more, substantially more, to fix this crisis,” Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, said on Wednesday.”Next week, we are going to outline a comprehensive program for financial recovery,” Mr Geithner said. “This program will be directed at supporting the flows of credit that are essential for our economy to begin growing again.” Companies that received less specific help from the federal government, such as the capital purchase programme available to a wide range of financial institutions, would be able to pay their executives more than $500,000 only by full public disclosure of their salaries and a non-binding shareholder vote on compensation. Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

 

Global downturn to cost 15 lakh Indian jobs by March

NEW DELHI: With global downturn taking its toll on India, about 15 lakh people employed in the exporting sector will be out of jobs by March
this year, Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said today.

“We have figures from August till middle of January. We estimate something like between 7-10 lakh job losses till now,” Pillai told a news channel in an interview.

He said if the slowdown, especially in the US, Europe and Japan continues, another five lakh people would be unemployed by March.

Earlier in the day, Pillai told reporters that the prospects for the country’s outward trade look bleak for the next fiscal as well.

“It would be an achievement if we reach $160 billion-mark in 2009-2010,” he said.

After an impressive expansion of over 30 per cent in the first six months of 2008-09, export growth has turned negative with the result that the total shipments in the current fiscal would fall much short of the $200 billion target.

Though exports account for less than 20 per cent of the country’s GDP, the sector is highly employment oriented with the total estimated 6.5 crore workforce.

“Exports are going to come down and we have to live with it,” Pillai said.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Innovation ….Only Route To Survival During Recession!!!

What is real innovation?

In the book, The Game-Changer, Procter & Gamble chairman and CEO A G Lafley and business consultant Ram Charan explain why it is important to make innovation central to every driver of your business, and how it can help change the game, creating new markets and customers. An extract from the book.

To understand innovation, you first have to see the differences between an invention and an innovation. An invention is a new idea that is often turned into a tangible outcome, such as a product or a system. An innovation is the conversion of a new idea into revenues and profits. An idea that looks great in the lab and fails in the market is not an innovation; it is, at best, a curiosity. As Jeff Immelt once put it, “Innovation without a customer is nonsense; it’s not even innovation.”

Invention is needed for innovation to take place. But invention is not innovation. In many companies, inventions that result in patents are considered innovations. These companies are often touted as “innovative.” In fact there is no correlation between the number of corporate patents earned and financial success. Until people are willing to buy your product, pay for it, and then buy it again, there is no innovation. A gee-whiz product that does not deliver value to the customer and provide financial benefit to the company is not an innovation. Innovation is not complete until it shows up in the financial results.

Real innovation can change the context — the market space, the customer space, the competitive space, the societal space — in which a business operates. Changing the game, then, means not being hamstrung by the deep-rooted conventional wisdom of your business and industry, but rather seizing the initiative to imagine a new game or a new space and, thus, shaping and controlling your destiny. Game-changing leaders search for and execute ideas that put the company on a long-term path to prosperity.

For example, P&G created a new market space by introducing the disposable diaper; with the iPod, Apple likewise created an entirely new market space and changed the game for those who were not its usual competitors, such as music, media, and consumer electronics companies. Both P&G and Apple refused to be hemmed in by current conditions; instead, they redefined them. In the process, they forced the competition to play their game. It did not end there. The iPod, with its sleek design, built new capabilities within Apple and was a harbinger of the iPhone, which is changing the game for the cell phone companies.

There is an increasing advantage to being a game-changer — and higher risk for trying to survive on the defensive. Innovation enables you to be on the offensive. The speed of change is such that compared even to two decades ago, “innovate or die” is truly the name of the game. P&G’s core products are increasingly challenged by private labels and without continuous innovation would be threatened by commoditization. Commoditization drives down prices; the differentiation that comes from innovation carries an economic premium.

Moreover, the competition is tougher than ever — and only getting more so. Thanks to the Internet, there is more transparency than ever on prices, which reduces margins. A more-open trading system and more-efficient shipping have shrunk the economic globe; better communications and the Internet have tolled the death of distance. The development of venture capital and the rise of bold capitalists in places like China and Brazil have led to a host of new competitors. The only way to stay ahead is to keep innovating.

Why innovation matters
Innovation is the key idea that is shaping corporate life, helping leaders conceive previously unimagined strategic options. Take acquisitions, as an example. Most are justified on the basis of cost and capital reduction: for example, the merger of two pharmaceutical companies and the global rationalization of overhead and operations and the savings from combining two sales forces and R&D labs. You can, however, buy earnings through acquisitions for only so long; cost-control, however necessary, is a defensive strategy.

Innovation enables you to see potential acquisitions through a different lens, looking at them not just from a cost perspective, but also as a means of accelerating profitable top-line revenue growth and enhancing capabilities. For example, the innovation capabilities of P&G were enhanced by its acquisition of Gillette. Its market-leading brands (such as Gillette, Venus, Oral B, and Duracell) are platforms for future innovations; and core technologies in blades and razors, electronics, electromechanics, and power storage strengthen the technology portfolio from which P&G can innovate in the future.

Innovation also provides an edge in being able to enter new markets faster and deeper. In large part, it is P&G’s revived innovation capacity that is allowing it to make inroads into developing markets, where growth is double that in rich countries.

Innovation puts companies on the offensive. Consider how Colgate and P&G, effective serial innovators, have innovated Unilever out of the US oral-care market. The company that builds a culture of innovation is on the path to growth. The company that fails to innovate is on the road to obsolescence. The US domestic automakers and major companies such as Firestone, Sony, and Kodak all used to be industry leaders, even dominators. But they all fell behind as their challengers innovated them into second place (or worse).

Peter Drucker once said that the purpose of a business enterprise is “to create a customer.” Nokia became number one in India by using innovation to create 200 million customers. Through observing the unique needs of Indian customers, particularly in rural villages where most of the population resides, it segmented them in new ways and put new features on handsets relevant to their unique needs. In the process, it created an entirely new value chain at price points that give the company its desired gross margin.

Innovation, thus, creates customers by attracting new users and building stronger loyalty among current ones. That’s a lot in itself, but the value of innovation goes well beyond that. By putting innovation at the center of the business, from top to bottom, you can improve the numbers; at the same time, you will discover a much-better way of doing things — more productive, more responsive, more inclusive, even more fun. People want to be part of growth, not endless cost cutting.

A culture of innovation is fundamentally different from one that emphasizes mergers and acquisitions or cost cutting, both in theory and practice. For one thing, innovation leaders have an entirely different set of skills, temperament, and psychology. The M&A leader is a deal maker and transactionally oriented. Once one deal is done, he moves to the next. The innovation leader, while perhaps not a creative genius, is effective at evoking the skills of others needed to build an innovation culture. Collaboration is essential; failure is a regular visitor.

Innovation leaders are comfortable with uncertainty and have an open mind; they are receptive to ideas from very different disciplines. They have organized innovation into a disciplined process that is replicable. And, they have the tools and skills to pinpoint and manage the risks inherent in innovation. Not everyone has these attributes. But companies cannot build a culture of innovation without cultivating people who do.

Myths of innovation
The idea of innovation has become encrusted by myth. One myth is that it is all about new products. That is not necessarily so. New products are, of course, important but not the entire picture. When innovation is at the center of a company’s way of doing things, it finds ways to innovate not just in products, but also in functions, logistics, business models, and processes.

A process like Dell’s supply chain management, a tool like the monetization of eyeballs at Google, a method like Toyota’s Global Production System, a practice like Wal-Mart’s inventory management, the use of mathematics by Google to change the game of the media and communications industries, or even a concept like Starbucks’s reimagining of the coffee shop — these are all game-changing innovations. So was Alfred Sloan’s corporate structure that made GM the world’s leading car company for decades, as was P&G’s brand management model.

Another myth is that innovation is for geniuses like Chester Floyd Carlson (the inventor of photocopying) or Leonardo da Vinci: Throw some money at the oddballs in the R&D labs and hope something comes out. This is wrong. The notion that innovation occurs only when a lone genius or small team beaver away in the metaphorical (or actual) garage leads to a destructive sense of resignation; it is fatal to the creation of an innovative enterprise.

Of course, geniuses exist and, of course, they can contribute bottom-line-bending inventions. But companies that wait for “Eureka!” moments may well die waiting. And remember, while da Vinci designed a flying machine, it could not be built with the technology available at the time. True innovation matters for the present, not for centuries hence.

Another genius, Thomas Edison, had the right idea: “Anything that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility and utility is success,” he told his associates in perhaps his most important invention — the commercial laboratory. “We can’t be like those German professors who spend their whole lives studying the fuzz on a bee,” he said. Generating ideas is important, but it’s pointless unless there is a repeatable process in place to turn inspiration into financial performance.

Source: Strategist Team / New Delhi , http://business-standard.com
THE GAME-CHANGER: HOW EVERY LEADER CAN DRIVE EVERYDAY INNOVATION. Excerpted with permission Authors: A G Lafley and Ram Charan.Publisher: Penguin Portfolio

Mobility on the move

Laptop users are gradually discovering the advantage of executing both official and personal assignments on their mobile device , be it on Symbian, window mobile , iPhone or BlackBerry platform.

In this forum , we may share details of the latest applications identified, while gathering informations through various sources.

These informations will benefit all bloggers in updating their device softwares, improving quality of output on their handheld.

Global recession

Hi friends just picked an article, which obviously is not encouraging.Where s the bottom of this crisis?

Fresh data reinforce US economic gloom
By Joanna Chung in Washington

Published: November 26 2008 14:37 | Last updated: November 26 2008 15:38

The severe impact of the credit crunch on US households and business investment was sharply illustrated on Wednesday with the latest wave of data showing collapses in new home sales, consumer spending and orders for durable goods in October.

Sales of newly built US single-family homes dropped last month to levels last seen more than 17 years ago, according to data from the US commerce department.

The annual sales pace of 433,000 was down 5.3 per cent in October, and lower than market expectations, from a revised 457,000 in September and was the weakest since January 1991. The median sales price of new homes fell to $218,000 from $221,700 the previous month and was the lowest since September 2004 when it was at $211,600.

”Everything in the October new home sales report is bad: supply is up, while prices and sales drop further,” said Dimitry Fleming of Global Economics.

Another set of figures showed a 1 per cent fall in personal consumption expenditures last month, the biggest drop in seven years, following a 0.3 per cent decrease in September.

Meanwhile, a higher-than-expected 6.2 per cent fall in orders for long-last manufactured goods, in a separate report, marks the biggest fall in two years and follows two consecutive monthly decreases, including a 0.2 per cent decrease in September.

Excluding volatile transportation orders, new orders were down 4.4 per cent while excluding defence, new orders fell 4.6 per cent, underlining how the manufacturing sector has been increasingly suffering from weakness at home and slowing growth abroad. Orders for nearly every category of durable goods declined.

The data reinforce the grim outlook for the US economy and comes just a day after other figures showed that it shrank at a faster rate than previously thought in the third quarter.

Paul Ashworth, senior US economist at Capital Economics, said the slump in new durable goods orders ”suggests that business investment is in freefall.”

”On a three-month-on-three-month annualised basis, the decline in core orders is already as bad as anything we saw during the last recession and the survey evidence suggests that rate of decline will only accelerate further.”

Highlighting the extent to which US consumers are changing their spending patterns and making increased efforts to save more during the downtown, other figures showed that personal income rose by 0.3 per cent in October, following a 0.1 per cent rise in September.

Together the figures help explain the worst contraction in the US economy since the first quarter of 2001. Many economists now think the US is in recession.

Meanwhile, a labour department report on Wednesday showed that seasonally adjusted initial claims reached 529,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 543,000, but close to elevated levels.

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury announced two new programmes specifically aimed at helping consumers. The Fed pledged up to $800bn to bolster markets for loans to homebuyers, students, small businesses and other borrowers.

Who is responsible for Mumbai attack

Who knows?

Doubts are ……………..about

1.How come so much of ammunition could find its way to TAJ

2.How the terrorist were so conversant with the TAJ layout

3.As shown in a TV channel…..one of the rescued person……..incidently, part of mumbai intelligence team said……one terrorist asked the other…”how much money do indian politicians have?” The other replied………..”why you bother, since you have received your quota.”……………………..what does it mean?….not even the TV channel dared to ask him.Should we?

VRCE memories

Friends, let us share funny memories of our days at VRCE.Pl, scratch your head and dig out some burried but interesting real stories.
Abhijit Kar

Victory of Humanity over terrorism Part 1

Friends,could not hold back tears, while reading this true story, narrated by a survivor of Taj Hotel terrorist attack( Picked it up from Forbes.)

Heroes At The Taj…
By  Michael Pollack

Part I

My story begins innocuously, with a dinner reservation in a world-class hotel. It ends 12 hours later after the Indian army freed us. 

My point is not to sensationalize events. It is to express my gratitude and pay tribute to the staff of the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, who sacrificed their lives so that we could survive. They, along with the Indian army, are the true heroes that emerged from this tragedy.  

My wife, Anjali, and I were married in the Taj’s Crystal Ballroom. Her parents were married there, too, and so were Shiv and Reshma, the couple with whom we had dinner plans. In fact, my wife and Reshma, both Bombay girls, grew up hanging out and partying the night away there and at the Oberoi Hotel, another terrorist target. 

The four of us arrived at the Taj around 9:30 p.m. for dinner at the Golden Dragon, one of the better Chinese restaurants in Mumbai. We were a little early, and our table wasn’t ready. So we walked next door to the Harbour Bar and had barely begun to enjoy our beers when the host told us our table was ready. We decided to stay and finish our drinks. 

Thirty seconds later, we heard what sounded like a heavy tray smashing to the ground. This was followed by 20 or 30 similar sounds and then absolute silence. We crouched behind a table just feet away from what we now knew were gunmen.

Terrorists had stormed the lobby and were firing indiscriminately. We tried to break the glass window in front of us with a chair, but it wouldn’t budge. The Harbour Bar’s hostess, who had remained at her post, motioned to us that it was safe to make a run for the stairwell. She mentioned, in passing, that there was a dead body right outside in the corridor. We believe this courageous woman was murdered after we ran away. 

We later learned that minutes after we climbed the stairs, terrorists came into the Harbour Bar, shot everyone who was there and executed those next door at the Golden Dragon.
The staff there was equally brave, locking their patrons into a basement wine cellar to protect them. But the terrorists managed to break through and lob in grenades that killed everyone in the basement.

 We took refuge in the small office of the kitchen of another restaurant, Wasabi, on the second floor. Its chef and staff served the four of us food and drink and even apologized for the inconvenience we were suffering.  Through text messaging, e-mail on BlackBerrys and a small TV in the office, we realized the full extent of the terrorist attack on Mumbai. We figured we were in a secure place for the moment.

There was also no way out. At around 11:30 p.m., the kitchen went silent. We took a massive wooden table and pushed it up against the door, turned off all the lights and hid. All of the kitchen workers remained outside; not one staff member had run.  

The terrorists repeatedly slammed against our door. We heard them ask the chef in Hindi if anyone was inside the office. He responded calmly: “No one is in there. It’s empty.” That is the second time the Taj staff saved our lives. 

After about 20 minutes, other staff members escorted us down a corridor to an area called The Chambers, a members-only area of the hotel. There were about 250 people in six rooms.

Inside, the staff was serving sandwiches and alcohol. People were nervous, but cautiously optimistic. We were told The Chambers was the safest place we could be because the army was now guarding its two entrances and the streets were still dangerous. There had been attacks at a major railway station and a hospital. 

But then, a member of parliament phoned into a live newscast and let the world know that hundreds of people–including CEOs, foreigners and members of parliament–were “secure and safe in The Chambers together.”

Adding to the escalating tension and chaos was the fact that, via text and cellphone, we knew that the dome of the Taj was on fire and that it could move downward. 

At around 2 a.m., the staff attempted an evacuation. We all lined up to head down a dark fire escape exit. But after five minutes, grenade blasts and automatic weapon fire pierced the air. A mad stampede ensued to get out of the stairwell and take cover back inside The Chambers. 

After that near-miss, my wife and I decided we should hide in different rooms. While we hoped to be together at the end, our primary obligation was to our children. We wanted to keep one parent alive.

Because I am American and my wife is Indian, and news reports said the terrorists were targeting U.S. and U.K. nationals, I believed I would further endanger her life if we were together in a hostage situation.  

So when we ran back to The Chambers I hid in a toilet stall with a floor-to-ceiling door and my wife stayed with our friends, who fled to a large room across the hall.  

For the next seven hours, I lay in the fetal position, keeping in touch with Anjali via BlackBerry. I was joined in the stall by Joe, a Nigerian national with a U.S. green card.

To be continued..

Victory of Humanity over terrorism-Part 2

Part 2

Contd…

I managed to get in touch with the FBI, and several agents gave me status updates throughout the night.  I cannot even begin to explain the level of adrenaline running through my system at this point. It was this hyper-aware state where every sound, every smell, every piece of information was ultra-acute, analyzed and processed so that we could make the best decisions and maximize the odds of survival.

Was the fire above us life-threatening? What floor was it on? Were the commandos near us, or were they terrorists? Why is it so quiet? Did the commandos survive? If the terrorists come into the bathroom and to the door, when they fire in, how can I make my body as small as possible? If Joe gets killed before me in this situation, how can I throw his body on mine to barricade the door? If the Indian commandos liberate the rest in the other room, how will they know where I am? Do the terrorists have suicide vests? Will the roof stand? How can I make sure the FBI knows where Anjali and I are? When is it safe to stand up and attempt to urinate?  

Meanwhile, Anjali and the others were across the corridor in a mass of people lying on the floor and clinging to each other. People barely moved for seven hours, and for the last three hours they felt it was too unsafe to even text. While I was tucked behind a couple walls of marble and granite in my toilet stall, she was feet from bullets flying back and forth.

After our failed evacuation, most of the people in the fire escape stairwell and many staff members who attempted to protect the guests were shot and killed.  The 10 minutes around 2:30 a.m. were the most frightening. Rather than the back-and-forth of gunfire, we just heard single, punctuated shots. We later learned that the terrorists went along a different corridor of The Chambers, room by room, and systematically executed everyone: women, elderly, Muslims, Hindus, foreigners.

A group huddled next to Anjali was devout Bori Muslims who would have been slaughtered just like everyone else, had the terrorists gone into their room. Everyone was in deep prayer and most, Anjali included, had accepted that their lives were likely over. It was terrorism in its purest form. No one was spared. 

The next five hours were filled with the sounds of an intense grenade/gun battle between the Indian commandos and the terrorists. It was fought in darkness; each side was trying to outflank the other. By the time dawn broke, the commandos had successfully secured our corridor.

A young commando led out the people packed into Anjali’s room. When one woman asked whether it was safe to leave, the commando replied: “Don’t worry, you have nothing to fear. The first bullets have to go through me.” The corridor was laced with broken glass and bullet casings. Every table was turned over or destroyed. The ceilings and walls were littered with hundreds of bullet holes. Blood stains were everywhere, though, fortunately, there were no dead bodies to be seen.  

A few minutes after Anjali had vacated, Joe and I peeked out of our stall. We saw multiple commandos and smiled widely. I had lost my right shoe while sprinting to the toilet so I grabbed a sheet from the floor, wrapped it around my foot and proceeded to walk over the debris to the hotel lobby. 

Anjali and I embraced for the first time in seven hours in the Taj’s ground floor entrance. I didn’t know whether she was dead or injured because we hadn’t been able to text for the past three hours.  I wanted to take a picture of us on my BlackBerry, but Anjali wanted us to get out of there before doing anything.  

She was right–our ordeal wasn’t completely over. A large bus pulled up in front of the Taj to collect us and, just about as it was fully loaded, gunfire erupted again. The terrorists were still alive and firing automatic weapons at the bus. Anjali was the last to get on the bus, and she eventually escaped in our friend’s car. I ducked under some concrete barriers for cover and wound up the subject of photos that were later splashed across the media. Shortly thereafter, an ambulance came and drove a few of us to safety.

An hour later, Anjali and I were again reunited at her parents’ home. Our Thanksgiving had just gained a lot more meaning. 
Some may say our survival was due to random luck, others might credit divine intervention. But 72 hours removed from these events, I can assure you only one thing: Far fewer people would have survived if it weren’t for the extreme selflessness shown by the Taj staff, who organized us, catered to us and then, in the end, literally died for us.  
They complemented the extreme bravery and courage of the Indian commandos, who, in a pitch-black setting and unfamiliar, tightly packed terrain, valiantly held the terrorists at bay.  

It is also amazing that, out of our entire group, not one person screamed or panicked. There was an eerie but quiet calm that pervaded–one more thing that got us all out alive. Even people in adjacent rooms, who were being executed, kept silent. 

It is much easier to destroy than to build, yet somehow humanity has managed to build far more than it has ever destroyed. Likewise, in a period of crisis, it is much easier to find faults and failings rather than to celebrate the good deeds. It is now time to commemorate our heroes. 

Michael Pollack is a general partner of Glenhill Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2001.

Another win over terrorism

Hi friends , another tale of bravery against terrorism, I just picked up from “The Hindiu”

Cama staff rose to the occasion

Rahi Gaikwad

Mumbai: The sixth floor of the Cama and Albless Hospital building, down the road from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), is pockmarked. Bullet and shrapnel marks are all over the walls, on the two metal lift doors and the ceiling as well. They bear testimony to the heavy exchange of fire that took place on the night of November 26. On the floor outside the lift are four small craters, presumably caused by grenades.

After unleashing mayhem at the CST, terrorists Mohammad Ajmal Amir Iman and Mohammad Ismail reached the hospital through the rear gate beyond 10 p.m, taking the overbridge at the station. First, they shot dead security guard Baban Ugde and moving into the main six-storey building fired at another guard, Bhanu Narkar. “I saw Bhanu move towards the building. I saw him being shot and falling down. Then, I did not venture out. I saw two people go up the building warning that terrorists were on their way,” said resident medical officer Santosh Patil.

Responding swiftly, “the staff gathered the patients and locked themselves in the wards and rooms. They switched off the lights,” said Dr. Patil.

Meanwhile, Kailash Ghegadamal, in charge of guarding two gates at the RMO and doctors’ quarters, was taking steps to block the entrance. He said: “I heard the firing at CST. People from the station were coming to Cama. They were talking about the terrorists. So, I first locked the RMO gate and went to the doctors’ quarters to warn them about the situation. Fifteen-30 minutes passed. When I came down, I saw the police. I guessed that the terrorists might have gone up the building. I took around seven or eight police officers and one more hospital staffer. All of us took the lift to the sixth floor, beyond which is the terrace.”

As the police did not know their way around, they asked Ghegadamal to guide them. A bucket with a steel counter was lying around, he said. “One of the policemen picked up the steel piece and threw it up the terrace. The next moment, Chandrakant Tike, a worker at the hospital came rushing down. He had been held by the terrorists. They had searched his person and seized his mobile phone. He told us that there were two terrorists on the terrace.”

An exchange of fire ensued between the police and the attackersfor 30-45 minutes. Ghegadamal and Tike moved into a gap in the wall. When the terrorists hurled a grenade, both of them jumped to save themselves, but Tike was injured in the attack. He is now undergoing treatment in the hospital.

A relative said Tike did not wish to speak to the media. “He is out of danger, but still in a traumatised state.”

Of the three other policemen who were injured in the grenade attack, two died and the other is still in hospital, according to Ghegadamal, who was also hurt.

After the grenade attacks, the police told Ghegadamal and others to go down while they provided cover. After Ghegadamal got aid for others and himself, he felt that the noise was dying down. He does not know what happened after that.
He has no idea how the terrorists came down and exited the hospital.

