Need Passion

How to Get Meetings with People Too Busy to See You

2013-08-27T00:28:00.002-07:00

By Steve Blank ~ Retired serial entrepreneur-turned educator and author The Startup Owner's Manual

Asking, “Can I have coffee with you to pick your brain?” is probably the worst possible way to get a meeting with someone with a busy schedule. Here’s a better approach.

——

Jason, an entrepreneur I’ve known for over a decade, came out to the ranch today. He was celebrating selling his company and just beginning to think through his next moves. Since he wasn’t from Silicon Valley, he decided to use his time up here networking with other meetings with VC’s and company executives.

I get several hundred emails a day, and a good number of them are “I want to have coffee with you to bounce an idea off.” Or, “I just want to pick your brain.” I now have a filter for which emails get my attention, so I was curious in hearing what Jason, who I think of as pretty good at networking, was asking for when he was trying to set up meetings.

“Oh, I ask them if I can have coffee to bounce an idea off of them.”…Sigh.

I realized most entrepreneurs don’t know how to get meetings with people too busy to see you.

Perfect World
Silicon Valley has a “pay-it-forward” culture where we try to help each other without asking for anything in return. It’s a culture that emerged in the 60’s semiconductor business when competitors would help each other solve bugs in their chip fabrication process. It continued in the 1970’s with the emergence of the Homebrew Computer Club, and it continues today. Since I teach, I tend to prioritize my list of meetings with first my current students, then ex-students, then referrals from VC firms I’ve invested in, and then others. But still with that list, and now with a thousand plus ex-students, I have more meeting requests than I possibly can handle. (One of the filters I thought would keep down the meetings is have meetings at the ranch; an hour from Stanford on the coast, but that hasn’t helped.)

So I’ve come up with is a method to sort out who I take meetings with.

What are you offering?
I’m not an investor, and I’m really not looking for meetings with entrepreneurs for deal flow. I’m having these meetings because someone is asking for something from me – my time – and they think I can offer them advice.

If I’d had infinite time I’d take every one of these “can I have coffee” meetings. But I don’t. So I now prioritize meetings with a new filter: Who is offering me something in return.

No, not offering me money. Not for stock. But who is offering to teach me something I don’t know.

The meeting requests that now jump to the top of my list are the few, very smart entrepreneurs who say, “I’d like to have coffee to bounce an idea off of you and in exchange I’ll tell you all about what we learned about xx.”

This offer of teaching me something changes the agenda of the meeting from a one-way, you’re learning from me, to a two-way, we’re learning from each other.

It has another interesting consequence for those who are asking for the meeting – it forces them to think about what is it they know and what is it they have learned – and whether they can explain it to others in a way that’s both coherent and compelling.

Irony – it’s Customer Discovery
While this might sound like a, “how to get a meeting with Steve” post, the irony is that this “ask for a two-way meeting” is how we teach entrepreneurs to get their first customer discovery meetings; don’t just ask for a potential customers time, instead offer to share what you’ve learned about a technology, market or industry.

It will increase your odds in any situation you’re asking for time from very busy people – whether they are VC’s, company executives or retired entrepreneurs.

Lessons Learned
Wanting to have coffee is an ask for a favor
Offering to share knowledge is a different game
Try it, your odds of getting a meeting will increase
And the meetings will be more productive

Stop Using These 30 Phrases At Work!

2013-08-25T22:48:00.001-07:00

By Bernard Marr ~ Best-selling business author and enterprise performance expert

I reckon every office or workplace has one of those people that are just full of jargon-ridden management drivel. Does this kind of 'management speak' remind you of someone at your work place: "Before going forward we have to touch base and reach out to our key stakeholders so that we can drill down into the key issues that are not yet on our radar and catch the low-hanging fruits..."

Are you surrounded by people who annoyingly can't get enough of the management gobbledygook and who utter one jargon buzzword after another? Are your meetings buzzing with so much management lingo that you find it hard to get to the real meaning of what is being said? The problem I have with these phrases is that they sound so pretentious and often are counter-productive because they irritate people so much and deflect from the real meaning.

Below are my top 30 most irritating and overused phrases we hear at work. I am sure you have others that you can add to this list. Let's make it the most comprehensive list of unnecessary management drivel ever - Please add your ones using the comment field!

