Business

7 Investing Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

2012-03-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

Making mistakes is part of the learning process. However, it's all too often that plain old common sense separates a successful investor from a poor one. At the same time, nearly all investors, new or experienced, have fallen astray from common sense and made a mistake or two. Being perfect may be impossible, but knowing some of common investing errors can help deter you from going down the well-traveled, yet rocky, path of losses. Here are some of the most common investing mistakes.

Using Too Much Margin
Margin is the use of borrowed money to purchase securities. Margin can help you make more money; however, it can also exaggerate your loses - a definite downside.

The absolute worst thing you can do as a new investor is become carried away with what seems like free money - if you use margin and your investment doesn't go your way, you end up with a large debt obligation for nothing. Ask yourself if you would buy stocks with your credit card. Of course you wouldn't. Using margin excessively is essentially the same thing (albeit likely at a lower interest rate).

Additionally, using margin requires you to monitor your positions much more closely because of the exaggerated gains and losses that accompany small movements in price. If you don't have the time or knowledge to keep a close eye on and make decisions about your positions and the positions drop, your brokerage firm will sell your stock to recover any losses you have accrued.

As a new investor, use margin sparingly, if at all. Use it only if you understand all its aspects and dangers. It can force you to sell all your positions at the bottom, the point at which you should be in the market for the big turnaround.

Buying On Unfounded Tips
We think everyone makes this mistake at one point or another in their investing career. You may hear your relatives or friends talking about a stock that they heard will get bought out, have killer earnings or soon release a groundbreaking new product. Even if these things are true, they do not necessarily mean that the stock truly is "the next big thing" and that you should run to the nearest phone to call your broker.

Other unfounded tips come from investment professionals on TV who often tout a specific stock as though it's a must-buy, but really is nothing more than the flavor of the day. These stock tips often don't pan out and go straight down after you buy them. Remember, buying on media tips is often founded on nothing more than a speculative gamble.

Now this isn't to say that you should balk at every stock tip. If one really grabs your attention, the first thing to do is consider the source. The next thing is to do your own homework. Make sure you "research, research and research" so that you know what you are buying and why. Buying a tech stock with some proprietary technology should be based on whether it's the right investment for you, not solely on what some mutual fund manager said on TV.

Next time you're tempted to buy a hot tip, don't do so until you've got all the facts and are comfortable with the company. Ideally, obtain a second opinion from other investors or unbiased financial advisors.

Day Trading
If you insist on becoming an active trader, think twice before day trading. Day trading is a dangerous game and should be attempted only by the most seasoned investors. In addition to investment savvy, a successful day trader needs access to special equipment that is rarely available to the average trader. Did you know that the average day-trading workstation (with software) can cost in the range of $50,000? You'll also need a similar amount of trading money to maintain an efficient day trading strategy.

The need for speed is the main reason you can't start day trading with simply the extra $5,000 in your bank account: online brokers do not have systems fast enough to service the true day trader, so quite literally the difference of pennies per share can make the difference between a profitable and losing trade. In fact, day trading is deemed such a difficult endeavor that most brokerages who offer day trading accounts require investors to take formal trading courses.

Unless you have the expertise, equipment and access to speedy order execution, think twice before day trading. If you aren't particularly adept at dealing with risk and stress, there are much better options for an investor looking to build wealth.

Buying Stocks that Appear Cheap
This is a very common mistake, and those who commit it do so by comparing the current share price with the 52-week high of the stock. Many people using this gauge assume that a fallen share price represents a good buy. But the fact that a company's share price happened to be 30% higher last year will not help it earn more money this year. That's why it pays to analyze why a stock has fallen.

Deteriorating fundamentals, a CEO resignation and increased competition are all possible reasons for the lower stock price - but they are also provide good reasons to suspect that the stock might not increase anytime soon. A company may be worth less now for fundamental reasons. It is important always to have a critical eye since a low share price might be a false buy signal.

Avoid buying stocks that simply look like a bargain. In many instances, there is a strong fundamental reason for a price decline. Do your homework and analyze a stock's outlook before you invest in it. You want to invest in companies which will experience sustained growth in the future.

Underestimating Your Abilities
Some investors tend to believe they can never excel at investing because stock market success is reserved for sophisticated investors. This perception has no truth at all. While any commission-based mutual fund salesmen will probably tell you otherwise, most professional money managers don't make the grade either - the vast majority underperform the broad market. With a little time devoted to learning and research, investors can become well equipped to control their own portfolio and investing decisions - and be profitable. Remember, much of investing is sticking to common sense and rationality.

Besides having the potential to become sufficiently skillful, individual investors do not face the liquidity challenges and overhead costs large institutional investors do. Any small investor with a sound investment strategy has just as good a chance of beating the market, if not better, than the so-called investment gurus.

Never underestimate your abilities or your own potential. That is, don't assume you are unable to successfully participate in the financial markets simply because you have a day job.

When Buying a Stock, Overlooking the "Big Picture"
For a long-term investor one of the most important - but often overlooked - things to do is qualitative analysis, or "to look at the big picture." Fund manager and author Peter Lynch once stated that he found the best investments by looking at his children's toys and the trends they would take on. Brand name is also very valuable. Think about how almost everyone in the world knows Coke; the financial value of the name alone is therefore measured in the billions of dollars. Whether it's about iPods or Big Macs, no one can argue against real life.

So pouring over financial statements or attempting to identify buy and sell opportunities with complex technical analysis may work a great deal of the time, but if the world is changing against your company, sooner or later you will lose. After all, a typewriter company in the late 1980s could have outperformed any company in its industry, but once personal computers started to become commonplace, an investor in typewriters of that era would have done well to assess the bigger picture.

Assessing a company from a qualitative standpoint is as important as looking at the sales and earnings. Qualitative analysis is a strategy that is one of the easiest and most effective for evaluating a potential investment.

Compounding Your Losses by Averaging Down
Far too often investors fail to accept the simple fact that they are human and prone to making mistakes just as the greatest investors do. Whether you made a stock purchase in haste or one of your long-time big earners has suddenly taken a turn for the worse, the best thing you can do is accept it. The worst thing you can do is let your pride take priority over your pocketbook and hold on to a losing investment, or worse yet, buy more shares of the stock since it is much cheaper now.

Remember, a company's future operating performance has nothing to do with what price you happened to buy its shares at. Anytime there is a sharp decrease in your stock's price, try to determine the reasons for the change and assess whether the company is a good investment for the future. If not, do your pocketbook a favor and move your money into a company with better prospects.

Letting your pride get in the way of sound investment decisions is foolish and it can decimate your portfolio's value in a short amount of time. Remain rational and act appropriately when you are inevitably confronted with a loss on what seemed like a rosy investment.

The Bottom Line
With the stock market's penchant for producing large gains (and losses) there is no shortage of faulty advice and irrational decisions. As an individual investor, the best thing you can do to pad your portfolio for the long term, is to implement a rational investment strategy you are comfortable with and willing to stick to. If you are looking to make a big win by betting your money on your gut feelings, try the casino. Take pride in your investment decisions and in the long run, your portfolio will grow to reflect the soundness of your actions.

Reference:

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/121901.asp?partner=basics031612&utm_source=1&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Basics-3/16/2012#axzz1pivBg8Rn

How To Teach Your Child About Investing

2012-03-04T18:28:00.000-08:00

Have you taught your children about investing? As your child becomes more aware of money and other financial concepts, it is vital that you arm them with some important investment knowledge. Read on to find out how to impart some investing smarts to your children. If you don't have the basic knowledge required for investing, and need to learn more yourself.

