Friday, September 30, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Customer service

“Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.” - PETER DRUCKER

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Good Customer Service Is No Longer Enough

Your business would not exist without customers. And if you have customers, you have to have customer service. Everybody talks about the importance of good customer service, but few seem to follow through on it.

Recently, I had the opportunity to ask a few questions of communications expert and author Dianna Booher, CSP. I found out why she says, "Good customer service is no longer enough."

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for turning crisis into opportunity by Jeffrey Liker, Timothy N. Ogden

Thursday, September 29, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Collaboration

“Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.” - Author Unknown

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Be a Better Global Collaborator

In today's globalized world, it is essential to know how to collaborate with people from different cultures. While this used to be the case primarily for country managers and those taking on overseas assignments, it now applies to all managers. But exactly how does one learn to become a better global collaborator?

What the Experts Say
Learning to navigate widely varying business practices is far from straightforward. "Global leadership is much more complicated than leading people like you," says Mansour Javidan, the Director of the Global Mindset Institute at Thunderbird School of Global Management and author of "Making It Overseas." Fortunately, more people are doing their due diligence these days.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for turning crisis into opportunity by Jeffrey Liker, Timothy N. Ogden

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Marketing

“Marketing takes day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master” - Philip Kotler

TOPIC OF THE DAY

The Top 10 Marketing Tips of All Time

With more than a decade of experience in marketing, ranking from pay-per-click to direct mail, I’ve seen a lot of failures and far more successes when it comes to marketing.

Today, the art of marketing is far more complex than it once was. However, many of the same basic principles still apply. Too often, professional marketers and small business owners overlook the basic techniques that have separated successful campaigns from those that never turn a profit. Here is my all time list of effective marketing tips.

Know your audience. Successful campaigns get that way because marketers know their audience. They fully understand their needs, how to help meet those needs and how to create demand. Knowing and understanding your audience through proper market segmentation means a well targeted campaign that generates a profitable return.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Fixing the Game: How Runaway Expectations Broke the Economy, and How to Get Back to Reality by Roger L. Martin

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Self Management

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” - Greek proverb

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Managing Yourself: A Smarter Way to Network

One of the happiest, most successful executives we know is a woman named Deb. She works at a major technology company and runs a global business unit that has more than 7,000 employees. When you ask her how she rose to the top and why she enjoys her job, her answer is simple: people. She points to her boss, the CEO, a mentor who “always has her back”; Steve, the head of a complementary business, with whom she has monthly brainstorming lunches and occasional gripe sessions; and Tom, a protégé to whom she has delegated responsibility for a large portion of her division. Outside the company, Deb’s circle includes her counterparts in three strategic partnerships, who inspire her with new ideas; Sheila, a former colleague, now in a different industry, who gives her candid feedback; and her husband, Bob, an executive at a philanthropic organization. She also has close relationships with her fellow volunteers in a program for at-risk high school students and the members of her tennis group and book club.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Fixing the Game: How Runaway Expectations Broke the Economy, and How to Get Back to Reality by Roger L. Martin

Monday, September 26, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Request

“An objection is not a rejection; it is simply a request for more information.” - Bo Bennett

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Four words for success

We all want to become successful. But how do you define success? To most of us success means becoming rich and famous. But wealth and fame are just few of the symbols of success. Whether you become rich and/or famous is not in your hands. This is not under your control. What is under your control is being able to do the best that you can or the best that you are capable of doing. To me success means that you have fully exploited your potential by tapping all your God given talent and capabilities including the hidden ones. In other words, you have achieved the best that you are capable of achieving.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Fixing the Game: How Runaway Expectations Broke the Economy, and How to Get Back to Reality by Roger L. Martin

Sunday, September 25, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Discipline

“Discipline is never allowing yourself to be distracted. Always maintain a positive disposition and direct your thoughts towards your goals!” - Aaron Forsyth

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Difference Between Google Plus + and Facebook

• Google+ is the latest effort by Google to garner a chunk of space in the social networking platform which is currently dominated by Facebook

