Read Articles on the Present World Financial Crisis

Click on the headings to read articles. I have summried in a sentence or two about the article. Have pleasure readings.

On Recession and Financial Crisis:

1. Auto Industry Bailout Sends U.S. Dollar Lower in Currency Trading

Says that US dollar stuggling in the market because of  "the announcement that Congress and Detroit have come to an understanding regarding an auto industry bailout."

2. How much dollars have been allocated in US Bailout and its elements

Heading suffices. Given information is in the form of tables.

3. The Worst Is Yet To Come: Anonymous Banker Weighs In On The Coming Credit Card Debacle. 

An executivein the banking industry unleashes his disgust in an e-mail to the author. That e-mail is the article.

4. Recession prompts some couples to delay having kids

Its not a joke rather far worse. When 8 out of 10 Americans are worried about FInancial Crisis, history shows us birth rate falls. And, that's dangerous for coming decades for a country's economy.

5. US downturn set to deepen, & debt to mounts - OECD forecasts

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's forecasts and analysis leading to useful insight into present scenario and future action.

Reconsidering: Is it Useful?

Managerial role is so common everywhere in every field that I have come to acknowledge it as a universal value.

Revisions of implemented plans can be life-saving or life-taking in the hours crisis, especially. My aim is to create hope. Therefore, I will not be discussing 'negative'.

The lesson comes from Punjab Government's latest move. I've come to learn from a story in PAGE that Punjab Government has decided to 'abandon those development schemes falling under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) 2008-2009, that are not useful for the public and would prove mere wastage of provincial fund.'

This was decided in a senior level meeting between Chief Secretary of Punjab, its Finance Secretary and other top-level officials. However, they've proved more subtle as we expect them to be.

Government of Punjab has "...already utilised 24 percent of the ADP's total budget of Rs 160m in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2008-09," because of the finanical crisis in the country. And, guess what, now at this point in time Punjab Government's financial position is quite safe. Like an oasis in the middle of desert!

When Established Superiority Isn't everything

When Established Superiority Isn't everything !!
Posted By Muhammad Umer Toor, 21-Nov-2008.

Always keep in mind what first paragraph of page # 199, 227 (exhibit 8-7) of Management book [1] states, whenever you're in the business. Even when your organization is touching skies or, worst, in a downturn, and if you cease to bring innovation, cease to find new directions and so on and so fourth - this is a worst pitfall. Becoming best is one thing, and trudging along a constant line is not a safe strategy. Because, whenever you find that everything is going smooth, actually something is going wrong there. This happens mainly with those companies whose tasks demand optimum performance; when everything around them is changing without any notices. What I learnt from Stanely Hainsworth, 'former creative genius behind campaigns for Lego, Nike and Starbacks' [2], is that eternal reconstruction is the price of success for any brand. Editor at Entrepreneur magazine calls it as 'Survival of Fittest' [3]!

The basic idea behind finding new directions or cracking innovation, a necessity of established companies and else, is well explained by Hainsworth, and in his own words:

"Many [companies] wait until a crisis hits and then go through the cycle of a
hiring freeze, cost-cutting and layoffs. [Refocus] while you're strong, while have the resources and before you start cutting."[4]

This happens (-unexpected shocks-) mainly becuase of 'market-shifts', customer choices change (like our favorite ice-cream example!), and of course, due to dynamic enviornment, generally. [5]

Doing something ahead of hard times isn't at all a weak idea, only to insane. It's experts' view as well as well-researched thesis. (To quote you one more example). According to a research done [6] on the four common causes of growth stall, two majors reasons given for growth stalls confirm Hainsworth point of view.

One big reason, according to HBR [7], is that 'innovation management breaks'.
Second, because 'company lacks a strong talent bench'. [8]

Once, I asked a senior student of criminal psychology, "What is the remedy for a criminal-minded person?" And, his reply, which I found quite witty, was, "You shouldn't be criminal in the first place." 'That's the best strategy', he whispered to me without even whispering! And, business studies are no exceptions!


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Notes:

[1] Page 199 (Chapter # 7), Ist paragraph states the successful plans are not likely to work in changed situations. Whereas page 227 (exhibit 8-7) (Chapter # 8) urges the need for creating strategic flexibility, i.e, it consists of: monitoring and measuring results; gaining fresh perspectives and ideas outside organizations; sharing negative information and learning from the mistakes; while making strategic decisions, having multiple alternatives. (From: Management, 9th Ed., by S. P. Robbins& M. Coulter.)

[2] Quote from Entrepreneur, November 2008, article, INSGHIT "Survival of the Fittest,' by Lindsay Holloway.

[3] Quote from Entrepreneur, November 2008, article, INSGHIT "Survival of the Fittest,' by Lindsay Holloway, Pg. # 33.

[4] Quote from Entrepreneur, November 2008, article, INSGHIT "Survival of the Fittest,' by Lindsay Holloway, Pg. # 33.

[5] Quote from Entrepreneur, November 2008, article, INSGHIT "Survival of the Fittest,' by Lindsay Holloway, Pg. # 33.

[6] When Growth Stalls, by Mathhew S. Olson, Derek van Bever, and Seth Verry, HBR (Harvard Business Review), OnPoint, Fall 2008, Article Published Originally March 2008.

[7] Excerpt from HBR (Harvard Business Review), OnPoint, Fall 2008, When Growth Stalls, from Idea in Brief coulmn, Pg. # 33, Article Published Originally March 2008.

[8] It is further explained in the article, (OnPoint, Fall 2008, When Growth Stalls, from Idea in Brief coulmn, Pg. # 33, Article Published Originally March 2008) as:

"The firm has few executives and staff with
strategy-execution capabilities."

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How Cisco Uses Our Chapter 9 Pg # 241 to 'See the Future'*

How Cisco Uses Our Chapter 9 Pg #241 to 'See the Future'*

Since when I started reading out carefully Harvard Business Review (HBR), I have come to respect my course management book (i.e, Management, 9th Ed., Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter). I have appreciated that this book summarizes or states, at least, all those principles on which all of today's successful organizations work and win.

Quoting a small example which I came across in this month's (Nov.) issue of HBR, will make you take my claim more seriously.

Cisco Systems are "the world's largest provider of internet networking." And, Cisco's new CEO John Chambers, who will begin his 14th year at Cisco in January, has always been good at listening. And, so has his company been such that - they have scored loads of capital, merely by listening to their clients and customers, as HBR puts it.

"Cisco is able to predict trends six to 8 years (remember budgeting, forecasting, or projecting is always futuristic) in the highly volatile technology market by recognizing early-warning signals its customers unwittingly give off**." This is what they call "market shifts." And, Chambers, Cisco's CEO, himself abandoned his own old 'command-and-control' style in decision making. (I will share more ideas on this topic in future posts, hopefully.)

Cisco was founded in 1984. It did went in a downturn (i.e, crisis). And it came out. Regained its superiority in Internet Communications Equipment providers. But. Only through seeing the future. And, it has been doing so for long only by listening to its customers.

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Notes:

* Harvard Business Review, November 2008. "The HBR Interview: John Chambers", Heading Topic & Pg. 241 of, Management, 9th Ed., Stephen P. Robbins & Mary Coulter
** Harvard Business Review, November 2008. "The HBR Interview: John Chambers"


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Posted By:
Muhammad Umer Toor, 20-Nov-2008.