Investing Should Be a Family Activity

Some parents are guilty of not discussing personal finance with their children, and almost all parents are guilty of not discussing investing with their children. Investing should be a family activity. Children mature at different rates, so it may take some time before your child is ready to tackle concepts like portfolio creation and asset allocation; however, the basics of investing can be taught quite young.

Risk and Reward

Before you have your kids spending Saturdays at the library using the internet to check company profiles, you will have to explain risk and reward. Risk is the possibility that an investment will lose some or all of its value. Reward is the percentage of gain that your investment experiences over time - the return on investment (ROI).

Below we will sketch a brief picture of the two more common investments: debt securities and stocks.

Easy Ideas to Tell Your Kids About: Stocks

Stocks are variable risk, variable return investments. On the whole, they are categorized as high risk and high return. You have to make it clear that all the risks involved in the stock markets can't be predicted.

Easy Ideas to Tell Your Kids About: Debt Securities

A bond is a low-risk, low-return investment. Typically, bonds pay only a small amount over the prime interest rate because they are backed by stable institutions (usually banks or governments). You can buy bonds from unstable regions of the world that offer better returns, but these countries often have unstable governments, so you can't necessarily count on getting that return down the road.

Getting Your Child's Attention

When you are checking your stocks, show your child the companies of which you own a small part. If you own any exciting companies that might be of interest to your children - plane manufacturers like Boeing, sports equipment specialists like Bauer, technology and video game companies like Sony - make sure that you request the company's current investor relations package, or print it off the internet, so that you can show your child more about those companies, including how much they earned, what they make and how many people work for them.

Buying and Tracking

Once you have introduced your child to some basic concepts, you can sit down together allow him or her to select a company. If you have the money, you can buy the stock and track it with your child. You should give the statements to him or her to keep in a financial binder (you can add his or her banking information here also and separate the two different sections with a divider). If you don't have the money, make an artificial portfolio and track the stock for fun.

When your child is older, you can provide a more in-depth explanation of stocks and other investments. Eventually, you want to let your children buy their own stocks. Your child may have enough cash diligently saved up in a savings account by the time he or she is interested in investing. Don't put it all into a bond or the stock market, but invest a third in each and keep a third in savings. This will allow your child to compare the performance of a savings bond, stocks of his or her choosing and the interest from a bank account.

If your child doesn't have any money, you have two options. You can use $100 of your own money to open a discount brokerage account for your child to make investments through, or you can continue to use an artificial portfolio of stocks that your child wants to buy some day. In the latter case, you will need to find ways to maintain your child's motivation.

Conclusion

If you are able to pick stocks together and track them when your children are young, they will get a sense of the up-and-down cycles that stocks go through. This understanding will prepare them for riding out market fluctuations and making informed decisions when others panic.

During all this, you want to allow your child to make real decisions and take real risks. Yes, your child may lose money, but the purpose of this exercise is to familiarize your child with investing. Part of this exercise is learning that any investment has advantages and disadvantages. Your child may not make a fortune, but the experience of gaining and losing money is almost as valuable.

Reference :
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/pf/07/childinvestor.asp?partner=ntu12&utm_source=18&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=NTU-2/29/2012#axzz1nqvV81FL

The Siamese Institutions: Taxes And State Income

2012-02-26T19:30:00.000-08:00

The income of the kingdom is diverse in nature. The small tributary kings send traditional gifts in gold or in the commodities of the country to their sovereign. The rice fields pay a variable tax, generally one tical, less than two francs at the present price of silver, per square sên, a measure of forty metres to a side, i.e. about one franc at the rates of that time. With each accession, the land register, summarily revised, is more or less fixed for the duration of the reign. The tenth part of this tax, the only one, more or less, of the kingdom that is not farmed out, is allocated to the provincial mandarins charged with levying it. In order to favour the taking into production of rice fields, the kings of Siam have decided that the digging of a canal will result in obtaining the land over the whole length and stretching on both sides up to a distance of a thousand metres free of charge, with consideration, be it understood, of the rights of neighboring owners. The taxation of plantations, gardens and fruit trees depends on the nature of the cultivation and on the number of trees.

The rights over rice liquor, assessed by furnace and by shop, were already mentioned by de La Loubère. Today, ever more numerous internal monopolies are established, not only on rice liquor and non all the supplies sold in the markets, rice being about the only one excepted, but also on gambling, lotteries, opium, theatres, prostitutes, etc. Numerous abuses are born from the rights of pursuit and arrest of delinquents and smugglers, which have been given to the Chinese farmers.

Another tax is the customs tax levied on all merchandise entering the country or even on the commodities which leave it. The Europeans, in the seventeenth century, called the customs posts by a local name, transcribed as “Tabanque”, a word in which one can still recognise the Cambodian name “Trebêng” which is given to small frames of bamboo fixed on the end of a sticks which serve as signposts at the customs posts.

The tax on barges was already one tical per fathom of length at the time of de La Loubère. Today, the taxes on the local boats and on the junks or foreign ships mooring at the ports of Siam produce an important sum of income. One can also cite the sums from fines and judicial confiscation, the tribute for usage, such as the traditional rights of levy on the inheritances of mandarins, the buy back money for the heavy corvées weighing on the people and finally the trade monopoly of a sizeable part of the exported and even imported goods, the king having been all the time, formerly even more than today being the greatest monopoly builder and trader of his kingdom.

In his capacity as absolute monarch, as eminent proprietor of the country, the sovereign alone disposes of the income of the State of which he consumes the wealth. His royal purse is combined with the administration of the treasury: all the income is brought into it and the payments are only made upon royally sealed mandates or signed by his name. His opulence contrasts with the poverty of the people. In the seventeenth century, Gervaise estimated the annual revenue to be four to five million. The king saved, having very few expenses, barely ever paying but in merchandise for his foreign purchases and he possessed eight or ten warehouses full of rich fabrics, beautiful weapons and urns filled with gold and silver. In the first half of the nineteenth century, the revenues were estimated to be twenty or thirty million. At present, the valuations almost unofficial, approximate in any case, vary between fifty and eighty million francs. But the times are different: the king believes he must spend on public utilities. He creates roads; he maintains a navy, troops, he pays the salaries of the majority of his functionaries.

Reference:

Etienne Aymonier, Khmer Heritage in Thailand, White Lotus Co., Ltd, Bangkok, 1901, p.50, 51.

Consumer Price Index - CPI

2012-02-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

Definition of Consumer Price Index - CPI

A measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care. The CPI is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them; the goods are weighted according to their importance. Changes in CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living.

Reference:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/consumerpriceindex.asp?partner=TOD02#axzz1mnQ8vway

What is a Marketing Plan? - Laura Lake

2012-01-30T01:55:00.000-08:00

Think of a your marketing plan as a roadmap. Your marketing plan outlines specific actions that you will take to market your product or service potential customers. These actions work to persuade these potential customers to purchase your products or services.

Your marketing plan does not need to be long and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to complete. Marketing plans can be a part of your overall business plan or as a singular document. If you think of it as your "roadmap" that will provide you with detailed directions on how to reach your marketing goals.

It's important to research before completing your marketing plan, by doing so it will help you in staying organized so that you are able to achieve your goals. A thorough marketing plan will detail what you want to accomplish with your marketing strategy and assist you in meeting your goals.

A marketing plan will achieve the following objectives:

Enables companies to look internally in order to fully understand the impact and the results of past marketing decisions.
Equips companies to look externally in order to fully understand the market that it targets and the competition in that space.
Set future goals and provide direction for future marketing initiatives. The goals should be understood and supported by everyone with the company's organization.

