So, it is worth pointing out how different things might be if the financial world were female.

Finance professors Brad Barber and Terrance Odean have found that women’s risk-adjusted returns beat those of men by an average of about one percentage point annually. In short, women trade less frequently, hold less volatile portfolios and expect lower returns than men do.

On the other hand, in the testosterone-poisoned sandbox of the male investor, the most important thing is beating the other guy; the second most important: bragging about it. The long term is somebody else’s problem, and asking for advice is an admission of inferiority. Worrying about risk is for sissies. Leverage is good, since it raises returns — while the market goes up. Is it any wonder the male-dominated world of Wall Street has boomed and busted every few years for more than two centuries?

Women, by contrast, put safety first. Even after controlling for age, income and marital status, women are more inclined than men to wear seat belts, avoid cigarette smoking, floss and brush their teeth and get their blood pressure checked. They even have been shown to be 40% less prone than men to run yellow traffic lights.

Women are less afflicted than men by overconfidence, or the delusion that they know more than they really do. And they’re more likely than men to attribute success to factors outside themselves, like luck or fate.

In 2001, a survey of financial analysts and investment advisers found that women felt it was much more important than men did to avoid incurring large losses, falling below a target rate of return and acting on incomplete information. In short, women are more risk-averse than men. And they shy away from uncertainty: Asked whether having ambiguous information would reduce their confidence and raise their perception of risk, 92% of the women said yes, versus just 69% of the men.

“There’s a general emotional difference between men and women as they perceive and take risks,” said Jennifer Lerner, a psychologist at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Negative events like natural disasters, terrorist attacks or a financial crisis usually make men more angry than fearful. Women, on the other hand, tend to feel more fearful than angry.

Those differing emotions lead to divergent viewpoints. Seen through what Prof. Lerner calls “a lens of anger,” the world seems more certain, more amenable to our control and less risky. Viewed through a lens of fear, however, the world appears full of uncertainty, beyond our control and rife with risk.

The results of a nationwide survey of hundreds of investors conducted in March, just days after the Dow bottomed at 6547, show how anger and fear in the minds of men and women can affect their financial decisions. Men were far more likely than women to say they were “more angry than fearful” about the financial crisis. And one in eight men, but only one in every 40 women, had “made riskier investments looking for long-term growth” in the previous week. Female investors were twice as likely to expect the return on stocks over the coming year to be zero or negative and to think stocks will return 5% or less per year over the next 10 years.

“The women were more concerned but took fewer actions,” said psychologist Ellen Peters of the University of Oregon, who co-directed the survey. “They were also more pessimistic — or realistic? — about what to expect from the market.”

Stocks are up 35% since March, so the women’s fears haven’t yet come to pass. But their inaction already looks wise. And their realism can’t hurt, either. “The essential traits and qualities of the male,” H.L. Mencken once wrote, “are at the same time the hall-marks of the numskull. … Women, in fact, are the supreme realists of the race.”

Memo to men: Your household’s investment portfolio will be less risky and more diversified if your wife helps manage it. She will share in what comes out of that portfolio down the road; shouldn’t she share in what goes into it? Chances are, her ideas and emotions will complement yours, and you will both end up wealthier. At least one of you will end up wiser.

by Jason Zweig

The first thing to do is decide how much money you are willing to spend on purchasing a rug. Then take a tape measure and define the width and length of the area where you are planning to put your carpet.

Secondly, shop for the one that matches yours. Style can be defined as the way different motifs, colors and patterns give character to a rug. Styles range from floral to contemporary to traditional. They can also reflect a season or a theme. Roll out your favorite.

The primary materials used in rugs are wool, cotton and silk. Most tribal or nomadic rugs are wool pile and wool foundation. Natural fibers have the durability, beauty and value that synthetic materials can never match. The most durable, easy to clean fiber is wool. Silk rugs are luxurious and beautiful but not meant for very high traffic areas.

The biggest misrepresentations of materials are acrylic sold as wool, rayon or mercerized cotton sold as silk. Any product description can be written to sound like the product is magnificent. Look for specific information and skip the lip service. If the material is omitted, or a synthetic material is glorified like it is gold, it is still synthetic material and does not have the durability and value of natural fibers.

Indeed, before you buy rugs, it is always a good idea to check your local dealer. If you find a piece that you like, it will be more convenient to buy it at a store. Don’t forget to check for damage, stains, or odors. Just remember, the price is might be up to 5 times higher than on the internet which offer so many cheap rugs.