The two attackers reportedly came down and were intercepted by Additional Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date. He was injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, ATS chief Hemant Karkare, ACP Ashok Khamte and encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar were going towards Cama in a police Qualis jeep.

The terrorists fired at their vehicle, killing them on the spot. One more policeman was killed inside the jeep and another policeman Arun Jadhav was injured. He remained in the vehicle, lying still.

The attackers removed the bodies, took the Qualis to the Vidhan Bhavan, where one of the tyres sprang a puncture. So, they hijacked a Skoda and went to Girgaum Chowpatty. In an encounter with the police at Chowpatty, Iman was arrested and Ismail was killed.

Better late than never…Finish LET

Friends,just picked it up from “The Dawn”.Better to hear it from the horse’s mouth.

It seems ,Pakistan is taking this issue seriously.But can we believe them ?
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Here is the article

MUZAFFARABAD/ISLAMABAD: Security forces have launched a ‘quiet’ crackdown on activists belonging to the banned jihadi outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba in different parts of the country and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

In Muzaffarabad, a major army operation was under way in the city suburbs on Sunday against a site being used by the Jamaatud Dawa, which is headed by Hafiz Mohammad Saeed. Sources said that more than 20 members of the banned organisation and Lashkar-e-Taiba’s ‘commander’ Zakiur Rehman Lakhwi had been arrested.

There are reports that similar actions are planned in some cities and towns of Punjab. Pakistan is under international pressure to take action against the organisation for its alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks.

However, reports of the crackdown could not be confirmed from the interior ministry or the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR).

Police and civil administration officials in Muzaffarabad told reporters they did not know what was happening.

Local residents, however, said they had seen army personnel taking control of the area along Shawai Nullah, some five kilometres northwest of Muzaffarabad, where the organisation possesses a large plot of land on which several buildings had been built. The Lashkar-i-Taiba (LeT) of Hafiz Saeed occupied the same place before the organisation was proscribed.

“I saw an army helicopter hovering over the area and around 5pm I heard two or three loud explosions,” a woman who lives in the area told Dawn on phone.

Another person said: “The helicopter … may have airlifted people detained or injured during the operation.”

There were unconfirmed reports of an exchange of fire.

Ambulances from various city hospitals had been called to the area by troops but witnesses said they returned without any injured person.

In Chehla Bandi, soldiers are reported to be checking vehicles bound for the Neelum Valley.

Several attempts were made to obtain army’s version about the reported operation but reporters were told that a statement would soon be issued by the ISPR.

A Jamaatud Dawa office-bearer denied that a crackdown had been launched on his organisation in other areas. The organisation has another office in Muzaffarabad where no such action was taken.

However, AFP quoted an intelligence official as saying that three Jamaat-ud-Dawa members had been arrested on Monday.

‘Three people were rounded up in a brief operation against the Islamic charity Jamaat-ud-Dawa,’ the official said.

‘The raid was carried out to get details about the activities of the group in Kashmir in the wake of allegations by India that LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) was using Pakistani territory for training.’ The arrests took place Sunday at the charity’s offices outside the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, where the banned Islamic group Lashkar-e-Taiba is active.

Senior government officials refused to confirm or deny the arrests, which came as international pressure mounted on Pakistan to act against the group seen as the number one suspect in last month’s devastating Mumbai attacks.

News of the arrests emerged hours after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday urged Pakistan to act quickly and said there was evidence the country was used by ‘non-state actors’ to mount the attacks.

‘I do think that Pakistan has a responsibility to act,’ Rice said in a televisions interview.

Earlier Sunday, the Pakistan government declined to comment on a report that it had agreed to a 48-hour deadline set by the United States and India to hand over Pakistanis suspected of involvement in the attacks and form a plan of action against Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Recruitment During Downturn..Innovative & Bold Idea

Hi Friends, good article picked up from a HR site.I think it makes sense for critical positions.What you guys think?
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Recruitment in Economic Downturns
By Paul Croteau

While many business owners are so focused they don’t take much time to keep track of national or regional economic factors, guaranteed, they have certainly been sitting up and paying attention to what’s happened over the past year.

A downturn in the economy is a good opportunity to engage in self assessment. Think about conducting an employee satisfaction survey, find out why employees like working for you. Use the positive traits in your marketing strategies; focus on attracting other like minded candidates to your organization. Use this time to repair any employee dissatisfiers, and especially work on maintaining employee security. Keep up open and honest communication and look at other opportunities such as cross training so that your employees are more flexible and can meet your needs going forward.

It is well known that employees leave organizations because of poor leadership style. So, to reduce your vulnerability from employee poaching by your competitors, and increase your competitive advantage, take this time to invest in leadership training. The most effective training is a program that is offered over a six month time frame where participants can implement what they learn following every training module. Focus on a program that offers self awareness, an understanding of how the leader builds teams and impacts on overall organizational success. Ensure the program also offers individual coaching over this timeframe.

At the same time, this stage of an economy provides a great opportunity to thoroughly examine your business vision and goals. Where are you going…what is your vision? What opportunities will let you gain competitive advantage? What are your barriers and obstacles? What leadership skills and competencies are needed to go forward? Where do you find them? How do you attract them? What do you have to offer versus your competitors?

While a downturn economy sounds like a very constrictive and unforgiving environment, believe it or not, conducting an executive search for good personnel during times like this can prove very valuable. Keep in mind that ensuring your organization has highly productive and well performing employees is critical to ongoing success. In fact, it is to your advantage to search out candidates who may want to leave a struggling firm to join your organization. In other words, a downturn in the economy can allow you to make very strategic moves from a recruitment point of view.

The best approach to executive search in a downturn environment is to utilize the services of a well respected executive search firm with extensive research capabilities. Remember, employees will hunker down during this time. Many of the highly qualified candidates will not be looking and when contacted, may be hard to convince that a move is worth their while. It takes skill and persistence to make this happen along with a multiple selection of various advertising and networking strategies.

What is a research approach to executive search all about? A research approach requires dedicated personnel who spend their time researching various organizations and mining the data from websites, newspaper advertisements and business articles to compile a list of contacts. These contacts work in your industry, are known leaders and are successful in their professions, but typically, they are happy in their current job. A research approach is essentially a social networking approach to finding potential candidates.

Contact is made with each individual, the opportunity is presented and if personally interested, documentation on the opportunity will be forwarded. If there is no interest, the search professional asks for a referral. Hundreds and hundreds of candidates are contacted, locally, regionally, nationally and even internationally. Resumes are received and stored in electronic databanks for future use.

An economic downturn is a difficult test for business and requires a leader’s undivided attention. So, while you are busy fighting fires, your search professional is busy identifying candidates who fit your organizational profile. This is the kind of teamwork needed to help your organization acquire the high performing employees drive your vision forward.

Hiring Performers

Hi friends, good article I picked up for you guys.Go through carefully, its interesting!

Recruiting the best

The art of recruiting is the purest form of evangelism because you’re not simply asking people to try your product, buy your product or partner with you. Instead, you’re asking them to bet their lives on your organization. Can it get any scarier for them and tougher for you than this?

To make it a little easier on everyone, follow these nine tips:

1. Hire better than yourself We used to have a saying, “A players hire A players; B players hire C players.” Meaning: Great people hire great people, and mediocre people hire candidates who aren’t as good as they are so they can feel superior to them. (If you start down this slippery slope, you’ll soon end up with Z players; this is called The Bozo Explosion. It’s followed by The Layoff.) I have come to believe that we were wrong: A players actually hire A+ players. It takes self-confidence and self-awareness, but it’s the only way to build a great team.

2. Hire infected people
Classically, organizations look for the right educational and professional backgrounds. But I would add a third quality: Is the candidate infected with a love of your product? Because all the education and work experience in the world doesn’t matter if the candidate doesn’t get it and love it

3. Ignore the irrelevant. This is somewhat redundant with No. 2, but it merits repetition. Often a candidate’s education and work experience are relevant on paper but irrelevant in the real world. Would a senior vice president from Microsoft be ideal for a startup? Not necessarily. This poor guy has been working for a company with 73 percent market share, and he woke up every day not worried about the competition but worried about the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. The flip side is also true: The candidate without the perfect background could be the diamond in the rough

4. Double-check your intuition. Everyone has stories about the candidate he knew would work out who turned out to be a nightmare employee–or the employee he knew wouldn’t work out who turned out to be the employee of the decade. The problem with intuition is that it’s probably wrong as often as it’s right. I recommend asking every candidate the same questions and taking extensive notes. Maybe even conduct the first interview by phone so you don’t judge the candidates by their appearance. In particular, startup founders believe they have a good gut feel for candidates, so they conduct unstructured, subjective interviews and end up with lousy hires

5. Check independent references. How many of us have limited reference checking to only those provided by the candidate? Can we be more stupid than this? We like the gal, so we only call the references she’s provided, because we don’t want to hear that we actually like a bozo. Check independent references, preferably at least one person she worked for and one person who worked for her

6. Apply the Shopping Center Test. Suppose you’re at a shopping center and you see the candidate. He’s 50 feet away and hasn’t seen you. You have three choices: 1) beeline it over to him and say hello, 2) say to yourself, “If I bump into him, then I’ll say hello,” or 3) get in your car and go to another shopping center. My contention is that unless the candidate elicits the first response, you shouldn’t hire him

7. Use all your weapons. Once you’ve found the perfect candidate, use any weapons at your disposal to win her over–not just salary and options. More important–and more telling–is the attractiveness of your vision for how you will change the world. (Who doesn’t like to work with smart people who are kicking butt?) To this armory, throw in the resume-building potential of working for a great organization like yours

8. Wait to compensate. Using an offer letter as the starting point for negotiation is risky because you don’t know what the reaction will be to this first data point. An offer letter confirms what everyone has agreed to. It’s the last step in negotiations, not the first

9. Don’t assume you’re done. Garage Technology Ventures once recruited an investment banker (mea culpa No. 1) from a large (mea culpa No. 2) firm. After weeks of wooing and several offers and counteroffers, he accepted a position with us. He worked for us for a few days but then called in sick. Late the next night, he sent me an e-mail saying he had accepted an offer from a former client of his old investment bank. I learned a valuable lesson: Never assume your recruiting is done. Frankly, you should recruit every employee every day, because when they go home at night, you might never see them again if you don’t keep the lovin’ strong.

Guy Kawasaki’s mantra is “Empower people.” He is co-founder of Alltop.com, a managing director at Garage Technology Ventures, former chief evangelist for Apple Inc. and author of eight books–most recently The Art of the Start.

Unconventional Thinking Can Lead To Success

Friends, interesting HR article, i have picked up from a reputed site.

I think organizations need to develop a talent pool for critical positions right now and train them to deliver the best ,when tide turns in few months time.

Investing in human capital during downturn might sound unconventional but HR must convince the business mgrs that, future belongs to leaders with off-the-wall and out-of-the-box thinking.

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Here is the article

Softening job market beginning to free up ‘best talent

TMS Asia-Pacific has advised those industry employers placing a moratorium on staff hire that now is in fact the perfect time for companies to be stocking up on quality staff in anticipation of the global business upturn predicted next year.

The travel and hospitality recruitment specialist said that while many companies were continuing to stick with hastily implemented hiring freezes, other more canny businesses were using the current situation to source top level candidates in preparation for next year’s eagerly anticipated business boom.

TMS Managing Director – Asia, Andrew Chan said it was those companies taking the initiative now which would pull ahead of the rest in terms of their staffing and company performance when the current situation changes.

“We have seen a major shift in the market in recent weeks with yesterday’s job-heavy, candidate-light scenario being almost completely reversed on an overnight basis,” he said.

“The upside of this is that we are now starting to see some very strong talent emerge – in fact some of the best we have seen in a number of years.

“Now is the ideal time to hire supreme talent to ensure companies are meeting their service level agreements.”

Mr Chan said that many companies had ‘knee jerked’ in the current environment and in numerous instances, effectively frozen recruitment until further notice.

“But it is these companies which are the ones most likely to be encountering staffing problems when the tide finally turns and things start to improve,” he said.

“Those who have taken the initiative and filled their critical roles or started the ball rolling by developing a pipeline of quality candidates and talent pooling are the ones who ultimately stand to benefit from all this.

“There is a silver lining to every cloud and invariably it is during these turbulent times that employers are presented with the perfect opportunity to snare those quality candidates.”

Mr Chan said that for many companies, talent pooling, while still a relatively new concept for employers, presented them with a good alternative solution to overcome future staffing problems.

“Companies developing an effective talent pool strategy are more likely to succeed.

“Talent pooling not only helps employers identify good people, it’s also enables them to build relationships and networks with these candidates – even before an employment opportunity becomes available.

“It should always be remembered that while times of crisis present many difficulties, they also present innumerable opportunities – talent pooling is one of those emergent opportunities.”

How to thrive during recession……….

Friends, its a terrific article and i just picked it up from a website,specializing in HR Management .Kevin has clearly explained, what is needed to be done during this recession without getting panicky.I fully agree with him.

I think , we need to stick to the basics of the game, i mean maintain high EQ level consistantly and the rest is assured.
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Here is the article

5 Steps to Thrive in This Recession
by Kevin Wheeler
Nov 20, 2008, 6:00 am

Organizations rapidly adjust headcount the moment orders slow. As early as last June, the statistics on Monster, CareerBuilder, and other job boards began to show a decline in postings and traffic. The number of jobs listed on corporate career sites also declined, indicating less demand.

I am not sure if recruiters noticed, but several analysts did. I recently read an analyst’s report that compared several high-tech companies on the number of open positions they had as an indicator of long-term earnings and profit.

Given that analysts are doing this, we should be, too. We should be very sensitive to what our own management is thinking, how orders are shaping up, what the sales team is projecting, and then adjusting our own efforts accordingly.

If you don’t have access to this information you have two ways to get it. First of all, go to your manager and ask him or her for help. They will hopefully share what they can with you or help you find it. Second, cultivate your own sources by making friends with someone in sales or another part of your organization where people have that “inside” information that gives you an early indication of how things are going.

With that information in hand, here are five specific actions you can take to increase the odds of surviving, and even thriving, in this down economy.

Action Item #1: Get in Shape
You can’t make much progress in building credibility with management until your own function is in good shape. Recruiters who saw the signs of a recession could have begun trimming the fat in their processes months ago. Get aligned with your management team and cut when they cut, slow down when they slow down, and show them you are aware and responsible.

The last several years of high demand for talent have allowed many recruiting functions to increase their headcounts, add tools and services that are not providing a significant return, and get sloppy in measuring efficiency. This is the time to examine every step in your recruiting process and see where you could be more efficient – in other words do more with fewer resources, less time, or less money. What are you spending on job postings? Could that be reduced? Could you switch to using targeted emails or some other lower cost methods? Where are you spending the majority of your budget? How could you reduce that by 10%? 20%? What can you stop doing that really won’t hurt you?

By prioritizing and cutting, refocusing, and rethinking everything you do, you will end up with a much healthier function. You will better weather the recession and be poised to aggressively deal with the boom that will inevitably come.

Action Item #2: Be Nice
Every act of discourtesy to a candidate will eventually be reflected in how they talk about you to other people. Employment brands are built on small acts – not on the big campaigns or websites. A solid brand is the accumulation of years of good deeds, happy candidates, satisfied managers, and authentic communication. Many candidates will be stressed and perhaps out of a job. They need honest feedback and guidance, if possible, on how they present themselves.

Firms that take the extra time to sit down with a candidate or send them an email and let them know their status, possibilities, and even strengths and weaknesses will reap many benefits in a stronger brand.

Action Item #3: Ruthlessly Focus
Target your marketing and sourcing only on the kinds of people you most need. Cut out or reduce all the resources you spend on marginal activities. For example, you might reduce the use of agencies that recruit volume candidates, stretch out the time to fill less critical positions, or try to use some of the new social networking tools to reach out to certain groups of candidates.

Look at internal hiring and see if there isn’t a way to improve the number of employees who move. Talk to management about increasing that number and decrease external hiring.

The goal should be to attract mostly the types of candidates you need and who are qualified. You can use this slower time to experiment on messaging, screening techniques, and on ways to get fewer but better candidates.

Action Item #4: Use Technology – Experiment!
As always, I harp on using technology whenever you can. Social networking tools can help you create and build relationships with candidates. Most are very inexpensive or free.

Experiment with better, more frequent emails to certain candidates on your shortlist; create a newsletter or blog to give interested potential candidates updates on your organization; and experiment with tools such as Twitter, Broadlook, or Checkster.

Action Item #5: Build Relationships
I am more and more convinced that posting job descriptions is an archaic process. While I have no doubt that the practice will live on for a long time, it is not the best, cheapest, or fastest way to find good people.

Using technology to develop relationships and to communicate regularly with a selected and screened pool of candidates is the key to your real success.

In general, you are going to find only a few of the people you need by posting on Monster or any other job board. The most successful recruiters use their network, ask employees (and others) for referrals, and focus on building communities of potential candidates. This is what agencies and headhunters have been doing for decades and it’s why they have been successful.

Learn from product and service marketing how to do a better job. Watch how some leading organizations are using social media to attract and recruit candidates. Begin to generate candidates from relationships formed online. Make it a rule of thumb that if you are generating hundreds of responses to a job posting, you are doing something terribly wrong.

I guarantee that if you do all five of these things in an organization that is well-managed, you will survive this recession and become an example of how to positively deal with stressful times

Nerve wrecking disclosure of job cuts!!

Friends, you certainly need the courage of stone age ancestors to reach the end of this spine chilling article, highlighting the current state of global economy in terms of monumental job cuts.

Here’s a rundown of some of the recently announced job cuts:
(source: Reuters, with CNBC staff):

BlackRock has slashed 500 jobs worldwide as it grapples with a surge in outflows during the global credit crisis.

France’s Alcatel-Lucent said it would shed 5,000 contractors as it gave a pessimistic forecast for the 2009 telecoms equipment market and declined to say when it would make a net profit.

Dow component Bank of America announced its plans to cut up to 35,000 jobs over three years after completing its purchase of Merrill Lynch .  

Stanley Works said it will slash 2,000 jobs—or 10 percent of its workforce—and close three plants, and cut its 2008 outlook as all its business segments are reeling under the global economic crisis.

Yahoo plans to slash 1,500 jobs by the end of December. The cuts were made mostly in high-cost workforce markets.

Office Depot will layoff 2,200 employees over the next three months and close about 9 percent of its North American stores while planning to open fewer locations next year in an effort to cut costs.Rio

Tinto announced plans to cut 14,000 jobs, slash capital spending and boost asset sales but said it would hold its dividend steady.

Sony’s plan to eliminate 16,000 jobs calls for the company to cut 8,000 regular workers, or roughly 4 percent of its staff, and an equal number or more temporary and contract staff.

Novellus Systems will cut its work force by 10 percent by the end of January, and its chief executive’s salary will be cut in half.

Dow component 3M , which slashed its 2009 profit outlook to between $4.50 and $4.95 a share, confirmed it will cut 1,800 jobs in the fourth quarter.

Anheuser-Busch InBev announced plans to cut 1,400 jobs in the United States, some 6 percent of the workforce there.

Dow Chemical said it would close 20 facilities, divest several businesses and cut 5,000 jobs in response to the global economic slump.

AT&T is cutting 12,000 positions—about 4 percent of its workforce—in moves that will begin in December and continue through the year. The telecom giant said it also plans to reduce capital spending in 2009.

DuPont is slashing 2,500 positions mostly serving the U.S. and European automotive and construction markets, due to lower demand linked to the steep global decline in homebuilding, auto sales and consumer spending.

The Wilmington, Del.-based chemicals maker also says it will trim 4,000 contractors by the end of this year, with additional contractor reductions expected in 2009.

Viacom said it will cut its workforce by about 7 percent, or 850 positions, underscoring the advertising slump afflicting most major media companies. The company also plans to suspend salary increases for senior level U.S. management in 2009.

Swiss bank Credit Suisse said it was cutting another 5,300 jobs, as it revealed it made a net loss of about 3 billion Swiss francs ($2.5 billion) in October and November. The cuts come on top of more than 2,000 that had come earlier in the year.

Japanese brokerage house Nomura Holdings said it would axe up to 1,000 staff in London in its first big job cuts since it bought parts of failed Lehman Brothers, adding to a wave of lay-offs in the global financial industry.

At least 10,000 employees at Merrill Lynch , are expected to be laid off as Bank of America absorbs the investment bank. Pink slips could start being delivered as soon as this week, sources have told CNBC. Together the two firms had 260,000 employees, about 50,000 in investment banking.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. bank by assets, said in June it expected to eliminate about 7,500 jobs over the next two years after the completion of its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender.

JPMorgan Chase said on December 1 it will eliminate about 9,200 jobs at the former Washington Mutual, which on Sept. 25 became the largest U.S. bank to fail. The cuts amount to more than 21 percent of the work force at WaMu, which ended June with 43,198 employees.

The cuts follow earlier reports JPMorgan Chase would lay off 10 percent of its investment banking staff —about 3,000 jobs—as the economy cratered.  

Switzerland-based Credit Suisse said on December 2 it was cutting 650 jobs in the United Kingdom, equivalent to roughly 3 percent of its investment banking workforce of about 21,300. Credit Suisse has axed more than 2,000 jobs, the majority in investment banking in the last year since 2007.

Britain’s HSBC , Europe’s biggest bank, said on December 2 it was cutting 500 jobs at its UK banking business following a review of the business. HSBC, which employs 58,000 people in Britain, slashed 1,100 investment banking jobs in September, about 4 percent of its workforce.

India’s steelmaker ArcelorMittal plans to indefinitely lay-off 2,444 employees from its Indiana plant which comes after the company’s previously announced plan to reduce production in North America by 40 percent. Worldwide the firm announced announced plans November 28 it was to eliminate up to 9,000 white-collar employees to lower by $1bn its overall costs amid an economic slowdown.

Philips Electronics  said November 25 it plans to cut1,600 jobs, roughly 5 percent of the 32,000 employees at its health care division.

The Swedish construction behemoth, Skanska also announced November 25 that it plans to cut its workforce by 3,400 from its 60,000 worldwide employee base, to reflect an expected a 15% drop in new orders in 2009.

The jobs cull continued apace in the banking industry as Royal Bank of Scotland announced at the weekend it was preparing to cut 3,000 staff from its investment banking business, which has 21,000 staff in 50 locations across the globe.

The Bank of New York Mellon said Thursday it will cut its worldwide work force by 4 percent, or about 1,800 jobs, blaming the weak global economy.

Deutsche Bank is going to cut 900 jobs from its London and New York offices.

Neptune Orient Lines the world’s seventh-largest container carrier, said on Wednesday it will shed 9 percent of its workforce—about 1,000 jobs, mostly in North America— and warned of a grim outlook for the shipping sector.

The Associated Press plans to cut up to 10 percent of its workforce in 2009—roughly 400 employees—according to sources at the news service, as it copes with tough financial times and ailing member newspapers.

In Europe, French carmaker Peugeot Citroen said it would cut 2,700 jobs.

Engine maker Roll-Royce said it expects up to 2,000 job cuts next year.

Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca  anticipated 1,400 job losses over coming years.

Boeing announced plans on November 19 to cut approximately 800 positions at a Wichita, Kansas plant, due to delays in the U.S. Air Force tanker-replacement project and the end of other programs. The layoffs, which will hit managers and both salaried and hourly workers, will take place mostly in the first half of 2009. 

Citigroup is cutting as many as 53,000 jobs in its investment bank and other divisions throughout the world.

Sun Microsystems said it plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force, as sales of high-end servers have collapsed.

BT Group , the UK telecommunications firm, will cut 10,000 jobs, or 6.3% of its global work force, in the first quarter of 2009.

