Posts Tagged ‘Through’
From ERP infancy to years after the initial installation, the cost of integrating modules can be minimized, controlled, even welcomed.
An ERP can be defined as a collection of modules driven by the nature of its modules. Alternatively a unERP is integrated data driven by functionality. A function can be virtually any business transaction one wants it to be as long as it has all the required elements of – who, what, when, and where.
Because there are typically no modules to integrate in a unERP, integration is not really an issue. As a result, neither are the complexities of integration.
Adding a new function (in lieu of adding a new module) is done using one of the following three emanation methodologies.
Emanation Strategy Number 1
If the new module you want is functionally almost identical to an existing one, it might be as simple as creating a new record to define the basic characteristics of a new transaction entry screen along with a couple of database records required for security and user authorization. From start to finish, the entire module might be created and fully functional in a matter of minutes. In more complex instances it can take perhaps a few hours but definitely not measured in days or months.
Emanation Strategy Number 2
The second scenario might involve the development of a new supporting database used primarily for recording static values. An example of this type of application might be equipment costing whereby the supporting database consists of the static data on each piece of equipment such as the serial number, capital cost allowance rate, description and any other relative but static specifications.
This file would be all the data you want to have on hand and have instant access to but not any data related to normal purchase, maintenance or operating costs. In the unERP, all information with respect to costs is almost always pulled directly from transactions. In effect, the system’s transaction file is not only a transaction file for recording basic accounting purposes but it also the backbone of fixed assets ledger and the equipment costing ledger financial data.
These types of development projects typically take a few days spread out over a very short number of days of possibly weeks but typically not several months or years.
Emanation Strategy Number 3
The much more complex situation is when an interim data collection step is required for the accumulation and summarization of data. Collection of hours is a prime example.
In the unERP time collection is considered a stand alone function, its prime purpose being the collection and accumulation of hours transactions. Hours can be collected for many reasons, employee payroll, billings, job cost equipment cost allocation, hired truckers payroll, equipment usage or any other reason one might want to keep track of time.
With the unERP, time can be recorded in any number of ways, weekly time sheets, real-time on a time clock or daily entries. How it is collected and recorded has little or no bearing on what the hours transactions are ultimately used for. Frequently the same time transactions fulfill multiple functions. If there are three different collection methodologies used simultaneously by the same company, that’s OK too. The time database really doesn’t care.
Time collection procedures always use the primary unERP database files for verification of values for things like names, job numbers and equipment unit numbers but ultimately the hours transactions can take on several uses and do not enter into the mainstream of the system database until it is time to do something strategic with the hours such as process a payroll, so some billings or whatever it is you want to do related to those hours.
The system is designed so that plug-ins like this can easily be incorporated wherever most appropriate within the workflow process. Plug-ins typically take longer to develop than the previous types of projects but these projects are usually completed in the realm of days or weeks, not months or years.
In this instance the added function of time collection is considered a plug in and comes about as close to integration as integration ever gets in a unERP. When data is picked up from other sources, integration as such, generally fits into this category.
Cost of ERP Software
I’ll be the first one to admit that college isn’t for everyone. The ridiculous average college tuition fees, however, should not stop those students who are capable of succeeding at this level. Or maybe they understandably can’t stomach the idea of having $70,000 – $100,000 worth of student loan debt after they graduate. My son was one of those capable students. But raising 8 children with my wife didn’t leave us with near enough funds to cope with the current average college costs. We started looking into tuition costs for colleges in our area and the painful truth left us breathless. According to collegeboard. com, the average cost for college tuition and fees was:1) $7000 per year for in-state public universities,2) $11,000 per year for out-of-state public universities, and3) $26,000 per year for private universities. How can hard-working families deal with average college tuition rates like these? The simple answer is to eliminate the tuition cost. Yes, it can be done both legally and most ethically. You can do it by not enrolling in the college and getting your college credits through CLEP and DANTES testing credit programs. These programs have been officially recommended by the American Council on Education. DANTES was originally developed for military personnel but is now available to the general public. You must be saying this is too good to be true. It is possible to avoid today’s ridiculous average college tuition rates. Our son is proof and there are many others. He now has 87 college credits at the whopping cost of ONLY $3000. He will soon transfer those credits to a regionally accredited online college. He will finish his senior year credits through their online program and get his bachelor’s degree in business. Don’t let these wild tuition costs push you around any more.
This study paper takes India’s agriculture as a case in point for discussion and uses a simple to understand language without any reference to complex theories and jargons so that it connects to readers from a wider spectrum. However, though the case in point for discussion is with reference to India as geography and state, the readers are told that the base concept discussed in the paper can be applied to any densely populated, developing economy like Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines etc where Agriculture is a vital sector of the economy.
The very objective behind this study is undisputable reality that agriculture as a sector though is a vital life blood for any densely populated developing economy, very little penetration of good commercial practices have seeped into this sector for a variety of reasons like vastness of areas to be covered, resistance to good commercial practices from rural populace due to what can be called as fear of unknown, etc.
At the outset let us have a birds eye view of the agricultural structure in India (the geography taken for this study paper) in terms of available land on one hand and the awareness levels of rural populace of various tools and techniques, in short various commercial good practices / methods that are in place.
Of the total land available in the country, (though a tropical country with rich water resources) only approximately 67. 6% of the land is made as agriculture fit and the area under irrigation is a mere 59 million hectares as at 1990. The country’s population is slated to touch approximately 1. 68 billion mark by 2050 making it the most populous country on the planet. Connecting the dots here we can easily see the true picture. The picture is same for many of the developing economies in the region.