Last but not least, do your homework. Don’t be fooled by huge markdowns or deep discounts. Stay away from fake auctions of seized-rugs advertised in your local newspapers. Beware also of seasonal liquidation sales from your local rug dealers, especially if you see their sign more than a month in your local newspaper or in their store window.

Every year a large number of companies are put to enormous expense due to destroyed or lost information and stolen cash and valuables caused by burglaries and robberies. For example, a single bomb in St Mary’s Axe in London in April 1992 caused damage amounting to approximately £1.5 billion and forced 40 companies to relocate to alternative premises. How would your organization cope with such incident?

A general definition of burglary is when someone unlawfully enters an establishment with the intent to commit a crime. Recent survey found that ninety per cent of burglary prevention is physical security. If your complex is locked up and unauthorized entry is made difficult, chances of a successful burglary are kept to a minimum. The burglar will pass up your business and look for an easier target.

When attempting to improve the security of your property, think like a criminal and go over your entire complex in fine detail, looking for any means of entrance or criminal opportunity. Do this physically, and with your building blueprints, in order to discover any weaknesses.

Burglars like to work in the cover of darkness. Good lighting is one of the most effective deterrents against burglary. Pay special attention to areas that are not in plain view where burglars often try to make entry. Protect exterior lighting fixtures against breakage and replace damaged or burned-out bulbs as soon as possible.

Indeed, an effective alarm system is one of the best ways you can protect your business against burglary. There are a variety of different alarms available ranging from very basic local alarms to highly sophisticated integrated systems.

If you need a professional help, ADT Security Systems offers small business security solutions targeted specifically for small businesses. ADT will monitor and protect your small business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The study’s findings are described in a working paper, titled Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea, coauthored by Karan Girotra, Christian Terwiesch, and Karl T. Ulrich. “The front end of the ideation stage is very important,” notes Girotra. “But companies are not as structured or as rigorous about this phase of the research and development process. Management tends to focus its attention on the later stages.” Those later stages are indeed critical — and expensive — but managers needn’t risk getting that far with a subpar idea. No matter how well conducted the back end of the innovation process may be, it cannot elevate a fundamentally low-quality idea.

Perhaps it’s natural for managers to assume that idea gathering cannot be codified. After all, some of the most celebrated discoveries and inventions — from penicillin to 3M’s Post-it Notes — have been the offspring of serendipity. But in a business environment where many product development techniques have been commoditized, or even outsourced, Girotra observes thatthe idea generation and selection process may be the last remaining source of competitive advantage.

In the study, two distinct types of brainstorming groups generated ideas. One type followed the traditional model, assembling a group of people (in this case, students studying product design) and having them come up with product ideas that would be appropriate for, say, dorm rooms. The other group took a “hybrid” approach, combining individual and teamwork. Those students worked on ideas by themselves before coming together to share their thinking.

Which technique yielded the best ideas? Strictly speaking, the traditional brainstorming groups consistently came up with the very best idea — and the very worst one, too. In other words, the quality of their results varied much more than those that came out of the hybrid groups that combined individual and group idea generation. However, the hybrid groups produced more ideas that were, on average, of higher quality. Nonetheless “for the very best idea, you need to have a pure brainstorming group,” notes Girotra. “Random interactions are likely to produce better-quality ideas.”

That finding contradicts most existing literature on the subject, which concludes that working alone is most effective for idea generation, while working as a team is most satisfying. “What we found makes sense, since the most successful creative firms do mostly use team processes for brainstorming,” notes Terwiesch. “We just brought some new thinking to the subject.”

For more information, download the paper at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1082392.

To put that damage into perspective, let’s look at a few vital statistics. Over the 12-month period from October 10, 2007 to October 10, 2008, the S&P 500 index plunged 43%. Foreign markets, as measured by the EAFE Index, sank 48%. Investment interest rates on the 10-year Treasury note dropped from 4.65% to 3.86%. Real estate/housing prices were down 9% nationwide and 11% in Arizona. Oil prices surged 25%, while blue chip stalwarts like Ford and General Motors shares plummeted 76%, and 87%, respectively.

Widespread consolidation and outright bankruptcies amongst big financial firms like Countrywide, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers have effectively remapped the entire banking landscape. And of course, we have yet to begin assessing the aftereffects of the federal government’s trillion-dollar bailout package. Understandably, many investors are now wondering what to do and how they can stay ahead amidst this market descent.

So, what’s a savvy investor to do?