For me, these are my top 30 most irritating jargon phrases and words used at work:

Going forward
Drill-down
End of play
Touch base
It's on my radar
No brainer
Best of breed
Low hanging fruit
Reach out
Dive deeper
Think outside the box
Positive momentum
Execute
Milestones
Run the numbers
Touch points
Keep your eye on the ball
Back to the drawing board
Get the ball rolling
Bang for your buck
Close the deal
Leverage
Shift paradigm
Move the needle
Game-changing
Move the goal post
Value added
Win-win
Across the piece
All hands on deck

What do you think? Do you agree? Are these the most irritating phrases?

Top 10 Tell-Tale Signs Of A Bad Boss

2013-08-21T05:13:00.002-07:00

By Bernard Marr - Best-selling business author and enterprise performance expert

Let's face it; we have all seen and experienced bad bosses. There are the ones that bully, the ones that only care about themselves and their own career, the cowards that hide behind others or the ones that drive you mad by trying to tell you how to do your job in the minutest level of detail. Seeing bad bosses in action can be hilarious but if you are on the receiving end of a bad boss it is usually no laughing matter. Bad bosses cause so much unnecessary stress in the work place and are a major cause of reduced productivity and performance.

The thing is that we are often not fully aware why we get stressed by our bosses, they just make us feel uncomfortable or in the worst case completely stressed out. I work with so many different companies all over the world, across all industries and sectors and believe I can tell whether someone is a good boss or not within seconds of meeting them and their team. You can just tell by what they say, how they say it and how they and their team behave. Here are my top ten tell-tale signs of a bad boss:

The Ego-Tripper - a boss that is arrogant, shows off at any opportunity and is in constant need of boosting his or her ego
The Coward - a boss that takes on no accountability and often hides behind others
The Micromanager - a boss that believes he knows how others should do their job, who can't trust people to just get on with their job and instead and micro-manages everything they do
The Incapable - a boss that has been promoted beyond his or her capabilities, has no clue how to do the job and has lost all respect of subordinates and co-workers
The Over-friendly Mate - a boss that inappropriately wants to be your best mate or nearest friend
The Bad Communicator - a boss that is unable to communicate anything effectively, be it the corporate strategy or individual performance feedback
The Plagiarizer - a boss that takes credit for other people's work or ideas and passes it off as his own (especially to his or her boss)
The Negative - a boss that just can't say anything positive and instead turns everything into doom-and-gloom
The Ego-Centric - a boss that doesn't care about the people who work for him and is not interested in helping, coaching and developing anyone else but himself
The Criticiser- a boss that is quick to critisize mistakes others make and is unable to provide constructive feedback

For me, each of the above are clear signs of a bad manager and when you get a boss with one or maybe two of the signs then you can usually manage around them (not ideal but doable). Really problematic is when you end up with a boss that shows several of them at the same time, in which case I can only wish you good luck!

Employee Retention Now a Big Issue: Why the Tide has Turned

2013-08-17T09:17:00.001-07:00

By Josh Bersin ~ Principal and Founder, Bersin by Deloitt

What does Retention Mean?

Nearly all companies measure turnover. In some industries (retail, customer service, hospitality) turnover rates of 30-40% are common and sometimes even accepted. I had a conversation with one HR manager who told me "we design our organization around high-turnover: we make sure jobs are easy to learn so we can rapidly assimilate new people."

While this may be a reality in many companies, our research shows that it's not a sound strategy. Regardless of the role they play, tenured employees drive far greater value than those who are "cycling through" the business.

Many studies show that the total cost of losing an employee can range from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5-2X annual salary.

Consider the real "total cost" of losing an employee:

Cost of hiring a new person (advertising, interviewing, screening, hiring)
Cost of onboarding a new person (training, management time)
Lost productivity (a new person may take 1-2 years to reach the productivity of an existing person)
Lost engagement (other employees who see high turnover disengage and lose productivity)
Customer service and errors (new employees take longer and are often less adept at solving problems). In healthcare this may result in much higher error rates, illness, and other very expensive costs (which are not seen by HR)
Training cost (over 2-3 years you likely invest 10-20% of an employee's salary or more in training, that is gone)
Cultural impact (whenever someone leaves others take time to ask "why?").