• Facebook has an estimated 500 million members whereas Google+ is only in its experimental stage

• Google+ has some new, innovative features like Circles, Sparks, and hangouts that are absent in Facebook

• Photo upload in Google+ is instant as against a time consuming process in Facebook

• Only time will tell if Google+ can take on the might of Facebook but it certainly has attractive features to lure potential members

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Business Environment:
Themes and Issues Edited by Paul Wetherly and Dorron Otter

Saturday, September 24, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Salary

“It's not your salary that makes you rich, it's your spending habits.” - Charles A. Jaffe

TOPIC OF THE DAY
How to Handle a Raise Request

As a manager, it can be stressful when an employee asks for a raise, especially if there is no company policy. But answering a difficult compensation question doesn't have to be a headache. Try these three steps:

1. Don't answer right away. Thank the person for bringing up the issue and then promise to get back with an answer by a specified date. This allows you time to confer with other leaders.
2. Fairly assess the situation. The amount of money an individual is paid is a function of two things: the value of the job itself and the person's quality of performance. Examine both.
3. Go back. During a second conversation, ask the individual to explain both how she might enhance her performance and how she can make her job more valuable to the organization. Base your final decision on this input combined with your assessment.

Adopted from "How to handle a raise request" by Dick Grote cited in Harvard Business School's "Management Tip"

Friday, September 23, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Growth

“Growth begins when we begin to accept our own weakness.” - Jean Vanier

TOPIC OF THE DAY

What Steve Jobs Taught Me About Growth

Finding that first market — a few customers willing to pay for your early product — is hard enough. But there's one thing that may be even harder. And that's finding the second market. Especially because companies are often so focused on protecting what they already have.

In 1997 when Steve Jobs returned to Apple, I was in charge of an industry-recognized channel program for the company that was responsible for growing a $2M business to $180M business in 18 months. By working with a few dedicated partners — some were called "value-added-resellers" and some were national retailers such as Best Buy — Apple was able to grow its sales exponentially.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Business Environment:
Themes and Issues Edited by Paul Wetherly and Dorron Otter

Thursday, September 22, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Plan

“Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.” - Denis Waitley


TOPIC OF THE DAY

Your Crucial - and Unwritten - Plan

Are you ready for the future? "Sure," you say, "we have a plan," as you point to a 3-ring binder on the shelf or pull up a slide-deck on your laptop.

For many managers and organizations, that written document with its fixed view of the future — usually expressed as a set of hoped-for numbers and a to-do list with dates — is how they plan to deal with whatever lies ahead.

But if that plan is all you have, and it's more than a few weeks old, you probably won't be ready. Why? Because the future you assume in that document is probably not the future that will actually unfold. You can only see the future dimly, and, as you watch it come over the horizon, it's constantly changing. How are you going to deal with that?

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Business Environment:
Themes and Issues Edited by Paul Wetherly and Dorron Otter

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Quality

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort.” - John Ruskin

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Quality

TQM is a set of management practices throughout the organization, geared to ensure the organization consistently meets or exceeds customer requirements. TQM places strong focus on process measurement and controls as means of continuous improvement.

Total Quality Management (TQM) is an approach that organizations use to improve their internal processes and increase customer satisfaction. When it is properly implemented, this style of management can lead to decreased costs related to corrective or preventative maintenance, better overall performance, and an increased number of happy and loyal customers.

However, TQM is not something that happens overnight. While there are a number of software solutions that will help organizations quickly start to implement a quality management system, there are some underlying philosophies that the company must integrate throughout every department of the company and at every level of management. Whatever other resources you use, you should adopt these seven important principles of Total Quality Management as a foundation for all your activities.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

The Business Environment:
Themes and Issues Edited by Paul Wetherly and Dorron Otter

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Risks

“Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise.” - Author Unknown

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Getting Others to Embrace Risk

Why aren't companies hiring? Why aren't homes selling, despite bargain pricing? Why is growth and innovation in some industries so sluggish?

