Dedicated to all my lovely brothers, cousins and esteemed friends who don’t bother to reply to my emails at least once in a blue moon INSPITE of reading them religiously.  Special Dedication to My Big Brother Srini and Second Brother Krish.

I was taught in my 3^rd standard about Living things and Non Living things. Living things are the things which will feel, which can sense and which RESPOND and RECIPROCATE. Examples of living things are humans, all the animals etc…On the other hand, non Living things are which cannot feel, which cannot sense and which CANNOT RESPOND & RECIPROCATE. Examples of non-living things are table, chair, wall, stone etc. However I don’t want to get into the controversy of living and non-living status of trees as J.C.Bose Dada has already taken care of that aspect. Being a studious kid in school days (thereafter things changed….that’s a different issue) I learnt this living and non-living concept so well and thought that the things in this entire universe can be categorized in to these 2 categories. However as I grew I understood that there is another category of things which feel, sense but DON’T RESPOND & RECIPROCATE inspite of having the ability to do so. Have been trying to find appropriate name for this category and will patent it for sure.

Say ABCDEEEEEEEEE…..Simle Please..

When we happen to see friends or acquaintances we think its basic manners to smile or greet them. But there are some people who don’t bother to smile, greet or react ..instead they stare at the people(whom they know already) so crazily as if they are seeing the Halley comet which appears once in 76 years. I don’t say we need to hug, kiss, giggle at every person we see. These sort of things give wrong signals..especially if girls do these things…parents will be in danger. Something in excess is always dangerous. We can atleast exchange a smile .  Our bank balance or stocks value will not decrease by with a single smile of ours.

Thanks Bolo Beta….

First things parents teach to their kids when they receive anything is “Dadaji ko Thanks Bolo Beta”, “Aunty ko Thanks Bolo Beta”. Interestingly as people grow big they forget the basic manners of saying “Thankyou”. Some people take persons for granted. They don’t think there is ANY necessity to THANK those people. People in the home too require an occasional “Thankyou”, it makes them feel good. Of course it is not necessary to say thankyou every time and for every act but expressing it also means a LOT. Why should’nt we express our feelings when are capable to do so.

Email Pada kya???

An email is sent so that the person to whom it is sent reads it and replies to it back according to his/her  convenience; normally people don’t reply unless until it is a spam or no reply mail or it is from their kaurav sena (I mean enemy gang). However, there are exceptions for this NORMAL behavior. Some people read the emails, understand them, use the content sent in it BUT they DON’T respond. They don’t even bother to acknowledge. Yep..work pressure, study pressure, family pressure can always be understood but we need to remember that busiest persons like Barak Obama, Indira Nooyi, Sonia Gandhi have time for their well wishes…we too can manage to have . Just remember that the person who is sending the email is not a ROBOT , the person sends it as he/she thinks you need to be updated about that stuff in that point of time and it will be a nice gesture if you respond to it.

I might have written this entire post in a funny manner but the thoughts expressed are sincere.

Cheers,

Prasanna Rayaprolu

]]> http://notereceivable.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/financial-five-questions-every-owner-should-be-able-to-respond/ Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:11:48 +0000 iforyouz http://notereceivable.wordpress.com/2009/12/11/financial-five-questions-every-owner-should-be-able-to-respond/

In today's challenging economic environment, it is more important than ever for small businesses to have a good overview of the finances of their company.

When all is said and done, there are a number of key financial issues, should any small business owner will always know the answers were for the month after financial items in the drawer. If you have a reliable CFO, controller or financial advisor, we are looking for some of these, which can be nice while the dailyDecisions that take these factors are taken into account. This means that your trusted advisor, you must keep up to date.

Here is my list of five financial matters to small businesses. Note that I have to ask the questions, but I have no answers, because none of these are "one answer fits all questions."

1. How much profit do really on any of the 10 largest customers to make and because the issue is so important? Since the profit you make the bigCustomers largely determines the profitability of your business.

Reflect on how often you buy, how big are their orders, and how quickly they pay. These are the obvious things, but also the special price concessions that could, in recognition of their work to give. They extend special services to their delivery, warranty support or other services? It covers the payment or wait longer before calling your bills? Have specific proceduresTurnaround accept small orders or orders that you really want?

Each of these additional costs on your money for the company or the weather, both the actual cost of the service the account. This does not mean that you should not do, but you should know how profitable the account is to make the best decisions for your business. My point: the customer is not always the biggest most profitable customers.