Your marketing plan should include the following:

Summary and Introduction
The summary and introduction is a quick overview of the main points of the plan. It should be a synopsis of what you have done, what you plan to do, and how you are going to get there.

Marketing Objectives
This section will define your marketing objectives. These objectives should be based on understanding your strengths and weaknesses, and the business environment in which you operate in. They should also be linked to your overall business strategy. It's not uncommon and is often beneficial to focus on specific targeted segments that you will be marketing to.

Situation Analysis
Your situation analysis details the context for your marketing efforts. In this section you will take a close look at the internal and external factors that will influence your marketing strategy, this is called a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis combines the external and internal analysis to summarize your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Target Markets
The concept of target markets is one of the most basic, yet most important aspects of marketing. There is no such thing as the a "one message" fits all marketing message. It is unrealistic to think that you can attract everyone. Defining your target market or segmenting your market helps you decide where to commit resources and what kinds of promotional methods and messages to use.

Strategies
Strategies are action steps that detail how the marketing variables of product, price, place and promotion are used to attain the marketing plan’s objectives and overall strategies.

Tracking and Evaluation
This section of your plan should include plans and procedures for tracking each type of marketing activity you are using. Tracking helps monitor the effectiveness of each marketing activity and is especially helpful with your overall program evaluation. If you are not tracking you are not marketing.

Reference:

http://marketing.about.com/od/plantutorialsandsamples/a/whatismktgplan.htm

The Evolution of Social Responsibility

2012-01-18T04:38:00.000-08:00

Social responsibility is a concept with decades-old roots. In the nineteenth century, the prevailing view among U.S. industrialists was that business had only one responsibility: to make a profit. Railroad tycoon William Vanderbilt summed up this attitude when he said, "The public be demand. I'm working for the shareholders." Caveat emptor was the rule of the day--"Let the buyer beware." If you bought a product, you paid the price and took the consequences. No consumer groups or government agencies would help you if the product was defective or caused harm.

By the early twentieth century, reformers were pushing politicians and government regulators to protect citizens from the abuses of big business. Their efforts paid off. Laws were passed to ensure the purity of food and drugs, limit the power of monopolies, and prevent unfair business practices, among other reforms.

The Great Depression, which started in 1929, led to more disenchantment with business. With 25 percent of the work force unemployed, many people lost their faith in capitalism, and pressure mounted for government to fix the system. At the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress passed laws in the 1930s and 1940s to protect workers, consumers, and investors. These laws established the Social Security system, allowed employees to join unions and bargain collectively, set a minimum hourly wage, and limited the length of the workweek. New laws prevented unfair competition and false advertising and started the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEO) to protect investors.

Public confidence in U.S. business revived during World War II, and throughout the 1950s, the relationship between business, government, and society was relatively tranquil.

However, the climate shifted in the 1960s, as activism exploded on four fronts: environmental protection, national defense, consumerism, and civil rights. These movements have drastically altered the way business in conducted in the United States. Many of the changes have been made willingly by socially responsible companies, others have been forced by government action, and still others have come about because of pressure from citizen groups.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

How Cell Phones Works

2012-01-09T04:22:00.000-08:00

1. What is a Cell Phone?

Millions of people around the world use cellular phones. With a cell phone, you can talk to anyone from just about anywhere on the planet!

These days, cell phones provide an incredible array of functions. Depending on the cell-phone model, you can:

Store contact information
Make task or to-do lists
Keep track of appointments and set remiders
Use the built-in calculator for simple math
Send or receive SMS and e-mail
Get information (news, entertainment, stock quotes) from the Internet
Play games
Watch TV
Integrate other devices such as PDAs, MP3 Players and GPS receives

But have you ever wondered how a cell phone works? What do all those terms like PCS, GSM, CDMA, and TDMA mean? In this article, we will discuss the technology behind cell phones.

2. Cell-Phone Frequencies

Before cell phones, people who needed mobile-communications installed radio-telephones in their cars. In the radio-telephone, there were one central antenna tower per city, and perhaps 25 channels available on that tower. This central a powerful transmitter--big enough to transmit about 70km. It also mean meant that not many people could use radio telephones--there just were not enough channels.

The genius of the cellular system is the division of a city into small cells. this allows extensive frequency reuse across a city, so that millions of people can use cell phones simultaneously.

A good way to understand the sophistication of a cell phone is to compare it to a CB radio or a walkie-talkie.

Full-duplex vs. half-duplex - Both walkie-talkies and CB radios are half-duplex devices. That is, two people communicating on a CB radio use one frequency for talking and a second, separate frequency for listening.

Channels - A walkie-talkie typically has one typical has one channel, and a CB radio has 40 channels. A typical cell phone can communicate on 1,664 channels or more!

Range - A walkie-talkie can transmit about 1.6km. A CB radio can transmit about 8km. Cell phones operate within cells, and they can switch ells as they move around. Someone using a cell phone can drive hundreds of miles and maintain a conversation the entire time because of the cellular approach.

In a typical analog cell-phone, the cell-phone carrier receives about 800 frequencies to use across the city. The carrier chops up the city into cells. Each cell is typically sized at about 26 square kilometers.

Each cell has a base station that consists of a tower and a small building containing the radio equipment.

3. Cell-Phone Channels

In any cell, 56 people can be talking on their cell phone at one time. Analog cellular systems are considered first-generation mobile technology, or 1G. With digital transmission methods (2G), the number of available channels increases. For example, a TDMA - based digital system can carry three times as many calls as an analog system, so each cell has about 168 channels available.

Cell phones have low-power transmitters in them. Many cell phones have two signal strengths: 0.6 watts and 3 watts. The base station is also transmitting at low power.

The cellular approach requires a large number of base stations in a city of any size.

4. Digital Cell Phone

Digital phones convert your voice into binary information (1s and 0s) and then compress it. This compression allows between three and 10 digital cell-phone calls to occupy the space of a single analog call.

Many digital cellular systems rely on frequency-shift keying (FSK) to send data back and forth over AMPS. FSK uses two frequencies, one for 1s and the other for 0s, alternating rapidly between the cell tower and the phone. Clever modulation and encoding schemes are required to convert the analog information to digital, compress it and convert it back again while maintaining an acceptable level of voice quality. All of this means that digital cell phones have to contain a lot of processing power.

Prepare by: Ung Yean

Reference

NU Newsletter, Updating Edition, September 2011, p. 168

How Does Google Make Money

2012-01-09T03:33:00.000-08:00

Google don't sell any product, everything you use from them is free and on top of that they seem to be very active in the "open source" community. So how the hell can they cash-in?

Google Revenue

Google has multiple ways of generating revenue beyond private Google has three ways to generate revenue Google Checkout, Google AdWords and Google AdSense.

Google Checkout is a service deigned to make online purchase easier for both the consumer and the retailer. On the consumer end, users create a free Google Checkout account. Part of the account creation process includes entering a credit or debit card number. When the user visits a retailer that subscribes to Google Checkout, he or she can click on the checkout option and Google facilities the transaction. This means that the user doesn't have to enter a card number every time he or she makes a purchase. Retailers can set up Google pair of Web advertising services called AdWords and AdSense. With AdWords, advertisers can submit ads to Google that include a list of keywords relating to the product, service or business. When a Google user searches the Web using one or more of those keywords, the ad appears on a sidebar. The advertiser pays Google every time a user clicks on the ad.