Applied Materials , the semiconductor-and-solar panel equipment maker, is slashing 1,800 jobs, the company annonnced after reporting four-quarter profits fell 45% on weak sales due to declining corporate technology spending.

Circuit City , which is filing for bankruptcy, is laying off about 17 percent of its domestic work force, which could affect up to 7,300 people.

German mail and logistics company Deutsche Post  will cut 9,500 jobs at its DHL unit in the U.S. and eliminate U.S.-only domestic express shipping.The new round of cuts, which will see the shedding of 7,000 in a single town, Wilmington, Ohio that has been the hub of DHL’s five-year effort to take on US rivals UPS and FedEx on their home turf, are on top of another 5,400 job cuts it already announced.

Nortel Networks plans to lay off 1,300 workers, nearly 5 percent of its workforce.

Motorola posted a third-quarter net loss and revenue fell a steeper-than-expected 15 percent, as a result the telecom equipment maker will slash 3,000 jobs in a cost-cutting effort.

Ford said it would cut 2,260 white-collar workers in North America.

General Motors , which previously said it would reduce salaried employment costs by 20 percent, will also cut another 1,900 salaried jobs on top of the 5,100 announced last summer. GM also said it is reducing some employee benefits, including 401 k contributions and other programs.

Fidelity Investments will start laying off about 2.9 percent of its global workforce later this month—affecting 1,288 workers in the first round from a workforce of 44,4000—and plans to trim more workers early next year.

Toy maker Mattel says it is cutting some 1,000 positions worldwide in response to the ongoing economic downturn.

The El Segundo-based company says the positions amount to 3 percent of the company’s worldwide workforce and will reduce its professional and management staff by 8 percent. Cuts will come from a combination of layoffs, attrition and retirements, the company said.

Goldman Sachs notified roughly 3,200 employees this month that they have been laid off, part of previously reported plans to slash 10 percent of the firm’s global work force. The move comes after laying off hundreds of support staff and junior bankers in June. The company had a record 32,569 employees in August and the latest cuts reduce headcount to the lowest since 2006.

Barclay’s plans to cut about 3,000 jobs as it brings Lehman Brothers into its fold. Lehman, which filed for bankruptcy last month, had 26,000 employees. About 10,000 have been given jobs until at least the end of the year.

The lack of merger and acquisitions and initial public offerings is hitting Morgan Stanley hard. The U.S. investment bank said on July 31 it was finished cutting jobs, having slashed 4,800 jobs in the past year but some analysts expect Morgan could lay off 15 percent of its work force.

Wachovia , said in August it would cut 6,950 jobs, 600 more than it had previously disclosed.

UBS said at the beginning of October it would cut another 2,000 jobs at its troubled investment bank. The job losses come on top of 7,000 jobs already cut, about 4,100 of which were in investment banking positions cut in the past year. The bank will have reduced its headcount by more than 10 percent to under 80,000.

Commerzbank announced its plan to cut 9,000 jobs in the wake of its agreement to purchase Dresdner Bank from Allianz . About 2,500 jobs of the 9,000 cuts will be outside Germany.

UniCredit , Europe’s fourth-largest bank said in June it would shed 9,000 posts out of 100,000 in Germany, Austria and its domestic base Italy.

First American , the largest U.S. title insurer, by reported revenue said last month it cut 1,250 jobs in the third quarter, bringing the total for the year to about 2,950, or 8 percent of its workforce. It has cut roughly 6,500 jobs since the first quarter of 2007.

National City Corp said this month it planned to reduce 4,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its workforce, over three years to save $500 million to $600 million annually by 2011.

Computer maker Dell , which is nearing the end of nearly 9,000 job cuts, has asked employees to consider taking up to five days of unpaid vacation, is offering voluntary severance packages and has instituted a global hiring freeze.

Nissan announced layoffs affecting 2,500 salaried jobs overseas and 1,000 temporary posts in Japan amid plans to cut vehicle productions globally.

Privately held Chrysler said it was cutting about 5,000 salaried employees. Earlier in the month, it said was slashing 1,825 jobs as the result of plant closings.  

Money manager Janus Capital said it would cut 9 percent of its staff a day after rival AllianceBernstein said it would make unprecedented job cuts.

Xerox announced job cuts of 5 percent, or 3,000 positions, due to a “tough business environment.

Hewlett-Packard is laying off more than 24,00 employees due to weak technology spending and the integration of tech-services giant Electronic Data Systems, which H-P acquired earlier this year for $13.25 billion.

Mining equipment maker Terex said it would lay off hundreds of workers and suspend its share buyback program to preserve cash.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide said it plans to cut an unspecified number of jobs to offset slowing travel demand.

American Century says is plans to cut 270 jobs this week, reducing workforce by 17 percent. They insist that no portfolio managers are to be affected by the impending job cuts.

Merck announced plans to cut 12 percent of its workforce, citing a need to change its business model in order to survive.

Fidelity National Financial , which controls one of the largest U.S. title insurers, announced 1,000 job cuts, office closings, a 10 percent pay cut and a 50 percent dividend cut, which comes on top of 1,600 job eliminations in the April-to-June period.

Biotechnology company Maxygen plans to cut nearly 30 percent of its workforce and explore strategic options due to the current financial environment.

Popular Inc. , parent of Banco Popular, is cutting 600 positions and more than a quarter of its branches in the United States.

Highest paid men in 2007

1. Steve Schwarzman

Chairman and CEO

Blackstone Group (BX)
2007 Total compensation: $350.7 million

 

2. Pete Peterson

Senior Chairman

Blackstone Group (BX)
2007 Total compensation: $174.3 million

 

3. Frank Fertitta III

Chairman and CEO

Station Casinos (STN)
2007 Total compensation: $146.6 million

 

4. Lorenzo Fertitta

Vice Chairman and Former President*

Station Casinos (STN)
2007 Total compensation: $145.4 million

* Fertitta left the company in June 2008. He continues to serve as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.

5. Scott Ford

President and CEO

Alltel (AT)
2007 Total compensation: $141.7 million*

* 2007 total compensation includes $107,732,131 in payments made in connection with the purchase of the company.

 

6. Hamilton James

President and COO

Blackstone Group (BX)
2007 Total compensation: $98.7 million

 

7. Larry Ellison

CEO

Oracle (ORCL)
2007 Total compensation: $84.6 million

 

8. John Thain

Chairman and CEO

Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER)
2007 Total compensation: $83.8 million*

* Thain joined the company in December 2007. 2007 total compensation includes his annualized base salary.

 

9. Nelson Peltz

Chairman and Former CEO*

Triarc Companies (TRYB)
2007 Total compensation: $73 million

* Peltz left the company in June 2007. . He continues to serve as non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors. 2007 total compensation includes $45,165,589 in severance pay and $24,271,781in deferred compensation payouts.

 

10. James Moffett

Chairman

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX)
2007 Total compensation: $68.3 million

A Bridge Too Far !!

Friends ,reproducing the list of Fortune 25 Asia ,mentioning their world ranking ( 1st Column) in terms of revenue ( As per Fortune 500 21st July 2008 issue).

Indian Oil is the only indian company appearing in Fortune 25 Asia list with a global ranking of 116

13 companies are from Japan, 4 companies each from China and South Korea, 1 each from Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan.

Even though China has only 4 companies in Asia 25 list but 3 of those companies occupies the first 5 slots just behind Toyota of Japan ,the topper.

I think, there is a long way to go before seeing that, atleast 5 indian companies make entry into Fortune 25 Asia

Rank Company Country Revenues ($ millions)
05 Toyota Motor, Japan, 230,200.8
16 Sinopec, China, 159,259.6
24 State Grid, China, 132,885.1
25 China National Petroleum, China, 129,798.3
38 Samsung Electronics, South Korea, 106,006.5
40 Honda Motor, Japan, 105,102.4
48 Hitachi, Japan, 98,306.5
50 Nissan Motor, Japan, 94,782.1
54 Nippon Telegraph Telephone, Japan, 93,526.9
67 LG, South Korea, 82,095.6
72 Matsushita Electric, Japan, 79,411.8
75 Sony, Japan, 77,682.2
82 Hyundai Motor, South Korea, 74,899.8
86 SK Holdings, South Korea, 70,716.9
91 Toshiba, Japan, 67,145.2
95 Petronas, Malaysia, 66,218.2
115 Nippon Life Insurance, Japan, 57,859.2
116 Indian Oil, India, 57,427.0
117 Nippon Oil, Japan, 57,049.2
118 Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Japan, 55,988.4
130 Mitsubishi, Japan, 52,808.5
132 Hon Hai Precision Industry, Taiwan, 51,827.7
133 Industrial Commercial Bank of China, China, 51,525.5
135 PTT, Thailand, 51,192.5
140 Mitsui, Japan, 50,252.3

Successful Networking..follow the guidelines

Hi Friends, nothing matters more than networking….here is the guideline for perfect networking …..an article, i picked up randomly from internet

1.Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and seeing how you can help others.

2.Ask yourself what your goals are in participating in networking meetings so that you will pick groups that will help you get what you are looking for. Some meetings are based more on learning, making contacts, and/or volunteering rather than on strictly making business connections.

3.Visit as many groups as possible that spark your interest. Notice the tone and attitude of the group. Do the people sound supportive of one another? Does the leadership appear competent? Many groups will allow you to visit two times before joining.

4.Hold volunteer positions in organizations. This is a great way to stay visible and give back to groups that have helped you.

5.Ask open-ended questions in networking conversations. This means questions that ask who, what, where, when, and how as opposed to those that can be answered with a simple yes or no. This form of questioning opens up the discussion and shows listeners that you are interested in them.

6.Become known as a powerful resource for others. When you are known as a strong resource, people remember to turn to you for suggestions, ideas, names of other people, etc. This keeps you visible to them.

7.Have a clear understanding of what you do and why, for whom, and what makes your doing it special or different from others doing the same thing. In order to get referrals, you must first have a clear understanding of what you do that you can easily articulate to others.

8.Be able to articulate what you are looking for and how others may help you. Too often people in conversations ask, “How may I help you?” and no immediate answer comes to mind.

9.Follow through quickly and efficiently on referrals you are given. When people give you referrals, your actions are a reflection on them. Respect and honor that and your referrals will grow.

10.Call those you meet who may benefit from what you do and vice versa. Express that you enjoyed meeting them, and ask if you could get together and share ideas.

Life is about correcting mistakes

Friends, publishing the content , i received from one of my friend and believe me,tears started running down by the time, i reach the end…. and ……………. Hope ,we learn a lesson from this article to make our life meaningful.

——————————————————–

Monica married Hitesh this day. At the end of the wedding party,Monica’s mother gave her a newly opened bank saving passbook. With Rs.1000 deposit amount.

Mother: ‘Monica, take this passbook. Keep it as a record of your marriage life. When there’s something happy and memorable happened in your new life, put some money in. Write down what it’s about next to the line. The
more memorable the event is, the more money you can put in. I’ve done the first one for you today. Do the others with Hitesh.When you look back after years, you can know how much happiness you’ve had.’

Monica shared this with Hitesh when getting home. They both thought it was a great idea and were anxious to know when the second deposit can be made.

This was what they did after certain time:
- 7 Feb: Rs.100, first birthday celebration for Hitesh after marriage
- 1 Mar: Rs.300, salary raise for Monica
- 20 Mar: Rs.200, vacation trip to Bali
- 15 Apr: Rs.2000, Monica got pregnant
- 1 Jun: Rs.1000, Hitesh got promoted
….. and so on…

However, after years, they started fighting and arguing for trivial things.They didn’t talk much. They regretted that they had married the most nasty people in the world…. no more love…Kind of typical nowadays, huh?

One day Monica talked to her Mother:
‘Mom, we can’t stand it anymore. We agree to divorce. I can’t imagine how I decided to marry this guy!!!’
Mother: ‘Sure, girl, that’s no big deal. Just do whatever you want if you really can’t stand it. But before that, do one thing first. Remember the saving passbook I gave you on your wedding day? Take out all money and
spend it first. You shouldn’t keep any record of such a poor marriage.’

Monica thought it was true. So she went to the bank, waiting at the queue and planning to cancel the account.
While she was waiting, she took a look at the passbook record. She looked and looked, and looked. Then the memory of all the previous joy and happiness just came up her mind. Her eyes were then filled with tears. She
left and went home.

When she was home, she handed the passbook to Hitesh, asked him to spend the money before getting divorce.

The next day, Hitesh gave the passbook back to Monica. She found a new deposit of Rs.5000. And a line next to the record: ‘This is the day I notice how much I’ve loved you thru out all these years. How much happiness
you’ve brought me.’

They hugged and cried, putting the passbook back to the safe.

Do you know how much money they had saved when they retired? I did not ask.I believe the money did not matter any more after they had gone thru all the good years in their life.

“When you fall, in any way,don’t see the place where you fell, Instead see the place from where you slipped. Life is about correcting mistakes.”

How to jumpstart your career during recession..

Friends ,interesting article i picked up from a website , suggesting useful guideline to jumpstart career during recession.It has been written by Jim Citrin, who is a senior director with Spencer Stuart.

—————————————————————-
How to land a great job

Are you looking for a new job in this maelstrom of rising unemployment and hiring freezes? Here are six steps to help you jumpstart your career:

1. Identify your broad areas of interest. Is it so surprising that people are happier and more productive working in an area that they’re genuinely interested in? It shouldn’t be. Career success highly correlates with inherent interest in the work you do.

2. Once you think you know those broad areas, open yourself up to what else might rouse you. Here’s a simple technique to identify what that might be: Collect the last four or five issues of Fortune and go through them one by one. Rip out any article or advertisement that sparks a chord. Don’t over-think this. Spread the articles and ads out on the kitchen table and put them into logical groupings. You’ll notice patterns and areas that you probably didn’t realize you were interested in.

3. Build a target list of companies and organizations that operate in this area, directly or indirectly. By indirectly, I mean: What organizations sell into, service, or interact with your industry or companies of interest? What advertising agencies, consulting firms, technology companies, trade publications, or industry associations comprise a company’s constellation? If you ask around and use the Web, you’ll be able to create a map of the key players in and around your targets.

4. Find out who your real friends are. I find that I’m much more compelled to consider a candidate when someone I know contacts me to heartily recommend them. I do the same for people I respect and care about. A few weeks ago, I spent time with an inspiring recent college graduate. I was so impressed with her intelligence, leadership, and positive attitude that I called a half-dozen executives I know well and urged them to meet her. She secured interviews, distinguished herself in the conversations, and has just accepted an entry-level job with one of them. At the other end of the spectrum, a well-known media industry executive who recently left his company came into my office a couple of weeks ago. After talking through his experience, strengths, weaknesses, and interest areas, we built a target list of companies and private equity firms. and then I made some proactive introductions. Find someone to be your champion and actively market you.

5. Don’t wait for perfection. There are always tradeoffs in jobs. They either don’t pay enough money or they’re located in undesirable places. They require a lifestyle change — or the title or job description isn’t ideal. Get real. Today, getting a couple of these elements right should be sufficient. I gave this advice to an executive who had an offer to become chief strategy and development officer for a leading global consumer electronics company. That sounded great, and the company offered a very attractive compensation package with good benefits. So what could be wrong? To take the job, he would have to move to Seoul, South Korea. A year ago, he would have demurred. Today, he’s off to Asia for an adventure

Living a difficult life…

Friends, very good article , i read long back and downloaded in my computer.Today, i re-discovered it and decided to share with you
———————————————————

LIVING WITH A SCHIZOPHRENIC

Living with a person who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia can be tough. Even if he/she is under medication, it can still be tough. The affected person will be unable to relate in a regular manner and will be in his/her own world.

A person with schizophrenia will have mood swings and the family and others who interact with this person will not know how he/she will behave. He/she may get fixated on certain issues and it is very difficult to budge him/her.

A gentleman had written to say his partner was a diagnosed schizophrenic and she was under medication. She had violent mood swings. When she was good, she was the soul of the party, very lovable, and fun to be with. But when she was thwarted, she was hell to be with. He was finding it very difficult to exist with her.
When his patience would break, he would get a glimpse of how good she is, how she manages her life with maturity and he does not have the heart to leave her. He is in a dilemma and wanted to know what to do.

They both are divorcees and having their own children. In spite of her illness she has brought up her kids very well. But she had claimed she had a nervous breakdown due to the stress of living with an uncompromising husband.
She is partly right. But she does not realize she was prone to this illness. The vulnerability was there and too much of stress from outside just brought this out. It is very unfortunate, but many people have this vulnerability. And if the circumstances are right, it blows up.

Her family must have had a history of mental ill health. It is not possible that only external stress brought it on.
This lady is under medical supervision, has regular reviews and gets counseling from a psychiatric nurse. The nurse monitors her medications and checks how she is doing. But this lady has not received any counseling for handling interpersonal relationships. She cannot operate like a person who does not have the illness. She has to be counseled.

Not only she, her family must also undergo counseling. It is called family counseling. They must be shown ways how to handle this affected family member. They will not have any clue as to the affected person’s mood swings. Various aspects of this illness have to be explained to the family and also how to handle this person. Family must make sure the affected member takes the medications regularly and makes sure he/she attends counseling.

It is not as if they are always mentally unhinged. They can be problematic if not on medication. But otherwise they can function very well in certain areas. I knew of a person who was diagnosed a schizophrenic who performed very well in the office. He held a very responsible position and was meticulous with his work. Only life with his family was tough. He was never bothered with their comforts and grudged spending on them. He never thought he was doing anything wrong. His family suffered a lot and finally his wife divorced him.

So they do function up to a point, only their thinking being impaired, they are difficult to live with. Like I mentioned earlier, they do get fixated on certain ideas and being naturally paranoid persons, will suspect spouses of infidelity. And which spouse can live with this accusation?

So the choice I gave this gentleman who wrote to me was he could continue to live with her, as he appeared to love her a lot. He could pass off certain of her behaviors due to her illness and try to overlook many issues. He must take her for general counseling and he too must attend some sessions. She needs to have her thinking pattern modified and taught a few interpersonal skills.

He would require lots of patience and must be willing to compromise on a lot of issues. Because the other choice is separation. But hopefully love will conquer all.

New Generation Management Experts

Friends , sharing an article, i picked up from CNN regarding next generation management experts.Although CNN mentioned about 10 new Guru’s, i am cutting it short to first five in the article………………………

You’ve heard of Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, and C.K. Prahalad. Here we introduce the next generation of management experts who are changing the way business gets done.

1.BJ Fogg
“Persuading people through technology is the next social revolution. Facebook demonstrates just how powerful it will be.” -BJ Fogg,Founder and director, Persuasive Technology Lab, Stanford Univ., Palo Alto
Big Idea: Mobile technology will be the most powerful way to influence consumers in the next 15 years.
Clients: Procter & Gamble, Nike, AARP

When Fogg began studying how technology could influence behavior back in 1992, he faced some resistance to his ideas. But today he’s one of the most sought-after thinkers in Silicon Valley.

In his lab at Stanford, Fogg, 45, researches how Web site or cell-phone design can impact consumers. While he’s applying his findings to companies like eBay (where he’s working to improve customer service) and Nike (where he has helped simplify its sports technology line), he’s sharing insights with Stanford undergrads. In one of his courses on Facebook, students are asked to create applications that persuade other users on the popular Web site.

2.Patrick Lencioni
Founder, the Table Group, Lafayette, Calif.
Big Idea: Most executives don’t realize that the internal health of a company is key to its success.
Clients: McKesson, San Diego Chargers

Lencioni’s books, which feature fictional characters facing up to organizational problems, aren’t about to win any academic prizes. That’s fine with him. He thinks people seek simple solutions to complex issues.

A former Bain consultant and HR exec at Oracle, Lencioni, 43, started his business in 1997 because his felt most consultants ignored organizational health. His eight books, including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and Death by Meeting, have sold a combined 2.5 million copies, and Lencioni earns $55,000 a speech.

At Southwest Airlines he was the first outsider to work with the executive team in 12 years. In his latest work he turns to overwhelmed families – who, he says, need the same kind of help his clients do.

3.Rakesh Khurana
Professor of business administration, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, Mass.
Big Idea: Charismatic CEOs don’t work; management needs to become a profession, like law.
Clients: IBM, Tyson Foods, American Family

Do business leaders have a responsibility beyond earning profits? Absolutely, says Khurana, who thinks the management should be a profession with licensing tests, a code of ethics à la law or medicine, and a stated commitment to improving the well-being of shareholders and society. Despite his scathing condemnation of business school education, the 41-year-old was awarded tenure at Harvard.

Khurana has consulted for several companies about leadership, and he’s cautioned against what he calls the “irrational search for charismatic CEOs,” a misguided belief that a CEO with a magnetic personality translates to corporate success (it doesn’t).

4.Valerie Casey
“I’m trying to make sure that sustainability is not just a line item.” -Valerie Casey,Leader, Digital Experiences Practice, IDEO; founder, the Designers Accord, Palo Alto
Big Idea: A Kyoto Protocol for designers
Clients: AT&T, Samsung, Dell, Virgin

Inside design powerhouse IDEO, where she’s working on next-generation mobile products for AT&T, Casey is the expert on all things digital. But around the world she’s fast becoming a leader of the green-design movement. Two years ago she decided to act on her realization that a beautiful keyboard or mobile phone is still an object that creates waste.

To get designers – and their clients – to think about sustainability before, not after, they create, Casey, 36, wrote the Designers Accord, a set of guidelines that commits its signatories to support sustainable design and requires them to track their own carbon footprint. It struck a chord: More than 100,000 people and organizations – including Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products, and Autodesk – have signed on.

5.Don Sull
Professor of management practice in strategic and international management, London Business School
Big Idea: Welcome uncertainty in turbulent times.
Clients: Nokia, Mars, Baker & McKenzie

Sull didn’t start off with ivory-tower aspirations. After four years at McKinsey and private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice, he was drawn to academic life as he kept observing companies practicing “active inertia,” or dealing with current problems “by accelerating activities that had worked in the past.”

Sull, 45, now has new solutions for companies. One is to forget entirely about a grand vision, which locks them into vague promises or could commit them to a doomed strategy. The other is to embrace uncertainty, which he addresses in his upcoming book, “The Upside of Turbulence.” The takeaway: Companies still need a map, but it needs to be focused on a few must-win battles and be fluid enough to be redrawn in the case of sudden shocks.

We do not choose our families, but we do choose our friends

Friends, very good article i recently picked up from a website,highlighting certain peculiar aspects of human relationship………………..

We Help Friends Due To Empathy; Relatives Due To Expectation Of Reciprocity (Adapted from materials provided by University of Groningen.)

ScienceDaily (Mar. 24, 2008) — Empathy is an emotional reaction to the plight of others. Empathy can lead to altruistic behaviour, i.e. helping someone with the sole intention of enhancing that person’s wellbeing. If we see people in difficulty, for example, we feel the same emotions, and this may prompt us to help them. Yet the relationship between empathy and altruism is still far from clear.

Psychologist Lidewij Niezink has researched this subject. She concluded that when we help friends in need, we are prompted by feelings of empathy, and that when we help relatives we do so because we have expectations of reciprocity.

Niezink will receive her PhD on 27 March 2008 at the University of Groningen. She measured the empathic responses by telling the participants in the study about a young woman who is in a wheelchair following a serious accident. The participants then had to answer a series of questions designed to show how much they sympathise and identify with the woman.

Social comparison
Among other things, Niezink studied the empathetic reactions of people who often compare themselves with others. ‘We all compare ourselves with the people around us, but some people do this more than others. When the people in this group compare themselves with someone in a worse position, they often experience negative emotions such as tension, agitation, anxiety and irritation.’

