Would You Hire a Carpenter Who Never Measures? — Progress through Measurements of What to Work on
If you think you measure enough in your business, you may be wrong. Why? Do you know how much time you spend on important tasks? Do you know whether you are doing that tasks in the best way? Here’s more.
One CEO tells a Peter Drucker story about measurements that may fit you. Drucker had presented a seminar on personal improvement to the CEO’s U.S. Air Force group years earlier.
Each man was instructed to measure in great detail how he spent his time for a week. The CEO found this task to be a life-changing experience.
The measurements revealed all of his bad habits and put the CEO on guard to avoid those bad habits in the future. Unfortunately, this CEO’s example is rarely followed. Few want to know how they spend their time or what their output is.
Try this exercise for yourself: You don’t have to be a CEO to benefit.
Measure how much time you spend each week on the telephone, doing each routine task, commuting, watching reruns on television, and so forth. Then look at how much you accomplished. You will see that measurements can help redirect your efforts into more productive activities.
A Perpetual Measuring Machine
Visitors to the finance and data processing staffs of a large company were astonished to note that each cubicle’s walls were literally covered with performance measurements. The idea was to encourage more focus on expanding productivity. Almost all of the measurements had been developed by the workers for their own use. By looking at each others’ measurements, staff members could see how well they were doing in comparison. People pitched in to help lower performers improve so that everyone could earn department-wide, performance-based bonuses.
How did they do? Personal productivity gains of 25 percent were not unusual. Furthermore, corporate productivity in these same areas grew by a similar degree. By comparison, most organizations shoot for 2 to 3 percent annual productivity increases. Those low targets telegraph to everyone that they can take it easy.
End Results Versus Causes
Management of a luxury hotel chain learned that guests were dissatisfied because it took too long for room service breakfast orders to arrive.
The chain jumped in to solve the problem. It added more room service waiters. It even added more kitchen staff. But the situation got worse, not better.
Finally, they looked at how long it took for a waiter to make a delivery and return to the kitchen. Wait! Here was something.
The round trips took much too long. Management asked the room service waiters why. The bottleneck was quickly spotted. The waiters were delayed by as much as eight minutes by slow elevator arrivals at the kitchen and the guest room floors.
What was going on? Housekeepers were delivering a day’s worth of clean sheets and towels at the same time. Since housekeepers had to unload large amounts of linen on each floor, they usually stopped the elevators while the unloading occurred.
Understanding the cause, linen deliveries were rescheduled to another time. Room-service complaints dropped to near zero.
With enough of the right measurements to find the causes of your performance, you’ll soon be working on the right things, too.
Almost Perfect Is Often Not Good Enough
After many American manufacturers found that their quality badly lagged non-American competitors in the 1980s, quality improvement became an obsession. Soon, many companies were bragging that they performed at Six Sigma levels (hardly any errors per million activities).
Closer examination suggested that some of these companies had missed the boat. They had only achieved being nearly perfect in delivering outmoded offerings.
Motorola, for instance, the renowned Six Sigma innovator, saw its profits evaporate in the 1990s when the company fell behind Nokia and others in delivering new digital technologies to the market.
Some companies also didn’t know how to measure their performance.
They broke down every process into hundreds of aspects. Each aspect was measured for performance. Sure enough, almost all aspects were done perfectly more than 99.9 percent of the time.
Everyone was smiling … except the customers. As measured by what customers cared about, deliveries were deficient almost half the time. What was going on? It turns out that those little errors across hundreds of aspects compound and can cumulatively hit the customer hard. The firm should have been primarily measuring its ultimate performance for customers and then looking selectively into detail to locate where large strides could be made.
STALLBUSTERS
Use Measurements to Improve Your Personal Effectiveness
Ask yourself the following questions to better allocate your time and efforts:
1. How could I avoid having to do the least productive tasks at all and get better results?
2. How else could I have gotten these tasks done to get better results in less time?
3. How could I delegate these tasks to others for better results?
4. How could I inexpensively automate these tasks and meet my purposes?
5. When was I effective?
6. Why was I effective then?
7. When was I ineffective?
8. Why was I ineffective then?
9. How much time am I spending on time wasters?
10. How could I better spend the time I use on time wasters?
11. What will be the benefits to me and others of spending my time in these more productive areas?
Use Measurements to Improve the Effectiveness of Others
After you have acted on the answers to your personal improvement questions, you will be prepared to be credible as a helpful coach to others, especially with the answers to the following questions:
1. How can you interest other people in measurements?
2. How can you help others set up and use helpful measurements?
3. How can the message about the value of properly using measurements be spread even further?
Answer these questions and act on what you learn, and you’ll be soon making lots of breakthroughs.