Americans have a well-earned reputation for risk-taking, but these days we are something of a timid lot. Our reluctance to stick our collective neck out has everything to do with the psychology of motivation — specifically, how we think about the goals we pursue. The problem, in a nutshell, is simply this: when making decisions, lately many of us have been focused much more on what we have to lose than on what we might gain.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Price of everything : the cost of birth, the price of death, and the value of everything in betw0een / Eduardo Porter

Monday, September 19, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Self Management

“We learn to manage our finances, why not learn to manage our life?” - Author Unknown

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Managing Yourself: The Paradox of Excellencey

Why is it that so many smart, ambitious professionals are less productive and satisfied than they should or could be? Why do so many of them find their upward trajectories flattening into a plateau? In our experience—Tom’s as a business school professor and consultant and Sara’s as a psychiatrist—high achievers often let anxiety about their performance compromise their progress. Because they’re used to having things come easily to them, they tend to shy away from assignments that will truly test them and require them to learn new skills. They have successful images to preserve, so instead of embracing risk, they hunker down and lock themselves into routines—at the expense of personal growth.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Price of everything : the cost of birth, the price of death, and the value of everything in between / Eduardo Porter

Sunday, September 18, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Courage

“If you have the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.” - David Viscott

TOPIC OF THE DAY

How Entrepreneurs Find Opportunity

In 2003, Jim Poss was walking down a Boston street when he noticed a trash vehicle in action. The truck was idling at a pickup point, blocking traffic, with smoke pouring out of its exhaust. Litter was still all over the street.

There has to be a better way, he thought to himself.

Looking into the problem, Poss learned that garbage trucks consume more than 1 billion gallons of fuel in the U.S. alone. They average only 2.8 miles per gallon and are among the most expensive vehicles to operate. In the early 2000s, municipalities and waste collection services were considering more fuel-efficient vehicles and better collection routes to reduce their overall costs and environmental footprint. Poss was not convinced that this was the right approach.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Price of everything : the cost of birth, the price of death, and the value of everything in between / Eduardo Porter

Saturday, September 17, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Work-Life Relationship

“If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.” - Albert Einstein

TOPIC OF THE DAY

3 Rules for Networking at Work

We often think of networking as connecting with people outside our organizations. But networking with internal colleagues is just as crucial. Here are three rules of thumb for growing your network inside the office:

•Build outward, not inward. Don't waste time deepening connections with people you already know. Get in touch with people in other teams or business units.
•Go for diversity, not size. Rather than aiming for a massive network, build an efficient one. This requires knowing people who are different from you, and from one another.
•Go beyond familiar faces. Identify the "hubs" in your company—people who've worked on a variety of teams and projects—and ask them to connect you to others.

Today's Topic was adapted from "Six Rules for Networking at Work" by Morten Hansen cited by HBS “Management Tip” on September 14, 2011.

Friday, September 16, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Work-Life Balance

“When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home.” - Betty Bender

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Achieving a Work Life Balance

Wondering if you are achieving a healthy work life balance? Tell tale signs of poor work life balance include high stress, overtime, absence and staff turnover. Achieving a balance between work and life become increasingly important when family responsibilities increase, and care for children or other dependants is a priority.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Price of everything : the cost of birth, the price of death, and the value of everything in between / Eduardo Porter

Thursday, September 15, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Mistakes

“From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own.” - Syrus

TOPIC OF THE DAY

How to Recover from a Blunder

Eventually, every leader will make a mistake for which he or she must apologize. The screw-up might be personal (Arnold Schwarzenegger's extramarital escapades), corporate (TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu's mishandling of his company's nuclear power plant crisis), or simply banal (inadvertently insulting a colleague's wardrobe).

