Saturday, October 17, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
US Debt Clock
Hysteresis literally means late, like snapping of a rope, dropping of a light bulb and the burnt out of a fuse, irreversible so to speak.
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That is probably something the worst thing that can happen to this economy. No turning back. Right now, the government has to keep pushing the economy up this long and precipitous slope that seems never ending, but they cannot stop or afford to let the ball roll backwards. They have to resolve so many problems such as housing, education, healthcare and most importantly unemployment right now.
The people cannot afford to wait anymore because the longer someone is unemployed, the harder it is for him to get back to work. Simply because he is losing his skills and familiarity with the job exponentially.
Hiring from the government to reduce unemployment does not seem viable here either because unlike the past, machines now are doing the work at a faster and more efficient pace.
In addition, exports are at an all time low and possibly going to decline even further when the stimulus package is removed. Demand will drop as everyone back away into hibernation, hoping that there will be another festive event to boost sales, aside from the upcoming Christmas. Therefore, the manufacturing industry which is an all time favourite as a labour intensive industry does not need more people at the moment.
In the mean time, they can only create jobs by increasing government spending to encourage more infrastructures construction and the building of more facilities and houses. But this of course is not going to be sustainable in the long run. Prior to this, the labours can possible attend training sessions to beef up their skills and techniques so that they can meet these demands and orders from the government and subsequently improve their employability.
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As we can see now, consumer demand is still rising and is pretty stable. However, we all know beneath this ostensible front, the government is panicking and freaking out. The consumer demand are stable solely because of the cash-for-clunkers program which helps push sales up and keep them from falling. For example, the consumers are only forking out 90% to pay for the product while the government is de facto paying 10% of it, this is most obvious in the automobile industry at the moment. Under such circumstances, they will naturally buy more in an attempt to stock up so that they can start saving up later on. In the worst case scenario, people will buy massively and stop buying altogether later on when the prices of the goods start to surge again.
Overall, this move is not at all sustainable and could possibly result in serious repercussions such as the collapse of the market and the plummeting of the export sales.
Credit -emergingspirit, -ning
That is probably something the worst thing that can happen to this economy. No turning back. Right now, the government has to keep pushing the economy up this long and precipitous slope that seems never ending, but they cannot stop or afford to let the ball roll backwards. They have to resolve so many problems such as housing, education, healthcare and most importantly unemployment right now.
The people cannot afford to wait anymore because the longer someone is unemployed, the harder it is for him to get back to work. Simply because he is losing his skills and familiarity with the job exponentially.
Hiring from the government to reduce unemployment does not seem viable here either because unlike the past, machines now are doing the work at a faster and more efficient pace.
In addition, exports are at an all time low and possibly going to decline even further when the stimulus package is removed. Demand will drop as everyone back away into hibernation, hoping that there will be another festive event to boost sales, aside from the upcoming Christmas. Therefore, the manufacturing industry which is an all time favourite as a labour intensive industry does not need more people at the moment.
In the mean time, they can only create jobs by increasing government spending to encourage more infrastructures construction and the building of more facilities and houses. But this of course is not going to be sustainable in the long run. Prior to this, the labours can possible attend training sessions to beef up their skills and techniques so that they can meet these demands and orders from the government and subsequently improve their employability.
As we can see now, consumer demand is still rising and is pretty stable. However, we all know beneath this ostensible front, the government is panicking and freaking out. The consumer demand are stable solely because of the cash-for-clunkers program which helps push sales up and keep them from falling. For example, the consumers are only forking out 90% to pay for the product while the government is de facto paying 10% of it, this is most obvious in the automobile industry at the moment. Under such circumstances, they will naturally buy more in an attempt to stock up so that they can start saving up later on. In the worst case scenario, people will buy massively and stop buying altogether later on when the prices of the goods start to surge again.
Overall, this move is not at all sustainable and could possibly result in serious repercussions such as the collapse of the market and the plummeting of the export sales.
Credit -emergingspirit, -ning
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Julie & Julia
Okay, this is my first attempt at this contest so here goes nothing.
It was fifth attempt at cooking at my life so I was pretty sure that I will not have any or rather WE will not have any big problems.
