Words of Wisdom on leadership

By not demanding accountability, you fail to protect your people from their own incompetence.
~ General Norman Schwarttzkoph

Seeking help is not a sign of ignorance. its an intellectual act that allows people to admit that some situations are not meant to be handled alone.....

Help

Seeking help is not a sign of ignorance. its an intellectual act that allows people to admit that some situations are not meant to handled alone.....

The Magic of Recurring Revenues - Another Strategic Management Tip

Whether you are just starting out or have had your business for years, every business owner should focus on developing recurring revenue streams. Few things have as much impact across so many elements of your business as this.

Recurring revenues streams are the portions of a company’s total revenue which are stable, very likely to continue and can be counted on with a high degree of certainty.

Predictable revenues produce stability, operational efficiencies and enable you to focus your time and energies on growing your business. Not every business can have one, but if you don’t, you should try really really hard to fix that.

Examples of businesses with recurring revenue streams

Examples of recurring revenues are gym memberships, insurance policies, maintenance and support services, telephone, internet and other services. There are many other types of businesses which not only enjoy this type of revenue but which are actually designed and built on this model.

There is a distinct trend right now, particularly with web based businesses to offer services under a subscription model rather than a traditional one time sale and licensing model. In addition to software services being delivered in this manner, most Managed Services Providers of IT services (MSP’s) are setup on a recurring revenue basis.

Benefits of recurring revenues
• Predictable cash flows
• Loyal repeat customers
• Lower sales costs
• More effective sales processes to develop new customers
• More effective sales processes to grow business with existing customers
• Increased revenues
• Increased profitability
• More effective use of everyone’s time
• Business stability
• Enhanced ability to plan, invest, develop, grow, and manage your business

10 Reasons why Small Businesses Fail

1. The math just doesn't work

2. Owners who cannot get out of their own way

3. Out-of-control growth

4. Poor accounting

5. Lack of a cash cushion

6. Operational mediocrity

7. Operational inefficiencies

8. Dysfunctional management

9. The lack of a succession plan

10. A declining market

The Motivational Artwork

Key Question for Systemic Competence Management

"Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm." — Publilius Syrus.

Advantages and Disadvantages of technology

ADVANTAGES

1. Globalization - it allowed the world's economy to become a single independent system

2. Communication - communication becomes cheaper, quicker and more efficient

3. Cost Effectivenes - it streamlined businesses to make them extremely cost effective money making machines

4. Bridging the cultural gap - it helps people from different cultures to communicate with one another

5. More time - it has made possible for busineses to be open 24/7 all over the globe

6. Creation of new jobs - new creation of interesting jobs

DISANVANTAGES

1. Unemployment - it created a job redundancies, downsizing and outsourcing

2. Privacy - email hacking is big threat to privacy informations online

3. Lack of job security - each one have to be updated and needs constant learning if he/she wishes to keep job secure

4. Dominant culture - it is now argued that US influences how most teenagers globally act, dress and behave

Benefits of Strategic Management

The main advantages of strategic management have developed better strategies by aid agencies nor systematic, logical and realistic policy options.

Strategic Management offers the following financial and non financial:

Financial benefits of strategic management
First Study shows organizations, strategic management principles tend to be better rewarded than comparing productively with those who do not.

Second most powerful organizations tend to prepare for the implementation of strategic planning for future deviations in the external and internal environment. Companies with strategic planning have excellent long-term effectiveness in line with its monetary sector.

Non-financial benefits of strategic management
To avoid the first addition to the support of the destruction of corporate money, the strategic management of real additional benefits, including increased understanding of external threats, a better understanding of the strengths of competitors, improve employee productivity decreased resistance to change, and with a clear understanding of performance and rewarding relationships.

Second addition to strengthening management and employees, strategic management is often helpful to bring order and discipline to an organization.

Culture is walking the talk

The maritime zones are established by Part V of the UNCLOS Convention (1982).

Make a difference in the workplace

By using strategic thinking, you can often turn frustration into opportunity. Strategic thinkers:
• Resist falling into the rut of reacting solely to the needs and demands of senior managers and line staff. Strategic thinkers develop an understanding of what needs to be accomplished by their work teams and strive to influence the way both senior managers and line staff view work priorities.
• Learn to be successful synthesizers of information. Senior managers rely on front-line or middle managers to translate policy directives and priorities from the top into useful and coherent instructions to line staff. Those who are able to successfully implement top-level decisions at the line-staff level are coveted by senior management. Senior staff members also rely on team leaders or managers to give them information about operational issues that they can use to make policies and set priorities. Strategic thinkers use this opportunity to provide information in ways that promote their priorities and the needs of their team members.
• Selectively champion goals and objectives that are important to them. Strategic thinkers identify one or two goals that are truly important and find ways to advocate for them among senior managers and line staff. Senior managers will quickly tire of someone who advocates for a wide variety of goals. However, if front-line and middle managers focus their efforts on a few important issues, senior managers—over time—will be tolerant and even come to expect specific reactions and feedback from them.

Strategic framework

S t r a t e g i c M a n a g e m e n t f o r T o u r i s m

The subject of strategic management is often taught as a core topic at some stage (usually the final year) during a tourism degree programme. Strategic management also acts as a key feature of postgraduate tourism degree programmes. The topic consolidates what the student has learnt in the preceding years of their degree and applies this knowledge at a strategic level to tourism contexts.
However, many of the concepts associated with strategy and strategic management are abstract in nature and can often be difficult for teaching staff, let alone students, to comprehend. It is important that lecturers and students are able to access resources that enable their wider understanding of the subject matter and create opportunities where theory can be effectively applied to practice.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes and peformance metrics to industry bests and/or best practices from other industries.