These are concessions to be, because you have a relationship, hopefully, pay the building"after"? In that case, ask the customer if they will be ready tomorrow you will pay more money for something they pay less money for today. Wants to guess their answer to this question?

2. How much does each product cost that you really sell? "The fact is losing money when you click each item to sell, it's really hard to make the volume on it. I am amazed at how many companies will be all important gross profit on a product by reducing the selling price only the numberDirect costs for the production or purchase. Often this is for a whole department or even whole plants, rather than calculated for each individual product.

Unfortunately, this is rarely the actual cost of a product to sell. We will consider the costs, packaging, warehouse and deliver the goods. As for warranty service performance or the cost of development through their own product?

And then there are the general costs of operation of your plant orHall. The cost for the service, and ready for ship operations ranging from highlights and supplementary insurance, the salary of stock selection, the concierge service and maintenance contracts for equipment. If one of your products require a disproportionate amount of text, the average overhead for the calculation for your company as a whole has never, to give the correct answer. Their most popular items may get lost without a leader to have.

3. Asrapid time to turn your inventory, or, in one year? inventory of fun things to happen that does not move out of your bearings pretty fast. She disappears, breaks, or becomes old, obsolete, or generally unusable. Or is it just misplaced or lost will be more soon, after you have purchased. Or the market price falls and you have to mark to sell it. All of these results to take the money from his pocket, without the benefit in return.

The first stepin the prevention of all these things, take the bottom line is to know how fast your stock turnover, and any changes in the rate of note. This is the number one step in preventing the loss of activity, followed by a number phase two should be followed: limitation of the vote total to a specific element turnover rate, at least for expensive products. Why exactly? Why the expensive things that can not move from fast-moving shares into the floor of raw materials, which are hidden much lowerMargins.

4. How fast your debts collected? It looks like a piece of cake, ask most entrepreneurs, but you yourself, what is the average number of selling days "in your current budget credits (often) as a DSO? Need to look?" Too often we believe, the concept has not followed the practice. harvested by hand, unknown to us, because we are busy trying to sell more and manage growth. "

Look at it this way: Decide howmuch interest the free money you are willing to give your customers as a percentage of sales, and stick to it. Follow the course of your DSO and act when you begin to move in the wrong direction. When profits are strong margins in exchange for the extension of terms, provided that it is OK, but to do it intentionally, not accidentally. As a follow-up, you will see your receivables aging trend, and why the old accounts raise the same as a new equilibrium DSO is calculated and is statisticallyshown that the previous balances are less than they are not applicable.

5. If your company just as expected, that if the payment reaches its highest price and lowest point of the 'year, and what will it be? Everyone seems to agree that they want to know these answers, in order to better plan for explore short-term credit needs or investment opportunities in advance. And some people for small businesses continue to believe that they receive the answer in any way that thereasonably reliable and inexpensive.

Many CEOs to monitor cash flow, which of the following net income and bank accounts, none of which will be very useful in forecasting future cash needs for companies more. Purchases of capital assets, increase in inventories, receivables and payables, on a debt-service capacity expansion can have a great influence on the cash balance in the future. The good news is that each can reasonably be foreseen with a little 'work.

Ever wanted to be a salesman someday? Never? But I tell you is born seller, the difference is not always who you put these into practice speaking skills, by prejudice or even lack of technical knowledge. Well actually only the fact of writing this article, so I features a seller, funny huh. . . Well, good reading and you discover that the seller within you, is my wish. – Ass: Ghanem, Carlos (a seller)

If they ask you whether you are a seller, you can respond two ways. The first: “No, I’m not a salesman.” Behind this
answer a number of beliefs, prejudices, experiences or information that led him to believe that there is a seller. If
these factors are negative for you, then be a seller is offense. You must believe that the professional is a person with little education and without its moral basis. The second answer: “Yes, I am seller”. And that assertion probably
also would end belief, value, experience or information to be seller is above all be a winner. It would be a compliment to any professional. Being seller is ceasing to be offensive. When an advertisement refers to himself or when someone refers to him as a salesman is a qualification efficiency their work. It is a very big compliment. CEOs refer to themselves as sellers. We have examples career success, which reached the top, from a position seller. In his autobiography, Lee Iacocca reveals that graduate in engineering, after an internship at the factory, began his career from the field, working at a Ford dealership.

No would be necessary to list the great personalities and winning sellers, who are tired of you know, like Lee Iacocca, Akio Morita, Rolim Amaro, Silvio Santos and others who have done so much to humanity, not sold, but there was always someone who do for them and for them as Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.