Prepare by: Ung Yean

Reference

NU Newsletter, Update Edition, September 2011, p. 160

Erosion of Mekong Bank in Cambodia

2012-01-09T03:18:00.000-08:00

1. Introduction

The Mekong river plays a major role on physical geography and on the economy of countries that it crosses. The erosion of Mekong banks have caused the change of the original ground surfaces and the depth of river bed.

2. Hydrology of Mekong River

The Mekong river has got a distance of 4880 kilometers from Tibet's plateau up to China sea. It ranks the 12th for its length and the 21st for its surface in the world. During the rain season, the water level goes up from June or July to November or December with the discharge of 85% to 90% of annual flow. At the end of November, the discharge decreases from 20 to 30% of annual flow. The Mekong river flows from Yunnan's province of China across Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. After the sites researches, the natural resources in the Mekong catchment's areas are still in good condition except in some regions only. The Mekong river allows the population, vegetables, plates and ecosystem to grow up with its flood and low water cycle. The annual flow of Mekong is about 475 10 cubic meters.

The Mekong river crosses Cambodia from the North to the South in distance of 480 kilometers and provides 86% of Cambodia surface with its water regimes. Every year, its flood about 450 10 cubic meters steaming into the plain and the Tonle Sap reservoir before going into the sea of China.

The annual discharge of Mekong river in Cambodia is about 300 10 cubic meters distributing to its hand reservoirs, and about 500 10 cubic meters flowing out China's sea.

3. Choice of Site Erosions

After the sites studies along the Mekong river from Kratie to Phnom Penh, one enormous collapse zone is situated in village CHROUY TAEK of Kandal province. Every year, this site has caved-in about 20 to 30 meters along the actual banks into water river. Since 30 years, the total collapse sites is about 500 meters in distance forcing many people in place to move from the dangerous zones. Consequently, the sedimentation has formed its size about 1 kilometer at downstream of collapse zones. The depots due to the ground erosion have formed a big sand island at the bottom of Mekong river disturbing water circulation during the dry season.

4. Taking Soil Sample

At Chrouy Taek, the caved-in banks are vertical and depth. The installation of big rotary is difficult and impossible. So, the soil sampling at erosion banks were done by hands digging a hole to take a soil sample with PVC tubes of 10cm diameter and 20cm height. The soil samples were taken at 4 different stratum (2cm, 6cm, 8cm, 10cm) in 3 ranks of 20 meters from each others.

Reference

NU Newsletter, Updated Edition, September 2011, p.160

Factors of Production

2011-12-28T04:19:00.000-08:00

Historically, individuals, firms, and countries become rich if they possess more of the following four factors of production than their competitors:

Natural resources—things that are useful in their useful in their natural state, such as land, forests, minerals, and water
Human resources—anyone (from company presidents to grocery clerks) who works to produce goods and services
Capital—resources (such as money, computers, machines, tools, and buildings) that a business needs to produce goods and services
Entrepreneurs—people like Ted Waitt who are willing to take risks to create and operate businesses

In the past, putting some combination of these four factors together with reasonable management was the route to success. In fact, historians trace much of U.S. economic success to a combination of the country’s cheap, plentiful, well-located raw materials and farmland; its supportive environment for entrepreneurship; and its compulsory public education system. Together these factors have given the United States an economic edge.

Today, new technologies and modern transportation allow companies like electronic-connector manufacturer Molex to draw their supplies from one part of the world, locate their production facilities in another, and sell their products in a third. As a result, the natural resources factor, for all practical purposes, has dropped out of the competitive equation: Having natural resources is not the way to become rich, and not having them is not a barrier to becoming rich. For example, even though the Japanese have the world’s best steel industry, they have neither iron ore nor coal.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

Supply and Demand

2011-12-28T04:07:00.000-08:00

Demand refers to the amount of a good or service that consumers will buy at a given time at various prices. It is the immediate driving force of the economy. On the other hand, supply refers to the quantities of a good or service that producers will provide on a particular date at various prices. In other words, Demand is a shorthand way of describing the behavior of buyers, whereas supply refers to the behavior of sellers. Both work together to impose a kind of order on the market system.

Buyer’s Perspective

The forces of supply and demand determine the market price for products and services. Say that you’re shopping for blue jeans, and the pair you want is priced at $35. This is more than you can afford, so you don’t make the purchase. When the store puts them on sale the following week for $18, however, you run right in and buy a pair.

But what if the store had to buy the jeans from the manufacturer for $20. It would have made a profit selling them to you for $35, but it would lose money selling them for $18. What is the store asks to buy more from the manufacturer at $10 or $15 but the manufacturer refuses? Is there a price that will make both the supplier and the customer happy? The answer is yes—the price at which the number of jeans demanded equals the number supplied.

Seller’s Perspective

Now think about the situation from the seller’s point of view. In general, the more profit the store can make on a particular item, the more of that item it will want to sell. This relationship can also be depicted graphically. The store would be willing to offer 30 pairs of jeans at $35, 25 pairs at $30, and so on. The store’s willingness to carry the item increases as the price it can change and its profit potential per item increase. In other words, as price goes up, quantity supplied goes up.

Increasing supply to meet demand is not always easy. A company’s productivity is often determined by its access to resources, its stock of machinery, the skills and talents of its people, and overall morale. Often these are not controllable factors. For example, what if Ted Waitt could not find enough skilled employees to assemble Gateway computers? What if the equipment used in Gateway’s assembly operation were obsolete? Or what if Waitt wasn’t willing to take the necessary risks to start his business in the first place? Labor, equipment, and risk takers are inputs that all societies use to produce goods and services. Economists call these inputs factors of production.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

First and Only in Cambodia

2011-12-26T06:51:00.000-08:00

Hagar Soya is Cambodia's first and only large scale Soya milk producer which uses ultra high temperature processing technology (UHT) and TetraPak packaging which ensures a long shelf life-no refrigeration is needed.

With assistance from the Mekong Private sector Development facility (MPDF), a multi donor initiative of the international Finance Corporation (IFC), in 2003, Hagar Soya leapt from a small micro enterprise to a state of the art $1,3 million factory which has the capacity to produce 12,000 liters per day. Hagar Soya Produces three nutritious, quality Soya milk drinks-So! Soya, So! Soya Kids and So! Soya Gold.

All So! Soya milk drinks are made from locally grown, Organic soy Beans that are Grade A quality. So! Soya beans and adding filtered water and sweetener to give a smooth and refreshing flavour.

The enhanced nutritional content of So! Kids and So! Gold have been developed in conjunction with the nutritionist specialists Helen Keller Institute.

Hagar Soya is a commercial venture of Hagar, a Swiss-based Christian development agency who has been working with women and children in crisis in Cambodia since 1994.

As a social enterprise Hagar Soya provides employment to women from Hagar's projects who have been trafficked, abused, abandoned and impoverished. Hagar Soya Profits will be returned to Hagar Social Projects.

Reference

cag magazine, Issue No. 24, April-May 2006, p.35

Competition

2011-12-21T03:20:00.000-08:00

In a free-market economy, customers are free to buy whatever and wherever they please. Therefore, companies must compete with rivals for potential customers. They might choose to compete in one of three ways: price, quality, or innovation.

Competition and Price

Southeast Airlines competes on price. It offers the lowest fares of any of its competitors. So does Dell computer. Each time Compaq loses a sale, it's either because of Dell's low price or because of Hewlett-Packard's and IBM's service and support. In fact, evidence of price competition is everywhere you look. Fast-food restaurants sell special meal deals at reduced prices, Coke sells 24-pak cans at $3.99, carmakers offer rebates and discounts, and stereo stores offer to beat any other price in town. These are all examples of using price to gain a competitive advantage--something that sets you apart from your rivals and makes your product more appealing to customers. When markets become filled with competitors and start to look alike, price often becomes a company's key competitive weapon.