And most importantly of all, we have to remember that people are what we call an "appreciating asset." The longer we stay with an organization the more productive we get - we learn the systems, we learn the products, and we learn how to work together.

The Economic Value of Employees over Time

Consider the following simple chart. It simply shows that initially most employees are a "cost" to the organization, and that over time, with the right talent practices, they become more and more valuable. Our job in HR is to attract the "right people" and move them up this curve as rapidly and effectively as possible.

Fig 1: Economic Value of an Employee to the Organization over Time

Obviously for us as employees, we see this same effect. Early in our days in a new job we feel somewhat unproductive and often search for ways to add more value. But in the right environment (onboarding, coaching, training, teamwork) we rapidly "find our place" and start to add more and more value.

A New Model to Drive Retention: Your Talent "System"

Right now retention has become an important topic for many reasons. The economy is picking up; young employees want more career growth; the work environment in companies has not kept up with the outside world; management doesn't always understand how to motivate younger people; and in developing economies the workforce is simply in great demand and the competition for talent is fierce. Added to this, of course, tools like LinkedIn now make it easier than ever for you to look for a new job (or get poached).

And we know that high-performing companies have loyal employees. I can't quote statistics on this topic, but it's well understood that high-performing companies serve their employees just as well as they serve their customers. One of the most important studies on this was done by Harvard many years ago and it proves that only by making your employees happy can you ultimately make your customers happy.

Other research by Wayne Cascio called "Lay off the Layoffs" similarly shows that companies that push layoffs on their employees create long term problems which often take years to fix. The reason? Layoffs, like retention problems, create low levels of employee commitment which in turn move employees back down the value curve. Covey's wonderful book "The Speed of Trust" clearly explains this in ways that leaders can understand.

So how do we "improve" or "fix" our retention issues?

Much common wisdom over the years blames first line management. Over and over I hear the words "people don't leave companies they leave managers." Of course there is much truth to this - nobody wants to work for an uncaring, difficult manager. But our research shows that the real "retention model" in companies is far more complex.

When we look at retention (Deloitte has both a "retention diagnostic" as well as a "retention analytics" model) we find that each company has its own unique "retention model."

Typically the model involves a whole variety of factors, and these factors take on different weights depending on the age, demographic, and role of the employee. So your goal is not to simply do one thing, but to understand your own company's "retention drivers" by role.

Some of the interesting things to consider:

Compensation plays a role, but not as much as you may think. All the experience we have shows that for mid-performing people compensation is a "hygiene" factor - too little money will definitely create high churn, but over compensating people won't make up for a poor work environment.
Of course in sales and other highly competitive positions compensation is critically important, but it is by no means the only driver.
Job fit is critically important. For years companies have talked about the "employee value proposition." In reality there is a "job value proposition." Are you attracting the "right people" for each job? Some jobs are particularly demanding (ie. consulting roles where travel is intense). If you honestly explain these roles and their positives and negatives you will attract people that "fit." If you over-sell the job you'll suffer high turnover.
Career opportunities matter. Today most companies are going through a "crew shift" as boomer generation employees retire and millenials and young people enter management and high value positions. Younger folks are motivated by growth, career opportunity, and meaning. Our research several years ago showed that while young people want the same types of benefits and work-life balance as older people, they are particularly focused on fun, collaboration, and the ability to be with others they enjoy. So the prospect of a "career" is more than just advancement (which was the way I was raised).
The work environment matters. We've done lots of research over the years on recognition, engagement, leadership, and management. It all shows clearly that people at work respond through Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Once they are "safe" - ie. paid well, they look for more meaningful value at work. Is this work taking advantage of my skills? Do people appreciate me? Is the environment inclusive and diverse so that I feel that I fit? Does this company do work I feel proud of?
These "non-compensation" and "non-job" factors are bigger than ever now. We're going to be launching new research on the employee value proposition in the coming quarters and all evidence shows that we have to think about our organizations as a "system" which engages employees. The CEO sets the tone and leadership plays a role, but so do all these other cultural and human aspects of the workplace.