Donald Mitchell is coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook. Learn about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions by registering for free at
http://www.2000percentsolution.com .
Forex Demo Account – What You Need To Know
Newcomers to the Forex or stock market need time to be able to learn and comprehend the details of trading. Having a Forex demo account is an excellent method for rookies that are new to the investment world. Having a Forex demo account is where the newbie learns not to fumble away his or her investments.
Having a Forex demo account is where the newbie learns not to fumble away his or her investments. You always hear stories about traders losing money in the Forex market. Forex demo trading is a method whereby you can reduce the number of these stories. This technique allows the new investor the ability to practice without putting their investments in jeopardy. You do not have to pay anything for the Forex software as it is free and is readily available to any new traders that are looking to gain experience and knowledge in the Forex market.
Forex demo trading is all about learning how to be successful. It does not take the place of you having to have a trading plan or of technical and fundamental analysis. What Forex demo trading does is to test the waters by putting your own research to the test as well as a plan so that you are sure that you understand just what it takes to invest in the Forex market. Forex trading is a refined skill and it forces investors to master a very high level of expertise.
Large amounts of money can be made or lost in the Forex market. With this form of investing, you can lose a lot more money than what you had originally invested. Just like the NFL, the stakes are high so training is of the utmost importance.
Many of the brokerage companies that are involved in Forex trading have demo accounts readily available. Some of them are free and some may require a small fee. However, the fee that is paid is usually well worth it because a Forex trader can use his knowledge and skills to make vast profits after spending some time practicing with a Forex demo account.
You can easily and quickly set up a Forex demo account through a broker. You can always go online and find a great number of companies that are ready and willing to help the new student trader set up an account so as to enhance his or her trading skills. It is always a smart thing to know what you are doing no matter what game you are playing. Forex trading can be likened to an advanced financial game.
If there is any hesitation, then a Forex demo account is definitely the way to go. When you set up your own Forex demo account you are allowed to make trades as though you were using real money. As the saying goes, “practice makes perfect”!
In conclusion, having a Forex demo account is much like learning NFL. Forex trading can often seem like a contact sport, and if you are not careful you may be taking hits in your wallet if you do not learn the ins and outs of the game. A Forex demo account will help you learn the investment basics before you have a chance to dive into the real game.
Alex Olson is a professional in forex trading. In her articles at http://www.best-forex-broker.net she shares her oppinion, gives some pieces of advice and supplies you with a lot of information on how to be a success in forex trading and how to choose a forex demo account.
The Importance of Corporate Internal Control
The innovative developments in financial sector have led to increased demand for an effective risk management as well as sophisticated corporate governance. Every business organization is subject to some kind of risks depending upon several factors such as the products and services it sell, the market in which it functions, the sources through which it is financed, and the way it utilizes its resources. Hence, it is important to coordinate every aspect of a business organization in an effective way. Here comes the importance of corporate internal control system. In other words, a good corporate internal control has now become an integral segment of risk management framework.
Internal control systems (ICS) or corporate internal control is simply the effective integration of activities, policies, plans, and efforts of employees working together in an organization, in order to achieve the business goals. The prime purpose of corporate internal control is to promote economical as well as efficient operations that go with the objectives of an organization.
Other prime purposes are to protect firm’s resources against mismanagement or fraud, to ensure whether the company’s activities are in accordance with laws and regulations, and above all, to develop consistent financial as well as managerial data in order to present them timely. In short, the activities that are covered in the implementation of a good corporate internal control are overseeing activities in connection with authorizations and reconciliations, reviewing of employee performance, security of assets, and segregation of duties.
A host of benefits can be derived through the implementation of an effective corporate internal control system. Since a good internal control system ensures that the resources are utilized only for their intended purposes, a great advantage is that it helps to overcome the risk associated with the misuse of organization’s funds and other resources.