Competition, Quality, and Service

Dominos Pizza was built on the convenience of home delivery. FedEx's so that customer orders are automatically shipped and tracked through the FedEx delivery system. Enterprise car rental has blown past its competitors. Instead of massing 10,000 cars at a few dozen airports, Enterprise sets up inexpensive rental offices just about everywhere. And as soon as one branch grows to 150 cars, the company opens another a few miles away. Enterprise's approach is astoundingly simple. If your car breaks down or needs service, Enterprise will provide you with a spare family car right at the dealer's service center. And it bets that you won't be in the mood to quibble about prices. These companies competes on quality and service, and my well end up with a total profit that's equal to or greater than the profit of a business that competes on price.

Competition and Innovation

Innovation has always been a way of life at 3M. For nearly a century, 3M's management has fostered creativity and given employees the freedom to take risks and try new ideas. Beginning with the invention of sandpaper in 1904, 3M has produced such staples as masking tape, cellophane tape, magnetic tape, and videotape--not to mention Scotchgard fabric and Post-it Notes.

Innovation not only drives growth, but it can also revolutionize an industry. Think of products like Rollerblades, AbFlex, Atomic hour-glass skis, and Burton & Sims snowboards. Each of these innovations revolutionized the sporting goods industry by creating new market opportunities and market demand.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

The Role of Government: Spending for the Public Good

2011-12-19T04:12:00.000-08:00

Although everybody hates to pay taxed, most of us are willing to admit they're a necessary evil. If the government didn't take your tax money and repair our nation's roads, would you be inclined to fix them yourself? Similarly, it might not be practical to rely on individual demand to provide police and fire protection, or to launch satellites. Instead, the government steps in and supplies such public goods.

In addition, U.S. society recognizes that some individuals aren't capable of supplying enough labor to provide themselves a decent standard of living. Instead of individuals each contributing voluntarily to care for these people, the government collects "contributions" in the form of taxes from those who are capable of supporting themselves and distributes the money to the less self-sufficient in the form of transfer payments such as Social Security, food stamps, welfare, and unemployment compensation. The individuals who receive these allocations are usually not required to provide any goods or services in return.

The United States is currently facing a problem with spending. for many years the annual budget deficit--on the order of several hundred billion dollars. When combined over time, these deficits have swelled the amount owed by the U.S. government (the national debt) to almost $5 trillion. As a result, interest payments alone on this debt cost U.S. taxpayers $250 billion a year--or $8,000 per second. In 1997 Congress approved a plan to pare down future deficits in order to balance the budget by 2002.

However, reductions in government spending can have rippling consequences. For instance, government spending boosts the economy, and it has a multiplier effect as it makes its way through the economy. Here's how it works. If the government decides to fund new highway projects, then thousands of construction people will work on the project and earn wages. If some of these workers decide to spend their extra income to buy new cars, car dealers will have more income. The car dealers, in turn, might spend this income on new clothes, and the sales clerks (who earn commission) might buy compact disks, and so on. This circular flow of money through the economic system shows that all elements of the U.S. economy are linked. Just as the bloodstream carries oxygen to the body's cells and carbon dioxide from those cells back to the lungs, the economy carries goods and services, which are exchanged for money.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

The Role of Government: Contributing to Economic Stability

2011-12-19T03:51:00.000-08:00

Another important role that the U.S. government plays in mixed capitalism is to contributing to the country's economic stability. An economy never stays exactly the same size. Instead, in grows and contracts in response to the combined effects of such factors as technological breakthroughs, changes in investment patterns, shifts in consumer attitudes, would events, and basic economic forces. These up-and-down swings are know as the business cycle. Although such swings are natural and to some degree predictable, they cause hardship. During periods of downward swing, or recession, consumers buy less, and factories produce less, so companies must lay off workers, who is turn buy less--and so on.

In an attempt to avoid such problems and to foster economic stability, the government can adjust the tax system, the interest rates, and the total amount of money circulating in our economy. These government actions have two facets: Fiscal policy involves changes in the government's revenues and expenditures to stimulate or dampen the economy. Monetary policy involves adjustments to the nation's money supply by increasing or controlled primarily by the Federal Reserve Board, a group of appointed government officials who oversee the country's central banking system.

Inflation and Disinflation Inflation is as steady rise in the prices of goods and services throughout the economy. When prices in the overall economy decline, economies use the term disinflation. Although prices in the overall economy tend to increase year after year, not all industries and product categories necessarily follow this trend. In the electronics industry, for instance, technological advances have the opposite effect--prices tend to drop as production increases.

One way economists measure the rate of inflation is by comparing the change in prices of goods and services over a period of time. The consumer price index (CPI) is a tool used to measure this price change. Although far from a perfect measure, the CPI keeps track of the prices of a representative basket of goods and services (like clothing, food, housing, and utilities) and applies weights to specific items to account for their relative importance in the market. The problem with this measure is that the representative basket of goods may not accurately represent the prices and consumption patterns of the area in which you live. In addition, the mix in this basket may not include new innovations that become key economic players in the future. Nonetheless, many industries use the CPI to adjust rent increases and employees' wages to keep them in line with the pace of inflation.

Employment and Unemployment When the U.S. government is strong, it has historically been able to employ about 95 percent of the people who are willing and able to work. During downturns in the business cycle, however, unemployment may become a major economic and social problem. The most extreme case in this century cam during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when unemployment affected as much as 25 percent of the labor force.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

The Role of Government: Fostering Competition

2011-12-19T03:14:00.000-08:00

Competition is the situation in which two or more suppliers of a product are rivals in the pursuit of the same customers. The theoretical ideal is pure competition, in which no single firm or group of firms in an industry is large enough to influence prices and thereby distort the workings of the free-market system. In practice, however, pure competition works better in some industries than in others. Compare the dry-cleaning business with the auto industry. The nature of dry cleaning is such that small, independent firms operating on a local level are efficient. This is not the case in the auto industry, in which large manufacturers are favored by economies of scale (cost efficiencies made possible by making or buying large quantities of an item).

If you set out to sell a product or service in a free-market society, chances are that someone else will be trying to sell something similar. Most of the competition in advanced free-market economies is monopolistic competition, in which a large number of sellers (none of which dominates the market) offer products that can be distinguished from competing products in at least some small way.

When an industry (such as the auto industry) is dominated by just a few producers, it is called an oligopoly. Although oligopolies themselves are not illegal, the government has the power to prevent combinations of firms that would reduce competition and lead to oligopolistic conditions in an industry. For example, in 1997 the government opposed the $4 billion merger of Staples and Office Depot, asserting that the combination would substantially impair competition and force consumers to pay higher prices for office supplies. However, months earlier the government allowed Boeing, the world’s largest commercial aircraft maker, to purchase McDonnell Douglas, the world’s largest military aircraft maker, because the two served different markets.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

The Role of Government: Enforcing Laws and Regulations

2011-12-19T03:12:00.000-08:00

The U.S. federal government creates thousands of new laws and regulations every year. Moreover, state and local governments are adding their own provisions to the body of regulations that limit what businesses and consumers can and cannot do. Thus the hand of government affects business activities, from applying for permits and licenses to starting a business and all the way through to advertising the product.