Is your organization suffering from a retention challenge? Are you feeling "disconnected" or perhaps unrewarded in your job? If the answer is yes, I'd suggest that your CHRO or CEO needs to be thinking about retention in a more strategic way.

Ultimately the most successful and enduring organizations in business are those that have a common sense of mission, a deep respect for their employees (and customers of course), and put time, energy, and money into building a highly engaging environment. They carefully select the "right people" with lots of hard work, and once people join they take the time to make sure they have development opportunities to move up the value curve.

"Retention" may be no more than a symptom, but it's something you should take seriously. In today's heating economy and rapid shift in demographics, you'll be competing for talent regardless of your industry.

The Creativity Compass

2013-07-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

By Joichi I. - Director, MIT Media Lab

This framework first came up in a conversation with John Maeda. The original observation was that artist and scientists tend to work well together, and scientists and engineers work well together, but that scientists and engineers don’t work as well together, and likewise, neither do artists and designers. Engineers and designers tend to focus on utility and understand the world through observation and gathering the constraints of a problem to come up with a solution. Artists and scientists, on the other hand are inspired by nature or math, and they create through pure inner creativity and pursue expression that is more connected to things like truth or beauty than something so imperfect as mere utility. Which is to say, there are many more ways to divide the brain than into left and right hemispheres.

However, I think a lot of the most interesting and impactful creative works tend to require all the use of all four quadrants. Many of the faculty at the Media Lab work in the dead center of this grid—or as I like to call it, this compass—or perhaps they lean in one direction, but they’re able to channel skills from all four quadrants. Neri Oxman, one of our faculty members who recently created The Silk Pavilion, told me that she is both an artists and a designer but switches between the modes as she works on an idea. And to look at The Silk Pavilion, it’s clear she could easily qualify as either a scientist or engineer, too.

I think that there are a variety of practices and ways of thinking we can use to get to the center of this compass. The key is to pull these quadrants as close together as possible. An interdisciplinary group would have a scientist, an artist, a designer, and an engineer working with each other. But this only reinforces the distinctions between these disciplines. And it’s much less effective than having people who use all four quadrants, as the project or problem requires.

The tyranny of traditional disciplines and functionally segregated organizations fail to produce the type of people who can work with this creativity compass, but I believe that in a world where the rate of change increases exponentially, where disruption has become a norm instead of an anomaly, the challenge will be to think this way if we want to effectively solve the problems we face today, much less tomorrow.

Should You Present Yourself as Specialist or as Generalist

2013-07-23T21:11:00.002-07:00

By Nicholas Thompson - Editor of Newyorker.com

The New Yorker Website has been hiring a lot of people lately. That means that I've been interviewing lots of job candidates, and I've realized something I hadn't thought when I was on the other side of the table: sometimes you should present yourself as a specialist and sometimes as a generalist.

The difference depends on whether the place you're applying is growing quickly. If it's not, be specific. Explain exactly why you should fill that particular position. Research the job, and make the best case that you deserve it. If applying for a job at a place that's growing fast, though, be more general. They're considering you for that position—and they may also be considering you for other positions. If they aren't, you may still pop into mind when they have their next opening. We had a big search a few months ago for what started as one job. So far, we've already hired three people from that pool and a fourth has become a regular contributor. Everyone we've hired made a great first impression, even if they weren't exactly the right fit for the initial spot.

Achievement of Organization Excellence Through HRIS

2011-01-22T01:52:00.000-08:00

In the modern dynamic business workplace, Information Technology (IT) works competently and reliably that ultimately resultant the increase in work efficiency by reducing the unnecessary processes as well as boost up the profit by reducing the cost. Computers and Human Resources Information Systems Managers both play a central role in the implementation and administration of technology within their department. They plan, coordinate, and direct research on the computer-related activities of their department. In consultation with other managers, they help to determine the goals and then implement technology to meet those goals. Before defining the imperative and critical use of Information System in the job of HR managers in an organization, we must define their roles and responsibilities.

In today's rapidly changing business world Human Resources department has to play a very critical role in any organization. Either it concerns to the hiring or firing of employees or it relates to employee motivation, the HR department of any organization now engages in a very central role, not only to formulating policies, but also in streamlining the business process(es). HR set up strategies and formulates policies with the help of information systems to ensure that the desired goals and objectives are met on the right time.