Another prime benefit is that prevents errors and irregularities by detecting them in a timely manner, thereby promoting reliable and accurate accounting records. Also, a great benefit is that it can quickly resolve issues arising as a result of reporting errors. Above all, it protects the interests of employees by clearly specifying them their duties and responsibilities and safeguarding them from against being accused of irregularities or misappropriations.
The type of corporate internal control system adopted in a business organization depends upon the varying requirements of an organization. However, the most common types that are implemented in many of the business organizations include preventive internal control, detective internal control systems, and corrective controls.
Preventive control system is designed in such a way to detect and eliminate errors and irregularities before they have occurred. In detective corporate internal control, it corrects errors and irregularities that have been detected. When comes to preventive control system, it is designed to avoid errors or irregularities from taking place in the first place.
No matter it is of any type, an effective internal control system consists of certain important steps, such as, control environment, assessment of risk, control activities, information as well as communication, and monitoring. The foundation for all others steps involved in internal control systems, control environment provides a framework for the organization by including in it elements such as integrity and ethical values.
Assessment of risk involves the analysis and establishment of plans in order to prevent the risks associated with the attainment of company’s objectives. Control activities include policies and procedures formulated by management in order to ensure the effectiveness of carrying out of activities with regard to the achievement of organizational goals.
The information and communication step covers understanding of policies and procedures, validation of information, and evaluation of employee performance. Perhaps the most prominent of all steps of internal control systems is monitoring, which is the practice of assessing the overall performance of an organization.
Above all, the full benefits of internal control system could be achieved only if it is implemented in an effective way. Hence, it is evident that it could be devised only by an expert. Perhaps for this reason, now many learning centers across the globe conduct specialized courses for corporate internal control, such as, certificate in corporate internal control, covering sessions such as concepts of Internal Control, risk assessment and management, defect management, and corporate governance and corresponding standards.
Our state-of-the-art learning centers are conveniently located in Wan Chai and Jordan, Hong Kong. We are strongly positioned as a total training solutions provider with online and classroom lessons in the areas of Language, I.T. and Business Skills. See more at http://www.newhorizons.edu.hk
Affiliate Program – What Is It?
Millions of people attempt to go into business for themselves on the internet each and everyday. However, many of them fail and the reasons for that are wide and varied. On the other hand, there are also some people who succeed greatly at the programs and businesses that they start.
One example of internet entrepreneurs who have repeatedly made a good name and an income for themselves is affiliate marketers. Affiliate marketers are the individuals who join affiliate programs and take advantage of the multiple streams of income that are available to them.
Affiliate Programs Defined
What really is an affiliate program, though? An affiliate program is one in which individuals can sign up with some sort of business or program, generate a personal link to which they can refer people, and gather the profits and revenue that is gained from the sign-up of other individuals.
There are actually many benefits if you are going to use an affiliate program to make money. The first is that you’ll be generating money even when you sleep. For example, after you have advertised and marketed the program with your affiliate link then all you have to do is sit back and watch individuals sign up under you. There is no need to create your own website, your own material, or anything of the sort because all of the necessary tools are at your disposal from the affiliate program you have joined.
Example of an Affiliate Program
If you are wondering how you can get involved with affiliate programs, there are plenty of them to join all across the internet. In fact, the internet is like a vast array of programs and businesses and many of them do have affiliate and partner programs that you can join. An issue that you must think about, though, is the type of program that you’ll be promoting. For example, some of the best products to promote through affiliate programs are e-books and online material.
One example of an excellent type of program to promote, though, is a Forex affiliate program. In recent years the Forex trading business has become so popular for many reasons. For one reason, though, the amount of income you can generate simply by trading currencies is almost limitless and there are plenty of people who make a living doing just that!
Forex trading programs, though, usually have some sort of affiliate program that you can join in order to promote the business itself. Once you have signed up with the Forex affiliate program then a personal link will be generated for you so that you are able to promote it through different ways and arenas on the internet. Many people make upwards of thousands of dollars on just one affiliate alone; just imagine if you were able to refer only five or ten people in a week!
All things considered, though, affiliate programs really are the way of the internet and many people are using them to leverage their internet income! If you have not joined an affiliate program yet then the time is now to realize your full income potential on the internet through these affiliate programs and businesses!
Alex Olson is a professional in affiliate programs. In her articles at http://www.affiliate-forex.com she shares her oppinion, gives some pieces of advice and supplies you with a lot of information on affiliate programs.