It was a cookout in camp, yes literally in a camp. Me and my campmates have managed to smuggle in cooking equipments like pots, steamboats, utensils, frying pan, and all the ingredients as listed below:
Dish 1 : Fried Rice
Eggs
Rice
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Luncheon Meat
Dish 2 :Black Pepper Linguine
Linguine
Black Pepper Sauce
Hot Dogs
Interestingly enough we were mad enough to come up with 2 dishes which are both equally as filling but we thought that it would have been no problem for us since we are all gluttons.
It was night time at around 6pm and we started to embark on this journey. Along the way, we saw this winged-cockroach in our domitory and one of us screamed and accidentally flipped the eggs off the table onto the floor. It was hilarious I swear, all of us were running all over the room because of that cockroach. However, when we finally settled down because that cockroach ran out of the room, we came to a shocking halt. The eggs were all broken leaving only 2 intacts. But nonetheless, we decided to use all of the eggs, disgusting and gooey it might be, we still happily trickle the eggs down onto the frying pan then we mixed it with the rice and start stir-frying it. Next, we add in the luncheon meat along with some soy sauce and oyster sauce and start frying and frying. The experience was enticing because everyone had a go at it but the cost of it was that there were rice all over the floor and we knew that we are going to have a hard time cleaning up later, but who cares, we are all having a time of our life.
Once done, we each took a small scoop of portion and started gobbling down mouthfuls and mouthfuls of rice. Disastrous it might be, but it certainly tasted great and somewhat saccharine, probably due to the addition of the oyster sauce at the end.
Here comes the next dish, black pepper linguine, overall it was simple. We just had to dump all the linguine into this pot filled with boiling water, then we wait for a couple of minutes and we started to bring everything out and deposited inside an enormous bowl. Then we start pouring in 2 cans of black pepper sauce and started to mix it over and over again until the colour of the pasta was fairly unanimous throughout.
After we tasted a mouthful of pasta each, we all did the same thing. Guess what?
We reach out for our cups and started to gulp down all the water inside the cup. It was extremely spicy and none of us anticipated that. As we were drinking, we all looked at each other and laughed again, laughing at the fact that we all reacted the same way simultaneously.
Although it was a pretty nasty treat, it sure was an indelible experience for every single one of us. Some of us have already parted ways but I am pretty sure none of us will ever have black pepper linguine for any of our meals ever again.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Employee Involvement
Employee involvement has always been of paramount importance to all great managers out there. We all want to involve as many people as possible in our projects which we are passionate about. But the problem is, how do we involve people in the right way? By giving all the decision rights to them is more of an impulsive move than a shrewd one.
Here, we will discuss the possible scenarios which we should allow the employees to make the decisions along with the top management.
1: The problem is novel and complex, full of uncertainties and never seen before or has very little experience with. With more people present, there will be a broader perspective on the issue and people can constantly debate about it until a synergistic solution is produced and agreed by all unanimously.
2: Source of knowledge is required from the employees. The idea here is to make use of the employees to fill up the gaps because they are the people at the frontline of the operations of the company. Top management executives are merely looking through their glass window at the top floor and they only make use of one sense that is the sense of sight.
3: Decision commitment is a problem sometimes because some employees simply will not work because they feel that the decision is flawed and that they do not want to do it against their will. Management who refuse to listen might compel these workers to quit or even go on strikes.
4: Risk of conflict is a pertinent issue too. There is simply no point in discussing issues with someone whom you know that is going to rebut you constantly. You will not go anywhere with that kind of person. Therefore, it is better to make the decisions yourself. Nonetheless, it is best to sit down and talk to him beforehand to highlight each other’s concerns because you guys are working together.
Now, let’s move on to the benefits if you were to involve the employees in your decision.
More often or not, we identify a problem quicker than the executives because we are de facto in constant contact with these problems identified. If the management listens to us, they can probably avert a disaster ahead which will definitely come about in no time because of negligence.
Also, upon notice of the problem and acknowledgement by the top management, employees will spread the news like wildfire. It is even faster than the executives themselves. Note how fast gossips spread in the office and you can measure the speed of transmission of messages across offices.