To make a human resource department more effective and efficient new technologies are now being introduced on a regular basis so make things much simpler and more modernized. One of the latest human resource technologies is the introduction of a Human Resources Information System (HRIS); this integrated system is designed to help provide information used in HR decision making such as administration, payroll, recruiting, training, and performance analysis.

To manage the Human Resources in an organization managers use Human Resource Information System (HRIS). It is basically dedicated software that helps to execute, monitor and standardize HR Processes in any organization. HR managers and executives also use HRIS as decision support tool that allows the users to utilize the data in format which is easy to understand and helps to identify pattern, blockages and gaps in the work flow. The basic advantage of HRIS is not only the availability of computerized employee records but to uphold the latest account of information that can be helpful in the future to build human resource management plan.

The most important areas of HR that can be influence by the HRIS are time management, Payroll, labor management, employee benefits and most important HR management. With the effect of HRIS all these areas not only become error free but also their execution process become smoother and ultimately the cost that occurs on these processes turn out to be less. Therefore, Human Resources Information System (HRIS) allows a user to see sequential history of an employee from his /her professional data to personal information. Getting the required data by applying filter at different levels make the decision making process more efficient and the information that filters in days or even week can get in minutes.

Employee benefits are very crucial because they help to motivate an employee to work harder. By using a Human Resource Information System (HRIS) in employee benefits, the human resource department is able to keep better track of which benefits are being availed by which employee and how each employee is profiting from the benefits provided. On the other hand, to manage the time and labor a HRIS is benefited because it allows the user to effectively gather and appraise employee time and work information that ultimately helps to make managerial decision. Through HRIS we can track the employee information in more scientific way that helps to find out whether the employee is performing at its full potential or not and also helps to judge either is there any need of improvement in the overall performance of the employee or not.

A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) also has advantages in HR management because it reduces time and cost consuming activities that ultimately lead to a more efficient HR department. This system reduces the long HR paper trail that is often found in most HR divisions of companies and leads to more productive and conducive department on the whole both in term of efficiency and cost.

Vital Role of Information Technology in Managerial Activities

2011-01-18T02:18:00.000-08:00

In the modern dynamic business workplace, Information Technology (IT) works both efficiently and reliably. Computer and information systems managers play a central role in the implementation and administration of technology within their organizations. They plan, coordinate, and direct research on the computer-related activities of firms. In consultation with other managers, they help determine the goals of an organization and then implement technology to meet those goals. Before defining the imperative and critical role of information technology in the job of managers in the business world, we must define who is manager actually.

Managerial Roles:

A manager is responsible for the overall success of his/her related tasks, assignments or projects. In some companies, this person might be called a Project Coordinator, or a Team Leader, however, the key aspect is that the person is responsible for ensuring the success of the given responsibilities.

Process Responsibilities: Once any project starts, the project manager must successfully manage and control the work, including:

· Identifying, tracking managing and resolving project issues

· Proactively disseminating project information to all stakeholders

· Identifying, managing and mitigating project risk

· Ensuring that the solution is of acceptable quality

· Proactively managing scope to ensure that only what was agreed to is delivered, unless changes are approved through scope management

· Defining and collecting metrics to give a sense for how the project is progressing and whether the deliverables produced are acceptable

· Managing the overall schedule to ensure work is assigned and completed on time and within budget

Information Technology plays supporting role for managers to planning, implementing, organizing, and controlling all these activities. Managers use IT to develop Management Information System to streamline all their processes. These systems help them a lot form initial stage of planning to final stage of controlling and decision making of all processes.

Information System Managers:

Information systems managers generally have technical expertise from working in a computer occupation, as well as an understanding of business and management principles. A strong educational background and experience in a variety of technical fields is needed.

Education and Training: A bachelor's degree in a business-related field usually is required for management positions, although employers often prefer a graduate degree, especially an MBA with technology as a core component. Common majors for a graduate degree are Human Resource, Finance, Marketing, or Management Information Systems (MIS).

Certification and Other Qualifications: Information Systems Managers need a broad range of skills. Employers look for individuals who can demonstrate an understanding of the specific software or technology used on the job. Generally, this knowledge is gained through years of experience working with that particular product. Another way to demonstrate this trait is with professional certification.