Niezink discovered that these negative emotions are actually an expression of empathy. These people feel involved with the person in need, and identify with him/her. The negative emotions are a way of expressing this.

Family and friends
Niezink also studied the role of empathetic feelings in relationships with friends and family members. She discovered that we help friends for different reasons than family members. ‘People help friends out of feelings of empathy, but they help family members because they have expectations about reciprocation.’

This result is surprising, because it was always assumed that empathy was primarily a characteristic of family relationships. ‘But it is logical when you think about it. When you move house, it’s always your brother who comes to help. You can usually rely on family. We do not choose our families, but we do choose our friends. We feel a greater sense of connection with friends, so feelings of empathy are more important.

Altruistic options model
Niezink also compared various studies of empathy, and concludes that the methods varied quite considerably. ‘They are not talking about the same concept. That makes it more difficult to study altruism.’ Niezink then developed the ‘altruistic choice model’. The model works as follows. You see the suffering of others and this leads to a feeling of empathy, over which you have no control. This can be followed by various emotional responses: sympathizing/identifying with the person in question, concern or ‘softheartedness’ (tender feelings).

These are responses that we can influence. These responses, in turn, can lead to compassion and altruism, i.e. understanding the other person’s suffering and the willingness to alleviate it. According to Niezink: ‘Altruism is a choice and something that we can actively cultivate when we observe others in need.’

Negative perception unjustified
Niezink is surprised about the fact that altruism is undervalued in our society. ‘We are pack animals. We cannot exist in isolation, so it is no scandal if we are willing to help each other. I’m not saying we must, but we can.

Altruism makes the world a more pleasant place.’ It is rewarding to help someone. ‘Some people say, therefore, that helping others is based on selfish motives.
If you help someone and it has positive consequences for you, that does not mean to say that your underlying motives are not altruistic.’

Co-relation Between State Of Mind & The experience Of Pain

Friends, interesting Research Findings i have just picked from a site, confirming through scientific analysis,co-relation between state of mind of both self & others and the experience of pain…………………

Researchers at Harvard University have discovered that our experience of pain depends on whether we think someone caused the pain intentionally. In their study, participants who believed they were getting an electrical shock from another person on purpose, rather than accidentally, rated the very same shock as more painful. Participants seemed to get used to shocks that were delivered unintentionally, but those given on purpose had a fresh sting every time.

The research, published in the current issue of Psychological Science, was led by Kurt Gray, a graduate student in psychology, along with Daniel Wegner, professor of psychology.

It has long been known that our own mental states can alter the experience of pain, but these findings suggest that our perceptions of the mental states of others can also influence how we feel pain.

“This study shows that even if two harmful events are physically identical, the one delivered with the intention to hurt actually hurts more,” says Gray. “Compare a slap from a friend as she tries to save us from a mosquito versus the same slap from a jilted lover. The first we shrug off instantly, while the second stings our cheek for the rest of the night.”

The study’s authors suggest that intended and unintended harm cause different amounts of pain because they differ in meaning.

“From decoding language to understanding gestures, the mind distills meaning from our social environment,” says Gray. “An intended harm has a very different meaning than an accidental harm.”

The study included 48 participants who were paired up with a partner who could administer to them either an audible tone or an electric shock. In the intentional condition, participants were shocked when their partner chose the shock option. In the unintentional condition, participants were shocked when their partner chose the tone option. Thus, in this condition, they only received a shock when their partner did not intend them to receive one. The computer display ensured that participants both knew their partner’s choice and that a shock would be coming, to ensure the shock was not more surprising in the unintentional condition.

Despite identical shock voltage between conditions, those in the intentional condition rated the shocks as significantly more painful. Furthermore, those in the unintentional condition habituated to the pain, rating them as decreasingly painful, while those in the intentional condition continued to feel the full sting of pain.

Gray suggests that it may be evolutionarily adaptive for this difference in meaning to be represented as different amounts of pain.

“The more something hurts, the more likely we are to take notice and stop whatever is hurting us,” he says. “If it’s an accidental harm, chances are it’s a one-time thing, and there’s no need to do anything about it. If it’s an intentional harm, however, it may be the first of many, so it’s good to take notice and do something about it. It makes sense that our bodies and brains might amplify our experience of pain when we know that the pain could signal threats to our survival.”

These findings speak to how people experience pain and negative life events. If negative events are seen as intended, they may hurt more. This helps to explain why torture is so excruciating – not only are torture techniques themselves exceptionally painful, but it’s the thought that counts—and makes torture hurt more than mere pain.

On the other hand, if negative events are seen as unintended, they may hurt less. This may explain, in part, why people in abusive relationships sometimes continue to stay in them. By rationalizing that an abusive partner did not intend harm, some victims may reduce their experience of pain, which could make them less likely to leave the relationship and escape the abuse.

The research was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Institute for Humane Studies.

Life Is All About Choices We make..

A great story on attitudes and living life Kingsize…….i just picked up from a site……………………………………

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant.

The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.

I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.

“Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested. “Yes, it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?” I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked. Jerry continued, “…the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man.’

I knew I needed to take action.” ” What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’”

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

Positive thinking the the first step towards a happy life.

Attitude is everything

If everyone applies just these, the whole world will live in happiness.

Life Is All About Setting Priorities…

Friends, another addition to our “Life Is All About…” series.I just read it in a site and now sharing with you.This story tells us, how setting right priorities in life can change our quality of living………………………………………..

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was
full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the he sand filled up everything else He asked once more ,if the jar was full. The students re sponded with an unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now’, said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends,and your favorite passions; things that if everything else was lost and
only they remained, your life would still be full.’

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house,and your car. The sand is everything else; the small stuff. ‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.’

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to
dinner. Play another 18. Do one more run down the ski slope.There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented.The professor smiled. ‘I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of
glasses of wine with a friend.’

Hot Careers During Recession

Friends, interesting article i just picked-up up, highlighting the industries, which are not likely to be affected by recession.It may be absolutely true but certainly valid for most of the segments……………………………

Top 10 Careers to Pursue in a Recession

If you want to recession-proof your career, the key is to focus on work that continues even when most people don’t have disposable income to spend. So while consumers may not hit the mall as often, you can guarantee that people will continue to get sick, pay taxes and use energy. These are just a few of the careers and industries that can be expected to thrive in a down economy.

1. Health Care: People will always get sick — sometimes even more so when they don’t have the insurance or money to take preventative measures or eat healthy food.

2. Energy: Although consumers are likely to cut back, they’re not going to stop using energy. In fact, this industry may grow, as companies look for more efficient ways to deliver using less energy.

3. Education: No matter how dire the economy is, there are always jobs for teachers. Kids will still go to school, and many out-of-work adults may decide to continue their education.

4. Utilities: Just like the energy sector, it’s safe to assume that people are not going to stop lighting their homes. So utility administration, maintenance and other related jobs should remain intact.

5. Accounting: Death and taxes are a sure thing. In a recession, people and companies are likely to get desperate for more deductions and a hard look at their books.

6. Pharmaceuticals: As long as doctors prescribe them, people are still going to take drugs. So whether you’re behind the pharmacy counter or in the lab, you can rest easy.

7. Sales: As a general rule, anyone who is a source of income for a company will be safe, so salespeople — especially in recession-proof industries — have little to worry about.

8. Liquor Industry: Alcohol is another outlet for troubled times, so distributors and manufacturers in this industry will continue to thrive.

9. Government Contracting: Despite money troubles, roads must be maintained and schools must be built. Contract your work out for government functions for job security.

10. Food: People need food to survive, and it’s not likely that anyone is going to just stop eating — no matter how bad the economy gets.

Although today’s job market may be bleak, there are some bright spots if you know where to look. While recessions hit some sectors hard, others go on like clockwork — or even experience growth. So whether you’re hunting for a job or still feeling ostensibly secure, now is a good time to evaluate your options and consider one of the aforementioned recession-proof careers.

Management Of 4 C’s ..Towards Leadership

Friends , good article by Lee Hecht Harrison, narrowing down the essential traits of Leadership to just 4 C’s……………………….

4 Cs of LEADERSHIP

When candidates meet with human resources professionals, they often try only to reveal things about themselves that they want to be seen. But savvy HR professionals can recognize a variety of personality and leadership traits that are revealed during what can be, depending on the job, a lengthy and thorough interviewing process.

Recently, there was a very well publicized, and perhaps the most important, job opening in the country with two top candidates in the running. That job is president of the U.S. with the HR department being the voting public.

“But regarding regular business, of course HR professionals will know what to look for during the interview process that will indicate in this case who the best candidate for the job might be,” says Don Wells, senior vice president and general manager of leading career services company Lee Hecht Harrison’s Los Angeles office.

Whether it is a presidential candidate or a C-level job applicant, many of whom go through an arduous process of up to 10 interviews before being offered a position, Wells believes that it’s imperative for the interviewer to have sufficient information about a candidate’s leadership ability before making a decision.

In this spirit, here are four important “Cs of Leadership” to watch for during your interviews during the next year or so:

COMMUNICATION:
It may seem obvious, but it can’t be stressed enough. Some of the most important attributes of a good leader are positive and developed communication skills. Is the candidate’s message clear? Does he or she stop talking and judging long enough to listen to others?

CONSISTENCY:
A challenge faced by many leaders is remaining steadfast in their values and maintaining the corporate culture despite being pulled in many directions at once. It is crucial to demonstrate that they can be trusted to follow through on what has been promised.

CONSENSUS BUILDING:
Good leaders must be able to get buy-in from important stakeholders on the tough decisions. They should encourage and value the perceptions and interests of others, set an environment for clear and honest discussions and understand all sides of an issue, rather than only seeking information that supports their own opinion.

CONFLICT RESOLUTION:
Leaders at any level should be able to find common ground in the face of conflict, while focusing on the important issues to meet the needs of their constituency.

“Obviously there is no template that will be effective for screening all job candidates,” says Wells. “However, given careful scrutiny, their true leadership traits will become evident.”

10 Most Powerful Women 2007

Friends, 10 most powerful women 2007, according to Fortune are as follows………………………..

 

1. Indra Nooyi
Chairman and CEO
PepsiCo (PEP)
2006 rank: 1
Age: 51
All the arrows are pointing in the right direction, with revenues ($35.1 billion), operating profits ($6.4 billion), and earnings per share ($3) all rising strongly last year. The 2001 Quaker Foods acquisition, in which Nooyi played a key role, is working out well, and Pepsi International, a priority for the company and a particular interest for the Indian-born Nooyi, is coming on strong too; its revenues rose 14%, to $13 billion, and operating profits rose 21%, to $1.9 billion. Oh, and in May, Nooyi added the title of chairman to her own portfolio.

 

 

2. Anne Mulcahy
Chairman and CEO
Xerox (XRX)
2006 rank: 2
Age: 54
In May, Xerox’s credit was upgraded to investment-grade status from junk, and analysts love the new focus on growth and expansion – a sign that Xerox is back to health. Recent acquisitions like Global Imaging Systems should add close to $1 billion in sales to the $16 billion company. The stock is up 10% in the past year.

 

 

3. Meg Whitman
President and CEO
eBay (EBAY)
2006 rank: 3
Age: 51
It hasn’t been easy for this web 1.0 superstar to figure out how to succeed in a 2.0 world, but the $6 billion company remains the world’s No. 1 e-commerce brand. PayPal revenue increased 34% in the most recent quarter, and eBay upped its 2007 sales forecast, thanks in large part to its recent deal to purchase StubHub. Investors are buying in, sending the stock up 45%.

 

 

4. Angela Braly
President and CEO
Wellpoint (WLP)
2006 rank: New
Age: 46
Trading in her job as EVP and general counsel to become CEO in June, Braly heads the largest company run by a woman. WellPoint has revenues of $56.9 billion and 35 million subscribers, the most of any U.S. health-care company.

 

 

5. Irene Rosenfeld
Chairman and CEO
Kraft Foods (KFT)
2006 rank: 5
Age: 54
Kraft had a bumpy 2006. Revenues were flat ($34.4 billion), and earnings per share declined in the fourth quarter. But earnings were up for the year as a whole, and in March, Kraft regained control of its destiny when it was spun off from tobacco giant Altria Group. Rosenfeld announced a $5 billion stock repurchase program in February and a $7.2 billion acquisition of Danone’s global biscuit business less than five months later. One key goal: increasing Kraft’s presence in emerging markets.

 

 

6. Pat Woertz
Chairman, CEO, and President
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
2006 rank: 4
Age: 54
Bio-based plastics, chemical alternatives, ethanol: ADM does it all. Revenues rose almost 20%, to $44 billion, and net income increased 65%, to $2.2 billion. With corn prices rising, though, the "dot-corn" ethanol phenomenon is losing some of its glow, and the stock has fallen sharply. Still, strong global demand positions ADM’s commodity-based businesses well for the long haul.

 

 

7. Susan Arnold
President, Global Business Units
Procter & Gamble (PG)
2006 rank: 10
Age: 53
Check out the annual report: Arnold’s name comes right after CEO A.G. Lafley’s – and that may understate her importance. Arnold is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the three global business units in the $76 billion company. An organic growth goal of 4% to 6% annually means adding billions of dollars to the top line every year. But Arnold has done it before, transforming the once-sleepy health and beauty business.

 

 

8. Oprah Winfrey
Chairman
Harpo
2006 rank: 8
Age: 53
Having made stars of the likes of Rachael Ray and Dr. Phil, Winfrey is now trying to use her clout to move the political needle: She was an early supporter of Democrat Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency. Politics may be Winfrey’s Rubicon; Obama has been faltering. Still, Winfrey’s cultural clout is undeniable. Her Oscar special this year was among the top-rated shows that week, and in a tough year for magazines, O: The Oprah Magazine saw ad pages rise 14%

 

 

9. Andrea Jung
Chairman and CEO
Avon Products (AVP)
2006 rank: 7
Age: 49
The stock is finally showing life, up 15% in the past year, as Jung has proved to investors that she is serious about reinvigorating growth at the $8.7 billion cosmetics company. Among other initiatives, she has increased ad spending and is launching Avon’s first worldwide ad campaign, "Hello tomorrow," with Reese Witherspoon as the new spokeswoman. The company is also cutting jobs and doing away with less-profitable products.

 

 

10. Brenda Barnes
Chairman and CEO
Sara Lee (SLE)
2006 rank: 6
Age: 53
Is the turnaround finally working? Maybe – just maybe. Sales rose 7.1%, to $12.3 billion, and operating income 32%, to $556 million, in fiscal 2007. The key: innovation. Since 2005, Sara Lee has accounted for almost half the new bakery products in the U.S., and Barnes plans to launch 75 new products in 2008. The stock price, alas, has barely budged. Investors worry that margins will stay slim because of increased marketing spending.

For Happiness…Tap Internal Resources

Friends,another morale boosting article ,i picked up from a site, highlighting how are we chasing the ever eluding Oasis of Happiness.The Author rightly said “If the opposite emotions are never experienced,then happiness can never be experienced either.”

Yes friends, i strongly believe that bad times teaches us the true meaning of happiness….when we look inside to gather strength and courage to face downturn of life HAPPILY……………………………………..

Here is the article

Most of us believe that finding happiness is all about finding something else they want. Not many have ever found long term happiness by achieving another goal. The answer to finding happiness is to look within.

In other words, happiness is completely an inside job. The most important piece to finding happiness is to comprehend happiness is a choice and not the result of an experience. If all happiness could be found as the result of an acquisition, meeting a goal, or having anything, then a person’s happiness would always be subject to something else.

If the opposite emotions are never experienced then happiness can never be experienced either. Think about it like this: bad times allow us to appreciate good times; hunger allows you to appreciate food; and sadness allows us to appreciate and experience happiness.

How often do We hear… “I’ll be happy when”? When I get that job, I’ll be happy. I’ll be happy when I find a life partner. I’d be happy if I had more money.

These, and all the other “if I had”, scenarios are following the same reasoning; that happiness is based on external circumstances.

If we base your happiness on external circumstances, we will continuously fail to find happiness. There will always, always be another external circumstance. There will always be another dollar, another job, another house, or another partner. Better, more, else.

To break this vicious cycle, we must find our happiness somewhere else. That somewhere else is within. We have been given everything we need to be happy.

Allow yourself to choose happiness. If life was perfect would you be happy? Life is perfect because we create it with our choices. Since we can create life, we can create happiness – and how much better can it get?

When we can accept that life is perfect as it is and that our lives are the sum total of everything that has happened to this instant, only then can we accept the joy and happiness we deserve.

We must realize that this concept is very difficult for some to accept. However, the alternative to being happy now is to spend the rest of our lives seeking happiness ,as if happiness was an item to be bought or found.

It’s not. Just remember the saying – Don’t worry – be happy!

Unique Way Of Reaching The Top

Friends, this story, i just picked from a site is highly motivating, indicating an innovative and practical way of achieving the most difficult target in life……………………

Here is the story

Once upon a time there was bunch of tiny frogs that arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants.

The race began. Honestly, no one in the crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of tower. You heard statements such as, “They will NEVER make it to the top. Or: Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing, one by one, except for those, who in fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher.

The crowd continued to yell, “Its too difficult!!! No one will make it!”

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up, but one continued higher and higher and higher. This one wouldn’t give up!

At the end, everyone else had given up climbing the tower, except for one tiny frog. After a big effort, he was the only one who reached the top! THEN all the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how he had found the strength to succeed and reach the goal. It turned out…. that the winner was deaf!!!!

Never listen to other people tendencies to be negative or pessimistic…. because they take your most wonderful dreams and wishes away from you- the ones you have in your heart!

Toyota reveals Impact Of Recession

Friends, just picked it up from CNN………………..world’s 2nd biggest Car maker Toyota likely to declare operating loss, first time in last 6o yrs…………………….

Here is the article

(CNN) — Japanese automaker Toyota warned Monday it will post its first operating loss in almost 60 years.

Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe announces the company’s forecast in Nagoya, central Japan.

A slump in sales and a surge in the value of the yen have wreaked havoc on its balance sheet, with the world’s second biggest car maker revealing that its net revenues have dropped by 6.3 percent compared to a year ago.

In a statement, Toyota said it cut its group operating forecast to a loss of up to ¥150 billion ($1.7 billion) for the year to end-March, after shocking financial markets last month by slashing its group operating profit forecast by ¥1 trillion to ¥600 billion.

The car maker recorded an operating profit of ¥2.27 trillion last year. Video Watch more about Toyota’s losses

This would be Toyota’s first operating loss since 1950, Toyota spokesman Steve Curtis said. Despite the likely operating loss, Toyota expects to post a $557 million net profit for the fiscal year.

Automakers around the world are facing their toughest challenge in recent memory, caught in a sharp reversal of demand as the financial crisis deepens.

Last week, fellow Japanese car manufacturer Honda slashed its earnings forecast for 2008, citing “no prospect for recovery” in the midst of the global recession and slumping worldwide sales

Japanese exports have been hit hard as the yen has been rising in value sending the country’s trade deficit shooting up to $2.5 billion in November, according to the Japanese government. Exports fell 26 percent on a month-over-month basis.

Toyota’s president Katsuaki Watanabe said he expected group sales to slump to 8.96 million vehicles for 2008, down four percent from a year earlier.

He said the company was freezing expansion plans, suspending executive bonuses and reviewing its dividend payout.

“The company is facing an unprecedented crisis where it cannot avoid posting an operating deficit in this term,” Watanabe told a news conference.

“The markets are changing every week and even every day. Unfortunately we cannot forecast our business performance for the next year at this point,” he said.
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According to Britain’s Financial Times newspaper, Toyota plans to reduce contract workers in Japan from 9,200 in the first quarter of this year to about 3,000 in the same period next year, a cut equivalent to 20 per cent of its production workforce in the country.

The company has temporarily shut much of its big-truck production in the U.S. and has said it would probably delay the opening of a plant in the state of Mississippi that was scheduled to start building Prius hybrids in 2010

Pakistan Must Dismantle Terrorist Establishments

Friends , Are we moving towards a direct confrontation with our neighbour .Read the following NEWS…….

Pakistani Jets Scramble As India Hardens Tone
By Rama Lakshmi
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 23, 2008

NEW DELHI, Dec. 22 — In signs of growing regional tension since the Mumbai attacks last month, Pakistan scrambled fighter jets over several of its larger cities Monday, and India’s foreign minister told a gathering of Indian diplomats in New Delhi that the country is keeping all its options open to bring the perpetrators of the attacks to justice.

“We have so far acted with utmost restraint,” Pranab Mukherjee told the more than 120 envoys from posts around the world. But he added, “We will take all measures necessary as we deem fit to deal with the situation.”

A senior government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, later called Mukherjee’s tough talk “an expression of political will that India will not take this lying down.” He added that the option of “precision air strikes” on terrorist training camps in Pakistan would remain on the table if Islamabad did not act effectively against groups fomenting terrorism against India.

Pakistan has denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks, which killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 230.

On Monday, Pakistan put its air force on high alert, with several fighter jets conducting exercises over the capital, Islamabad, as well as Rawalpindi, Lahore and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Offices of newspapers and television channels were inundated with calls from people asking whether the exercises, which caused delays in some civilian flights, were a response to air strikes by India.

A Pakistani air force spokesman, Commodore Humayun Viqar, said in a statement, “In view of the current environment, PAF has enhanced its vigilance.”
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The air force’s action coincided with the arrival in Islamabad of the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, who met with Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, and the head of its Inter-Services Intelligence agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha.

Mullen thanked both men for their efforts, and the efforts of the Pakistani government, to arrest members of the outlawed Islamist group Lashkar-i-Taiba and other extremist organizations suspected of involvement in the Mumbai attacks, according to his spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby. Mullen also reportedly urged them to support judicial efforts to prosecute the cases fully and transparently.

A Pakistani official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Kiyani told Mullen that Pakistan was trying its best to defuse tension with India.

“We want peace with India, but any aggression will be matched by a befitting response,” the official quoted Kiyani as saying.

An Indian official in New Delhi said that the three-day meeting of diplomats had been scheduled before the attacks occurred but that it provided an opportunity for India to work out a diplomatic strategy for pressuring Islamabad to act against terrorist groups.

“Unfortunately, Pakistan’s response so far has demonstrated their earlier tendency to resort to a policy of denial and to seek to deflect and shift the blame and responsibility,” Mukherjee told the envoys in his opening address. “We have highlighted that the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan has to be dismantled permanently,” he added.

Rewards Should Become A Means To An End

Friends,good article i just picked up from a HR Mgmt site highlighting importance of rewarding  reward……………………………………………

Here is the aricle

An Alaskan Cruise may seem like the ultimate reward for goals achieved by diligent and effective employees. Imagine, a week of exciting travel, with a different port of call each day, and a chance to eat out three times a day (better make that seven times a day).

But suppose you’re a hard-working, high-performing sales rep who spends week after week living out of a suitcase and eating restaurant food? Another week away from the comforts of home is about the last thing you need. But how about a state-of-the-art home entertainment system? Now you’re talking.

“One of the major mistakes made by companies setting up reward programs for performance improvement,” notes Louise Anderson, president of Anderson Performance Improvement Company (APIC), “is failure to provide rewards that really are rewarding. And the only way to avoid this pitfall is to give people a choice.

“When employees are able to choose among a big-screen television, a bedroom set, diamond earrings — and, yes, an Alaskan Cruise — it gives them a chance to set their own goals,” she says. “Rewards become a means to an end. As people see their goal coming within reach, they can’t wait to ask, ‘What do I have to do next?’”