Sometimes government laws and regulations restrict the freedom of the marketplace. As a consumer, you can’t buy some medications without a doctor’s prescription; you can’t buy alcoholic beverages without a certificate proving that you’re old enough; and you can’t buy certain products lacking safety features, such as cars without seatbelts and medication without childproof tops. Some legislation, such as the Clean Air Act and the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, forced businesses to enact changes that cost millions and perhaps billions of dollars. The burden of regulation falls particularly hard on small companies, which often lack the legal and administrative resources to keep up with new rules. But just as government bodies create new regulations year after year, they sometimes seek to remove or relax existing regulations through the process of deregulation in order to foster competition.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

The Changing Nature of Economic System

2011-12-19T03:05:00.000-08:00

Although pure communism still has its supporters, the future of communism is dismal. According to economists Lester Thurow and Robert Heilbroner, “it’s the plan from above that eventually caused the Soviet communist system to break down. It’s a great deal easier to design and assemble the skeleton of a mighty economy than to run it.” For example, in a free-market system, mistakes are repaired and remedied as soon as possible because they cost the factory owners money. Thus, suppliers are told to hurry up or hold back on shipments, unprofitable items are canceled, and profitable ones run overtime. None of this happens in a society planned from top to bottom because the pursuit of private gain is nonexistent.

Because of such economic failure and the associated social unrest, the republics that were formerly part of the Soviet Union have now restructured their communist economies by shifting to market-driven systems. Many other planned economies are adopting free-market policies as well. They are selling off their government-owned enterprises to privately held firms to raise badly needed cash or to compete more effectively in the global marketplace. This trend is known as privatization and is occurring in countries like Great Britain, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, and France. In fact Israel plans to sell 50 of its 140 government-owned companies over the next 4 years, and the chairman of Air France is hopeful he can convince the French socialist government to privatize the airline. Even Sweden, one of the most committed socialist countries in the world, has been forced to trim its generous social role and push for more market-based competition among businesses, diminishing the role of its government in industry.

Likewise, China is taking steady steps toward a more market-based economy. In spite of hard-line communists who are trying to prevent political reform, China’s president wants to convert most of the country’s 305,000 state-owned companies into shareholder-owned corporations and open them to foreign competition—while keeping key industries under state control. But turning state-owned enterprises into world-class corporations is a huge task with no blueprint. Even so, China is making progress. In fact, business Week Projects that by 2003, one-tenth of all the goods produced in the world will come from developing nations of Asia (including India and China). China’s ability to carry out such reform will have a profound impact on the shape of the global economy in the twenty-first century.

Of cause, In spite of China’s progress, some businesspeople in Hong Kong are concerned. Hong Kong ceased being a British colony in 1997 and was returned to communist China. Many are worried that China’s preoccupation with the mainland may well erode the open, internationalist mentality that has long been Hong Kong’s chief advantage in Asia. As a result, hundreds of thousands of businesspeople and their families are leaving Hong Kong.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

The Role of Government

2011-12-19T02:58:00.000-08:00

Historically, government has played an important role in capitalism. The government collects involuntary taxes to raise funds to provide for public goods like education, national defense, and public highways. In addition, the economy sometimes needs a boost; at other times it needs to be slowed down a bit. That’s because although the free-market system generally works well, it’s far from perfect.
If left unchecked, the economic forces that make capitalism succeed may also create severe problems for some groups or individuals. The solution to these problems often requires governments to intervene by enforcing laws and regulations, fostering competition, contributing to economic stability, and spending for the public good.

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999

Self-Preparation For A Life After Graduating

2011-12-16T20:25:00.000-08:00

It is about most of the students will respond for their own life and living after graduating. This is the main problem that the graduate students worry about especially to find a good jobs with a reasonable salary to effort their living and continue to another course such as master degree to secure their jobs from a very competitive working market.

This worry is coming from a very competitive in working environment and other living conditions such as their current family condition, family income generation or and other young generation will come to study at university in Phnom Penh and stay with them.

This worry would be reduced while the students know and understand clearly their university program that caring about their students not just educating but also jobs. The university is providing more relevant capacity building training courses and others relevant service to help the students to win the job hunting before or after graduating easily and effectively.

The students themselves have to use all resources provided in the best and always remember that the success is coming from a clear goal, good strategies and plan, and right action.

As mention above and as a gift for the up coming academic year, we will bring the basic successful concepts to the students for their self-preparation for a getting a good job after graduating as the following:

1. Understanding about Environment of Working Market Situation

As a proverb stated that "To live and work safely and successfully, you have to know everything about yourself clearly". Then this is one of the most important steps that the students have to understand about their living environment especially to understand about a very competitive working market as Cambodian facing after their Lots of international investors are interesting to invest while others international non-profit institution considered to open their facilities here in Cambodia. This is the starting point that the students have to be aware and ask themselves few questions for getting a good jobs.

What types of works/jobs are coming/creating?
Who will come with these jobs/works? Or who will be managers of those jobs?
What are their languages and how do they work? Working equipment? Material?
What skill/criteria will those jobs/works require?
How to the students prepare their selves to apply and win on the jobs?

2- Explore Your Interest, Value, and Skill

After answering to the above questions, the students might be able know themselves with three more important questions as:

What are they?
Where are thy?
And what should they do next?

Sometime the dreaming career from their childhood could not be fit to the current situation of the country and also family condition. Anyway, that career would be change when they growth up and up. The first thing that the students have to do is linking their current position. They have to explore their interested career and skill from this working market and working environment. A career plan has to be formed up immediately and bring it to discuss with the experience person such as Career consultants or Lecturers after exploration.

3- Using all Important Resources and Programs Where Prepare by Your University

"A smart person is a person can use and take the advantages from all the resource around himself". As the students of the university who providing huge resources such Norton University, they have to absorb and use those provided and useful resources as much as you can and in the best way.

Career consulting and job seeking service

Go and discuss with the career consultant or lecturers in order to get some comments or experience from them as a bridge for your self improvement. Because sometime your consultant or lecturers' experiences allow them have a long vision and perspective in field of working market than what you have predicted. Further more your consultants or lecturers would be able to list our some more relevant courses that you have to learn more and your weakness point that you have to improve. And they can also let you missed in your working plan.

Jobs Information board

When time is available, the students should spend a least about 5 minutes per day stand in front of Jobs Information board in order to know that:

How many company or organizations need the position in your chosen career?
How often it was announced? What are the requirement criteria?
Do they have those required skills/criteria yet? Any certificates as evidence?
Do you have any other skills beside of what company listed as advantage to the post?
If they applied, how many percent that they expect for interview call?

Internet service provided

What the internet service is provided free of charge to all the students of Norton University, the students themselves should take this advantage from these unlimited resources for knowledge and capacity improving and knowing how the world is going. If you can use internet effectively with you sufficient English you would be able to expand your world of knowledge and working as soon as you do never think about.

4- Check out yourself

You have to check out your self against to what is in your career plan and current work requirement vary often or every academic year in order to find out which point you to improve. The university produces thousands of graduated students every year and they will be your strong competitors the future. Suppose that now you are the 2nd year student at Norton University. You will have 2 years more to graduate. So if your competitor graduate this year and immediately have a job, they would be a 2 years experienced competitor for you when you graduated. Then let ask and answer by yourself from now and on?