Advancement: Information Systems Managers may advance to progressively higher leadership positions in available related departments. A team manager, for instance, might be promoted to the project manager and then to chief information officer.

Information Technology is used almost in every industry, organization and department in current business world. The rate of change in transformation of managerial roles is very high in each and every part of the world because of IT.

Managerial Positions and IT Participation:

Managerial positions that manage workers, deal with information technology, or make business or technical decisions include:

Advertising, Marketing, Promotions, Public Relations, and Sales Managers coordinate and maintain their companies’ market research systems, marketing strategy systems, sales monitoring systems, advertising, promotion, pricing, product development, and public relations activities with the help of IT.

Computer Network, Systems, and Database Managers are the designers of computer networks. They set up, test, and evaluate systems such as local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), the Internet, intranets, and other data communications systems.

Computer Systems Analysts use IT tools to help enterprises of all sizes achieve their goals. They may design and develop new computer systems by choosing and configuring hardware and software, or they may devise ways to apply existing systems' resources to additional tasks.

Engineering and Natural Sciences Managers plan, coordinate, and direct research, design, and production activities. To perform effectively, these managers use IT for administrative procedures, such as budgeting, hiring, and supervision.

Financial Managers oversee the preparation of financial reports, direct investment activities, and implement cash management strategies. Managers use special financial software’s to develop strategies, to formulate forecasted financial statements and to implement the long-term goals of their organization.

Top Executives devise strategies and formulate policies with the help of information systems to ensure that the desired goals and objectives are met on the right time. Information Technology plays vital role in their decision making.

Conclusion:

The analysis of the role of Information Technology in managerial activities reflects that the future of managers in organization heavily depends on the use of IT. Due to involvement of IT

· Employment is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations.

· A bachelor's degree in a computer-related field usually is required for management positions, although employers often prefer a graduate degree, especially an MBA with technology as a core component.

· Many managers possess advanced technical knowledge gained from working in a computer occupation.

· The future of Managers is all about the combination of management and IT skills.

Imperative Role of BPR for the Integration of CBIS

2011-01-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

The basic concept of BPR (Business Process Re-engineering) is about the analysis and redesign of organizational processes. BPR is also known as Business Process Redesign. It is the process of restructure the business processes to make them more efficient and/or to remove the flaws or short comings that don’t allow the processes to execute in proper manner. In context of an organization that aims to adapt the BRP, it looks to improve some of its operational processes so that the work should be done in efficient and effective way. In simple words BPR is about to increase the output not by looking at some specific actions or functions but to the entire process(es).
Primarily BPR contains two major important phases which are: Analysis Phase and Problem Solving Phase. From the name it is shown that the Analysis Phase is about analyze the workflows or processes to identify what tasks are being done, what procedures and policies or practices are being done in the organization. After identification of the processes find out the reasons why those tasks that were identified are being done. Either these are only practices that done to perform some specific tasks or they are some important policies and procedures of the organization that must follow. If it is identify that the process done is only a practice but it is very important to perform the task make it procedure/policy of the organization. Scrutinize how the tasks are being done, what are the courses of actions take place to perform the tasks. Last but not least ascertain the inhabitants that who are performing the tasks. Basically analysis phase is all about identifying the existing processes to perform the task(s).

After the analysis of workflow, now determine all the steps and procedures that are need to be done to redesign the process. In the analysis phase it reveals that what is the problem area that needs to address or which process is need to make more efficient while Problem Solving Phase is all about deciding what should be done? Either there is the need to remove the unnecessary things attach to the process or to make the process more lucrative by increasing efficiency. Figure out how the tasks should be done that what are the best possible steps should take place to remove the inefficiency from the processes to redecorate the workflow. Where and When should be the tasks done, and more important decide who should be responsible to perform the tasks.

Now-a-days cross functional teams urge to redesign several separate processes into the fully developed logical cross functional process(es) so that the task(s) would be perform in more systemic and error free way. In the new era of technology where the automation has become trendier in cross functional teams while doing the re-engineering or redesign the workflows or processes, the concept of Computer-based Information System is also becoming more popular. In most of the big or medium size organizations one department interlinks to other and one process of one department is link to other process of the same department or to the one or more processes of some other departments. One of the most common cross functional activity that perform in an organization is Pay Roll Distribution where both HR and Finance departments work together to execute the function of Salary and Wages distribution.