In addition to giving individual employees the option of choosing the rewards they want, there are several other rules-of-thumb to use as guidelines when offering incentives for improved performance. Anderson offers these suggestions:

* Don’t wait for final results-catch people doing things right and reward them on the spot.

* Reward individuals as well as teams-generally, reward individuals for behaviors and activities and teams for results.

* Celebrate! Especially, encourage teams to celebrate success together, so that all team members have a sense of achievement.

* Avoid the cash-award trap-although awarding extra cash for performance might seem to have universal appeal, as soon as you discontinue offering it, employees perceive it as a cut in pay (with negative impact).

“If companies are careful to match appealing rewards with carefully structured programs, significant improvements in performance are virtually guaranteed,”

Right Time To Hire Talents?

Friends, good article i read in a site and now sharing with you.I thinks the philosophy of recruiting talents during downturn makes sense ,if you are confident of doing well during next boom…………………………………………

Here is the article

Now is in fact the perfect time for companies to be stocking up on quality staff in anticipation of the global business upturn predicted next year.

The travel and hospitality recruitment specialist said that while many companies were continuing to stick with hastily implemented hiring freezes, other more canny businesses were using the current situation to source top level candidates in preparation for next year’s eagerly anticipated business boom.

TMS Managing Director – Asia, Andrew Chan said it was those companies taking the initiative now which would pull ahead of the rest in terms of their staffing and company performance when the current situation changes.

"We have seen a major shift in the market in recent weeks with yesterday’s job-heavy, candidate-light scenario being almost completely reversed on an overnight basis," he said.

"The upside of this is that we are now starting to see some very strong talent emerge – in fact some of the best we have seen in a number of years.

"Now is the ideal time to hire supreme talent to ensure companies are meeting their service level agreements."

Mr Chan said that many companies had ‘knee jerked’ in the current environment and in numerous instances, effectively frozen recruitment until further notice.

"But it is these companies which are the ones most likely to be encountering staffing problems when the tide finally turns and things start to improve," he said.

"Those who have taken the initiative and filled their critical roles or started the ball rolling by developing a pipeline of quality candidates and talent pooling are the ones who ultimately stand to benefit from all this.

"There is a silver lining to every cloud and invariably it is during these turbulent times that employers are presented with the perfect opportunity to snare those quality candidates."

Mr Chan said that for many companies, talent pooling, while still a relatively new concept for employers, presented them with a good alternative solution to overcome future staffing problems.

"Companies developing an effective talent pool strategy are more likely to succeed.

"Talent pooling not only helps employers identify good people, it’s also enables them to build relationships and networks with these candidates – even before an employment opportunity becomes available.

"It should always be remembered that while times of crisis present many difficulties, they also present innumerable opportunities – talent pooling is one of those emergent opportunities."

You Do Make A Difference To Me..!!

Friend, terrific inspirational article i picked up from a site…it’s about developing the habit of appreciating others,making them feel important……………………..

Here is the story

A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each made.

Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time.

First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, “Who I Am Makes a Difference.”

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community.

She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony.

Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt.

Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, “We’re doing a class project on recognition, and we’d like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and tell me what happened.”

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said,”Well, sure.”

The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss’s jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said,
“Would you do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people.”

That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, “The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I’m a creative genius.”

Then he put this blue ribbon that says “Who I Am Makes A Difference” on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor.

As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you.

“My days are really hectic and when I come home I don’t pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me.

Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You’re a great kid and I love you!”

The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn’t stop crying. His whole body shook.

He looked up at his father and said through his tears, “I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn’t think you loved me. Now I don’t need to.”

You never know what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person.

Is There Really a Credit Crunch?

Friend, just read this article on one of most controversial topic today and decided to share with you.I picked it up from Times

Here is the article
By Barbara Kiviat Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008

Back in September, V.V. Chari, an economist at the University of Minnesota and an adviser to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, got a call from a Congressman. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke were arguing that they needed $700 billion to save the nation’s financial system, and the Congressman wanted to know what to make of it all. Chari said he didn’t know — he hadn’t looked at the data. Policymakers kept talking about how banks weren’t lending to businesses or to individuals or even to each other, so Chari pulled numbers to see just how badly the credit markets were frozen. He was surprised: he didn’t see much of anything wrong.

Is there a credit crunch? Was there ever? Those questions may seem absurd. Throughout the autumn, the interest rate banks charge each other broke one record after another as trust between institutions evaporated, investors stashed so much cash in super-safe Treasuries that yields approached zero, and the private securitization market for mortgages, which keeps capital flowing for more home loans, disappeared. Lehman Brothers collapsed when no one would loan it money, and any number of other firms — AIG, Citigroup, GM — went hat in hand to the U.S. government, lender of last resort.

But during all of that, there was also persistent anecdotal evidence that lending to credit-worthy borrowers was doing just fine — it seemed every other day some community bank CEO was on CNBC talking about how many loans his institution was making to small businesses and people who wanted to buy cars or houses. As the story of Chari, his surprise realization, and the academic dialogue that followed make clear, understanding what is happening in the economy — let alone how to fix it — is an incredibly difficult task, even for people who have built their entire careers around doing just that.

In October, Chari teamed up with two other economists, Lawrence Christiano and Patrick Kehoe, and wrote a paper called “Facts and Myths and the Financial Crisis of 2008.” In it the economists wrote that the United States was “indisputably undergoing a financial crisis and is perhaps headed for a deep recession,” but the nature of the problem, they said, had been completely misrepresented. “Policymakers had made three very specific claims,” says Chari. “That banks were not lending to non-financial businesses and households, that banks were not lending to each other, and that the ability of non-financial businesses to access the commercial paper market had declined very sharply.” When he and his colleagues plotted Federal Reserve data through mid-October, they found no dramatic decline in any of those categories. Most measures of lending were holding steady; some were even increasing.

Meanwhile, a group of economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston had been noticing the same thing. “We were trying to understand why these numbers looked the way they did,” says Burcu Duygan-Bump. Partly because of conversations the economists had with Fed staffers in the banking supervision division, the group came to believe the aggregate data was obscuring the underlying dynamics of the financial system. “If you say New England has a snowstorm with an average snowfall of two inches, that might not reflect the fact that Boston got ten inches and northern Maine got none,” says Ethan Cohen-Cole, another of the economists.

In November, Duygan-Bump, Cohen-Cole and two other colleagues — Jose Fillat and Judit Montoriol-Garriga — put out a paper called “Looking Behind the Aggregates: A Reply to Facts and Myths About the Financial Crisis of 2008.’” In it, they argued that even though overall lending seemed to be robust, that could very well be the result of companies drawing down existing credit lines — agreements banks had made in better times and now couldn’t renegotiate. In fact, there was plenty of anecdotal evidence in the business press to suggest that was exactly what was happening, that companies were locking in funding not to invest, but to hoard cash for worse times ahead. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine regular people doing the same thing with home equity lines of credit. When it came to lending between banks and the commercial paper market, the economists pointed to a shift toward shorter-term lending. Even if overall volumes were holding steady, a reliance on overnight loans would nonetheless indicate that lending wasn’t working as usual, they argued.

At about the same time as the Boston Fed piece came out, two finance professors at Harvard Business School, David Scharfstein and Victoria Ivashina, wrote a paper called “Bank Lending During the Financial Crisis of 2008.” Scharfstein and Ivashina focused in on a database of new loans made to large corporations and documented a 36% drop during August-October 2008, as compared with the three months prior. They, too, argued that drawn-downs were artificially inflating overall lending figures. Yes, there was lending, but it was involuntary, and often to struggling companies — like GM and Tribune — that banks might not otherwise give money to. “If credit lines get drawn down by the most vulnerable individuals and companies, that’s potentially destabilizing,” says Scharfstein.

But did that sort of involuntary lending mean that other potential borrowers were getting crowded out? In a rebuttal to the Scharfstein paper, Chari and his co-authors wrote that they hadn’t seen any data showing that banks weren’t lending to credit-worthy companies asking for loans simply because certain firms were tapping pre-existing credit lines. “The argument is if you’re a new customer walking into a bank, it’s impossible for you to get a loan,” says Chari. “That story may be true, but there’s no convincing evidence that’s what’s going on.”

The back-and-forth can feel esoteric, but, in fact, it goes to the heart of solving the problem. “If losing firms are sucking up all the credit, then isn’t the [correct] policy response to let banks cancel lines of credit?” asks Octavio Marenzi, CEO of the banking consultancy Celent, who joined the debate in December with his own paper, called “Flawed Assumptions about the Credit Crisis.” After going through a reckoning of the aggregate data — including the fact that consumer credit hit a record high in September 2008 — Marenzi put forth a couple of possible explanations, including “that policymakers are reacting to the situation of a particular set of businesses and financial institutions and are incorrectly generalizing these to the economy as a whole.”

Chari is more cautious. “Our position throughout has been that policymakers likely have access to information that is better than the information we have — and that it would be good for them to share that information,” he says. “They’ve been remarkably unforthcoming about the rationale for their interventions.” That seems to be a common sentiment. “The one thing they emphasize that we really agree with is they want policymakers to share more data that underlie their decisions,” says the Boston Fed’s Duygan-Bump. As a new Administration takes office and the process of spending hundreds of billions of dollars to fix the economy continues, it will be as important as ever to question whether the policy responses we come up with are the right ones — to make sure not only that they work, but also that they’re pointed at the real problem.

Top 5 Financial Crisis…

Friends, picked up this piece of information from Time.

1.Lehman Brothers

Of all the decisions made by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the one to let Lehman go under stands as the most pivotal. And the most controversial. The Federal Reserve and Treasury decided to let Lehman fail and set a “moral hazard” example: from now on, you can’t rely on Uncle Sam to bail you out. Make a deal, raise some capital or call your bankruptcy lawyers. Funny how that didn’t apply to Bear Stearns, which the Feds at least sold for a couple of bucks to JP Morgan. Instead of stopping the financial meltdown, letting Lehman go down amplified it. Any confidence in the market was undermined, and financial stocks began to head south in a hurry. Not only was the U.S. forced to step up to save AIG, it was soon on the hook for $700 billion in bailout money to faltering financial institutions.

2. AIG

What’s a mild-mannered insurance company doing selling exotic derivatives to everyone in sight? Merely setting the stage for a $100 billion bailout by the U.S. government and becoming the poster child of the meltdown. From its London branch office, AIG’s CDS chief Joseph Cassano minted money for the company for a couple of years, and garnered huge payouts for himself, by basically selling everyone in the world insurance that the Titanic wouldn’t sink. What were the odds of that happening? Instead of Titanic, insert CDOs, short for collateralized debt obligations. You get the picture. As the value of those contracts plummeted, AIG found itself facing insolvency. And taxpayers found themselves paying the bill.

3. The Detroit Three

After 30 years of incompetence, the American auto companies and their obstreperous union finally closed the quality gap with foreign competitors and narrowed the manufacturing cost differential to within inches. Nice try. The credit market freeze ensured that average Joes who love Fords and Chevys couldn’t possibly get the loans they need to buy them. So sales were off more than 30% in October and November, pushing GM and Chrysler close to insolvency. When the auto bosses pleaded their case to Congress for $34 billion in loans to tide them over, they got treated as if they manufacture smallpox.

4. The Citigroup

Too big to fail but one big failure nonetheless. When it was assembled by Sandy Weill 10 years ago, Citi was positioned to be the world’s biggest financial services supermarket, with everything from stocks to insurance and a little banking in between. Today Citi is a one-bank depression. This year it has announced 75,000 job cuts, sold off divisions, and blew the acquisition of equally troubled Wachovia, which was whisked away by Wells Fargo. It’s been forced to take a $20 billion handout from the U.S. government to shore up its capital base, which took a huge hit because of its exposure to CDOs and other toxic assets. The government also agreed to back more than $300 billion of those assets to keep it from collapsing. Citi stored much of that garbage in off-the-books Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs). But now that the mortgage game is over, Citi has been forced to take the SIVs back, writing down billions in the process. Its share price is less than $10, at one point falling 90% from its peak. No wonder, as its slogan says, the Citi never sleeps.

5. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

The quasi-government backed mortgage buyers had the perfect structure to ride out any financial storm: the two entities were sponsored by the U.S. government, and loaded with former pols pulling down fat salaries and stock options. But Fannie and Freddie got caught in the downdraft. By being among the last outfits to jump into the business of crap mortgages, Fannie and Freddie basically loaded their balance sheets with more dry brush than California in August. When the market match struck, they went up in a hurry. And while Washington wasn’t about to let the twin enterprises go under, no one in the Bush Administration was prepared to prevent the equity holders from being wiped out.

5 Reasons For CEO’s Getting Fired By Board Members

Friends, interesting article i just picked up from a website , highlighting 5 important reason for CEO’s getting fired by the Board………………….

 

Here is the article

It’s a commonly-held belief that CEOs get fired (or forced to resign or retire under pressure) because of “current financial performance.” But that’s wrong, according to a new study.

A four-year study by LeadershipIQ.com compiled the following results after interviewing 1,087 board members from 286 public, private, business and healthcare organizations that fired, or otherwise forced out, their chief executive. “We get fixated on current financial performance,” explains Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ. “But if that was really the whole story, every CEO who ever missed a quarterly target or lost money would be immediately dismissed. And we know that plenty of world-class CEOs have seen their stock price dip, missed earnings forecasts, or even lost money for periods of time. So financial performance seems to be an inadequate explanation.

“A more accurate explanation for why CEO’s get fired,” he added, “is that the Board of Directors or shareholders have lost confidence in the CEO’s ability to generate sufficient financial returns in the future. And this study explains why Boards lose confidence in their CEOs.”

To elicit honest responses free from public relations spin or internal repercussions, Leadership IQ employed investigative journalism techniques and promised confidentiality for all respondents. The result is one of the most comprehensive “behind closed doors” study on CEO terminations ever conducted.

“So why did the CEO REALLY get fired or forced out?” The following are the top five responses with the percentage of respondents who gave this response (percentages exceed 100% because some respondents gave more than one answer).

MISMANAGING CHANGE (31%):
Virtually every organization we interviewed indicated they were undergoing, or had recently undergone, a change initiative. However, half of board members said that their change initiative did not go well. Most pointed to a failure on the CEO’s part to properly motivate employees and managers, and more specifically, to adequately sell the need to change course. Another group identified the CEO’s inability to follow-through and solidify the gains as the cause of failure.

IGNORING CUSTOMERS (28%):
Even with Sarbanes-Oxley, many board members have close ties with, or are themselves, customers of the organization. And they overwhelmingly said that if a CEO ignores or alienates customers, it not only undermines the business and revenue, but it significantly undermines board support. Board members said their test for whether the CEO was sufficiently engaged in the business was the extent to which they evidenced intimate knowledge of customers, customer needs and developing trends.

TOLERATING LOW PERFORMERS (27%):
Board members shared that when CEOs allowed an obvious low performer to linger (without any improvement or discipline), it destroyed the CEO’s credibility and made it politically difficult for them to hold others accountable. Board members also complained of CEOs becoming too emotionally attached to a low performer(s) whether from loyalty, fear of being seen as too harsh, or unrealistic optimism. Significantly, Board members also suspected that, in numerous cases, CEOs covered for poor performers out of fear that they might divulge embarrassing or indicting information.

DENYING REALITY (23%):
Board members overwhelming said they could handle bad news and significant course corrections. What they couldn’t handle was a CEO who was in denial and wouldn’t recognize the bad news. Many board members felt that they were closer to the market and customers than the ousted CEO, and a significant percentage said the CEO was far too insulated from frontline realities. Board members also said they would rather have bad news and a plan to fix it, than they would no news or sugarcoated news.

TOO MUCH TALK, NOT ENOUGH ACTION (22%):
We heard many comments about CEOs talking the talk, but being unable to walk the walk. Numerous board members complained that CEOs could talk endlessly about grand visions and new strategies, but would both neglect a tactical plan for the “who, what, when and where,” as well as evidence of its implementation. One board member commented that their former CEO “gives good meetings,” but little else.

“Here’s the message to CEOs,” explains Murphy. “If the board has confidence that you understand customers and the market, can manage change and take action, even if that means some tough choices, you will keep your job. The board members in our study understand that stock price, revenue, and profit are not going to grow exponentially every quarter. However, they do need confidence that the CEO is going to take the actions necessary to achieve growth over time. The top five issues identified in this study identify why CEO’s fail and the actions necessary to inspire Board confidence.”

A Guideline For Executive Search

Friends, good informative article ,i picked up form a website……………

Here is the article

1. You must know the job and why it’s exceptional.

Top passive candidates who don’t know you will not speak to you for more than two or three minutes, nor give you any top referrals unless you know the job. Top passive people aren’t looking, so to get them to look, you must offer instant credibility with a job that offers significant upside potential. I suggest using a performance profile to define the real job. It describes the major challenges and problems required for job success. Recruiters who know the job this way are more confident when calling, and they can use the screening process to create an opportunity gap. This is the difference between the person’s current job and the new job.

2. You must become a partner with your hiring-manager clients.

If your hiring managers won’t put in the extra effort, if they won’t spend more time conducting exploratory interviews, and if they won’t fight for a little extra compensation, your success at recruiting top passive candidates will be limited. That’s why being a partner rather than a vendor in the process is critical. (See articles on becoming a partner on my website.) Recruiters who are partners have more influence. Managers will then interview candidates who meet most of the requirements of the performance profile, even if they don’t have all of the requirements listed on the job description. Bridging this gap is the key to hiring more passive candidates. Becoming a partner starts by preparing a performance profile, developing a mutual agreement, committing to put in the extra effort required to recruit passive candidate, and then delivering top people.

3. You must limit the number of calls to “unworthy” candidates.

An unworthy candidate is someone who isn’t competent or doesn’t know any good people. A worthy candidate is someone who is a potential finalist or someone who personally knows a top person who could be a finalist. Since each cold-call to an unknown person takes at least 15 minutes (to call, engage, screen, recruit, and get referrals), it takes a lot of time to develop a short list of three or four well-qualified and interested passive candidates. Spending these 15 minutes with an unworthy person is a waste of time.

4. You must know how to work a cold list.

Whether you use ZoomInfo or a Shally Steckerl data-mining technique to find names of potential candidates (my two personal favorites), these are all cold leads, so you don’t know if they’re worthy or not. When calling these types of lists, it’s best to limit your initial calling to the best 10 to 15 people based on titles and companies. Your goal is to call these people and separate them into two pools: worthy and unworthy. Then, only network with people from the worthy list. My experience indicates that for every 10 worthy people you call, you’ll get one finalist and six great referrals. This takes about three hours. If you call a random list of cold names, it takes 30 to 40 calls to get one finalist and no referrals.

5. You must recruit the person directly before getting names.

To maximize results, recruit the person directly when you call someone for the first time, rather than using an indirect networking approach. People will be more interested and more likely to call back when there is something in it for themselves. To get them excited, leave a voice mail that clearly indicates you’re leading a recruiting effort for a senior-level position in the person’s field. When you get the person on the phone, ask her if she would be open to explore a situation if it were clearly superior to what she is doing today. Most people will say yes if you sound credible, confident, and professional. Our statistics show that you’ll get two to three times the number of calls back, in addition to in-depth career conversations when the person you’re calling believes the opportunity you’re representing is a potential new career move for him or her.

6. You must engage with the person for at least 10 minutes to establish your professionalism.

When the person says that he would be open to explore a situation if it were clearly better, you must not tell him anything about the job. This is a critical moment. You must get him to tell you about his background first. You have leverage (candidate control) when the person says yes. Don’t lose it by telling him about the job. If the job is uninteresting to him, you’ve lost the candidate and the chance to get referrals. Try this to get the candidate to talk first: “Great. Why not give me a two-minute overview of your background; then, I’ll give you a quick two-minute overview of the opportunity. If it seems mutually interesting, we can schedule some time later to talk in-depth.” It takes about six to eight minutes to conduct a quick work history review. During this time, you’re determining if the person is worthy and a potential finalist. Equally important: You’re developing rapport with the candidate and demonstrating your professionalism.

7. You must not take “no” for an answer.

An “I’m not interested” response, or some facsimile thereof, when you first call someone does not mean the person is not interested in exploring another situation. It means the person does not want to talk to you. This is big difference. People don’t make long-term career decisions moments after they get a call from someone they don’t know. That’s why the questions you ask and how you leave voice mails are so important. A “no” is okay if the person has the correct information to make a reasoned decision. The recruiter’s primary job is to persist and set the stage for the candidate to obtain the necessary information to make a wise long-term career decision. This starts by not taking “no” for an answer.

8. You must have rebuttals for every major concern.

It’s even better if you anticipate these concerns and objections before they’re brought up. While most people won’t say “no” to the “Would you be willing to explore a situation if it was clearly better than what you’re doing today?” question, you must have a response when the person does says “no.” One of my favorite responses is, “That’s exactly why we need to talk.” This is an attention-getting mechanism. Follow up with a discussion of why spending a few minutes to talk about a potential long-term career move is worth it. Most people will agree to go forward as long as you persist and can provide some logical rationale to continue.

9. You must proactively network only with worthy candidates to get more worthy candidates.

This is what effective networking is all about. Most top people won’t give you more names unless you recruit them first. If the person is great, but not a perfect fit for your open position, you must then convert the recruiting call to a networking call. If the person is overqualified, ask her to tell you about other great people she worked with at prior companies. Say you want to continue networking with these people, but you only want to talk to top performers who know other top performers. Done properly, 75% of these people will give you the names of other great people.

10. You must maintain applicant control.

Don’t give up your leverage if the person turns out to be a potential candidate. Top people will stay engaged and ultimately accept offers without a big compensation increase if the job offers great potential. That’s why creating an opportunity gap during the first screening call is so important and why the candidate must talk first. Look for areas of possible job growth as you ask about the person’s background. Then suggest that in the next round of interviews, the candidate will learn if there’s enough job stretch to consider moving.

That’s it. But, if you skip a step or do the steps out of order, you will be less effective. Establishing credibility with hiring managers and candidates alike is the key to hiring top passive candidates. It all starts by preparing a performance profile and then picking up the phone and calling someone you don’t know and asking, “Would you be open to explore a situation if it was significantly better than what you’re doing now?”

What is my future prospect in your organization ?

Million dollar question…
Very few candidates , recruited by high profile organizations are able to get a clear and understandable answer from the interviewers, regarding their career progression .The answers normally are 1.Organization structure is fluid now and we are working hard to freeze it ….does it remains fluid forever? 2.It depends on your performance, since we have many opportunities coming up in near future…isn’t a superficial answer?

Is it because majority of recruiting is reactive instead of proactive. An opening occurs and the recruitment process starts on war footing with repeated follow up from both actual user and perhaps the CEO also if it is a senior level position, as if there are hundreds of relevant candidates available for this position. Believe me, this pressure sometime leads to even wrong selection also.

Organizations with proper succession planning, identifying internal candidates and the positions which require outside talent should not face this problem. Then why this lack of clarity and what can be done to make it transparent.

Senior Managers Undermine The Training Programmes They Have Asked For.

Friends, relevant article , i just picked up from a website…………

Here is the article

A recent survey survey of in-house training professionals by a Consulting Firm finds that senior managers are undermining the training programmes they have asked for. The survey shows that top management ask their training managers to:

* Initiate learning programmes that produce empowered leaders for the future
* Encourage people to be more productive
* Be accountable for bottom line results showing a clear return on investment (ROI) in training

However, approximately one half of the same top managers will undermine these requirements by:

* Failing to set an example of what good leadership looks like
* Refusing to go on training programmes themselves
* Not showing an interest in sharing the responsibility for enhancing the recognition and value of training within the company

46% of training managers surveyed said that their greatest frustration was a ‘need for more top management buy in.’ 28% also said that appropriate staff members were not being trained because they opted out of non-compulsory training programmes or because training managers did not have the right staff or finances to provide training in the most effective way.