The act of communicating is already a sale. Someone send someone an idea, a thought, leading to an action. The motivation is is an act of sale. Someone motivate others to do something. Its power-related position within the family, as father, mother or older brother, takes the other to do what you want. The school is the same thing. With our friends too. The work then becomes more noticeable. Being seller has to do with leading people and situations. Managing conflicts of interest, broker desires desires and solve problems.

Think about it! Book: Negotiation Skills

Thank you, Cbittar.

Come back to home click here.

A story is told of a Samuri warrior, who once asked his Zen master to illustrate the difference between heaven and hell.

The Zen master replied:

“You are too stupid to understand. I couldn’t possibly explain it to an imbecele such as you.”

The Samuri flew into a rage and drew his sword ready to cut off his Masters’ head. The Zen master calmly said:
“That …is hell.”

The Samuri fell to his knees and thanked the Master for the insightful lesson.

The Zen Master then said:
“and that… is heaven”

_________________

I often contemplate this story. It is so rich in meaning, and emotional intelligence.

What does it mean?

What is hell?

We can see that being in a state of uncontrolled rage, ready to harm another, is certainly hell. It is not a state of calm, or happiness. It is a very unpleasant state. When we ‘lose it’ and become angry, even to a mild degree, we feel uncomfortable.

Also in the story, we can see the idea of somebody else having power over us, as hellish. The idea that a few words from the Zen Master had the power to induce such an intense state in the Samuri is very interesting. And is part of the seductive illusion to which we all subscribe. We all have this belief that others ’cause’ our feelings.

But is it true? Certainly it feels true in the moment, as in the case of our Samuri whose emotional state is so intense that he is ready to chop of anothers’ head, because in that moment he believes them to be the ’cause’ of his feelings. It feels very real to us, in the intense moment of an emotional ‘hi-jacking’. But when we really give some thought to this, it is not possible for a few words to have that much power over us, without us having some prior conditioning: a preconception. We must already be carrying an idea about what those words mean to us. So what is the real cause of the emotional reaction? The words of the Master? Or the prior conditioning?

Then there is the moment that the Samuri falls to his knees. We can only imagine what realization he had. Did he recognize that the root of the emotion, the ‘hell’ that he was experiencing, originated within his own mind? Did he realize that the one who had the power, was indeed himself? Did he recognize that nobody had actually hurt him? Did he realize that a ‘false’ sense of himself had been challenged? Did he experience a feeling of appreciation, of gratitude, for the Master who had the wisdom, and skill, to bring this to his awareness? There are limitless possibilities. Certainly his rage had subsided and he must have felt ‘better’ – as his emotions returned to a state of equilibrium.

Having the wisdom that our emotions originate within ourselves is not enough to stop our habitual emotional reacting. The next time the Samuri feels someone has insulted him, he may well fly into a rage again, and again. It may happen a few times before he begins to ‘catch himself’ in the moment, in an old reaction.

Having an awareness of the process is enormous, yet it is still only a beginning. We need to develop awareness and skill to change our habitual emotional responses. In Zen, the ‘goal’ is to attain the state of inner peace that cannot be disturbed. This is achieved not by ‘blaming’ the people who push our buttons, but by having an appreciation that they were the ‘Master’ for us in that moment, who brought our attention to the fact that we have buttons that can be pushed in the first place.

The coaching process supports us in identifying and changing these habitual reactions, so they no longer have power over us. From a different perspective we can choose to respond differently. Developing this awareness and skill gives us the power of choice, so we are no longer a victim of our unconscious reactions.

In case you hadn’t noticed… the holiday season is approaching fast! Some people dread Christmas, because even though it is supposed to be a time of goodwill, it is also a time that many old emotional wounds rise to the surface and our buttons can really be pushed big time!

This year, you could take some of the stress out of the holidays by keeping your attention on your own reactions to the ones who push your buttons. It is a powerful opportunity for you, like the Samuri, to shift your awareness. Will you be in hell or heaven? The choice really is yours.

Ruth Hadikin
Supporting Stressed-Out Professionals
Stay in touch through: Website Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

A factor that is driving the trend towards automating the sales department is the extent to which speed has become a strategic advantage in the selling process. Once, it was acceptable for salespeople to promise to get back to customers with answers to questions. Increasingly, those salespeople are finding that by the time they get back to their customers with the necessary information, the sales opportunity has evaporated. The ability to respond to customers quickly is crucial to success, and the tolerances are narrower than ever before.