In today’s rapidly changing business world BPR plays an important role for an organization to achieve the utmost effectiveness with high efficiency and is essential for the overall victory of any organization. CBIS is becoming more popular in the organization because it lessens the unnecessary processes and amplifies the proficiency of businesses in general. Additionally, the incorporation of CBIS should be visionary. It should not only support and fulfill the current requirement of the organization but futuristic approach must adapt.

On the other hand, while integrating the CBIS organizations need to adapt proactive approach. The CBIS integration can be time taking activity, an organization need to develop both the short term and long term strategies. These strategies should be practical and must support the overall business process redesign plan. Some organizations work over efficiently that ultimately resultant the business loss in term of resources, time, productivity and efficiency level. Also take all the level of management in confidence while incorporating the CBIS because some people refuse to adapt change as they feel fear to lose their job or feel insecurity from the new system. Figure out carefully that either at all level of management people are persuaded to adjust with change and are agreed to support the integration of new system or not, otherwise the high resistance can affect the system redesign plan badly.

Furthermore, the integration of new system must be justifiable both in term of money and efficiency. Standards are need to set that must meet or surpass during and at the end of the project, otherwise there will not be any benefit to assimilate new system. Last but not least after the implementation of successful plan the role of BPR doesn’t finish here, a maintenance plan is needed to develop so that the new integrated plan should meet or surpass the performance benchmark during it life cycle.

Implementation of E-Government in Pakistan

2010-12-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

The use of information technology is growing rapidly in today’s world and it plays an important role in daily activities of individuals, businesses and organizations. Now a day the use of modern technology is becoming more popular in Government sector as well. This increase in use of new technology is improving not only the facilities provided to the general public by increasing the efficiency of processes and management of the government systems but is also bringing the transparency in the operations.
E- Government means electronic government, it refers to the situation where the free movement of information that help to trounce the physical operations done by government to increase the access of real information and deliver the proper rights to the citizens, businesses and other related parties.
Government itself is a big business which always has wide scope to perform the operations. Generally it is considered that the role of the government is only limited to the welfare of society but practically government is a proper business organization where the four main customers are citizens, the business community, local government, and Foreign government and businesses. In our country it is a big challenge to bring transparency in the government operation and this can happen by bring the concept of E-Gov.

Under developing Country like Pakistan where the corruption, non transparency, unequal distribution of wealth, poor health care facilities, deprived law and order system and many other pitiable issues are prominent when we talk about the government system and its operation, the concept of E-government system can be one of the best choice to overcome these issue in one way or other. In Pakistan the health care facilities are available at its best but these facilities are not managing in proper way that ultimately cause the serious problem regarding health at national level and even people have to lose their lives. Improper medication subscription can be the cause of unfavorable result. In our rural areas where the facilities for proper medication are not available, people need to visit big cities for advance treatment. If a patient had treatment from a doctor but after long remedy the problem didn’t resolve and he visits to another doctor for further treatment. The new doctor requires the previous history of patient’s all medication from all the doctors so that he/she can have idea what kind of medicine the patient used or what kind of medical treatment did with the patient in past that gives more clear idea for the further treatment of the patient’s diseases. There should be a proper online medication subscription system that whenever any medicine subscribe to a patient it should be recorded in the government database so that if the patient visit to any other doctor in future, the proper medical history should be in access to new doctor for further treatment. Secondly, this can also helpful for the government to determine which kind of disease is more common. At national level it can be apply for all the doctors either private or public to provide or access the online medical information of their patients.

Today the law and order situation of Pakistan is at its worst which is ultimately affecting the activities in all aspects of life. Crime is increasing day by day, criminals are not properly being punished and innocent people are becoming the victim of miss use of the authorities. Corruption in our police department is at its peak and it is only because the miss use of already developed system. E- Government can bring purification and permissible change in this system. FIR for any crime should be record in government database through an online system so that the criminal activity especially theft can reduce by punishing the responsible people while on the other hand if the wrong FIR is reported, the responsible people will be punish for the miss use of authority because any recorded activity can be monitor at national level. Government should make Traffic Fine System online so that the corruption can reduce in our Traffic Police department.

