Saturday, April 24, 2010

Ten Tips for Managing to Rise

1.Don't get into trouble























2. Aim for greater Heights

















3. Stay Focused on your Job





















4. Exercise to maintain good Health






















5. Practice Team Work


















6. Rely on your trusted partner to watch your back

















7. Save for Rainy Days

















8. Rest and Relax
















9.Always smile when your Boss is around

















10.Nothing is possible


Thursday, March 18, 2010

LOVE QUOTES

The purpose of presenting these beatiful quotes is to give food for thought that how powerful is the force of love in life and how helpful is it in strengthening our relationships with fellow human beings in all capacities.

Quote by Martin Luther King JR
1. " Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend"

2."I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.This is way right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant"

3."We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies".

Quote by Karl Menninger

" Love cures people--both the ones who give it and the one who receive it"

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

What can a small firm do for revival?

Failure in business does not happen overnight and is usually preceded by a number of early warning signals and symptoms. If sufficient and timely attention is paid to these symptoms, instituting corrective mechanisms becomes much easier and the business would be in a much better position to deal with possible failure.

While the causes of business failure may be same, the impact and strategy to deal with the causes depends on the size of the company and scale of the business. A large business may be in a better position to deal with the causes of business failure, as it has the ability to lay off a large number of employees, access financing from banks or financial institutions, dispose of some of their assets to ease cash flows or downscale the operations.

In contrast, an enterprise in the SME sector may not have ability to lay-off a large number of employees or obtain access to lines of credit from banks or dispose of its assets.

Any business revival strategy has to consider the scale of business and what works for a large business need not necessarily work for a small business. Unlike a large business, a small business owner may not have the required bandwidth and expertise to manage both the day-to-day business as well as business revival efforts. Any business revival strategy related to a SME business needs to factor in these variables.

Before dealing with the strategies to revive a failing business, one needs to understand the causes and symptoms of business failure. Typically failing businesses are characterised by deteriorating cash flows, inability to increase sales volume or market share in a growing market, increasing levels of customer dissatisfaction, loss of customers due to product or service quality issues, decreasing profitability levels, time and cost overruns with respect to delivery of products or services, high level of employee turnover and the absence of a clearly defined and articulated business plan.

Evaluation of the internal and external business environment is a pre-requisite for identifying the causes and symptoms of business failure and development of the appropriate strategies. This requires an objective analysis of all the internal factors such as management, finance, quality of people, operations, customer service, etc and external factors such as general economic environment, nature of competition, growth levels, etc. At the evaluation stage, business owners should be as objective as possible in their assessment of business prospects and the possibility of business being rescued.

In this context, a small business may consider the involvement of outside experts as they bring in the required objectivity and experience. At the end of the evaluation phase, the business owners need to decide if the business is worth saving. If there is a reasonable prospect of reviving the business, the business owners should focus on surviving in the short term while a revival strategy is formulated and implemented. Broadly, business revival strategies can be classified into retrenchment strategies, repositioning strategies, reorganisa-tion strategies and realisation strategies.

Retrenchment strategies involve moving out of difficult or less-profitable markets, deleting unprofitable product or service lines, selling assets, outsourcing and downsizing. All of these strategies are designed to minimise financial losses and conserve resources. In a business revival scenario, managing the cash flows becomes critical and the retrenchment strategy is often the first step as it has a direct bearing on cash flows. While following retrenchment strategy, business owners need to pay attention to soft issues related to the whole process by being open and transparent with their employees and customers. Communication with various sta-
keholders should be open and clearly spell out the rationale for steps being undertaken and should be aimed at obtaining their buy-in.

Repositioning strategies involve moving or expanding into new markets or geo-graphies, seeking new sources of revenue, developing new products or services, and changing the market perception and image of a company. A business can attempt a repositioning strategy only after it has stabilised its cash flows.

Reorganisation strategies involve changes in the internal management of a failing company, which may include new reporting structures, new business model, process redesign and induction of fresh management talent. The reorganisation strategy can be employed in the long-term and needs considerable change management at the business level.

Realisation strategies come into play if all of the above strategies fail to deliver results. In realisation strategy, the focus is realising as much value as possible through liquidation or sale. In this scenario, the business has no choice left but to close down its business and recoup whatever value it can.