Similarly, the ability to compress the sales order cycle is becoming an extremely significant factor in a competitive situation. Your customers, who are under the same competitive pressures as you, are placing more and more emphasis on increased cash flow and reduced inventories. Reducing your sales order cycle from four days to two can make an important and measurable difference, certainly enough of a difference to determine whether or not you get the order.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

In 1995 I co-authored a paper [1] about “Change Proofing” – the ability of a commercial organization to manage change stimulated by largely unanticipated, hard-to-predict events and shocks. Examples up to that time included trauma due to third world debt in the 1970s, the energy industry in the 1980s, and commercial real estate and corporate buy-outs in the 1990s.

History shows that the consequences of failing to recognize and interpret harbingers of change can be devastating. It is said that the ancient Peruvian Indians were unable to “see” the sails of the invading Spanish fleet, and dismissed them as mirages. More recent historical (hysterical?) examples of myopia include US automobile manufacturers who were blinkered to Pacific-Rim competitors, and even IBM, which was long unprepared for opportunities presented by the explosive growth of personal computing.

Clearly-identified business trends, such as globalization, technology, demographics and new social orders, had often been cited up to 1995 as drivers of change. However, little attention had been given to management of change stimulated by largely unanticipated, hard-to-predict events and shocks, such as rapid oil price changes or the sudden collapse of centrally-planned economies. Few models of such change, or techniques to plan or cope with it had been presented in the literature in 1995 or since for that matter, although even in 1993 according to such an authority as Ed Schein [2]: “…the problem is not management of change but the management of surprise”.

Change Proofing was not intended as a means to resist or avoid change, but rather a process for becoming more flexible and responsive in order to cope with it. The Change Proofing paper proposed that environmental shocks and surprises could best be managed by increasing the ability of the organization itself to anticipate, recognize and respond to them – surprise surprise – before hand! The paper set out theoretical reasoning, but more importantly it detailed a straightforward practical Change Audit that would help organizations of all types and sizes frame and address critical factors for Change Proofing; form more realistic and objective views of radical environmental change; and develop better means of coping with surprise. The paper also recommended that the Change Audit should cover organizational learning processes and their impact on strategic focus, motivation and core capabilities.

So what can one say about current events? Too bad so many of today’s organizations haven’t read the paper or didn’t heed its message?! Well, it’s not too late to plan for next time – and there will be a next time – so I invite you to have a look at the paper now …

[1] Drew, S.A.W. & Smith, P., The Learning Organization: Change Proofing and Strategy, The Learning Organization, Vol. 2, No. 1, 1995

[2] Schein, E.H., How can organizations learn faster? The challenge of the green room, Sloan Management Review, Winter, 1992; pp. 85 – 92

      Do you have a topic you would like me to write about? A question you’d like answered? Anything you’d like to say at all? Please send an email to withloveanne@gmail.com! All input is welcome and appreciated!

I noticed a new comment to my article explaining how to argue for God from the fine-tuning of the universe.

The commenter wrote this:

Hey, atheist here. Just astounded by your characterisation of the atheist’s response. I’ve never heard any atheist use the argument that humans caused the fine tuning. It doesn’t make sense because humans would still have to exist in some now corrupted timeline where the universe wasn’t fine-tuned.

I have a whole post on my blog dedicated to this topic but I’ll summarise my main arguments.

[SNIP! See below for his 8 points]

Maybe you can integrate these arguments into your post and address them, instead of a straw man?

Mike

This is a pretty good comment, with only a little acceptable snark at the end. I hate it went people write loads and loads of stuff without citing any evidence.

And I wrote this back:

Thanks for your comment. You’ll note that in my piece I cited numerous scientific facts and produced an argument that was logically valid. Now let’s take a look at what you wrote.

And here’s how I replied to his 8 points.

“1. Possibility of a multiverse.”

1) This is a speculation with no scientific evidence. Notice how I appeal to an experimental particle physicist for my conclusion.

“2. Possibility of an oscillating universe”

2) This has been disproved theoretically and observationally. Notice how I cite research papers that do not merely speculate, but are based on observations.

“3. The Vast (to use Dennett’s terminology) majority of the universe does not contain life, so to claim that life is its purpose is merely superimposing your own subjective judgement onto it.

3) This is speculation about God’s motives. You are not in a position to dictate to God how he would have accomplished his goals. If you would like to listen to William Lane Craig speak on these scientific arguments, and listen to Dennett’s LAME response, click here.