One strategy you can employ to help weather this market storm is to “maximize” your life insurance policy. It’s estimated that approximately 73 million Americans currently have life insurance policies, yet I doubt many people know just how powerful a weapon your policy can be in the battle for maximum wealth appreciation. Let me outline a couple of examples of how you can use life insurance to help protect and growth your wealth.

If you’re like me, I suspect that you have a low-cost term life insurance policy sitting in your desk drawer. In most cases, those term policies expire without paying a benefit. When the term is up, we simply allow our policies to cancel. After all, what other option do we have?

Fortunately, that term policy doesn’t have to be a dead asset. In fact, did you know that you have the option of selling an expiring term policy for cash? That’s right; there are firms out there that will buy your term policy from you.

You see, in recent years there’s been a burgeoning secondary market for life insurance policies, where Wall Street institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Berkshire Hathaway and others actually pay policy holders cash to purchase their life insurance policies. These institutions offer cash settlements in exchange for your in-force life insurance policy.

For example, I recently had a situation where a 74-year-old client had a $3 million convertible term policy he had as a key-man policy from the business he retired from. The existing term policy was set to expire in less than a year.

He sold that policy to a very credible and prominent Wall Street institution for $400,000. The math on how the value of a policy is determined varies from case to case, but what is important for you to know is that because of this new secondary market for life insurance, you may also be able to turn an expiring asset into real money.

Want another example? I recently worked with an 80-year-old client who had a net worth of over $4.5 million. He had a $1M universal life policy that he took out a few years before in order to address his growing estate protection needs. Years later, due to some creative alternative estate planning methods, he no longer needed the policy as protection as originally planned—and of course, he preferred not to have to continue paying those insurance premiums.

Historically his options were to either let the policy run until expired or surrender it back to the insurance company. In this case, the cash surrender value was just under $28,000. Thankfully, this client heard us on the radio and called to inquire about a life settlement opportunity. We were able to secure an offer on his policy for $330,000.

You see, because of the tremendous growth of the secondary insurance market in recent years, insurance policies no longer have to be looked at as expiring and/or as an intangible liability.

Many savvy investors now realize the true value of their life insurance policies, and in many cases that value is literally locked up in their home safe. Because of the secondary market for insurance—and with the right assistance from an experienced advisor—you too can turn your policy into virtual gold.

The fact is that these days, life insurance is an asset class. And given the current decline in traditional asset classes like stocks and bonds, now could be the best time ever to realize the power and flexibility that owning life insurance as an asset offers.

1. Leadership is critical in codifying and maintaining an organizational purpose, values, and vision. Leaders must set the example by living the elements of culture: values, behaviors, measures, and actions. Values are meaningless without the other elements.

2. Like anything worthwhile, culture is something in which you invest. An organization’s norms and values aren’t formed through speeches but through actions and team learning. Strong cultures have teeth. They are much more than slogans and empty promises. Some organizations choose to part ways with those who do not manage according to the values and behaviors that other employees embrace. Others accomplish the same objective more positively.

3. Employees at all levels in an organization notice and validate the elements of culture. As owners, they judge every management decision to hire, reward, promote, and fire colleagues. Their reactions often come through in comments about subjects such as the “fairness of my boss.” The underlying theme in such conversations, though, is the strength and appropriateness of the organization’s culture.

4. Organizations with clearly codified cultures enjoy labor cost advantages for the following reasons:

• They often become better places to work.
• They become well known among prospective employees.
• The level of ownership—referral rates and ideas for improving the business of existing employees—is often high.
• The screening process is simplified, because employees tend to refer acquaintances who behave like them.
• The pool of prospective employees grows.
• The cost of selecting among many applicants is offset by cost savings as prospective employees sort themselves into and out of consideration for jobs.
• This self-selection process reduces the number of mismatches among new hires.

5. Organizations with clearly codified and enforced cultures enjoy great employee and customer loyalty, in large part because they are effective in either altering ineffective behaviors or disengaging from values-challenged employees in a timely manner.

6. An operating strategy based on a strong, effective culture is selective of prospective customers. It also requires the periodic “firing” of customers, as pointed out in our examples of companies like ING Direct, where thousands are fired every month. This strategy is especially important when customers “abuse” employees or make unreasonable demands on them.

7. The result of all this is “the best serving the best,” or as Ritz-Carlton’s mission states, “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”

8. This self-reinforcing source of operating leverage must be managed carefully to make sure that it does not result in the development of dogmatic cults with little capacity for change. High-performing organizations periodically revisit and reaffirm their core values and associated behaviors. Further, they often subscribe to some kind of initiative that requires constant benchmarking and searching for best practices both inside and outside the organization.