Despite their reluctance to be trained themselves, or to be good role models, senior managers were not slow in criticizing training departments if the expected ROI did not materialize. 58% of training managers said that ‘proving the impact and ROI of training’ was their biggest challenge. 47% also said that raising the priority of training and development within the organizational culture was a problem.

According to the Chief of the Consulting Firm

“It seems that while upper management is putting increasing pressure on training managers to justify their existence by proving they can deliver ROI, they are at the same time jeopardizing any positive outcomes by their counter-productive behavior. Given this and other Blanchard surveys showing best results are achieved when there is top-down support for learning and development initiatives, you have to ask whether training managers will, sooner or later, have to raise the issue of whether they should be held accountable for results if they don’t get the support they need from the top.”

The survey also found that coaching is now the most popular method of reinforcing and following up on training with 60% of those surveyed citing the technique. Developing future leaders also remains a top priority for 57% of respondents.

Tips For Job Hunting During Recession….

Friends, good article, i picked up from a site and condensed according to our requirements………………………………..

Here is the article

1.Pick and Choose Your Targets
When Jack Hinson was laid off in mid-2008 from his job at a large Internet content company in Austin, he prioritized his search. “It’s important to put your time and energy into opportunities that you’re the most interested in and that have the best chance of coming to fruition,” he says. “Pick a few companies you’re interested in and pursue them, whether they have current openings or not.”

2.Work Your Network
Hinson’s new gig came from an old connection. “I’d spoken to the company’s founders about a year ago and stayed in touch,” he says. “Then I ran into one of them at a networking function.” So flip through your Rolodex or business social media contacts and let them know you’re looking.

3.Sell Yourself
San Francisco PR account executive Samantha Rubenstein launched a job search just as the economy began to flag. After three months, she got a great offer from Atomic PR. She attributes her success to doing more than learning about the company. “Preparation [includes] learning how to talk about yourself in a meaningful and powerful way,” she says. “I created a list of potential interview questions and typed up bulleted answers to create speaking points.”

4.Sweat the Small Stuff
“Don’t forget the personal touches,” counsels Felicia Miller, assistant director of career services at the Art Institute of Las Vegas. “Don’t use a template cover letter, make sure each letter addresses specific skills or qualities the company is looking for. And always send a thank-you note or email after the interview. Use this correspondence as an opportunity to revisit weak areas of your interview.”

5.Stay Positive
The most important thing when searching for a job in tough economic times is to retain a positive attitude, says Carol Vecchio, founder and executive director of Centerpoint Institute for Life and Career Renewal in Seattle. “Even in a job market with 10 percent unemployment, there’s 90 percent employment,” she says. “There is an average of over 3 million jobs available in the US per month, and each job seeker is looking for one. Those are pretty good odds.”

Struggling to find a great job in a bad economy can be a drag, but undertaking even a few of these tips will improve your chances of landing a gig. “Remember it doesn’t matter how many jobs are or aren’t out there,” Vecchio says. “You’re just looking for one, the right one for you.”

Work Place… Top Secrets!!!!!!!!!!

Funny but useful article , i picked up from a site………………….

Here it is

7 Secrets You Should Keep to Yourself at Work

1. You’re looking for a new job. While it can be tempting to tell your friends at work about how well your latest job interview went or how you can’t wait to resign, resist these urges.

2. You’re romantically involved with a co-worker. If you do choose to tempt fate and begin dating one of your co-workers, it’s probably wise not to tell anyone else at work about the affair. Not only is revealing too many details about your personal life unprofessional, but if the romance goes south, an already stressful breakup may be intensified by the unwelcome extra attention from your co-workers.

3. You had a wild weekend of debauchery. While it’s common for co-workers to talk about what they did over the weekend around the water cooler on Monday morning, it’s wise to avoid sharing details that could paint you in an unflattering light.

4. You were really at the beach when you called in sick.

5. You frequently “borrow” office supplies.

6. You despise your boss or another colleague. If you’ve found yourself embroiled in a contentious relationship with your manager or a co-worker, do your best not to broadcast your dislike to the entire company. For one thing, talking about a co-worker behind his or her back can make other employees think that you’re unprofessional and disrespectful. Also, open hostility can create an uncomfortable work environment for everyone and decrease other colleagues’ morale and happiness.

7.You’re planning a coup in your department. Thinking about presenting the CEO with a groundbreaking business idea that will skyrocket you to the top of the department and oust your superiors along the way? Then mum’s the word.

Free BlackBerry Applications……..Part1

Friends, i have been using Blackberry for close to 3 yrs by now and experimented with tons of soft-wares , both free and paid.

Now, i will be sharing my experience with you ,through a series of articles here.

To start with, below are details of some free softwares on Blackberry Platform, with Over The Air (OTA) links.Pl type http://m.indiandinosaur.wordpress.com in your mobile browser and click on the word OTA for downloading directly on your device.

Don’t worry, these are not going to do any harm to your favourite Blackberry, since i have tested all on mine.

1.AutoLock – Automatically locks the BlackBerry keyboard after the backlight turns off, optionally waiting a configurable delay after the backlight shuts before locking the keys. To enable/disable or set the delay, go to Options->AutoLock. If you like his software, please go to his site and donate.
Type: Free
Category: Utility
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

2.BBCorrector- Allows you to spell check your emails, memos, etc.
Type: Free
Category: Spell Check
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

3.BBLight – Allows you to keep the backlight on, based on what you select in the Options section. Useful when the BB is plugged-in (on power) and you don’t want it turning off.
Type: Free
Category: Utility
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

4.BBToday – Gives you a summary of: Date/time, # emails, calendar, weather, stocks, etc.
Type: Free
Category: Utility
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

5.BBWeather – An application that displays current and forecast weather conditions
Type: Free
Category: Weather
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

Free BlackBerry Applications…Part 2

Friends, 5 more free soft-wares on Blackberry platform.Pl type http://m.indiandinosaur.wordpress.com in your mobile browser and click on the word OTA for downloading directly on your device.

Don’t worry, these are not going to do any harm to your favourite Blackberry, since i have tested all on mine.

1.FreeRange WebReader – Lets you have what you care about most from the Internet always available from your Blackberry and instantly accessible, regardless of whether you are on or off-line. WebReader runs in the background, updating information from the sites you are subscribed to, so that when you launch the application you instantly get everything you care about. It’s a great RSS reader, and is free for the first 10 sites you add.
Type: Free
Category: RSS
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

2.Twitterberry – TwitterBerry is mobile client for posting updates to Twitter: A global community of friends and strangers answering one simple question: What are you doing? Answer on your phone, IM, or right here on the web!
Type: Free
Category: Utility
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

3.xPlayer – A sophisticated media player for Blackberry 8300, Blackberry 8800, Blackberry Pearl 8100 smartphones. xPlayer supports audio playback, video full screen playback, manage play lists, play files in background, shortcuts and many other useful features
Type: Free
Category: Media Player
OTA Install
Desktop Install

4.Yahoo! Go – bundles Yahoo! search, maps, email, news (including sports, finance, entertainment, and weather), and Flickr into a mobile app optimized for the small screen.
Type: Free
Category: Information Portal
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

5.AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Instant messaging application that allows BlackBerry device users with an AOL username and password to send and receive instant messages with friends, family and colleagues in the AIM community while on the go.
NOTE: This currently only works on Sprint/Nextel devices.
Type: Free
Category: IM/Chat
OTA Install
Desktop Install: N/A

Blackberry-Free Online Budget Management Application…

Friends, Moneytrackin is a free online web app ,that allows you to track all your expenses and income easily and without effort, thus allowing you to have a clear view of your financial situation.

It intends to be a simple yet powerful online budget and expense management tool.You can access it from your Laptop as well as Blackberry.I am not sure about Palm,Symbian etc platform but logically speaking , it should work on any mobile platform.

Using this application ,you can keep control of your expenses and incomes in an easy and secure way with the following advantages

1. Keep informed of your current balance in one glance
2. Get graphical and statistical info instantaneously
3. Manage the budget of as many projects as you want
4. Work in group and share accounting data to everyone

I have been using it for more than 6 months on my BlackBerry and all my financial transactions are successfully maintained with this wonderful web application.

Click on https://www.moneytrackin.com for opening the site on your Laptop, Sign Up to create your free account, read the guideline carefully,create your Accounts/Projects and enjoy one of the finest Free Budget & Expense Management Web Application

For opening the site on your smartphone , type http://m.moneytrackin.com

A Guideline To Evaluate The Evaluator

Friends, its very difficult to evaluate productivity of HR in an organization, in view its complexities, supporting role and also translucency in terms of visible net results.However, following guideline may be useful for forming an opinion at least………….

1. Percentage improvement in terms of productivity.
This pertains to the money spent on people costs for every generated revenue in terms of dollar. Compare the improvement, if there is any, between the present year and the previous year.

2. Quality of recruiting.
For this, you should check the performance appraisal of scores of the new hires. Just check for the average here. If a lot of new hires have been promoted to higher positions, then recruiting is of much quality here.

3. Retention.
Is the turnover rate high or low? How is the performance turnover when it comes to key positions in the company?

4. Compensation and benefits.
Check for the percentage outlining the employees’ pay that is quite risky, especially when based on job performance.

5. Employee relations.
Determine the turnover percentage of the managers that are rated at the bottom of the pile. How are employee relations between these bottom-rated managers and the employees they handle?

6. Training and development impact ratio.
Determine the difference between the employees who take jobs offered due to development opportunities and the employees who leave the company because of a lack of said opportunities.

7. Give away or take away ratio with your competition.

8. Impact of HR on the business results of the managers.
A survey may be conducted ,where the overhead functions of all managers are ranked according to importance. This helps managers focus on business performance goals.

9. HR expenses per employee.
If expenses are at an all-time high without significant results, then HR productivity becomes questionable.

10. Brand strength.
Another survey is conducted to check if the applicants do view the management practices of the company as positive.

(ROWE)…Results-Only Work Environment

Friends, “Old wine in new Bottle” philosophy of Performance Enhancement………..Frankly speaking , i have been practicing it for more than 5 years by now…

All about ROWE

ROWE is a management philosophy based on the premise that giving employees complete control over their time is the best way to increase productivity in the workplace.

“In a Results-Only Work Environment, people can do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done.” This is not simply company-sanctioned flextime. A true ROWE has unlimited paid vacation time, no schedules, no mandatory meetings, and no judgments from co-workers and bosses about how employees spend their days.

In other words, managers trust employees to get their work done and do not mandate — or even comment on — when, where, or how it happens. Because everyone is evaluated based on what they accomplish, as opposed to how much time they spend looking busy at their desks, it becomes clear very quickly who is actually getting work done and who isn’t.

What this looks like on a daily basis is different for every employee. For example, one e-learning specialist completes an entire month of work in two weeks so that he can spend the rest of the month following his favorite bands around the country, checking in with the office via email and cell phone. For someone else, it might mean working from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then logging back online at 8 p.m., whether from the office, home, or a resort in Hawaii.

ROWE advocates say that a relentless focus on results forces managers and employees to be clear about job descriptions and expectations. Teams learn how to communicate more effectively and plan ahead around each other’s schedules. Plus, they learn to work together and back each other up in new ways. Employees tend to be more willing to fill in for co-workers when necessary, and in the process they learn new jobs.

Many of the productivity gains that result from a ROWE come from its effectiveness at retaining and motivating valued employees. At the same time, a ROWE exposes a team’s under performers, the ones who used to get away with contributing little. The net result is a stronger team that can do more with less.

In theory, a ROWE would work for anyone whose work is project or task based, regardless of whether the employee is an individual contributor or part of a team. In practice, however, a ROWE comes with several caveats. Perhaps the most significant one is the fact that for a ROWE to be effective, it requires a mature, goal-oriented manager.

In traditional work environments, many employees complain that they can’t be measured by results because their leaders don’t articulate what they want them to accomplish. “A ROWE takes it to the next level and forces managers to figure out what they want done,” and not every manager will live up to that challenge. Employees, for their part, need to deliver.

“If you don’t have enough self-discipline to stay focused when away from the office, you will struggle,” .Even for workers who choose to go into the office every day from 8 to 5, a ROWE necessarily requires more self-motivation because managers no longer play the role of supervisor.

TPS For Productivity Bench Marking

Friends, in automobile industry , any discussion regarding Productivity Improvement to gain Global Competitive Advantage, centers around
“Lean Manufacturing” Methodologies with particular reference to “Toyota Production System.”

So, i collected relevant informations on TPS and refined it in the following write-up for a better understanding of the concept.

Toyota’s global competitive advantage is based on a corporate philosophy known as the “Toyota Production System” The system depends in part on a “Human Resources Management” policy that stimulates employee creativity and loyalty but also on a highly efficient network of Suppliers and Components Manufacturers

What is Lean Manufacturing ?
Lean is about doing more with less: less time, inventory, space, labor, and money. “Lean manufacturing”, a shorthand for a commitment to eliminating waste, simplifying procedures and speeding up production.

Lean Manufacturing (also known as the Toyota Production System) is, in its most basic form, the systematic elimination of waste, over-production, waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, over-processing, defective units and the implementation of the concepts of continuous flow and customer pull.

Five areas drive lean manufacturing:
1.Cost
2.Quality
3.Delivery
4.Safety, and
5.Morale.

7 Principles of Toyota Production System

1.Reduced Setup Times:
All setup practices are wasteful because they add no value and they tie up labor and equipment. By organizing procedures, using carts, and training workers to do their own setups, Toyota managed to slash setup times from months to hours and sometimes even minutes.

2.Small-Lot Production:
Producing things in large batches results in huge setup costs, high capital cost of high-speed dedicated machinery, larger inventories, extended lead times, and larger defect costs. Because Toyota has found the way to make setups short and inexpensive, it became possible for them to economically produce a variety of things in small quantities.

3.Employee Involvement and Empowerment:
Toyota organized their workers by forming teams and gave them the responsibility and training to do many specialized tasks. Teams are also given responsibility for housekeeping and minor equipment repair. Each team has a leader who also works as one of them on the line.

4.Quality at the Source:
To eliminate product defects, they must be discovered and corrected as soon as possible. Since workers are at the best position to discover a defect and to immediately fix it, they are assigned this responsibility. If a defect cannot be readily fixed, any worker can halt the entire line by pulling a cord (called Jidoka).

5.Equipment Maintenance:
Toyota operators are assigned primary responsibility for basic maintenance since they are in the best position to defect signs of malfunctions. Maintenance specialists diagnose and fix only complex problems, improve the performance of equipment, and train workers in maintenance.

6.Pull Production:
To reduce inventory holding costs and lead times, Toyota developed the pull production method wherein the quantity of work performed at each stage of the process is dictated solely by demand for materials from the immediate next stage. The Kamban scheme coordinates the flow of small containers of materials between stages. This is where the term Just-in-Time (JIT) originated.

7.Supplier Involvement:
Toyota treats its suppliers as partners, as integral elements of Toyota Production System (TPS). Suppliers are trained in ways to reduce setup times, inventories, defects, machine breakdowns etc., and take responsibility to deliver their best possible parts.

Please, Listen to Your Gut Feeling

Friends, very good article , i have picked up from internet. It’s interesting and explain in details the role of gut feeling in decision making.Click on the link below to read it

Link To Article

Why Should You Change Your Job During Recession!!!

Friends, good article i just picked up.Click on the link below to read it

Link To Article

Don’t Blow Yourself UP!!!!!

Friends , an appropriate article for cheering us , i just picked up from a site . Nothing new as far as the content is concerned but the presentation is quite encouraging. It has been written by Drew Stevens……………………………………………..

How to avoid self-sabotage

With the conclusion of the year, holiday stress, and economic pendulum swings, it is very easy to self-sabotage. Statistics prove that internal stress is the key factor in self-sabotage. More important, we sabotage because we focus on negative aspects; we focus on failure. Research shows that individuals have a fear of failure, but too often the real problem is fear of success. Failure is a manifestation of looking at the past. Our success lies in the future. Self-sabotage is really a form of denial. It also brings up the question of what is versus what can be. To avoid sabotage you must respect YOU and you must view the future. You must learn to love yourself.

Are you going to allow the negative self-talk or are you going to build a better future, brick by brick? There are seven vital techniques to avert sabotage.

1. Self-Talk – Terminate the negative self-talk. Negative behavior and talk stimulates depression and anxiety. You must look in the mirror; understand the positive aspects you provide. Create positive speak, avoid negative terminology, and change your body mechanics. Smile at others and smile at yourself.

2. Failure – Simply avoid it. Do the things you hate to do first. Sabotage stems from individuals believing they will fail if they attempt something uncomfortable. Not true. Failure is learning, creativity, and innovation. Some of our famous ancestors failed and created great things. King, Lincoln, Bell, and others believed they failed, only to have their dreams come true. Stop worrying about failure; it is the best education. However, in order to fail you must confront it head on and remove yourself from the comfort zone. Stop procrastinating today!

3. Positive People – Depression and anxiety manifest when we gather with other negative people. Avert disaster by moving away from those that depress you. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill discusses the power of the Mastermind, small groups that share similar desires educating each other. Move away from those that anger you and befriend those that awaken your dreams, incite your desires, and expose your creativity.

4. Passion – Conviction and love is movement. Passion ignites the mind and the soul. Self-sabotage arrives when you work at a job. Life is too short for employment with organizations that treat you as a liability. Moreover, working for something that you abhor makes you remorseful. Find opportunities that ignite your spirit and provide a sense of purpose.

5. Self-Esteem/Confidence – Self-sabotage requires the elimination of limiting beliefs. What is a limiting belief? Limiting beliefs are those things you believe that place limitations on your abilities. Such beliefs are true and others false, but we use them as a brake to deter us from making what appears impossible, possible. For example, many individuals state, “I do not have proper experience—I will not get the job I want.” Alternatively, others state “I do not have any luck—I will never meet the decision maker.” The level of experience might be true. Your level of experience and skill might hinder certain jobs but if you do not apply, you do not get the job! If you desire luck, try sitting in a gambling hall. Luck does not create opportunities; experience, aggression, and focus get the decision maker.
Our mind creates limitations from things we experience and habits we form. You must reset your internal GPS to determination, then you set you mind to accomplish anything you desire. Don’t believe it? Determination ended a bloody Civil War, brought a man to the moon and gave us our first African American president! Confidence begins with a belief in YOU!

6. Pleasure – The easiest method for ending self-sabotage is doing pleasurable things. Misery creates company, but pleasure manifests power. Take the time to do things you love to do: listen to music, read a book, take a walk. Scientists have proved that our mind requires rest. Thinking of negative issues and limiting beliefs creates energy and polarizes our thinking. Conducting pleasurable activities produces endorphins in the brain that relax the mind and decrease our breathing and heart rate.

7. Action – The difference between “fortunate” and insignificant individuals: they take action. Self-sabotage is embodied from habits. Detaching habits takes time: 21 days exactly. If you truly desire change then you must take actionable steps to eliminate your self-sabotage. Set timeframes that are reasonable.
Creating a toned and symmetrical body takes time and energy. You cannot go to the gymnasium once and expect a favorable result. Change takes time, effort, and, most important, discomfort. Get out of your comfort zone, indulge in (good) pain, and eradicate self-sabotage forever!

Terrorism…..Myths And Realities!!!!

Friends, i just picked it up from a site.Excellent analysis of Terrorism by Stuart Ford, highlighting the myths and realities……………..

The Internal and External Dimensions of the War on Terror
Dec 30, 2008
S. Ford

There are fundamental misconceptions at the heart of US policy on the war on terror that effect its efficient implementation.

Firstly, it seems to be assumed that the terrorists are somewhere ‘over there’, and if we fight them there, then we won’t have to fight them here.

Secondly, there is a tacit political agreement that military action in a specific region can result in the end of a terror threat in that country.

Thirdly, that the terrorists are third world extremists without complex command structures. The archetypal image is the terrorist in turban and robes, hiding in a cave.

Lastly, that US military, diplomatic and economic measures are somehow distinct political strategies, and bear no relation to, or have any great impact on, each other.

These common fallacies, promoted heavily in campaign rhetoric and by the departing US Administration, are the cause of many of the failures in recent foreign policies. Like all great myths, there is some resonance to them, as they are true to a degree, but not understanding the multi-dimensional war on terror is the core of the problem the US is now facing in attempting to eradicate the terrorist threat.

MYTH 1 – The ‘over there’ syndrome

Terrorists are both ‘over there’ and ‘over here’. Just a few examples to indicate why this is not true, American-born teenage Somalis are being recruited in the US and then appearing as fighters and suicide bombers in Somalia. Funds raised by Pakistan groups in the West help fund terrorist activities such as the recent attacks in Mumbai. Radical Islam, as a philosophic creed, is being communicated from Bangladeshi youths in Britain through social media sites, such as Facebook, back to Bangladesh. Arms are being sourced in many parts of Eastern Europe by Islamic goups, and shipped into Afghanistan to assist the Taliban.

The terrorist forces we face are not only in the region where we fight them. They are an integral element of our domestic populace too. Many disaffected teenagers from the West are finding their way to the training camps in Pakistan and ending up as fighters in Afghanistan. These teenagers were born and raised in the West, but either as a result of radicalization in their community or by economic despair, are joining the worldwide army of terroroists. Some of these, will return to their host country in the West, ready to act as domestic organizers or to undertake domestic terrorist strikes in the West when directed.
A failure to understand that a Pashtun tribe member is still a Pashtun and sympathetic to tribal objectives whether he/she resides in Afghanistan, Pakistan or London, is a failure to understand the dimensionality of international terrorism.

There are, for further elucidation, more non-Arab Muslims than Arab Muslims in the world, which remains an unknown fact for consideration for many in the West. They are fighting us ‘there’, as that is what they wanted – the agenda they created. They wanted Western military action in sensitive countries so as to further radicalize the populace ‘over there’, but they are supported, and have strike capacities ‘here’ as well. You cannot win a war ‘over there’ without addressing the root causes of radicalization – poverty, incitement, racism and the like – in the West.

MYTH 2 – Military action will end terrorism

A pure military solution is not available – it never has been, and it never can be. Military action is just one of the strategy elements in the war on terror. You can strike at terrorist leadership, cause disruption to their supply chain, destroy their training facilities, and contain their activities through military means. It is not possible to eradicate the enemy in totality.

If you take a single US enemy – the Taliban. It is not possible to end the Taliban movement through military means. You cannot kill every member, curtail the ideology or remove their influence in the region. There is the Afghan Taliban, the Pakistan Taliban and more. Military actions can only contain their activity, not end it. You can stop them seizing control of the government of the country, but only then if you commit security forces to the region indefinitely.

Unless you undercut the reason for their existence – economically, spiritually and politically – it is a multi generational war that cannot be won by military means. Even Israel, with massive military superiority. a limited geographical representation of its enemy in a territory it can wall in, can’t achieve a military victory. This is not a war you can win by force of arms.

This is what infuriated many analysts when President Bush said his famous ‘Mission Accomplished’ line. Experts knew that the mission was not accomplished, it was just beginning as evidenced by the US struggling to formulate its withdrawal 6 years later. Military action lets you limit the effectiveness of an enemy but it cannot remove the threat in totality.

MYTH 3 – Terrorists are a third world rabble

The Mumbai attacks alone should put an end to this fallacy. A complex military style raid using GPS, satellite positioning devices, Google Earth, the Internet, and real time command and situation reports from web sites such as ‘Twitter’. As we have already shown, many terrorists are both staffed and aided by sophisticated Western based groups. They have access to the most sophisticated technology and weaponry.