Reviving a failing business is not an easy task as it needs a continuous and coordinated effort. A business revival strategy to succeed requires a saleable product or service, an established market, capable management team and the support of all stakeholders. There is no one size fits all approach and business owners should evolve their own approach which is appropriate in their context.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Career Uncovered

This is a very motivational interview of Ashraf Chaudhry writer of book “The Craft of Selling Yourself” published on bayt.com. The interview is very enthusiatic and is a fit match with the philosophy of Manage to Rise. It is a worth reading interview.
1. Best career advice I ever got: I was in 7th grade, when I read the translation of Dale Carnegie’s classic “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. I learnt that throughout our whole life, we are in the ‘selling’ profession. The function of ‘selling’ starts with first cry for milk by the baby and it just goes on. When you opt to roll out your professional career, you are in the ‘selling’ business all the way. You sell your ideas to your colleagues; you sell proposals to your boss; you sell budgets to finance; you sell stumbling blocks to yourself as stepping stones. I am incredibly lucky that I got this career advice in my childhood from no less than Dale Carnegie. When you take yourself as a salesperson rather than as an employee, your approach towards career in particular and towards life in general is very different. You take everybody as your prospect. You remain on auto-networking mode all the time. You look for avenues within the organization as well as outside where you are able to sell your ideas. By selling ideas, you create value-addition possibilities. The more valuable you are to the organization, the bigger price tag you will put on your services. That is how you scale the heights of career.
2. Favorite Job task I ever had to do: Writing The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF” was one of the most favorite “job tasks” I ever had to do in life. There is a very thought-provoking dialogue in the movie The Rookies, that is something like: “It is fine to do what you want to do, but sooner or later you have to do what you were meant to do”. I believe I have been designed to share my life experiences with others and to impact people’s lives with life-changing trainings and writings. This is what I am meant to do. It is a great discovery. When I decided in August 2008 to “retire” at the age of 38 from a 9 to 5 safe and comfortable job to start my own entrepreneurial venture of changing people’s lives by challenging their disempowering and limiting beliefs, as a first step to long journey I started writing The Craft of Selling “YOURSELF”. I was not a professional writer but I discovered that I am passionate writer. I wrote my book in 21 days! It was launched in Pakistan in November 2008 and soon it was approved by a US publisher. Last month, it was published in USA. Now the book is available at Amazons (USA, UK, Germany, Japan and France).
3. Most dreaded job task I ever had to do: Once in my career, I made a wrong choice of working for some marketing research company. I accepted the offer without doing sufficient reconnaissance on that organization. Late sittings for one day or for one week is acceptable but if it is culture of the company to retain employees till 11 pm and even beyond is no less than slavery. I worked for that company for a few months and I still recall that experience as nightmare.
4. Best career decision ever made: I think going on the entrepreneurial flight is the best career decision I ever made. I am achieving three objectives. First, my working hours are very flexible. I give more time to my family now. I have independence. I am my own boss. Second, I enjoy what I am doing. I don’t take my job as ‘assigned’ or monotonous drudgery. I am my job and job is me. Third, I am impacting people’s lives positively.”
5. Weirdest career decision ever made: Going for a ‘9 to 5’ safe job after MBA. Had I started my business soon after graduation, I would have been at a different place today. It was the weirdest thing to go for fixed salary while Almighty’s universe is vast and unlimited. I think one should be in the hot pursuit of one’s passion. The Rest of things follow automatically.
6. My Biggest Professional Challenge: Trainings are normally taken as expense by the companies instead of investments. In current times of economic meltdown, business organizations have come very hard on training budgets. As a trainer, it is the biggest challenge to stay sustainable in the business, but I am quite optimistic that the current recession is not going to last forever. Things will take the u-turn soon.
7. Icons who have influenced my career progression/Role Models: I take inspiration from people like Anthony Robbins, Stephen Covey and Bob Urichuck. Anthony Robbins is my real role model. He is the man who despite no formal higher education has impacted lives of millions with his seminars, motivational tapes and books. In Pakistan, Abdul Sattar Edhi is an icon and a living legend. Despite no formal education, only with dedication and deliverance, he has erected an empire of philanthropic services. I have literally seen him in Karachi holding sack in his hands on roadside and people making queues to give him donations. It is incredible!
8. Most recommended readings (Websites, books) for people interested in my field of work/ industry: “Awaken the Giant Within” by Anthony Robbins and “The Greatest Salesman in the World” by Og Mandino are the two books that every professional must read for personal and professional enrichment.
9. In another life, my perfect job would be: To enable and empower unfortunate children to lead lives of abundance and prosperity.
10. A successful career thought/ motto that I live by (and advise others to consider): Life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever you think and perceive consistently, manifests in life. Human beings become what they predominantly think. If you think you are genius, you will become. If you think abundance, you will get abundance. If you think scarcity, ultimately scarcity will be your fate. So one must choose one’s thoughts very carefully because thoughts finally become reality.

Monday, May 18, 2009

KNOCKING DOWN YOUR HEART FOR SPIRTUAL RISE

One thing is for sure that experiencing lasting happiness without having a healthy spirit is not possible. Therefore you can not take this part of your life for granted which is the mistake majority of us made. The gifts you may get from spiritual rise such as lasting happiness, eternal peace are not time bounded and remain in the life forever and continue even in the Hereafter.

Face shows reflection of our inside. You can not be happy and peaceful unless have a peaceful inside which means has a healthy spirit. Opening up of heart is critical to rejuvenating of spirit. Below are few keys to knocking down your heart to opening up your doors to spiritual rise.