The rash of mea culpas we've seen in recent months — culminating this week in Congressman Anthony Weiner's press conference to explain his tawdry tweets — had brought to mind a mistake-fuelled media frenzy from my past: Howard Dean's famous scream, and the lessons we learned from it.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Price of everything : the cost of birth, the price of death, and the value of everything in between / Eduardo Porter

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Communication

“If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be of no help.” - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Education and Communication Build Commitment

"The increasing availability of new information and communication technology is one of the key ingredients that makes a high-involvement management approach possible. This capability, more than any other, makes it possible for individuals to become self-managing, to be involved in the business, and to control processes and operations..." — Edward Lawler III, The Ultimate Advantage: Creating the High-Involvement Organization

Shortly after Vanessa, our second daughter was born, my wife Heather was talking with six year old Chris, our only son, about how much she liked having a boy in the family. "If you like little boys so much, how come you brought home another girl?" Chris tearfully rebutted.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Price of everything : the cost of birth, the price of death, and the value of everything in between / Eduardo Porter

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Recognition

“The Great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure. ” - William Shakespeare

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation to Employees

You can tell your colleagues, coworkers and employees how much you value them and their contribution any day of the year. Trust me. No occasion is necessary. In fact, small surprises and tokens of your appreciation spread throughout the year help the people in your work life feel valued all year long.

Looking for ideas about how to praise and thank coworkers and employees? Here are ten ways to show your appreciation to employees and coworkers.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

MACROECONOMICS GHOSH, CHANDANA, GHOSH, AMBAR

Monday, September 12, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Survival

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ” - C. S. Lewis

TOPIC OF THE DAY

The Six Keys to Surviving on the Road

I was walking through the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose one day last week just before 6 pm, feeling a bit bleary after three consecutive weeks flying back and forth across the country to visit five different cities.

The question at hand was whether or not to attend a cocktail party being thrown by my corporate hosts. Then I spotted the spa. Impulsively, I walked in and asked if I might be able to book a massage. Minutes later, I was lying on a table, unbelievably happy to be there. When I walked out an hour later, I felt incredibly relaxed and rejuvenated.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

MACROECONOMICS GHOSH, CHANDANA, GHOSH, AMBAR

Sunday, September 11, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Weakness

“Weakness is but a state of mind; you are powerful beyond measure.” - Sbongile Tshabalala

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Three Hard Lessons From September 11

In the decade since September 11, 2001, Americans have learned how to get along in a new world. For most of us, that means we show up earlier at the airport and we don't complain when we're asked to take off our shoes there. But for the U.S. military, the last decade has been one of figuring out how to succeed in a world where the capabilities that allowed it to lead in the past have often hamstrung its efforts to address new challenges.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

MACROECONOMICS GHOSH, CHANDANA, GHOSH, AMBAR

Saturday, September 10, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Culture

“Culture is properly described as the love of perfection; it is a study of perfection.” - Matthew Arnold

TOPIC OF THE DAY

You Can't Dictate Culture — but You Can Influence It

There's an old joke about a CEO who attended a presentation on corporate culture and then asked his head of HR to "get me one of those things." Of course it sounds ludicrous — but like most jokes, this story is based in truth. Many organizations treat the creation, maintenance, and periodic updating of their cultures in a cavalier manner. Either they pay lip service to the kind of culture they want, but don't do much about it — or worse, ignore culture completely.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

MACROECONOMICS GHOSH, CHANDANA, GHOSH, AMBAR

Friday, September 09, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Business

“The golden rule for every business man is this: “Put yourself in your customer’s place. ” - Orison Swett Marden

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Four Things I Want You to Remember Me By

Everyone knows a business needs profits, customers, and ethics. What not everyone knows is which of those should come first, second, and third. A lot of companies fail because they get the sequence wrong.

The most common mistake is to put profits first. That opens the door for bad things to happen. Numbers become all-important, and almost any behavior is justified in the name of profit. Cheating sets in.

Instead, a company's priority should be to protect and enhance its reputation through ethical behavior. Within the confines of that behavior, its next most important goal should be to attract and keep customers. Third is figuring out how to make money.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

MACROECONOMICS GHOSH, CHANDANA, GHOSH, AMBAR

Thursday, September 08, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Experience

“The trouble with using experience as a guide is that the final exam often comes first and then the lesson.” - Author Unknown

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Three Steps to Handling the Unexpected

When my friend Sam invited his new girlfriend Robyn to join him for a sailing trip, he was relatively new to the sport. He had pretty strong skills but not a lot of experience. She had neither.