The most important points are:

Character and Attitude
Knowledge, skill and Relevant Skill
Building good relation with friend or people who are having a job
Any experience from o a part time job or volunteer

5- Develop strategies for finding a job

Put in your mind that "you must be the number one in jobs hunting!" and please don't think that to get a good job after graduating just looked like a final exam at the end of every semester of academic year. It is very different from each other. You can pass the final exam if your scores is over the limited line but being a job winner you have to win all the candidates which can say that you must be best in very thing such as general knowledge, skill and attitude...etc. Then for being a winner and success in a post, you have to strategize clearly toward to goal since you are in the class. Be reminded that sometime your colleagues can be a key person and holding a human resource posts or other but they come to the class for building their own capacity to comply with their organization. They can observe and not the students who qualify to each position in their organization. Then you have to take the advantaged and opportunities for yourself. You have to be an active, creative and smart student in class, a good manner person who always make good relation to every colleague gently. You have express to the class that you will be the manager and leader after graduating.

"No one can crated an opportunity for you unless yourself" "To live and work safely and successfully, you have to know everything about yourself clearly"

By Mr. Mak Somanak

Reference

NU Newsletter, September 2010/January 2011, p.150

What is Cloud Computing ?

2011-12-15T21:33:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Suppose you're an executive at a large corporation. Your responsibilities include making sure that all of your employees have the right hardware and software they need to do their jobs. Buying computers for everyone isn't enough you also have to purchase software or software licenses to give employees the tools they need. Whenever you have a new hire, you have to buy more software or make sure your current software license allows another user. Soon, there may be an alternative for executives like you. Instead of installing a suite of software for each computer, you'd only have to load a browser. The browser would allow workers to log into a web-based service which hosts all the programs the user would need for his or her job. Remote machines owned by another company would run everything from e-mail to word processing to complex data analysis programs. It's called cloud computing, and it will change the entire computer industry.

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.

The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (LaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as other recent technology trends that have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users. Cloud computing services usually provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

The term cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams, and is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals.

Characteristics

The customers engaging in cloud computing do not own the physical infrastructure serving as host to the software platform in question. Instead, they rent usage from a third-party provider. They consume resources as services they use. Many cloud-computing offerings are analogous to how traditional utilities like electricity or water are consumed, while others are billed on a subscription basis.

Architecture

The majority of cloud computing infrastructure, as of 2009, consists of reliable services delivered through data centers and built on servers whit differentlevels of virtualization technologies. the services are accessible anywhere that has access to networking infrastructure. The Cloud appears as a single point of access for all the computing needs of consumers. Commercial offerings need to meet the quality of service requirements of customers and typically offer service level agreements. Open standards are critical to the growth of cloud computing and open source software has provided the foundation for many cloud computing implementations.

Components of Cloud Computing Application

A cloud application often eliminates the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, thus alleviating the burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support.

Client

A cloud client consists of computer hardware and/or computer software which relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or which is specifically designed for delivery of cloud services and which, in either case, in essentially useless without it.

Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure, such as Infrastructure as a service, is the delivery of computer infrastructure, typically a platform virtualization environment, as a service.

Platform

A cloud platform, such as Platform as a service, the delivery of a computing platform, facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.

Service

A cloud service includes products, services and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real-time over the Internet.

Storage

Cloud storage involves the delivery of data storage as a service, including database-like services, often billed on a utility computing basis, e.g, per gigabyte per month.

References
Keep an eye on cloud computing
http://www.ntworkworld.com/newsletters/itlead/2008/070708itlead.html
Microsoft plans "cloud" Operating System
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/technology/28soft.html
InfoWorld: what-cloud-computing-really-means
http://www.infoworld.com/cloudComputing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031.html
Cloud Computing: The Evolution of Software-as-a-Service
http://knowledge.wpcarey.asu.edu/article.cfm/articleid=1614

Source

NU Newsletter, September 2010/January 2011, p.142

Your Guide To More Strategic Advertising

2011-12-14T03:48:00.000-08:00

Do you have U.S.P.?

Does your product or service have a U.S.P.? If you don't, you'll probably offering your product or services to your market based on purely pricing and distribution. A situation that should be avoided because your competitors can easily out price you; resulting in loss of market share.

Many products in Cambodia fall in this category unfortunately. However in the past, many products managed to survive because there weren't many competitors then. Today as the economy is improving and people in general are better informed, a product need to offer more than its basic function in order to be competitive. We are talking about USP, the Unique Selling Proposition.

And it's not just simply making a claim for your product that does hold true. A USP is an advantage your product has over the competitors besides the price. It could be a function that is unique to your product. It could be benefit that only your product can offer better compared to your competitor. Or it could be an image you hold. Whatever it is, it separates your product from the multitude of me too products in the market.

A few decades ago it was easier to identify the USP because then the manufacturing industry were very secretive and everyone guarded their manufacturing secrets with their life. For example, Coca-Cola & Pepsi Cola had their unique formula when producing their soft drinks. McDonalds had their secret recipe for their meat patties in the BigMac. Petroleum giants like Caltex had their super engine cleaning fuel formula. Citroen cares guaranteed that their cars can never overturn if you make a tight turn or they'll replace it with a new car.

But today, manufacturing secrets are not so secret anymore. Production's main goal is to produce cheaper and make maximum profits. China's economy grew with double digits for more than a decade based on the fundamental concept of producing ever cheaper goods.

So where's the USP in today's products or services? instead of physical uniqueness, many products today offer different image to suit the target market. Just look at the beer or cigarette industry and you can see a clear distinction in imagery. Just for illustration sake, take Tiger Beer which is sold above US$1.50 in the supermarket in Cambodia. On the same shelf we have Lao Beer which which is selling for US$0.50. On purely product cost, does it actually take more than twice the cost to produce Tiger Beer than Lao Beer? Obviously the answer is no. They both use water s their main ingredient and added malt, hops for taste. Many of these ingredients do not contribute a significant difference in cost. So why do consumers pay double for a product that is more a less similar in production cost. The answer boils down to imagery. A Tiger drinker only want to be seen or feel that they can afford more expensive product, something that gives a false sense of gratification and are willing to pay for it. Advertising plays an important role in creating this point of difference in imagery. The same goes for 555 cigarette over lets say a Red Eagle cigarette. Does the tobacco actually cost 4 times the price to produce. Obviously no again. So what we can see in these products are clearly not entirely physical product difference but really the difference in perceived imagery.

Today's USP are more often Unique Status Proposition. So for our brands or services we should strive to create this USP of imagery to set our products apart from the others and hope that it'll hold for a long time to come. The power to do this and maintain it is through good strategic advertising.

By Richard Chiew B.A. (Canada)
Managing Creative Director of Adfocus

Reference

cag magazine, Issue No. 24, April 2006-May 2006, p. 43

Issues Of Urban Planning And Development Of Our City In The Globalizing Era

2011-12-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

Water is not only important for human life but also for city and living habitat. Such importance of water as an essential element of the city has been long recognized.

One of the many reasons to select "Chaktomuk River" to build the current Royal Palace, the origin of the now capital city of Cambodia, was based on its ideal strategic location. Such a waterfront location plays important roles in life support, trade movement, leisure activity and ecology.

Debates about livable cities put emphasis on a balance between the built and natural environments, as well as human being. That is, the physical development of any city needs to take into account the natural environment such as blue-green networks and their potentials, if it is to achieve "urban sustainability"goals. Can Phnom Penh be characterized as a livable city? The answer is still uncertain.

The current city development trend, which is apparently in favor of the "land-fill city-expansion strategy implemented throughout the city planning and development history of Phnom Penh following previous governments to make ways for new land-based developments, is not innovative enough to respond to high magnitudes and scales of development, as well as urban population growth and economic growth pressures at the present time. Regional planning that goes beyond the city core should be advanced in the city development framework and governance systems in this globalizing era.