1. Purity: Make your heart pure and void of love for earthly possessions. Don't be a slave of your desires.Do it with enjoyment and without any burden to your soul. Get out of narrow circle of egocentricism and enters into oceanic consciousness.
2. Love: When you are actively pouring love into what you are doing, this will guarantee that you are opening yourself to experiencing more of it.
3. Trust yourself: Listen to your institution that little voice inside yourself and know that this comes from heart. That little voice is the only pure thing which is a gift of nature. Go through the experience of super consciousness – a state of mind where you can observe things with a brain set empty of all other thoughts at that moment.
4. Follow what your intuition tells you: If you don't pay attention, that little voice gets fainter and fainter until you can no longer hear it.
5. Change the way you think: get yourself free from false ego. Think of things in broader perspective.
6. Limit your association with negative people: Some people view world in negative terms. This does not mean that they are bad people but avoid meeting them on regular basis as their sour outlook shall start effecting you.
7. Believe in yourself. When you are backed by a strong belief in yourself and your dreams, nothing is impossible.
8. Read something Inspirational: It will inspire you to take actions. The taking of actions, no matter how small, will fill you with inspiration for taking the next step.
9. Prayers: without the will of getting yourself pure, pursuit of spiritual rise is useless. Seeking God’s help and prayers every sec of time can ultimately elevate you in spiritual level.

Once your heart gets pure and achieve spiritual rise, you shall start feeling changes in your life which can be seen through indicators such as reviving of strong ethical values, less love for earthly stuff, strong sense of caring others, muscular feeling of lasting happiness, and clarity in vision and goals of life.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Manage to Rise! Through Mood Swings from Bad to Good

In my view, a good mood is foundation of all good things to come and helps manage to rise in areas of life that are most important to you.No one can live a long and healthy life without the will to go on; the shape and structure of life is in your hands and does not depend on the circumstances. A bad mood not only gives you a gloomy outlook, it also lowers your ability to excel in professional, social, personal and spiritual disciplines of life.

Sometimes changing mood from bad to good can make us feel that life is too much for us. You can stay perky only by good mood even people around you are depressed and you can make difference in others lives. Researchers come up with several ways to swing your mood but here are some simple suggestions to boost your mood, lift your spirit, and improve your health.

1. Laughing

Without a doubt, joyful people live longer and healthier lives and can make a difference for others. Laughter and joy helps boost your mood. You can swing your mood from bad to good by reading your favorite books, share quality time with your friends/family, watch your favorite comedies, and laugh it up!
2. Hugs - No doubt has Magical Effects

Having a sense of love for your family, colleagues, loved one and human fellow, helps the mind as well as spirit. Human touch generates the positive energies in body and results in boosting your mood. So give your family, parents, kids hug and feel both of your moods improve.
3. Breathing
The breathing practices provide a link between mind and body and help release of tension and reduction of stress. Breathing is a great way to clear your mind, boost your energy, and improve your mood. Practice deep, slow, rhythmic, breathing daily with mind-body disciplines such as, yoga, and meditation.
4. Smell the Joy
Smell has a definite impact on our bodies and minds. This concept is instrumental to philosophy of aromatherapy, which recommends such as treating depression with smell of jasmine etc. Keeping bunch of flowers at your workplace or home can shower fragrance in the air and can help in boosting your mood.

5. Relation with Flowers
Colorful flowers has a powerful influence on moods. There is a reason that flowers are the traditional get-well gesture. Developing a daily relation with flowers can uplift a mood and even combat stress.

I hope these tips help the good feelings flow! Good mood is critical to success and happiness in life and making a difference for others. May you live long, strong, and happy!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Managing Fallout of Mistakes

Everyone does mistakes on account of various reasons but the way of dealing with the fallout of the mistake is important. During my work experience, I met people of different background and natures, some have nature to get very defensive after doing mistakes and some simply don’t care of doing it.
Different researchers and management coaches have suggested simple ways to follow, if you have realized your mistake, to deal with the fallout?
Here are few steps to follow:
1. To tell your boss/friend/spouse/whoever does, about mistake as soon as possible. A proactive attitude helps to deal with the fallout.
2. Communicate clearly that you know what you did, and that you understand the repercussions of your error. People want to feel that you understand why they’re annoyed on you. Admitting your fault really helps to give way for contribution of others in fixing error.
3. Be not defensive on yourself. If they see that you’re really sorry, they may even try to console you. That will help strengthen your relationship.
4. Assure that it won’t happen again. This is how; they’ll know you’ve put some thought into it.
5. Accept the consequences. Whatever it is, accept it without objection. If you really think your punishment was too harsh, address it later when cooler heads will prevail.
6. Go the extra mile. Don’t only correct your mistake, go one better. If you were late for a meeting, start being the first one there. If your work was shoddy, make sure it’s flawless and done ahead of schedule in the future.

Everyone make the mistakes as long as you don’t make it a regular habit. If you don’t manage the mistakes maturely then it further complicates the things. People will forgive you, especially when you handle it well.