“4. Related to 3. Clearly the universe is fine-tuned to make hydrogen, since that is the most abundant substance in the universe. Life seems to be fairly far down in the priorities of the universe. Of course I’m (half) joking, but there is no reason why one natural phenomenon needs a fine tuner any more than any other.”

4) This is speculation about God’s motives. You can feel free to joke about the evidence for and against God. I don’t joke about these issues – I prefer to cite evidence.

“5. The argument flauts its own premises by posing the existence of a creator which doesn’t need a fine-tuned universe. So either the premise is wrong, or we have an infinite regress of fine-tuners.”

5) Fine-tuning is an example of intelligent design such that a selection from a field of possibilities corresponds to an independently specified pattern. I.e. – the subset of functional proteins compared to the set of possible sequences of amino acids. God is not composed of parts so is not fine-tuned.

“6. We have no idea if these constants are even capable of changing. To state that they have been fine tuned without this information is nothing more than speculation.”

6) This is more speculation. Don’t make arguments based on what “we” don’t know. I make arguments based on what we do know. You do the same.

“7. It could be that the state of the universe is unlikely, but not as unlikely as the existence of a fine-tuner. In this case it would just be a big coincidence.”

7) “It could be…” It could be that monkeys will fly out of my butt. Stop speculating about things we cannot know. Let’s see your argument, and the peer-reviewed data to back it up. This is not a game.

“8. Even if the fine-tuning argument were valid, it says nothing about the type of creator that exists, so to go from this deist creator to the Christian God is a huge leap.”

The argument is not meant to prove the Christian God. The argument, taken together with a bunch of other scientific arguments, is meant to prove a Creator and Designer of the universe. To prove Christian theism, you make a case for the resurrection and then debate it in public in the university. And then you respond to philosophical objections, such as evil, suffering and the hiddenness of God.

I thought it was a useful example of how to ask people for arguments and evidence, and not take a speculation for an argument.

I find that atheists speculate a lot about unobservable entities in order to escape from good scientific arguments. They speculate about hyper-universes to explain the big bang. They speculate about a multiverse to explain the fine-tuning. They speculate about aliens seeding Earth with life to explain the origin of life. They speculate about as-yet-undiscovered precursor fossils to explain the Cambrian explosion. They speculate about as-yet-undiscovered developmental pathways that use co-option to get around irreducible complexity. And on, and on, and on.

And that suggests to me a question. What sense does it make to build an entire worldview on speculations about things you cannot observe? Or is atheism not about truth, then, but instead about thinking that you are better than other people and throwing off the demands of morality? If the truth is that God exists and that Jesus rose bodily from the dead, then why try to dance around it using speculations? What possible benefit could there be, ultimately, to having blind faith in a religion just to pursue pleasure?

My entire series on how moral values and moral duties cannot be grounded rationally on atheism is here.

You know how some people just don’t know how to shut up? Yeah…. for the Rodrigues family, aka “America Forever.” That time was just after they got out of diapers.

Sandra Rodrigues of America Forever

With their constant spewing against the LGBT community, they have now become virtually one of the biggest PRO LGBT groups around! With every other anti-LGBT and anti- human rights group like the Sutherland Institute (Paul Mero) and Eagle Forum (Gayle Ruzicka) just wishing they’d shut up and go away.

Earlier this week at the now infamous City Council meeting in Salt Lake City, which ended with a unanimous vote to provide Fair Workplace and Housing laws for LGBT citizens, America Forever leaders like Sandra Rodrigues decided that showing naivete would be the best road to take. Their rants included stories about the “little old lady” who rents out her basement and would be forced to rent to “the gays” who would make out in front of her grandchildren, and the small business owner who would have his employees “acting all gay” around him. Unfortunately for America Forever, both grandma and any business under 15 employees are actually exempt under these ordinances, but hey.. technicality right?

Times were when America Forever could be counted on to show up at every opportunity with their 12′ by 4′ signs shouting “shame on the gays,” but we haven’t seen them for a while! Where have they been? Well apparently Sandra Rodrigues, chief kook of the kooks, was called in to her bishop a month or so ago and asked to stop being so public because it was making the church look bad!

Now that the LDS church publicly endorsed the fair workplace and housing ordinances in Salt Lake City, the Rodrigues clan is none-too-happy with the Mormon leadership. Below is their flyer that they faxed to 80,000 people and businesses this week. My response? Keep up the good work kooks!

s

sd

UPDATE:
To anyone who received this fax and is upset and/or offended by it. Sending out mass faxes such as this is illegal.