9. Organizations with strong and adaptive cultures foster effective succession in the leadership ranks. In large part, the culture both prepares successors and eases the transition.

10. Cultures can sour. Among the reasons for this are success itself, the loss of curiosity and interest in change, the triumph of culture over performance, the failure of leaders to reinforce desired behaviors, the breakdown of consistent communication, and leaders who are overcome by their own sense of importance.

We have learned repeatedly that there is a pattern in the actions and activities involved in developing strong and adaptive ownership cultures. When an organization consistently builds and reinforces such a culture, it creates a competitive edge that is hard to replicate.

According to IDS research, more than 80 percent of the companies are deeply committed to the concept of BPM. Increasing efficiency, reducing cost, and improving process effectiveness and innovation are the most important issues these days. They believe that optimization to enhance performance and cost reduction are the most important strategic objectives of BPM.

Companies have begun to look at BPM and its intended value, particularly to manage business processes in highly turbulent market. BPM offers business people a common language and view into how things are done and can be done effectively. Innovative companies do this all the time. If you want to focus on a specific technology there are several software vendors that are more than capable at helping you implement BPM. One of them is ActiveVOS from Active Endpoints.

Active Endpoints is the world’s first all-in-one, standards-based visual orchestration system that allows enterprises and developers to automate business processes, collaborate across IT and business boundaries, control the overall state of the business, as well as adapt rapidly and easily to change.

ActiveVOS is an all-in-one, 100% standards-based orchestration and business process management system (BPM) that permits developers, business analysts and enterprises to develop and manage true services-oriented architecture (SOA)-based applications. Indeed, you can dig more information on their ActiveVos Blog.

This latest release of ActiveVOS 6.0.2 is available for download. Active Endpoints allow you to download their SOA software for a free, 30-day trial. You will not only get a full support to assist in the evaluation, but also documentation, samples, and tutorials to help you.

The use of credit card originated in the US during 1920s when individual companies began issuing them to their customers for purchases at company stores in different places. This use increased significantly after WW II when veterans returned and looked for the chance to travel for business and pleasure.

Diners Club, Inc. has introduced the first general purpose credit card in 1950 that could be used at a variety of stores and business. They charged cardholders an annual fee and billed them for their charges periodically. Another major card was established in 1958 by the American Express company.

Later came the bank credit card system which was introduced by the Bank of America in California. The bank credits the account of the merchant as sales slips are received and assembles charges to be billed to the cardholder at the end of billing period, including interest and charges. The system was licensed in other states starting in 1966 and was renamed Visa in 1976. MasterCard has introduced their own bank cards a few years later.

Nowadays, when we think about credit card, there are actually three different kinds of cards
available: a card offered by a bank, a travel and entertainment card, and a ‘house card’ which can be used only at a specific chain of stores like department stores, oil and gasoline companies, and telephone companies.

If you’ve got reasonably good credit, odds are you receive credit card offers in the mail all the time. But how to find the best one?

As a smart consumer, you need to shop around and weigh the pros and cons of each credit card you consider. Although the government regulates the interest rates and other financial aspects of credit cards, the marketplace is incredibly diverse. First, you may consider the basic terms of use for every credit card like interest rate/APR, minimum payment required, grace period on your credit card bills, finance charges, annual fee, cash advance fees, late-payment charges, over-limit fees.

You may also interested in features offered by the company instead of interest rate. However, if you pay your bill in full every month, the interest rate is not going to be as important as other card features, like frequent-flier miles or no annual fee. But if there’s even a remote chance that you might run a balance, you’ll want to focus on finding a card with a low APR.

Be very careful as some credit card companies offer a low introductory APR to attract new customers and get them to transfer balances, but the low rate is only good for a short time.

Last but not least, don’t forget to know, from the start, that almost all issuers—including
big, legitimate ones—hide fees and high interest rates in the small print of their disclosure forms and agreements. Take the time to read these.

When it came time to pay, the man took out a checkbook and wrote out a check. The salesperson was hesitant because the couple hadn’t shopped there before.

The man discerned what the salesperson was thinking and he said calmly: “I sense that you are concerned that this check may bounce, right? Today is Saturday and the banks are closed. Let me suggest that I leave the check and the handbag here. When the check clears on Monday, you can deliver the handbag to this lady. How about that?”

The salesperson was reassured and gladly accepted the suggestion. In addition, he waived the delivery charges. He promised that he would personally make sure that this gets done.