The image of the man in the turban and robe in a cave may well represent an Afghan fighter, but not their leader. They have informants and personnel in place in many of the world’s intelligence services, a good example being Pakistan’s. They are receivingaccess to the same briefing materials as our own intelligence services. They have regular and irregular communication channels through web sites, mosques and social groups.

Their command structure has inbuilt security cell, fail-proof organizational design. They are also capable of learning, as the Taliban did from Al Qaeda’s experiences in Iraq. The Taliban harries NATO supply lines, uses mobility and urban population camoflage as a regular modus operandi. There is coordination across border, region and multiple conflict points. This is not a rag tag collection of terrorists, but rather a collaborative and highly strategic foe. An underestimation of their strategic capabilities could well be a fatal error.

MYTH 4 – Military, economic measures and diplomacy are not connected

The biggest fallacy of all – despite the petty political spats between the Departments of State and Defense. If the war cannot be won by military action, then how can victory be achieved? Absolute victory cannot – we will live in a world with terrorists forever.

However, through economic sanction and incentive, the US can influence foreign governments. By arms deals and intelligence sharing, the US can create international partners that develop into allies. By coercion and persuasion, foreign governments can be convinced, over time, to limit the safety of sanctuaries on offer to terrorist forces. Through addressing economic and social disparity domestically, it is possible to slow down the rates of ethnic disaffection and the potential for radicalization. These are the policy sets that can limit the danger to the US in both the internal and external dimensions of terrorism. To utilize military action first and foremost, without using the other edge of the diplomatic blade, makes any efforts destined to ineffectiveness.

The last element that will influence the outcome of the war on terror is that old chestnut, ‘moral authority’. The US must act fairly, equitably and with good, transparent governance. It is not by chance that the US became the enemy of the extremist sects from around the world, it was in a reaction to the foreign policies of the US regime. Even Obama Bin Laden said, ‘..we do not hate the West. We did not choose to attack some one like…Sweden. We attacked the US and the US is our enemy.’ These are sobering words.

The US needs to amend its policies to deal more equitably with friend, foe and those they are unsure of. A good example at present is Syria. Syria is reaching out to the West, and could be a vital partner in region over the next few years. Europe has reacted – creating intelligence sharing, developing neconomic treaties, and goading Syria away from an iron clad alignment with Iran. The US still refuses to talk to Syria, undertook a blundered and highly tactical attack on Syrian soil, all without understanding the broader strategic impact of this. In the global war against terror, if the US can understand the myths, confront the realities, and deal with the causes not the effects of terrorism, that will be the key to greater and sustainable US security.

—

Establish Brand “Yourself” To Make A Fortune.

Friends, very good and guiding article by Karla Brandau for gaining edge in highly competitive business environment .Click on the link below to read the article

Link To Article

Shameful..Copy of Raju’s Resignation Letter

Friends,this could be my first and perhaps the last posting,I would have loved to avoid..Copy of Raju’s letter to Board and regulatory bodies,whom he conviniently cheated for years…

To the Board of Directors, Satyam Computers Services Ltd. From B. Ramalinga Raju, Chairman, Satyam Computer Services Ltd Dear Board Members,

It is with deep regret, and tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice:

1. The balance sheet carries as of September 30, 2008 a) Inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balance of Rs 5,040 crore (as against Rs 5361 crore refglected in the books) b) An accured interest of Rs 376 crore which is non-existent c) An understated liability of Rs 1,230 crore on account of funds arranged by me d) An over stated debtor position of Rs 490 crore (as against Rs 2651 reflected in the books)

2. For the September quarter (Q2) we reported a revenue of Rs 2,700 crore and an operating margin of Rs 649 crore (24 per cent of revenues) as against the actual revenues of Rs 2,112 crore and an actual operating margin of Rs 61 crore (3 per cent of revenue).

This has resulted in artificial cash and bank balances going up by Rs 588 crore in Q2 alone. The gap in the balance sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of last several  years (limited only to Satyam standalone, books of subsidiaries reflecting true performance).

What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years. It has attained unmanageable proportions as the size of the company operations grew significantly (annualized revenue run rate of Rs 11,276 crore in the September quarter, 2008 and official reserves  of Rs 8.392 crore).

The differential in the real profits and the one reflected in the books was further accentuated by the fact that the company had to carry additional  resources and assets to justify higher level of operations – thereby significantly increasing the costs.

Every attempt made to eliminate the gap failed. As the promoters held a small percentage of equity, the concern was the poor performance would result in a takeover, thereby exposing the gap.

It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten. The aborted Maytas acquisition deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones. Maytas’ investors were convinced that this is a good divestment opportunity and a strategic fit.

Once Satyam’s problem was solved, it was hoped that Maytas payments can be delayed. But that was not to be. What followed in the last several days is common knowledge.

I would like the board to know:

1. That neither myself, not the Managing Director (including our spouses) sold any shares in the last eight years-excepting for a small proportion declared and sold for philanthropic purposes.

2. That in the last two years a net amount of Rs 1,230 crore was arranged to Satyam (not reflected in the books of Satyam) to keep the operations going by resorting to pledging all the promoter shares and raising funds from know sources by giving all kinds of assurances (Statement enclosed, only to the members of the board). Significant dividend payments, acquisitions, capital expenditure to provide for growth did not help matters.
Every attempt was made to keep the wheel moving and to ensure prompt payment of salaries to the associates. The last straw was the selling of most of the pledged share by the lenders on account of margin trigger.

3. That neither me, nor the Managing Director took even one rupee/dollar from the company and have not benefitted in financial terms on account of the inflated results.

4. None of the board members, past or present, had any knowledge of the situation in which the company is placed. Even business leaders and senior executives in the company, such as Ram Mynampati, Subu D T R Anand, Kesab Panda, Virender Agarwal, A S Murthy, Hari T, S V Krishnan, Vijay Prasad, Manish Mehta, Murali V, Sriram Papani, Kiran Kavale, Joe Lagioia. Ravindra Penu Metsa, Jayaraman and Prabhakar Gupta are unaware of the real situation as against the books of accounts. None of my or managing directors immediate or extended family members has any ideas about these issues. Having put the facts before you, I leave it to the wisdom of the board to take the matters forward.

However, I am also taking the liberty to recommend the following steps:

1) A task force has been formed in the last few days to address the situation arising out of the failed Maytas acquisition attempt. This consists of some of the most accomplished leaders of Satyam: Subu D, T R Anand, Keshab Panda and Virender Aggarwal, representing business functions, and A.S.Murthy, Hari T and Murali V representing support functions. I suggest that Ram Mynampati be made the Chairman of this task force to immediately address some of the operational matters on hand. Ram can also act as an interim CEO reporting to the board.

2) Merrill Lynch can be entrusted with the task of quickly exploring some merger opportunities. 3) You may have a ‘restatement of accounts’ prepared by auditors in light of the facts that I have placed before you.

I have promoted and have been associated with Satyam for well over twenty years now. I have seen it grow from few people to 53,000 people, with 185 Fortune 500 companies as customers and operations in 66 countries. Satyam has an excellent leadership and competency base at all levels.
I sincerely apologize to all Satyamites and stakeholders who have made Satyam a special organization, for the current situation. I am confident they will stand by the company in this hour of crisis.

In light of the above, I fervently appeal to the board to hold together to take some important steps. Mt T R Prasad is well placed to mobilize support from the government at this crucial time. With the hope that members of the Task Force and the financial advisor, Merrill Lynch (now Bank of America) will stand by the company at this crucial hour,

I am marking copies of this statement to them as well. Under the circumstances, I am tendering my resignation as the chairman of Satyam and shall continue in this position only till such time the current board is expanded. My contribution is just to ensure enhancement of the board over the next several days or as early as possible.

I am now prepared to subject myself to the laws of the land and fact the consequences thereof. (B. Ramalinga Raju) Copied marked to: 1) SEBI Chairman 2) Stock Exchanges

You Can Do Anything But Not Everything!!!

Friends , very good article by Keith H. Hammonds on David Allen , “Productivity Guru” and the creator of the “Getting Things Done” time management method.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

What Is A Ponzi Scheme ?

Friends, here Trent describes what is a Ponzi scheme and how Madoff could make it work………………………………….

What’s a Ponzi scheme?
Most of the descriptions of Ponzi schemes that are floating around out there in articles are really confusing, so I thought I’d start off with a clear example of a Ponzi scheme.

Let’s say I wanted to start a Ponzi scheme to get rich really quickly. I’d put an advertisement out there saying that I had an investment opportunity that would return, say, 25% of your investment each year, guaranteed. Obviously, that’s a claim that I’m not going to be able to back up with any real investment, but it’s a strong enough claim that I’m likely to get a few people who want to invest.

Ten people invest in my scheme the first year at $10,000 each, giving me $100,000 to work with. At the end of the year, I actually pay out that 25% to each investor, sending them checks for $2,500 each, leaving me with $75,000. These ten people are amazed by the success, so they each tell five friends about the scheme, plus my original ad draws in ten more people.

So, at the start of year two, I have fifty referred people into my scheme and ten more from my ad. They send me $10,000 each, giving me $600,000 to add to my account, leaving me with a total of $675,000. I keep promoting, and at the end of the year, I write seventy checks for $2,500 (that 25% return to each investor), totaling $175,000. That leaves me with $500,000.

Now, during that year, I’ve managed to attract 100 more customers, who send me $10,000 each at the start of year three. I now have $1.5 million sitting there, but at the end of the year, I need to pay out $2,500 to 170 customers.

I don’t want to do that, so I take that $1.5 million and vanish to South America. Of the investors, the original ten got 50% of their money back, then the next sixty got 25% of their money back. Everyone else got nothing.

So what is a Ponzi scheme? It’s one where you promise rich returns in order to get a lot of investors into your scheme, then you pay “returns” to the early investors out of the initial investments of later investors, until it looks like you’re going to be paying out more than you’re bringing in, at which point you close up shop and disappear with the loot.

How did Madoff get away with this kind of scheme?
Madoff’s primary tool for making the scheme work was the respect from others he had built up during his long career on Wall Street. He had been the chairman of NASDAQ and was intimately involved in the organization and technology involved in setting it up. He had also been running a fund for many, many years and had discussed at length his investing strategies (which were pretty complicated).

At some point along the line, Madoff began to not see the success that he had been claiming with his investing strategy and quietly began to convert things into a Ponzi scheme. He began to focus heavily on marketing his investment fund, attracting new investors all the time, and when these people would invest, he would use that money to pay out to earlier investors who were leaving the fund. So, for example, if he were taking in new investments and could actually return 8% on them, he was claiming a 12% return and actually paying that out to investors who were leaving the fund.

It’s easier to think of this in raw numbers. Let’s say you have $100 of someone else’s money and you have that invested somewhere where you can earn 8% on it. You tell that person (and everyone else who will listen) that you can earn 12% on their money. After the first year, that initial person wants their $100 back (with that 12% return), but five more want to invest. You take the $100 they invested, plus the $8 you actually earned, plus the $500 the new investors gave you, and you pay out $112 to the original investor. Now you have five investors, but you have only $496 and it’s only earning 8%. Next year, four of those investors want out with their $112 each (total $448). You have only $535.68 on hand, but you pay out the money. You actually only have $87.68 on hand right now (earning 8%), but the lone remaining investor believes he has $112 with you (earning 12%). It won’t be good when that last investor comes to collect his money.

That’s eventually what happened to Madoff. When the stock market tanked in late 2007 and 2008, investors wanted their money out in droves and he simply ran out of money to pay the inflated returns he had been promising everyone because he wasn’t actually earning those returns.

Can any of this possibly affect me?
Madoff’s scheme won’t directly affect you unless you were invested in the scheme.

So why should we pay attention to it at all?
It’s a stark reminder of the danger of greed. Madoff got greedy with his own fund and kept seeking more investors so he could keep living the high life. The investors themselves were greedy because they were trying out investments that they didn’t really understand just in the hopes of getting a big return.

What warning signs should I look for?
Here’s the big one: if someone is promising you returns that blow away what can be found easily in the S&P 500, don’t believe it. They’re selling you something fishy. Investing returns in the double digits do not grow on trees, and if they’re guaranteed, something inappropriate is likely going on. Avoid it for your own safety.

That’s not to say you can’t earn returns higher than 10-15% or so – one certainly can. But a person is not going to find that return by investing in someone else’s investment package. You’re much more likely to find it in small events in your everyday life. For example, a couple years ago, I turned a nice and quick profit reselling Nintendo Wiis when they were very hot, earning far more than a 10% annual return. However, such opportunities aren’t sold as investment packages.

Similarly, if you don’t understand how an investment works, don’t invest in it. This is an investing rule I always follow. The only stocks I purchase are very broad mutual funds that basically amount to investments in the idea of American business as a whole. Why? I understand how they work. I don’t invest in individual companies. Why? I don’t have enough information to truly understand how they work. I don’t invest in non-index mutual funds. I don’t invest in hedge funds. I don’t invest in anything I hear about from friends or acquaintances.
If I don’t know how it works, I’m trusting someone else to understand it for me – and, more importantly, I’m trusting that person to always have my best interests at heart. With people like Bernie Madoff out there, it’s not a risk anyone should take.
Good luck!

Ladies First!!!

Friends , outcome of an authentic Research work,I just picked up from a site.

Women Are More Forgiving April 2008 –

New research led by Case Western Reserve University supported by the John Templeton Foundation and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology has found that men find forgiving more difficult than women but this gender gap closes if men develop empathy toward an offender by seeing they may be capable of acting in a similar way themselves.

This gender difference was a consistent finding in a series of seven related studies conducted between 1998 through 2005 with more than 1400 college students. Researchers used hypothetical situations, actual recalled offenses, individual and group situations and surveys to study the ability to forgive.

People of both genders tend to be more forgiving when able to identify with the offender. Empathy tends to make the offense seem less serious and easier to understand and results in people feeling more similar to those offending against them. Each of these factors is predictive of more forgiving attitudes.

Researchers suggest that women are taught from an early age to be more empathetic and to prioritise relationship building.

Lead author psychologist Julie Juola Exline said: “The gender difference is not anything that we predicted. We actually got aggravated, because we kept getting it over and over again in our studies. We kept trying to explain it away, but it kept repeating in the experiments.”

Researchers also found this ability to identify with the offender and forgive in intergroup conflicts relating this to attitudes to the 9/11 terrorists.

Julie Juola Exline explained: “When people could envision their own government committing acts similar to those of the terrorists, they were less vengeful. For example, they were less likely to believe that perpetrators should be killed on the spot or given the death penalty, and they were more supportive of negotiations and economic aid.”

Improve Your Listening Skills !!!!!!!!!!

Friends, we all know the importance of listening but rarely practice it in reality.Here is a good article by Gilda Bonanno , highlighting the skill set requirements for a good listener.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Improve Your Body Language !!!!!!

Hi Friends , another important aspect of Leadership Qualities…Body Language.Follow 10 tips given by Tim Ryan for quickly and easily improving it.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Tips For Making Your Job Recession Proof !!!

Friends, thought provoking article i just picked up ,recommending useful tips for making your job recession proof.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Tips For Creating Your Personal Brand

Hi friends , moving further on Personal Branding platform, here is a specific guideline to build and improve it continuously.I just picked it up from a site.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Dream Job Through Networking !!!

Networking is a reciprocal process based on the exchange of ideas, advice, referrals, leads and contacts. Most of us do a natural “hit or miss” type of networking everyday, as we share and exchange information with our friends. To turn this form of networking into a really valuable resource, we must learn how to “systematize” our existing network and expand it.

Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Great Journey……..From Loneliness To Self Sufficiency

Friends , very relevant article in the current context of stressful life.I just picked it up from a site.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Signs of a Cheating Spouse.Joking!!!!!!!!!!

Friends , go through this article for pure entertainment only.I read it long back in a site and believe me at least 5 were matching in my case, although my wife was sure about 9 of those ( You will come to know , which one was not matching ,once you go through it).Laugh it out and may share with your spouse also….to play safe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Are You An Would-Be-Entrepreneur ?????

Friends , read it in CNN Money and now sharing with you.Good guideline for would-be-entrepreneurs.Follow the steps and be independent.Click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Keys To Inspirations…For The Journey…Life!!!

Friends, life is is a new journey everyday and earlier we realize, less painful it is……….some tips here for an inspirational journey ……Pl, click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Fortune Ten Best Employers 2008

Friends, pl click on the following link to read the article:

Link To Article

Fortune Best Paying Employers 2008….Top 5

Friends, it’s a revelation that, 4 of the top 5 highest paying companies are Law Firms!! Pl,click on the following link to read the article

Link To Article

Father and Daughter Bond !!!

Friends,being the father of two daughters, I instantly identified with the message conveyed by this article, just read in a site and decided to share with you…..

The bond between parents and their children is special and there is a unique bond between a daughter and her father. The father-daughter relationship is a source of learning for the daughter. It is a prototype for the way adult male-female relationships should work.

The special bond between the daughter and her dad gives her a basis for the self-esteem that she will carry with her throughout life.Little girls adore their fathers and strive to be loved by them.

As they grow up they can start to test their female energy in a safe and non-sexual relationship. Fathers also benefit from the relationship. They learn that true love need not be identified with sexual love and can develop a stronger, truer self-image.A father’s praise is most important to the relationship.

The father may believe he is supporting his daughter and providing what she needs when he provides monetary support. However, what is really needed is emotional support regardless of the financial situation.

Many fathers are absent from the main child rearing of their daughter and may not see them often. These fathers should still try to instill their love and support by talking to their daughters often and by providing unconditional love.

The best fathers help to reinforce their daughters’ unique positive traits. They can convey to their daughter that they believe in her and that she can do anything she sets her mind to. It is important for a girl to know that her father believes in her.

Women who have had trouble with their relationship with their father may grow up to have trouble in their own male-female relationships. This may be due to many factors. Women whose father was absent when growing up may develop depression and have low self-esteem.

The best way to heal from this type of problem, no matter what the age, is to discover the reasons for the parent’s breakup. Once they realize that the divorce had nothing to do with them they can learn to move on. Therapy and group counseling can help women work through these issues more easily.

Sometimes the father abuses the daughter either physically or emotionally. This may take years for the daughter to get over, if she ever does. It can cause emotional scarring that may make it difficult for her to trust men as she grows up.

Women who have been victimized by their fathers need to seek counseling to help them break unhealthy patterns. Women tend to play out the situation with their father again in their adult relationships with men. Somehow they hope to achieve a different outcome the next time.

Women who have felt abandoned by their fathers when growing up often reach a point in their early womanhood where they need to work through the pain of their father’s leaving. This is natural and by working through it they can move past it and help to avoid letting it spoil their future relationships.

Fathers and daughters who have had a loving relationship provide a healthy backdrop for women to go out into the world and have healthy relationships.

There Are Jobs…….But Where?

Friends, interesting and obviously an encouraging report, i just picked up Fortune.Pl, click on the following link to read the article:

Link To Article

Demise Of Humanity !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friends , recently an horrific alliance between the pharmaceutical industry and the academic physicians, who largely determine the market value of prescription drugs ,were exposed by US Senator Charles Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.I have picked up this article from a web site and posting only a part of it, highlighting one such financial tie-up out of many mentioned in the original article.

Click on the following link to read this article

LINK TO ARTICLE

Who The Hell Pushed CFO In The Pool ???

Friends, laughter dose…….just read over net…

A CEO throwing a party takes his executives on a tour of his opulent mansion. In the back of the property, the CEO has the largest swimming pool any of them has ever seen.

The huge pool, however, is filled with hungry alligators.

The CEO says to his executives "I think an executive should be measured by courage. Courage is what made me CEO. So this is my challenge to each of you: if anyone has enough courage to dive into the pool, swim through those alligators, and make it to the other side, I will give that person anything they desire. My job, my money, my house, anything!"

Everyone laughs at the outrageous offer and proceeds to follow the CEO on the tour of the estate. Suddenly, they hear a loud splash. Everyone turns around and sees the CFO (Chief Financial Officer) in the pool, swimming for his life. He dodges the alligators left and right and makes it to the edge of the pool with seconds to spare. He pulls himself out just as a huge alligator snaps at his shoes.

The flabbergasted CEO approaches the CFO and says, "You are amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. You are brave beyond measure and anything I own is yours. Tell me what I can do for you.

The CFO, panting for breath, looks up and says, "You can tell me, who the hell pushed me in the pool!"

Tips For a Better Life !!!!!!!!!!!

Friends , interesting and useful tips for a better living…received from a friend

1. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day..

3. Sleep for 7 hours.

4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

5. Play more games.

6. Read more books than you did in 2008.

7. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer. They provide us with daily
fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10.Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is
manufactured in plants.

11.Drink plenty of water.

12.Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13.Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.

14.Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the
past. That will ruin your present happiness.

15.Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your
energy in the positive present moment.

16.Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part
of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you
learn will last a lifetime.

17.Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.

18.Smile and laugh more.

19.Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.

20.Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21.You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22.Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

23.Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all
about. Don’t compare your partner with others.

24.No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

25.Forgive everyone for everything.

26.What other people think of you is none of your business.

27.GOD heals everything.

28.However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

29.Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in
touch.

30.Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

31.Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

32.The best is yet to come.

33.No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

34.Do the right thing!

35.Call your family often.

36.Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

37.Each day give something good to others.

38.Don’t over do. Keep your limits.

39.When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.

Effective Communication ….A Leadership Quality.

Friends , good article on the art of communication , i read in a site and now sharing with you………………..

Adapted from Effective Communication Skills in the Workplace: How to Use Tiny Words that Pack a Mighty Punch by Joy Huber.

“You’re the one who messed this project up.” “You didn’t turn in the report on time.” “You forgot our 4-year anniversary!”I don’t know for certain about you, but these sentences automatically make me want to throw my hands up like, “Whoa, I’m under attack!” and duck and run for cover! Can you imagine if they were also said in a loud volume, with a sarcastic or condescending tone, or with negative body language like somebody pointing at me? Yikes!

A quote I love sharing in keynotes and training simply states, “If you do what you have always done, you will get (the results) that you have always gotten!” Basically, if you’re trying to bring about better or different results either professionally or personally think about what you’re going to change at the forefront to see enhanced results in the end.

I always teach that when you have a BAD NEWS message please don’t start that with You! We are only human after all, and You + BAD NEWS automatically triggers that internal “fight or flight” response in other humans! Think about it . .

How many times have you said, “You’re late with the report again.” And the other person comes right back at you with a You + Bad News message. An example could be, “Oh, yeah, well, YOU didn’t give me enough time to complete my part of the report!” It typically goes downhill from here! Isn’t this the fight piece of the response, but instead of using our fists we are using our mouth and words as weapons in this battle?

Or, the individual says, “I can’t deal with this right now.” as it escalates and they storm out of the room? This is the flight piece of the equation. There should be a better more effective way!
I teach when you have BAD NEWS to convey simply put an “I” in front of it. Try to refrain from saying “you” in the sentence at all if you can; this isn’t always entirely possible! Great examples of this include statements such as, “I have a concern I need to address.” Vs. “You’re always late.” How about if you said “I have some feedback I’d like to share.” Vs. “You don’t treat us all the same.” “You play favorites!”

So BAD NEWS = I. Can’t I ever use you when starting a sentence you may ask? Certainly!
When you have GOOD NEWS this is an opportunity to use “You.” “You did a great job updating the web site!” “You really made me feel special with that gift.”

So GOOD NEWS = YOU. How about we? When are some good times to use this?
We implies “You and I” so great times to use this are when you want to imply a partnership or put yourself on the same side as someone. This could be your significant other or spouse, co-worker, or even external customer. I love we because it facilitates the team vs. me against you and the continued operation of us in distinct silos not communicating or working together!