In our high school Confirmation class, today was supposed to be a review of everything to day, but I couldn’t get my handouts run off in time, so I took the cue from the saint presented today and taught on next week’s topic, PRAYER.

St Ignatius of Loyola (16th century;  feast day July 31) injured in battle at age 30. During recovery, he read the life of the saints & responded strongly to a personal call by God.  He was convinced that God could be found in all things, and was guided by an inner peace (“consolation”) that comes from knowing one is doing the will of God.  Developed the “Spiritual Exercises,” a practical guide to live a truly Christian life with prayer & especially devoted to the name of Christ (IHS).  His companions were called the “Company of Jesus,” today called the “Society of Jesus,” or the Jesuits, one of the largest religious communities in the world. Besides the 3 vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, members take a 4^th vow of obedience to the Pope.

Prayer of Self-Offering to God

– by St Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556)

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my whole will.  All that I am and all that I possess, You have given me.  I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your Will.  Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more.

Sacrament of Marriage … purpose is …

• –Pro-create (open to children),
• –Educate (evangelize your Catholic children)
• –Holy Mate (get your spouse to heaven)

Types of prayers … B.A.P.T.i.S.M.

• BLESSING – invoke God’s power for a person, place or activity
• ADORATION – the “created” before the Creator
• PRAISE – glory God (for who He is)
• THANKSGIVING – gratitude (for what He does)
• i ASK for ME (petition) + OTHERS (intercession)
• SORRY – ask of forgiveness
• MEDITATION – tuning into God, reflection (through quiet prayer, Sacred Scripture, lectio divina, liturgy of the hours, Rosary, holy icons, imagery, books of daily devotion, lives of saints, works of spirituality, etc.)

The MASS includes ALL these types of prayer

CONTEMPLETIVE prayer — “silent love” — a deep awareness of God’s presence by being alone with God who we know loves us (“centering prayer” helps develop skills)

Steps in prayer … P.R.A.Y.

• PRAISE = God for who He is + thanksgiving
• REPENT = confess + rec forgiveness + change
• ASK = for others + me   (see A.R.R.R.)
• YIELD = be open to God’s voice & His Will

[PRAYER] When your spending time in personal prayer with the Lord, here’s a good outline to follow  . . . . A.R.R.R.

Personal Prayer … A.R.R.R.

• ACKNOWLEDGE –- How’s my life right now? Pay attention to your thought + feelings + desires (“the Big 3”).
• RELATE -– Tell God about ALL “3” honestly.
• RECEIVE -– Quiet your mind, focus on God, & listen to “the Big 3.”  (Discern spirits)
• RESPOND -– do what you NEED to do

–When you have something to talk to the Lord about, process your “Big 3” with this model.

HOMEWORK:

(1) 3 prayer journals — letters to God, (2) Chapter 3 Quiz, (3) Chapter 17 Quiz

It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you respond to what happens to you that makes the difference. Zig Ziglar

People must receive feedback. Unless they know how well they are doing in fulfilling their responsibilities and meeting the standards, they cannot be expected to improve their performance when needed.

Many managers don’t get feedback because they think people know without being told when they are doing a poor job or a good job. The manager who makes this assumption knows very little about human nature. Most people have a limited capacity to judge and evaluate their own performance and work. They need help in seeing their strengths and weaknesses. That goes for the excellent performance as well as for the poor performer.

People need to know when they are doing a superb job and when they need to improve and make changes. When they don’t receive feedback, they become preoccupied with the question of how well they are doing. Are they going to get zapped or praised? Are they on the manager’s good list or bad? Are they going to get promoted or fired? These are difficult questions for anyone to live with.

When people don’t receive the necessary feedback, they feel unnoticed, unappreciated, and uncertain. They usually find a way of getting some form of attention, usually negative, since that is the only thing some managers respond to.

It is impossible to establish an effective working relationship with people unless you give them feedback. There must be two-way communication if there is to be an understanding between you and the people you manage.

Whenever you give feedback to a person on his performance, it should accomplish one or more of the following objectives:

• Reinforce positive performance.
• Show the person how and where he needs to change and improve.
• Motivate the person to perform better.
• Build pride.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Ho Chi Minh City-based charitable organization Tam Viet sent medical workers with assistance from Sai Gon Giai Phong and Hoang Anh Gia Lai Company to an area badly affected by floods in Quang Ngai Province.