They were expecting it to be a long sail — about seven hours — and spent several days preparing. They assembled maps and prepared their route. They planned to stay close to the coast in case they needed to pull in, though there were a few short crossings where they would be unprotected. They shopped for food, packed emergency supplies, and made sure others knew their intended route.

On the day of the sail, the weather was overcast but they decided to go anyway. Several hours into the trip — as fate would have it right in the middle of one of their crossings — the wind picked up, and dark clouds blew in. Directly in their path, less than a mile away, was a thunderstorm. They were exposed, with lightning crackling around them.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

MACROECONOMICS GHOSH, CHANDANA, GHOSH, AMBAR

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Sales

“If eighty percent of your sales come from twenty percent of all of your items, just carry those twenty percent.” - Henry A. Kissinger

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople
If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, "What makes you different from the average sales rep?" you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer, if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally.

Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world's leading companies. I've also administered personality tests to 1,000 of them. My goal was to measure their five main personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) to better understand the characteristics that separate them their peers.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Managing and Leading Software Projects by Richard E. Fairley

Monday, September 05, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Success

“Success often comes to those who have the aptitude to see way down the road.” - Laing Burns, Jr.

TOPIC OF THE DAY

How to become a Great Finisher

The road to hell may or may not be paved with good intentions, but the road to failure surely is. Take a good look at the people you work with, and you'll find lots of Good Starters — individuals who want to succeed, and have promising ideas for how to make that happen. They begin each new pursuit with enthusiasm, or at the very least, a commitment to getting the job done.

And then something happens. Somewhere along the way, they lose steam. They get bogged down with other projects. They start procrastinating and miss deadlines. Their projects take forever to finish, if they get finished at all.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Managing and Leading Software Projects by Richard E. Fairley

Sunday, September 04, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Appreciate

“The best way to appreciate your job is to imagine yourself without one. ” - Oscar Wilde

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Social networking service

A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Online community services are sometimes considered as a social network service, though in a broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual networks

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Managing and Leading Software Projects by Richard E. Fairley

Saturday, September 03, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Teacher

“If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure. ” - Bill Gates

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Understanding Case Study Method

The case study method is a hyped up tool used in B-schools from Harvard to Hyderabad and by companies in selling their business solution software or tools and by companies to train their executives. But unfortunately a large number of faculty members, the students and academics have confusion regarding the methodology, the relevance and outcomes of a case as tool for training. It is surprising that some teachers even from so-called Premium schools give cases in examination papers. That for sure is an abuse of case study method. Even illustrations and examples are considered as case. Many trainers also assume that a long and detail case is a good and effective case. Unfortunately it is not always correct. The length of case has no significance as to its relevance and learning potential. A summary of case study method, its objectives and outcomes are reproduced below. These are based on personal experience and opinion of the author and hence no references are given.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

Managing and Leading Software Projects by Richard E. Fairley

Friday, September 02, 2011

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Asset

“Consider every mistake you do make as an asset.” - Paul J. Meyer

TOPIC OF THE DAY

Turning Stress into an Asset

You constantly hear how bad stress is for you: it's damaging your health, jeopardizing your relationships, and hurting your performance. While these risks are real, recent research is showing that work strain, when managed correctly, can actually have a positive impact on productivity and performance. So how can you take the stress you thought was killing you and make it constructive?

What the Experts Say Stress is unavoidable. "We live in a world of ongoing worry, change, and uncertainty. You have to get used to it," says Justin Menkes, an expert in the field of C-suite talent evaluation and the author of Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others. "Stress is an inevitable part of work and life, but the effect of stress upon us is far from inevitable," says Shawn Achor, an expert in positive psychology and the founder of Good Think, Inc. Both Achor and Menkes agree that altering your approach to stress can yield positive effects. "Stress can be good or bad depending on how you use it," says Achor. In fact, how you manage pressures can distinguish you as a leader and give you a career advantage. Here are five principles to follow.

Read on

LATEST ARRIVALS

How to Win Friends & Influence People
by Dale Carnegie