Flooding in Phnom Penh city can be expected in at least rainy reasons due to the filling of natural lakes, which functioned as water reservoirs. The national and city government must not overlook the ways in which our city is moving and developed without properly being planned. The solution to flooding by constructing costly pumping stations to pump the water out is absolutely unsustainable. The lack of disaster and where are resilient planning for our city, the magnitude of natural disasters is unpredictable but surely giant. Then, how can the city function? How much will city economy be affected? How many people will be victims of such an reactive city development approach? How much money will the government spend to recover from disasters and where are sources of the money? To be resilient, our city must be planned properly and readily to cope with natural disasters. Before flooding starts and then worsens our city function, development should favor the public interest. Lakes as well as natural water catchments should be preserved so that they can continue to play their roles in storing million cubic meters of water, thereby preventing from flooding the city.

Another aspect of city development should look at the transportation planning issue. The efforts to expand road capacity and direct traffic flow at many intersections in Phnom Pneh are well recognized. Still, everyone who goes to work in the central areas of the city in the morning during peak problem. What are the root causes of these problems?

The question is simple, but of course it is not easy to answer and I am not trying to answer it either. However, a few main ideas are important for consideration in urban policy-making, if the city government wants to ease the traffic tension.

The city government should ask itself that: "Are all the developments, residential housing and employment and commercial centers, for example, taking place in an ad hoc or planned manner?" and "how such developments change the traffic pattern in the city?" In short, land use planning and transport planning should be considered as important steps towards an environmental sustainability. Then, tools for implementation must be put in place development control.

It is then urgent that the city government should not undermine what is happening in the city, if future development still follows the same track of the current development trend; it must take the above issues into account in its policy-making in order to provide a sake of our city's future. Without a true vision and a plan to achieve it, our city will become a mother of traffic jam in Asia, a stage at which we can only see environmental degradation and its impact on the public health.

The "Pearl of Asia City" or the now so-called "Diamond City" status will never return or even think of. In the mid-1960s, the first Singaporean Premier Lee Kuan Yew used to visit Phnom Penh and considered Phnom Penh to be a model of his city. Now, Singapore is far ahead of Phnom Penh, in terms of the city development and planning context, and it is, to many, known as a "garden city" on small tiny island in Southeast Asia. Why does Singapore reach this stage in history? Of course, the political will and commitment are fundamental; that I, the will and commitment to make a change for the public interest.

In fact, do not encourage to plan and develop Phnom Penh to be the second Singapore, as our city has its own unique potentials, just yet to be capitalized on.

By Meng Bunnarith

Reference

Norton University Newsletter, September 2010 / January 2011, p.112, 113

Gearing Up: Returning From Schooling In Paris To His Homeland, Pily Wong Brought All His Passions With Him

2011-12-13T04:11:00.000-08:00

AIMING HIGH
Cambodia-born Pily Wong was raised in France, where he studied Information Technology then International Trade and Chinese at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations in Paris. A serial entrepreneur, this 36-year-old is president of the Information and Communication Technology Business Association of Cambodia and French Cambodian Chamber of Commerce.

There's only one car life in the showroom. "The last months have been good," says Pily Wong as we both clamber into the luxury vehicle to talk.

The last eight years have been good too, apparently. The young head of Mercedes Cambodia can't remember a time when turnover hasn't increased since he took over the family business in 2002. Until then, the young Wong had been picturing himself as a future IT developer. He was studying in France when his father, who fled Cambodia during the war, decided to return to his native country and relaunch the family's car import business.

"A few years later, he asked me to come and took me to visit partners and clients. We spent much time in fancy restaurants and I thought that if that's what being a businessman in about, I should accept his proposal, "Pily Wong recalls.

This was way back in the beginning. Wong is still a gourmet, but he less time for wining and dining today.

Hung Hiep, of which he is CEO, distributes not only Mercedes and Volkswagen cars in Cambodia, but also consumer goods. Activities even extend to marine equipment and port projects.

The smiling serial entrepreneur's second employer is Microsoft, for which he acts as Cambodia's country manager. His latest venture is called Dragon Holdings AG, a company listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange that develops financial trading systems based on smart mathematical algorithms.

Never mind the pirates

With such a diverse set of professional activities, Wong's weekly schedules are anything but regular. "My work for Microsoft takes around 50% of my time. In the beginning that was 100%," he says.

In 2007, Wong heard from the US software giant's Cambodian distributor that the company was looking for a local representative. "I had studied IT, but was not working for any IT company here so I had no conflict of interests. I thought I could make them benefit from the network I had built thanks to the car business. With the support of the distributor, I sent them my application and it worked."

One would like think you must be suicidal, crazy or both to sell software in Cambodia, a haven for pirates. "My friends were telling me I was very brave, but generating direct revenues is actually just a part of the job. Microsoft has a long-term approach in Cambodia. I am in charge of a market development programme paving the way to a stronger presence. It consists of the gradual building of a distribution network, the education of the public about anti-piracy and advice to corporate clients."

Microsoft sells customised IT solutions in Cambodia, most notably in the fields of IT security, collaborative sites and document management. Among its clients are public entities with projects finance by the Wold Bank and other donors; banks; telecommunications firms and multinationals.

It is not all about the product

With cars just as with software, Wong believes in education and service. Less than 2,000 new vehicles are sold every year, compared to more than 100,00 secondhand, proving the Cambodian market for brand new cars i tiny.

Competing with cheap re-sellers is no easy task. "The problem is that most Cambodians still think that buying from an established outfit is synonymous with a bad bargain. It is a question of mindset. For them, circumventing the system is always better."

The number of customers who are beginning to realise what reliability and post-sale service are really worth is, however, on the rise. "With time, the numerous breakdowns and accidents due to the poor quality of used cars play in our favour," he notes. "People who buy with us know they get a guarantee and are not cheated on equipment. Mercedes even adjusts the tuning of its cars to the country's rough road conditions."

As president of the French Cambodian Chamber of Commerce, Wong is happy that French political interest in the region is on the rise. "France is reviving strong diplomatic ties with Asia. We were waiting for this for long," he says.

With Cambodian roots and a solid knowledge of Mandarin, Wong sees an opportunity to bring the country's business communities closer together. Though, for further growth, Wong says the country should expand its skill base. "The garment industry may be good for the short-term. However, it would be a pity to only employ our young labour force with activities of poor added value."

Electricity costs remain a major burden, but Wong stresses the country's infrastructure is good enough to support the development of a healthy IT sector. "And we can train network administrators in three years" he adds.

It may take a little longer to turn Cambodia into Asia's Silicon Valley, but, just as with Microsoft, Wong is planning for the long-term.

By Philippe Beco

Reference

Southeast Asia Globe, April 2011, p.38, 39

Types of Economic Systems

2011-12-12T18:24:00.000-08:00

An economic system is a basic set of rules for allocating a society’s resources to satisfy its citizens’ needs. The link between economy and society is crucial; every nation’s economic system is shaped by its political and social values.

Regardless of exactly how each economic system operates, they all compete in the same world economy, and all must deal with the same basic questions: How should limited economic resources be used to satisfy society’s needs? What goods and services should be produced? Who should produce them? How should these goods and services be divided among the population? Such questions are addressed differently by the three main economic systems: capitalism, communism, and socialism. The best way to distinguish between these systems is in terms of the freedom they give individuals to pursue their own economic interest. (Keep in mind that even though capitalism, communism, and socialism are discussed here as economic systems, they can be political and social systems as well.)

The main economic system

Reference

Michael H. Mescon, Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, Business Today, 9th edition, Prentice Hall, 1999