Floods swept away everything in this man’s house in Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province, and filled it with sand (Photo: SGGP)

The doctors, who were accompanied by an HAGL representative, provided health checks and medicines to people in Binh My Commune, one of worst flood-affected areas in Binh Son District.

Many older people and children have stomach ache or constipation after eating uncooked instant noodles for the last few days.

The commune’s deputy chairwoman, Pham Thi Lieu, said Typhoon Ketsana and the resultant floods destroyed most of the local canals and roads while 1,550 out of 1,698 houses in the commune have lost their roofs.

Most residents are poor and depend on farming crops, cattle, and fish for a livelihood.

The floods destroyed 40 hectares of cassava, 193 hectares of rice, 196 hectares of sugarcane, and 33 fish ponds in the commune alone.

Kind-hearted people in misfortune

After SGGP wrote October 3 about people in Dai Nam and Dai Lanh communes, Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province, whose lost their family members and houses, Pham Thanh, a car showroom employee, and Nguyen Thai Hoa, who works for Agrisco Stock Exchange in Danang, collected money from their friends.

People in Dai Loc receive food and other relief materials (Photo: SGGP)

Within a morning, they had collected over VND30 million for people in the two communes.

They told SGGP they would continue to seek donations.

Than An, director of Nam Viet A Investment and Construction Company, and Nguyen Thanh Phuong, chairwoman of Ban Viet Investment Fund Management Company in Danang, and their friends also appealed for help from companies.

They have VND1.8 billion (US$100,000), 10 tons of rice, and 10,000 boxes of instant noodles for the two communes.

They also gave VND5 million each to 49 families to repair their houses.

SGGP launched a campaign on October 7 to help students in flooded areas to go to school.

Ace Life Insurance Company donated VND200 million to repair damaged schools in Quang Nam and Quang Ngai provinces.

The SGGP office in Danang gave VND5 million to 10 poor city families whose homes have lost their roofs.

Elsewhere, SGGP and Kon Tum newspaper gave VND100 million to bereaved families in Tu Mo Rong, one of the worst-hit areas, in Kon Tum Province.

SGGP is continuing to call on benefactors to aid people in the affected areas.

13 saved from flooded mountain fields in Dac Lac The army rescued 13 people marooned in their fields by the floods in the Central Highlands province of Dac Lac on October 7 after a two-hour struggle. Unusually heavy rain lasting eight hours from the previous day afternoon had submerged many communes in Ea Sup District. The inundation isolated mountain fields in Cư M’Lan Commune, leaving the 13 people marooned. When troops arrived, the water had reached nearly the top of their sentry boxes. The same afternoon, the floods receded from Cư M’Lan commune but water from the upper reaches of the Dak Bung River flooded T’Mot and Ea Bung communes. Dac Lac authorities have asked people to remain in safe areas to prevent further loss of life.

1. Does your company do a good job of listening to its customers? Give a specific example of how listening resulted in improved service quality to your customers?
2. Reliability is the ability of the company to perform the promised services dependably and accurately. On a 10-point scale, where 1 is unreliable and 10 perfectly reliable, where would you place your company and why?
3. How well does your company perform the “service basics”—that is, knowing and responding to the fundamental service expectations in your industry?
4. How effectively does your company manage the service design elements or systems, people, and the physical environment? Provide an example of how a lack of planning in one of these areas resulted in a “fail point” during a customer encounter.
5. Service recovery refers to how effectively companies respond to service failures. Cite an example of when a service failure occurred in your company and how it was handled.
6. Teamwork is an important dynamic in sustaining service workers’ motivation to serve and in minimizing service-performance shortfalls. Rate your company on its ability to foster teamwork on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 indicates the absence of teamwork and 10 indicates maximum teamwork. How would you improve teamwork if you rated your company low on this attribute?
7. Internal service is crucial to service improvement, as customer satisfaction often mirrors employee satisfaction. To what extent does your company assess internal service quality (i.e., asking employees about the adequacy of systems to support the service, how the systems interact and serve one another, and where service failures are occurring)? Give examples of how internal service might be measured in your company.

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Sorry if this topic is a bit early to you people, I had got an idea of making you people writing about what your halloween costume and what it is.

EARLY TOPIC:

What is your halloween costume? What are you going as for trick or treating, if you are not trick or treating are you passing out candy? What does costumes mean to you? Are you not celebrating this sacred holiday? Why did you choose this costume and character?

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EXAMPLE:

BrainStorm:

Halloween Costume: Sleeve less (navy blue) shirt, velvet navy blue  (red ribbon) over shirt, black jeans, navy blue velvet skirt, black pumbs, glasses.