“How can we improve our working relationship?” is a sentence I have long effectively used, especially with co-workers you don’t get along with the best. We implies we are in it together or on the same side. To me, “working relationship” implies “If I see you at the mall this weekend, I may not rush up to have a conversation with you, because we’re really very different . . but . . 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. we need to communicate well and show respect for what each person brings to the corporate table!” Now the aforementioned example may be used with a co-worker; what about a customer situation? Phrases including, “How can we resolve this concern?” put you in that partnership with your customer vs. “us vs. them.” “What we can do is . .” is another great example.

Like many things in life, sometimes it’s the tiny stuff you do or implement that really matters and makes a huge difference! I challenge you to become real cognizant and aware of what words you are using in day-to-day professional and personal conversations and where you see an opportunity craft a conversation or let a statement in accordance with these principles roll off your tongue. You’ll be pleased with the response from your communications partner!

Author’s Bio
Joy Huber – “Ms. En’Joy’able” – is an award-winning Speaker & Business Communications Expert

For more great information, check-out my CD Programs:
“An Interview with Joy Huber, Business Communications Expert” and “Talk to the Hand: A Woman’s Guide to Truly Thriving Amongst Difficult People” when you visit JoyHuberOnline. Or email me at Joy@joyhuber.com

Cheapest Parking Space !!!!!!!!!

Friends ….Laughter online…….Read it……got it from a site and sharing with you

Rolls Royce Loan

A businessman walks into a bank in San Francisco and asks for the loan officer. He says he is going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $7,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for such a loan.

So the businessman hands over the keys to a Rolls Royce parked on the street in front of the bank. Everything checks out, and the bank agrees to accept the car as collateral for the loan. An employee drives the Rolls into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there.

Two weeks later, the businessman returns, repays the $7,000 and the interest, which comes to $19.67. The loan officer says, “We are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little confused. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What confuses us is why would you bother to borrow $7,000?”

The businessman replied, “Where else in San Francisco can I park my car for two weeks for $20 bucks?”

10 Best Companies To Work For – 2009 !!

This posting has been shifted to my new blog.Pl, click on the link below to read the article

LINK

6 Companies With No Layoffs—-Ever

This posting has been shifted to my new blog.Please,click on the following link to read the article

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20 Companies Hiring !!!

This posting has been shifted to my new blog.Please, click on the following link to read it

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SWOT Analysis…..For Profitable Business !

SWOT Analysis- To Make Your Business More Profitable | Management

SWOT Analysis is a well-known method for describing a business or business propositions in terms of those factors that can have the maximum impact. The business owner does this analysis in order to improve the current position of the business. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the business are considered to be the internal aspects of a business, such as the quality of the product or the managerial skills. Whereas the Opportunities and Threats are the external factors, like the development of a completely new market or the arrival of new competitors.

The strengths and weaknesses of a business can be found in the following:

Management sector: The over dependence of an employee on a manager or an owner is one of the major weaknesses in a business that often leads to the requirement of more managers. This area needs to be worked upon in order to reduce the expense of the organization and to improve the business.

The work force: The difficulty in finding skilled staff as well as the employee turnover has to be handled efficiently to help a business grow successfully.

Sales: The strength of sales, how dependent your sales are on external factors, and cyclical sales are some of the factors that affect the business.

Financial: The factors affecting the financial condition of your business determine its strengths and weaknesses. The major aspects related to finance are the flow of cash, time to collect on invoices, and the ease of obtaining loans.

Operations: Strengths and weaknesses are also determined by the internal efficiency as well as the speed of manufacture and delivery of goods.

Opportunities and threats are found in the following categories:

Threats posed by the new rivals in the market: A new entrant in the market, selling a similar product or service, is considered to be one of the greatest threats, as you might not have a patent that could put a brake on new competitors.

Bargaining power of suppliers: Suppliers can pose a major threat for the business as they might force you to take large deliveries. Many times they are also difficult to find, or the supply may not be available.

Customer influence: There are some businesses that rely on a handful of customers, which include a lot of late payers. In addition, many customers bargain for lower prices. In such cases, the business tends to either face the threat of loss of customers or of being unprofitable.

Substitution: People often get bored using a particular brand of product and tend to opt for a change. The market usually has a number of similar products of similar quality. So the major threat is that people might try a product other than yours, and eventually end up substituting your product with it.

You can use two methods to grade these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities or threats, namely, pictorial and numerical.

If you opt for the pictorial way, you need to first create four sectors on a writing pad, putting the titles Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in each sector, and a large question mark in the center. Now place each of the SWOTs in each sector, with the most problematic factors being farthest away from the question mark, and the better factors closer to it. The closer the display is bunched towards the center of the grid, the better the shape of your business.

However, if you pick the numerical method of assessment, you need to rate each item from 1 to 5 according to how important each is to your business. In this rating, 5 is considered to be the most important. Besides, each factor should also be rated from A to E according to its impact on the business, where E would indicate the highest impact. Then, check how many Es and 5s you end up with. If there are bad factors then you need to change or work on them. And, if there are strengths and opportunities, then it is important to build upon those factors. This would help to boost your business.

Source : http://contentdig.com
About the Author
Business Consultant helps entrepreneurs squeeze mega-profits in record time by working less? We have proof of this Business Consulting achievement. Discover how by visiting: http://www.businesscoach.com/go/bc/business-consulting/index.cfm.

Who Are Responsible For These Children’s Death..Parents or…..???

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — A man apparently despondent about losing his job killed his wife and five children before turning the gun on himself, officials said Tuesday.

Bodies of five children and two adults — the children’s mother and father — were found Tuesday in a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Wilmington. Among the dead, authorities said, were an 8-year-old girl and two sets of twins — 5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys.

Ervin Lupoe apparently called 911 and contacted a television station by fax before committing suicide, authorities said.

"No words can describe this tragedy," said Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. "There’s no way to comprehend this unspeakable act."

Police were alerted by KABC-TV, who said the station had received a faxed letter and a call from an individual who was threatening suicide.

Responding officers found all seven bodies inside the home, said Capt. William Hayes. Watch emergency crews arrive at the home »

Nearly simultaneously with the KABC call, a man called 911 and reported coming home and finding his family dead, Hayes said. But, Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner said, the man told KABC he had killed them.

A suicide note found at the scene "indicated a business dispute" between Lupoe and Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, Hayes said. In the faxed note to KABC, the man said he was despondent over an employment situation, police said.

Kaiser Permanente said Lupoe and his wife, Ana, were both former employees of the medical center. Both had been terminated, Hayes said, with Lupoe’s termination coming last week. It appears there were grounds for the termination, and it did not come as a result of layoffs, he said.

In Lupoe’s suicide note, he offered a detailed account of his and his wife’s work circumstances, calling the family’s situation a "tragic story." He ended it by saying, "So after a horrendous ordeal my wife felt it better to end our lives and why leave our children in someone’s else’s hands."

"There is no reason to believe this is anything other than a murder-suicide," Lt. John Romero said. "There is no current threat to the community, no active search for a suspect."

The father and the three girls were found in one upstairs room of the home, the mother and twin boys in another, police said. Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner described the scene as one of the most grisly police have encountered.

Authorities did not release the names of the woman and children.

"Unfortunately, this has become an all-too-common story in the last few months," Villaraigosa told reporters. He urged those who have lost jobs to take advantage of available assistance and resources, including mental health agencies.

"Job centers, foreclosure counselors, and mental health professionals are ready to provide whatever services are necessary to get people back on their feet and to keep families afloat," the mayor said in a written statement.

City Councilwoman Janice Hahn said, "No matter how desperate you are, no matter how frustrated you are, to think this was the only answer — to take your whole family with you in death — is just too much to understand."

Kaiser Permanente said it is cooperating with the police investigation.

"We are deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of the Lupoe family," the company said. "Our sympathies are with all their extended family and friends at this time. We are also providing resources and support to our employees who are affected by this tragedy."

A dozen police officers and detectives remained at the scene Tuesday afternoon and several surrounding blocks were sealed off by police.

Authorities said at an afternoon briefing that a community meeting would be held later in the day at a nearby

Source : http://cnn.com

Is India poor, who says? Ask Swiss banks ???

With personal account deposit bank of $1500 billion in foreign reserve which have been misappropriated, an amount 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt, one needs to rethink if India is a poor country?.

DISHONEST INDUSTRIALISTS, scandalous politicians and corrupt IAS, IRS, IPS officers have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts a sum of about $ 1500 billion, which have been misappropriated by them. This amount is about 13 times larger than the country’s foreign debt. With this amount 45 crore poor people can get Rs 1,00,000 each. This huge amount has been appropriated from the people of India by exploiting and betraying them.

Once this huge amount of black money and property comes back to India, the entire foreign debt can be repaid in 24 hours. After paying the entire foreign debt, we will have surplus amount, almost 12 times larger than the foreign debt. If this surplus amount is invested in earning interest, the amount of interest will be more than the annual budget of the Central government. So even if all the taxes are abolished, then also the Central government will be able to maintain the country very comfortably.

Some 80,000 people travel to Switzerland every year, of whom 25,000 travel very frequently. “Obviously, these people won’t be tourists. They must be travelling there for some other reason,” believes an official involved in tracking illegal money. And, clearly, he isn’t referring to the commerce ministry bureaucrats who’ve been flitting in and out of Geneva ever since the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations went into a tailspin!

Just read the following details and note how these dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians, corrupt officers, cricketers, film actors, illegal sex trade and protected wildlife operators, to name just a few, sucked this country’s wealth and prosperity. This may be the picture of deposits in Swiss banks only. What about other international banks?

Black money in Swiss banks — Swiss Banking Association report, 2006 details bank deposits in the territory of Switzerland by nationals of following countries:

Top five

India—- $1456 billion
Russia—$ 470 billion
UK——-$390 billion
Ukraine- $100 billion
China—–$ 96 billion

Now do the maths – India with $1456 billion or $1.4 trillion has more money in Swiss banks than rest of the world combined. Public loot since 1947: Can we bring back our money? It is one of the biggest loots witnessed by mankind — the loot of the Aam Aadmi (common man) since 1947, by his brethren occupying public office. It has been orchestrated by politicians, bureaucrats and some businessmen. The list is almost all-encompassing. No wonder, everyone in India loots with impunity and without any fear.

What is even more depressing in that this ill-gotten wealth of ours has been stashed away abroad into secret bank accounts located in some of the world’s best known tax havens. And to that extent the Indian economy has been stripped of its wealth. Ordinary Indians may not be exactly aware of how such secret accounts operate and what are the rules and regulations that go on to govern such tax havens. However, one may well be aware of ’Swiss bank accounts,’ the shorthand for murky dealings, secrecy and of course pilferage from developing countries into rich developed ones.

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in the twentieth century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich.

In March 2005, the Tax Justice Network (TJN) published a research finding demonstrating that $11.5 trillion of personal wealth was held offshore by rich individuals across the globe. The findings estimated that a large proportion of this wealth was managed from some 70 tax havens.

Further, augmenting these studies of TJN, Raymond Baker — in his widely celebrated book titled ’Capitalism’s Achilles Heel: Dirty Money and How to Renew the Free Market System’ — estimates that at least $5 trillion have been shifted out of poorer countries to the West since the mid-1970. It is further estimated by experts that one per cent of the world’s population holds more than 57 per cent of total global wealth, routing it invariably through these tax havens. How much of this is from India is anybody’s guess.

What is to be noted here is that most of the wealth of Indians parked in these tax havens is illegitimate money acquired through corrupt means. Naturally, the secrecy associated with the bank accounts in such places is central to the issue, not their low tax rates as the term ’tax havens’ suggests. Remember Bofors and how India could not trace the ultimate beneficiary of those transactions because of the secrecy associated with these bank accounts? IS THERE ANY ONE WHO WOULD SAVE INDIA ?God… No No No, even he can’t……….!!

Source : http://www.merinews.com

Global Corporates…On Networking ????

The new corporate firefighters
By David Gelles

When advertisers launched a campaign last September for the pain reliever Motrin, they hoped to attract the attention of mothers whose backs might be sore from wearing baby-carriers. The advertisements implied that while baby-carriers might be fashionable, hauling a child around could be painful.

Mothers were not amused. Soon after the ads were released, anti-Motrin campaigns appeared on Facebook and blogs. Outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the micro-blogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.

Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive.

Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.

The “Motrin moms” episode illustrates the power of social media – the expanding network of websites that allow users to interact with each other and, increasingly, with companies. It also demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.

But now a growing number of companies, including Ford Motor, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Dell, are creating new high-level jobs to ready themselves for engagement with social media, with titles such as director of social media, head of communities and conversation, vice-president of experiential marketing and digital communications manager.The role of these new executives is to monitor and influence what is being said about their companies on the internet.

Johnson & Johnson made its own appointment in the wake of the Motrin debacle. Having already dabbled in social media, in December the company promoted Marc Monseau, a 10-year company veteran and former director of media relations, to director of social media. “My responsibility is to work with the corporate office and the individual companies to better interact online,” Mr Monseau says. “It underscores the fact that we realise this is an important audience and one that we need to develop relationships with.”

These new jobs represent a broad shift in media relations strategy at large companies. “Corporate communications has radically changed,” says Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. “It’s no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels.”

The essence of social media is conversation. Rather than a one-way stream of information, where companies make announcements to the press and customers, social media enables a great deal of interaction, where companies are in constant dialogue with the public. “We’ve seen a shift from doing things the old way to now having conversations with our customers,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of new media for Cisco Systems.

Ms Gibson, who began her job in 2007, says there is now a mandate at Cisco that all staff be attuned to what is being said about Cisco online. “It has definitely shifted how we’ve done communications,” she says. “Our executives are video blogging every day. Everybody’s job is now social media.”

Dell, the computer maker, has one of the most robust corporate social media programmes. Bob Pearson, former senior vice-president of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.

He now has 45 people working for him. The core team works on “blog resolution” – trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. Others on Dell’s social media team manage the company’s 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell’s forum for customer feedback.

Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm. “It’s always worth talking directly with your customers. It’s always worth listening to them,” says Mr Pearson. “It’s the wisdom of crowds.”

Peter Shankman, a social media expert and founder of Help a Reporter Out, a service that broadcasts reporters’ requests to a network of experts, says many companies are still reluctant to get involved: “Companies are slow to adapt because they’re still not 100 per cent sure they can make money with social media,” he says.

Yet Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.

Other savings can be realised through the Web’s ability to reach many people at once. “If you solve someone’s problem on the phone, nobody knows,” says Mr Sernovitz. “If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings.”

Other companies are using Twitter to douse public relations fires before they erupt. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to appease users who were angry after the carmaker sued an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford merchandise. When fans of the enthusiast site posted angry messages, Mr Monty “tweeted back” to explain the company’s position.

Bonin Bough, who was appointed director of social media for PepsiCo last year, also used Twitter to defuse a brewing crisis after the company released a series of advertisements depicting a cartoon calorie character committing suicide.

“Social media is much more than getting out there and having conversations,” says Mr Pearson of Dell. “It transforms a business if you use it correctly.”

Source http://ft.com

Innovation For Mass Population..A $20 Laptop!!!

India to follow $2,000 car with $20 laptop
By James Lamont
New Delhi

India is planning to produce a laptop computer for the knockdown price of about $20 (€16, £14), having come up with the Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car at about $2,000.

The project, backed by New Delhi, would considerably undercut the so-called “$100 laptop”, otherwise known as the Children’s Machine or XO, that was designed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the US.

The Children’s Machine, which received a cool reception in India, is the centrepiece of the One Laptop Per Child charity initiative launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer scientist and former director of MIT’s Media Lab. Intel launched a similar product, called Classmate, in response.

India’s $20 laptop would also undercut the EeePC, made by Taiwan’s Asustek. The EeePC was the first ultra-cheap, scaled-down laptop (a new category known as a netbook) launched worldwide through commercial channels. It does not have a hard drive and sells for $200-$400.

India’s “Sakshat” laptop is intended to boost distance learning to help India fulfil its overwhelming educational needs. It forms part of a broader plan to improve e-learning at more than 18,000 colleges and 400 universities.

However, some analysts are sceptical that a $20 laptop would be commercially sustainable and the project has yet to attract a commercial partner. A prototype will go on show at a National Mission on Education launch in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, tomorrow.

Pioneered in India by scientists at the Vellore Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and at the state-controlled Semiconductor Complex, the laptop has 2Gb Ram capacity and wireless connectivity.

R.P. Agrawal, secretary of secondary and higher education, said last week that the cost of the laptop was about $20 a unit, but he expected that to fall. He also said he expected the units to be commercially available in six months.

India faces the huge challenge of finding ways to equip its large population, more than 550m of whom are under the age of 25, with contemporary skills. It needs to sustain high economic growth and spread development across the country.

During the next six years, by some estimates, India will need to create another 1,500 universities. Educational institutions in the UK and US are lining up to become partners to help with this huge projected tertiary-level expansion.

Pressure is building on the government to permit foreign investment into the sector and use public-private partnerships to meet some of the demand.

Leading universities across the world, such as Kellogg School of Management in the US and Imperial College in the UK, are exploring different models, including faculty partnerships, distance learning and setting up campuses.

But the government appears to favour turning to technology ahead of international partnerships to bring people into higher education.

Source http://FT.com

9 Recession-Proof Careers Still Growing,Despite the Economic downturn.

1. Education
Math and science teachers will be in demand as the U.S. struggles to compete with other countries in engineering, technology, and medicine. A growing immigrant population means more English-as-a-second-language classes will be needed.

* Postsecondary teachers – Median salary: $56,120 Education: bachelor’s degree
and often a master’s or doctorate
* Teacher assistants – Median salary: $21,580 Education: some post-secondary
education or vocational training
* Educational, vocational, and school counselors – Median salary: $49,450
Education: secondary education, associate’s, bachelor’s, or master’s

2. Energy
Some of the jobs in this field are the result of projects started a year or more ago. But the real boost will come from the new administration’s commitment to a more efficient national energy system. "Growth of energy consumption around the world will keep this sector strong," says Laurence Shatkin, coauthor of 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs.

* Power plant operators – Median salary: $56,640 Education: vocational training
and several years of on-the-job training
* Insulation workers – Median salary: $31,280 Education: secondary education and
vocational training
* Electrical power-line installers and repairers – Median salary: $52,570
Education: vocational training and several years of on-the-job training

3. Environment
Green is getting the green light in a nationwide push to make homes and office buildings more energy-efficient and to develop alternative energy sources (solar, wind, nuclear) as well as fuel cell technology. "Anything involved with wind power, either the design or related products, will be big," says Laurence Stybel.

* Environmental scientists – Median salary: $58,380 Education: master’s
* Environmental engineers – Median salary: $72,350 Education: bachelor’s
* Hydrologists – Median salary: $68,140 Education: master’s

4. Financial Services
Rising from the ashes of a very bad year, financial services have a bright future. Corporate America’s wretched excesses mean more government regulation. Workers who are retiring will need advice on how to make their money last. Small businesses may outsource accounting services. As we get to the middle of the recession, there will be a wave of mergers and acquisitions, Stybel predicts. "People with experience in managing the process-corporate attorneys, investment bankers, and accountants-will be in demand."

* Financial advisers – Median salary: $67,660 Education: bachelor’s
* Accountants and auditors – Median salary: $57,060 Education: bachelor’s
* Sales agents (securities and commodities) – Median salary: $68,430
Education: bachelor’s

5. Government
More than half a million federal employees will retire by 2016, leaving open positions at agencies from the CIA to AmeriCorps to NASA. There will also be opportunities at the state and local levels. "In addition to police work and homeland security, government inspects and regulates many industries," says Shatkin. "Workers can sometimes capitalize on their experience in an industry by moving into a regulatory job."

* Government property inspectors – Median salary: $48,400 Education: vocational
training, associate’s or bachelor’s
* Immigration and customs inspectors – Median salary: $59,930 Education:
bachelor’s
* Urban and regional planners – Median salary: $57,970Education: master’s

6. Health Care
Health care pops up at the top of just about every list of hot careers. All of us are getting older and living longer, sometimes with chronic health conditions. What’s more, health insurance practices may undergo a radical revision during the Obama administration, which has announced plans to address three central issues: coverage, cost, and quality of care. "Health care is a growing industry," says Bettina Seidman, "and not just for health care professionals. There will also be jobs for secretaries, accountants, and administrators."

* Registered nurses – Median salary: $60,010Education: associate’s or bachelor’s
* Dental assistants – Median salary: $31,550Education: secondary education, plus
a few months to one year of on-the-job training
* Medical records and health information technicians – Median salary: $29,290
Education: associate’s

7. International Business
Corporations, consulting firms, nonprofits, and even governments are going after global markets. People with international expertise, foreign-language skills, or a willingness to move abroad will be in demand. "The global economy is only going to grow," says John Challenger. "U.S. involvement will expand, short and long term."

* Interpreters and translators – Median salary: $37,490 Education: bachelor’s
* International management analysts – Median salary: $71,150 Education:
bachelor’s or master’s
* Market research analysts – Median salary: $60,300 Education: bachelor’s or
master’s

8. Law Enforcment
International terrorism makes daily headlines, and fear of financial insecurity is matched only by concern for our physical safety. "Crime doesn’t go down in a recession," says Shatkin. "It may even increase."

* Probation officers – Median salary: $44,510 Education: bachelor’s
* Court reporters – Median salary: $45,330 Education: postsecondary vocational
training
* Paralegals – Median salary: $44,990Education: associate’s degree in paralegal
studies

9. Technology
New uses of technology in services and products like electronic health records mean that this sector will continue to be strong. "We have just begun to use the Internet as an entertainment medium in publishing, music, and film," says Peter Weddle.

* Computer systems analysts – Median salary: $73,090 Education: bachelor’s
* Network systems and data communications analysts – Median salary: $64,600
Education: bachelor’s
* Computer, ATM, and office machine repairers – Median salary: $37,100
Education: high school or vocational training

And We’ll Always Be Looking For…
"Think of basic human needs, the things we can’t do without," says Shatkin. They provide what he calls "little islands" of employment in this economy. For example, he says, we will always need sewage and water treatment. Challenger says the food industry is a core area: "People have to eat, and the global population is increasing."

In a down economy, people don’t buy new cars—they repair their old ones. People turn to their clergy for comfort. Funeral directors will always have jobs. And since pets are very much a part of the family, veterinarians and veterinary technicians will continue to be in demand.

Source : Reader Digest
By Cathie Gandel and Hilary Sterne
Additional reporting by Neena Samuel and Kathryn M. Tyranski

7 Minutes Exercise a Week, To Stay Healthy!!!

We’ve heard time and again that people should be active almost daily to stave off weight gain and disease. But busy people want to know: What’s the least amount of exercise I can get away with and still stay healthy?

The answer will shock you… What number did you guess? An hour a week? A half hour? Try seven minutes. Check out these exercise trends for 2009!

According to British researchers, just seven minutes of exercise weekly may prevent diabetes by controlling your blood sugar.

Type 2 diabetes affects an estimated 246 million adults worldwide and accounts for 6 percent of all global deaths. People with this condition gradually lose the ability to use insulin to convert food to energy.

Here’s the catch:

The exercise has to be vigorous. (We’re talking on the level of an all-out sprint.) But at seven minutes a pop, I can deal with that!

And you don’t even have to do those seven minutes all at once, either. In the study, volunteers rode exercise bikes four times a day in 30-second spurts twice a week.

After two weeks, subjects had a 23 percent improvement in how effectively their body cleared blood sugar from their bodies.

Source:Sarah Jio,, Glamour Magazine

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