In addition, the quality of the solution will definitely be of a higher degree of standard because the employees are actively involved. When they are involved, they feel committed to the problem, meaning to say, it is now their problem as well. With that kind of attitude in mind, people will work side by side the management until the problem is solved. They are just as worried as the management is because now they are involved in it and they will not want to leave it unsolved. This is the kind of scenario that many companies hope to achieve.
Ultimately, when many plausible and feasible solutions are derived and concerted by all, it is time to choose the best one that will most likely work in the real world. This is the point in time where everyone gathers and discusses on the same level since everyone knows what is happening because everyone is involved in this. Research has shown that when people know what is happening, they make far better and smarter decisions at the end.
So bosses out there, listen to your employees even though what they say are not sweet talks because problems are definitely going to hurt. But nonetheless, once you see it, it no longer hurts as much as when you missed it and let it mutate to a more perplexing one.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Mergers and Acquisitions
Recently, the M&A industry has received much hype and has been the palpable main booster for the rise in equities in the stock market.
Some of the bigger ones include
Xerox acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion
Pfizer acquisition of Wyeth for $68 billion
Merck acquisition of Schering-Plough for $41 billion
Dell acquisition of Perot for $3.9 billion
Majority of the acquisitions seem to be in the technological and healthcare industry. This is mainly due to the fact that they have a lot of cash on their hands and that they are constantly expanding because the pharmaceutical industry is so lucrative. Particularly with the recent hype about the H1N1 influenza, many companies are vigorously trying to come up with flu vaccines which are the major money booster for the upcoming year. Naturally these small companies are acquired to boost the profits of the bigger companies like Pfizer and Merck.
On the other hand, in the world of technology, everyone seems to be acquiring small companies which have been focusing on providing IT services to the consumers. These are extremely profitable and have a lot of potential which will be unravelled in the future. It is said that this aspect of IT business will be worth up to billions in the future. The main reason behind this rise in the demand for services is that consumers want advice and outside help for their programming and consultations on the applications. People have become so lazy that they are constantly reliant upon external help so this is probably the best time to serve them all. IBM has already noticed this trend about two decades around, they were one of the first pioneers in this industry and they are still going strong. With the recent introduction of using DNA as an ingredient to boost the speed of processors, IBM is definitely going to take up more market share when the product is out.
While merging and acquisitions are great as it helps the companies to expand their market share and their reach on various countries across the world, they have to be mindful of the possible repercussions that might haunt them.
As mentioned in Good to Great by Jim Collins, it is great to have acquisitions as it obviously broaden the scope of a company and expose it to many more opportunities out there in the market. Conversely, if one acquires abruptly just to boost the profit sales and to boost their scope in terms of diversification, they might be committing suicide in the long run.
A few reasons explain this.
First, you do not understand the company you acquire because of the differences in the value systems. It’s just value systems, we can easily change it you might say. But you have no idea how important the value system is to the employees. In most great companies, the employees’ values are well-aligned with that of the company’s through many discussions and working together and the understanding of each other. If you simply change it to adapt to your own, you might as well fire all the employees who belonged to the acquired company because they will never be able to relate to the new values simply because they were not set by them.
Well, a lot of companies tend to layoff a huge bulk of employees because of this problem. But then it leads to another problem again. If you fire these employees, then you are de facto firing people who know the operations of that company inside out. Without them, you are simply starting from scratch and starting with such a huge company is suicidal because a wrong move is as good as smashing the company into bits and pieces in today’s competitive market. There is no time to slowly experience and pick up new things in the acquired company. You need the old employees for the acquired company to still function properly even after acquisition.
So, isn’t this a major conundrum? To keep your own values is equivalent to firing the old employees, and to fire them is equivalent to throwing away your acquired company because you can’t cope alone without them. Well, the synergistic solution here is to keep these employees and integrate them successfully into your own company along with the altering of the value system to cater to both the new and the old employees. Operations-wise, I’m pretty sure both companies are pretty much on the same field but values-wise, it can be a huge problem. If at the end of the day, their values do not coincides, it is better to let go of the acquired company before many more problems pop up.