What are you: Blonde Rini or Nerdy School Girl

Meaning to me: A way to be someone else than you rather are. A way to cover up your true idenity

Celebrate?: Yes, trick or treating

Why?: Didn’t have right wig,socks, and shoes.

ROUGH DRAFT:

A costume to me means you can be anyone you wanna be. A cover up for a hated part of yourself. Halloween is a perfect way to do this, candy and being different than you actually are. Trick or treating is a tradition within myself, even if no one is taking me. If no one did take me, I would walk around the neighborhood or handing out candy IN a costume. Black jeans,a skirt, sleeveless shirt, and an over shirt is my way of a costume. Glasses can be included, if it goes along with the theme, but they mainly don’t.  Rini is one of the possible charaters I am trying to protray. Rini is a sailor moon charater, so I don’t want to explain much about this weird anime but if you know what it is, good for you. I can also be a nerdy school girl is I add a notebook/book to my costume.

REVISE/EDIT: everything is corrected, and already was, in the rough draft.

Final Draft:

A costume to me means you can be anyone you wanna be. A cover up for a hated part of yourself. Halloween is a perfect way to do this, candy and being different than you actually are. Trick or treating is a tradition within myself, even if no one is taking me. If no one did take me, I would walk around the neighborhood or handing out candy IN a costume. Black jeans,a skirt, sleeveless shirt, and an over shirt is my way of a costume. Glasses can be included, if it goes along with the theme, but they mainly don’t.  Rini is one of the possible charaters I am trying to protray. Rini is a sailor moon charater, so I don’t want to explain much about this weird anime but if you know what it is, good for you. I can also be a nerdy school girl is I add a notebook/book to my costume.

POSTED: (below on comments)

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Thank you so much for those who respond to this once and a lifetime chance of a halloween topic.

Happy Halloween!

HelpAReporter.com

Help A Reporter Out (or, HARO for short) is a free email list sent several times daily with 25+ requests for sources from the media. These can be anyone from a blogger who started writing this morning, to a veteran New York Times writer. Not every query (request) will be something you’re interested in, but you’ll probably find one every few days. Some of my best media clips have come from responding to HARO queries. And a media appearance is worth more than gold – in fact, it’s priceless.

It’s really important to compose a good response to these queries, so you can stand out above the crowd. I never truly understood how wild pitches could be until I started using HARO as a member of the press. I collect quotes for articles in local media, and let me tell you – there are some really bad responses out there. If you can look past the blinding colors and weird attachments, there’s usually something decent. But it’s not likely for most writers (or even me, sometimes) to look beyond it – they’re on deadline!

A good rule of thumb for responding to HARO queries is to follow standard business letter format. Let’s say the query asks for nonprofits to speak on managing an organization during a recession. Here’s how you might respond:

“Dear (Mr or Ms) Smith, (use full name if you aren’t sure of their gender. Names like Pat, Chris, Jordan, Riley, Jess, and many others can be ambiguous.)

The first paragraph explains why you are writing, and who you are. “I saw your query about nonprofit recession tactics in HARO this morning. I am the executive director of Fresh Soup Kitchen in Kansas City.  [fictional organization, by the way]“

The second paragraph gives more details. “Like every other organization, we’ve been hit hard by the recession. But we’ve gotten resourceful: now, we solicit donations of vegetables from local farmers. We post fliers at farmer’s markets, and often get enough food to feed our patrons for two days. In fact, this ‘recession tactic’ is working so well, we’re going to continue it even when the economy swings back!”

The final paragraph offers your help as a source, and gives contact information. “If you would like to know more about our recession tactics, the organization, or any other questions, please feel free to contact me. You can reach me at exec@freshsoup.org or on my direct line, 816-555-5555.” (Giving multiple options for contact helps the reporter get ahold of you close to her deadline.)

Sincerely,

Judy Jones (use the name you want quoted)
Executive Director
Fresh Soup Kitchen
exec@freshsoup.org
816-555-5555

More helpful tips:

• Don’t include any attachments unless the reporter asked for them. In fact, some reporters won’t open emails with attachments at all!
• Don’t demand more information, like the size of audience that will be seeing it. This makes you sound like a snob.
  
• Don’t use wild colors or weird fonts – it makes you like an amateur.
• Don’t use objectionable language.
  
• Only send one email – two emails is annoying, three or more is obnoxious and will get you blocked.

Following these tips is simple, and once you get the hang of the format, you can knock out responses all day long!

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