On Monday, the salesperson took the check to the bank. The check bounced…! The irate salesperson called up the client, who told him: ‘What is the big deal? Neither you nor I have suffered any loss. Last Saturday night, I went to bed with that girl already! Oh, by the way, I thank you for your cooperation. ‘

This story reveals the nature of the sub-prime mortgage crisis. When people have high hopes for huge future returns, they lower their guard about the potential risks. This pretty girl thought that the HKD 65,000 LV bag was going to come home on Monday, and so she lowered her guard. Therefore, she believed that her investment in the ONS (one night stand) was worth it even though it was based upon huge and highly uncertain risks.

Investment companies are great with packaging high return (but high risk) deals. The Chinese stock speculators are like this pretty woman. As such, they deserve to lose money. Without people like these, how are people going to make money from the stock market?

As for the media and the stock analysts, they often play the role of the LV salesperson.

Don’t you agree with the truthfulness of the above-mentioned statements?

We each have our own job to do, but there may be moments when we can take the time to help others who are very busy or in need of our support in any way. Look for opportunities to lend a hand. Maybe you have a special talent or skill others need. Even if you don’t, a helping hand is always appreciated.

Reach Out to Quiet or New Teammates or Co-Workers

In any group there are people who are more reticent than others. If group members don’t engage such people, it becomes even more difficult for them to open up and become part of the team. Look for opportunities to make these people feel included. Converse with them and seek their opinions. Invite them to join you for lunch or a coffee break. Ask them about their experiences. Find out what they need to be a part of the group and contribute to its success. Help them get to know you and others in the group.

Encourage Teammates Who Are in Conflict to Talk Out Their Differences

One of the most valuable things you can do in any work group situation is to help people who are in conflict resolve their issues directly between themselves. Often a person will keep a safe distance from any squabbles among group members or allow one of the parties to vent and complain to him or her as a safe third party. Look for opportunities to encourage direct communication between the combatants. If someone approaches you to vent about another colleague, listen patiently but try to redirect the person’s energy toward resolving the conflict.

Share the Credit You Receive for a Job Well Done

When public figures receive awards, they typically thank those who helped them achieve success. Such a gesture may come across as just a moment of modesty or social grace, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Others usually deserve part of the credit. In work situations, the same requirement holds. When the credit is shared, the recipients feel appreciated and motivated to support your efforts in the future. Look for opportunities to acknowledge, both publicly and privately, the help and support you obtain from others.

Suggest Team-Building and Problem-Solving Techniques

Have you read, experienced, or received training in team-building techniques such as brainstorming, problem analysis, process checking, and consensus building? Any team tool you may know about may be very beneficial to the group you work with. It is not necessary to be the team leader to suggest a different process. Any member can do so. Look for opportunities where the group may benefit from a process you are familiar with.

Check to See How Your Decisions Might Affect Others

We often don’t realize that a decision we make may negatively impact our colleagues. Review some recent decisions you have made and consider how they might affect others. Put yourself in their shoes. Do any of your decisions create inconvenience for others? Convey lack of interest or support? Lower morale? Cause new problems for others?

Include Everyone in the Information Loop When Appropriate

No one needs to know everything you know or think. However, there are plenty of situations where information you have can be helpful or even essential to others. Even if, at first glance, the matter pertains only to you, consider whether your colleagues might benefit from this knowledge in the long run. Will it help them do their jobs better? Will the information help them to support your own job performance?

Seek Information and Expertise from Others

There are two reasons to seek the information and expertise of others: (1) Others may help you do your job better, and (2) others are recognized for the talents they bring to the team. Review tasks and assignments that you traditionally do by yourself and consider if the help of others will enhance your work. Take stock of the talents of others, especially when they are underutilized, and invite new contributions.

Communicate Your Own Activity So That It is Public Knowledge

Just as information and your private decisions often need to be shared for the sake of the team, simply letting others know about initiatives you have recently undertaken or events you have experienced may be important. Maybe you have encountered an interesting situation that could be shared. Maybe you are involved in a project or assignment that, if shared, would be of interest or benefit to your colleagues.

Inform Others to Support Your Efforts and Ask Them to Tell You When They Need Help

This is the boldest collaborative action on this list. It is critical that colleagues know what you need from them to make you a happy team member and more effective contributor. Giving this feedback may feel awkward at first, but it gets easier to muster the courage once you’ve done it. Be sure to return the favor and ask others what you can do for them.

If you regularly meet as a group with your colleagues, there are additional steps you can take to contribute to the team’s goals. Again, you do not have to be in a leadership position to do most of these things. As a mere group member, you can be extremely helpful.