This might sound enigmatic but in actual fact, there are many more problems which the company face during acquisition. It is really not easy.
Credits -bizzia, -gdjacobs, -egeszseg-abc, -msdn
Some of the bigger ones include
Xerox acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services for $6.4 billion
Pfizer acquisition of Wyeth for $68 billion
Merck acquisition of Schering-Plough for $41 billion
Dell acquisition of Perot for $3.9 billion
Majority of the acquisitions seem to be in the technological and healthcare industry. This is mainly due to the fact that they have a lot of cash on their hands and that they are constantly expanding because the pharmaceutical industry is so lucrative. Particularly with the recent hype about the H1N1 influenza, many companies are vigorously trying to come up with flu vaccines which are the major money booster for the upcoming year. Naturally these small companies are acquired to boost the profits of the bigger companies like Pfizer and Merck.
On the other hand, in the world of technology, everyone seems to be acquiring small companies which have been focusing on providing IT services to the consumers. These are extremely profitable and have a lot of potential which will be unravelled in the future. It is said that this aspect of IT business will be worth up to billions in the future. The main reason behind this rise in the demand for services is that consumers want advice and outside help for their programming and consultations on the applications. People have become so lazy that they are constantly reliant upon external help so this is probably the best time to serve them all. IBM has already noticed this trend about two decades around, they were one of the first pioneers in this industry and they are still going strong. With the recent introduction of using DNA as an ingredient to boost the speed of processors, IBM is definitely going to take up more market share when the product is out.
While merging and acquisitions are great as it helps the companies to expand their market share and their reach on various countries across the world, they have to be mindful of the possible repercussions that might haunt them.
As mentioned in Good to Great by Jim Collins, it is great to have acquisitions as it obviously broaden the scope of a company and expose it to many more opportunities out there in the market. Conversely, if one acquires abruptly just to boost the profit sales and to boost their scope in terms of diversification, they might be committing suicide in the long run.
A few reasons explain this.
First, you do not understand the company you acquire because of the differences in the value systems. It’s just value systems, we can easily change it you might say. But you have no idea how important the value system is to the employees. In most great companies, the employees’ values are well-aligned with that of the company’s through many discussions and working together and the understanding of each other. If you simply change it to adapt to your own, you might as well fire all the employees who belonged to the acquired company because they will never be able to relate to the new values simply because they were not set by them.
Well, a lot of companies tend to layoff a huge bulk of employees because of this problem. But then it leads to another problem again. If you fire these employees, then you are de facto firing people who know the operations of that company inside out. Without them, you are simply starting from scratch and starting with such a huge company is suicidal because a wrong move is as good as smashing the company into bits and pieces in today’s competitive market. There is no time to slowly experience and pick up new things in the acquired company. You need the old employees for the acquired company to still function properly even after acquisition.
So, isn’t this a major conundrum? To keep your own values is equivalent to firing the old employees, and to fire them is equivalent to throwing away your acquired company because you can’t cope alone without them. Well, the synergistic solution here is to keep these employees and integrate them successfully into your own company along with the altering of the value system to cater to both the new and the old employees. Operations-wise, I’m pretty sure both companies are pretty much on the same field but values-wise, it can be a huge problem. If at the end of the day, their values do not coincides, it is better to let go of the acquired company before many more problems pop up.
This might sound enigmatic but in actual fact, there are many more problems which the company face during acquisition. It is really not easy.
Credits -bizzia, -gdjacobs, -egeszseg-abc, -msdn
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Gaga All the Way
She never fails to amaze the crowd with her incandescent wit.
Wonderful Music Videos, Even flawless live performance.
Fashion Icon accredited by many TOP Artist like Paris Hilton, Beyonce, Ellen Degeneres
Living legend with a major breakthrough and here she is ...
Lady Gaga
Wonderful Music Videos, Even flawless live performance.
Fashion Icon accredited by many TOP Artist like Paris Hilton, Beyonce, Ellen Degeneres
Living legend with a major breakthrough and here she is ...
Lady Gaga
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