Dimensions typycally measured are quality, time and cost.

A Quote on Change

"Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me."

-Carol Burnett

Flowsheet

Minimizing Resistance to Change

The Behaviour Change Process

There are times when we realise that there must be a better way to do things. We then take necessary steps to rectify the situation. This is called the Behaviour Change Process.
The Behaviour Change Process consists of four steps:

Non-awareness
This is defined as being unconscious of one’s behaviour that results in ineffectiveness. The process of behaviour change begins because we realise that there must be something wrong somewhere. More importantly, we realise that there must be something that can be done about it

Awareness
Being aware of an ineffective behaviour is a good start. What would be better is to find alternate ways of doing things so that we can be more effective. That’s the whole point of understanding the behaviour change process in the first place.

Internalising
Just like when toddlers begin to take little baby steps, regardless of how many times they stumbled. Just like when a consistent combination of steps became a short walk. Just like brisk walking turned into a run. We kept at it, because let’s face it… it sure beats crawling

Integration
To put it simply, integration means unconciously applying a new behaviour or skill. Let’s take the walking example used previously. I’m sure that you walk without even needing to think about how the process works.

                                                                                                                                                http://www.heritage-tech.net/

INCOTERMS VISUAL DEFINITION

How to be a strategic thinker

The foundation for strategic thinking lies in the attitude you have toward your work and the people you supervise and it requires patience and an understanding of organizational dynamics. Here are a few ways that you can become a strategic thinker:
• Pay attention and be ready for the unexpected. One of the potential traps of front-line and middle management is the tendency to become myopic. Learn as much as you can about the entire organization and external and internal conditions that serve as opportunities or threats. Sometimes, circumstances can change very quickly and you want to be the person who is ready to adapt to new conditions.
• Determine how your team's efforts can add value to the organization. Try to look beyond the routine work of your team and determine how the needs and priorities of the organization are changing
• Understand the top priorities and concerns of senior management. Timing is everything when it comes to having a positive impact on the way senior management views your team. Develop an analytic approach to your dealings with top management. Ask yourself what things are important to the organization, what perspectives senior managers have toward organizational priorities, and more specifically, your work team, and which of your priorities or goals have the best chance to be viewed positively at any given moment.

the analogy with shipping is an obvious one; "ONLY A MARITIME DISASTER OR A MAJOR POLLUTION INCIDENT WILL ALERT THE PRESS AND THE PUBLIC TO THE FACT THAT SHIPPING STILL EXISTS". Is there any hope of rather better, more positive, public awareness of this important world industry?

Step by Step Business Planning Process that Will Work in your Company

Are your company’s targets growing faster than your strategy can keep pace? Do you need a breakthrough in growth and profitability? Do you ever hear comments like these in your organization?

• "Our strategic planning process consumes too much time and resources, without commensurate results."
• "Our good ideas don’t seem to go anywhere."
• "We have a strategy, and lots of projects going on, but they don’t seem to be connected."
• "Major change is forcing us to step back and recast our strategic plan."
• "We don’t have a cohesive strategy that managers and employees can get behind."
• "We chronically miss our growth targets."
• "Our strategic plan and actions seem to be disjointed."
• "We are not an innovative company."
• "Our CEO and senior leaders are good operators, but they need to be more strategic."
• "We have a key issue that has been analyzed to death, but we never execute against it."

Engagement Roadmap to Change

Words of Wisdom

Good Safety Behaviour

The maritime industry nowadays relies on safety, could this be a time now to focus of your people's safety behaviour?

Don't wait for an accident to happen before you realize that safety trainings are much cheaper and sustainable.

The indicators of Good Safety Behaviour:

- Assertiveness
- Involvement
- Proactiveness
- Visibility
- Knowledge Actions

If your people are the key to your business... invest on them... it will surely pay the price.

Nokia bets on Windows Phone future

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has launched two new smartphones based on Microsoft's new Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 mark the beginning of Nokia's fightback against Apple's iPhone and rivals using Google's Android software.

Quite a few interesting lessons from Nokia's new strategy:
1) new strategy was developed by the new CEO which links to leadership styles;
2) Nokia seems to be trying to develop a new segment in the market, which is a gamble, but its potential 'billion people';
3) interesting to note how Nokia tries to differentiate from direct competitors with services (think VCA);
4) Nokia's new strategy is based on a strategic alliance. This strategic alliance is particularly interesting because Microsoft does not have its own handsets (in contrast to Apple and Google).

The Code

Can you tell which products are made from which country? Let me tell u - the first 3 digits of barcode denotes the country where it was made.

471 is Made in Taiwan .

690 ~ 692 - CHINA

00 ~ 09 USA & CANADA

30 ~ 37 FRANCE

40 ~ 44 GERMANY

49 - JAPAN

50 - UK

The Process of Great Leadership

The road to great leadership (Kouzes & Posner, 1987) that is common to successful leaders:

◦Challenge the process - First, find a process that you believe needs to be improved the most.
◦Inspire a shared vision - Next, share your vision in words that can be understood by your followers.
◦Enable others to act - Give them the tools and methods to solve the problem.
◦Model the way - When the process gets tough, get your hands dirty. A boss tells others what to do, a leader shows that it can be done.
◦Encourage the heart - Share the glory with your followers' hearts, while keeping the pains within your own. (nwlink.com)