Welfare of the society is one of the important functions of any government. In our country where nationally as well as privately many non-profit organizations work for the betterment of our society, the corruption and non-transparency is very much common now a days. The funds provided by the local people or the foreign governments to make the living standards better or to give basic necessity of life to poor people are not properly using for the real purpose. The one of the biggest problem is improper checking system that allows the authoritative people to use the funds for personal interest or at improper place. At national level for all nonprofit private or public organization there should be a system that will monitor the flow of funds. The people who want to donate any kind of amount or any item it must be registered to government and the non-profit organization must record their every transaction so that at national level government can have clear picture of flow of donated funds.

U.S Occupation in Iraq

2009-05-27T17:21:00.001-07:00

The Occupation of U.S. in Iraq has been given the name of Iraq War, also known as the Second Gulf War that is a continuing military campaign which started on March 20, 2003 with invasion of Iraq by a strong group of military, comprises of troops from different countries all over the world led by United State. The countries that support this multinational force include Demark, Australia, Poland and several other nations. This invasion of Iraq did not support by all of the Arab states and a numbers of members of the NATO alliance, while on the other hand Eastern European did the favor of Iraq Occupation.

In the beginning, Iraq was claimed by U.S. to cause a serious and imminent threat to the security of the America and its alliances base on the assumption about possession of weapons of mass destruction. This appraisal was supported by the U.K. intelligence services, but not by the other countries such as France, Russia and Germany. American weapons inspectors found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction and support to the earlier disparagement of poor intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. After the invasion, US led Iraq Survey Group concluded that Iraq had ended its weapons of mass destruction program in 1991 and had no active program at the time of invasion, but that they planned to restart the production of weapons if the Iraq sanction were lifted.

Multinational force quickly defeat the Iraqi military and then arrested the Saddam Hussein as the backbone of all dos and done against America. There is not a single good outcome of this war. There are only choices now between bad and worse. A crime has been committed and it cannot be taken back. The United States is increasingly going it alone as they lose support from other countries. The high cost of projecting troops halfway around the world for several years is approving to be unstable. Finally, anti U.S sentiment in the Muslim world keeps increasing and other hotspots of terrorism and violence are beginning to erupt.

Financial Crisis: Little Myth – Terrible Nightmare

2009-05-27T17:05:00.001-07:00

Financial crisis refers to the situation when financial institutes start losing their values or when there is a rapid down fall in the financial sectors and financial markets. It is one of the crucial issues that have to be taken seriously. Broadly speaking, investors start to loss their confidence in stock market, bond market and foreign investment, huge increase in the withdrawals by the depositors from their accounts, currency is getting devalued, prices of most commodities increase rapidly, negative factor of behavioral finance that demoralize the investor, poor governmental policies & procedures and continuous negativity in the GDP all leads to a state toward financial crisis.

Sub-prime mortgage scheme is the major reason that fueled the recent financial crisis. Basically, it is a scheme in which banks provide the loan to the customers with very low or no conditions. For conventional mortgage, banks have their several requirements to sanction the loan. To avoid these hurdles for those who have larger than average risk of defaulting, U.S banks introduced the scheme of sub prime mortgage. Another feature that distinct the sub-prime from the conventional mortgage is, in conventional mortgage customer has to pay same amount of interest for the whole time period of payments while in sub prime mortgage banks charge very low interest rate initially and after the completion of mentioned time, the interest rate raised to the amount which cover the discount provided by the banks in the initial period. In the beginning, bank didn’t hesitate to give loans to the customer without any investigation and proper documentation and borrowers started to take loan without any future planning. But when the initial period completed, people refused, not only to pay back the interest but also the principle amount and returned back the mortgage asset to the banks that led the banks toward the liquidity crisis, which ultimately shook investor confidence in credit market. The other affects of financial crisis includes decline in the asset values, central bank tighten the credit policies that decreased the flow of cash in the business community and general consumer and the society suffered the loss in term of jobs, output and wealth badly.