Now lets discuss the modus operandi and application of each one of the corporate good practices / techniques mentioned in the summary and title to this sector.
Risk Management in Agriculture
The risk that stares on the face of a farmer comes from multiple sources. However all these can be capsuled together and classified into broadly three major threats that account for bulk of all the risks faced, namely, weather, pests and poor (under) yeilds.
The risk of poor yields / under yields (this risk in many crops is so dangerous that it remains mostly invisible for the best duration of the crop, and exposes itself only towards the approach of harvest time) can be mitigated largely by resorting to time tested / proven high yield high resistant hybrid seed varieties. Pleasantly, in India the awareness of these seeds and their availability has of late penetrated into the ranks of the target audience namely the rural farmer. But the real challenge is ensuring the availability of these seeds to every single farmer who is willing to buy them for a price, and availability through the year for all harvest seasons. Here the supply chain (distribution chain) issue may arise in the minds of the readers, but the same can be resolved by using the post office branches that are spread through the entire landscape of the vast nation. It may be pointed out that though the business of a post office is completely different, the extensive distribution network of the postal department can be exploited for the distribution of these seeds, besides publishing the availability and non availability of different seeds at different intervals of time. This can also be embedded with checks and balances in the system, in such a way that farmers can register their grievances / complaints, if any, in the distribution process at immediate next higher level office (say district head office of the post office , regional head office etc). The status of the complaints can be found out at any time by invoking the RT I Act (Right To Information Act) or applicable laws in the relevant countries, if things go to such an extent, since the propesed checks will mitigate most of such requirements. Further the risk of poor yields (and the risk of pests) can also be mitigated to a good extent by a judicious use of right fertilizers. The supply chain (distribution) issue of the same can be resolved in exactly the same manner as that discussed for crop seeds.
The risk caused by uncertainty of realising the expected harvest due to adverse weather on one hand and / or pest attack / infection on the other hand can be mitigated by transferring the risk to a third party, that is, by taking crop insurance. Here is where a host of problems reside adding to woes, this risk constitutes the biggest of all risks faced by the farming community. Its a curse, this lethal risk which also comes with a very high probability of occurrence (and having its biggest and best mitigation bet in “insurance”) faces the problem of abysmally poor penetration of crop and allied insurance and this is a painful truth not just in India but in many parts of the world. Across the geographies, crop insurance schemes are subsidised by the respective governments but given the gaps in the schemes, it has been a failure. Lets discuss the case in India (again as mentioned earlier the same is observed in many countries in developing world with large populations to feed). As a mechanism to address the poor insurance penetration in agricuture sector, the central government came out with Comprehensive Crop Insurance Scheme (CCIS) in 1985 and the same was soon replaced by National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (NAIS). This NAIS did not deliver on expected lines as it suffered from the same flaws that scores of subsidised crop insurance schemes suffered from in many parts of the world such as adverse selection, area approach, arbitrary premiums (based on actuarial rates and administrative costs) to name a few, besides poor penetration. The flaws in product structure / design has to be addressed at the level of insurance provider by analysing each of the mentioned common flaws in its own merit and rectifying the same. Example, adverse selection can be mitigated by charging higher premia for high risk areas; by getting the schemes (that are financially subsidised by the Govt) to be administered by private companies, etc. The other perennial problem is that of absymally poor penetration of insurance in the farming community in most of the developing economies. Again as discussed in earlier paragraphs, the solution lies in creation of a viable, strong distribution network across the length and breadth of the rural hinterland and in a vast country like India that would mean creation of a network spread across more than 5,00,000 villages. Creating such a network from scratch is financially unviable, besides being time consuming in nature. Hence the solution lies in exploiting any existing network for firstly creating awareness about benefits of crop insurance to the target audience namely the farming community as a whole and secondly arranging for the cross selling of the insurance products to the farmers and this can happen only after a successful awareness campaign. The awareness campaign can be carried out (execution stage) by tying up with the scores of good NGO (Non Government Organisations) with a proven good track record and Micro Credit Institutions. Here the NGO’s involved can be encouraged financially by providing them with funds for the same on a piecemeal basis so that the results of their awareness campaign are also closely monitored (thus ensuring tax payers money not wasted) and a healthy checks and balances system also gets created. Further moral encouragement also needs to be given by giving them the tag of “Friends of Farmers” based on the results produced and deep lasting connections established by them with farming community. (Readers may kindly note that “deep, warm connections” in farming community (read: the rural hinterland) is of utmost importance since most deals in rural regions are driven by “trust” and this is particularly true for developing countries with vast rural populations like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh etc). Once the awareness of crop insurance, its associated benefits, etc are created and implanted successfully in the minds of the farmers (and this, given the vastness of the rural hinterland, will happen in stages, that is area by area and not across the country in one roll) the next stage involves ensuring that the insurance products (about which the farmers have been made aware in first stage) are available to the farmers (to begin with particularly in areas where successful awareness campaigns have been completed by the NGO s and micro credit institutions). The distribution network / chain for the same will be the post offices (given the fact they are spread all over the country’s vast landscape and manned by competent people who can well understand the nuances of the insurance products and can also easily connect to the local populace). Besides post offices, the network of petrol / gas stations spread across the country can also be exploited to increases the density of the insurance depot networks. Readers may note that given the fact most of these gas / petrol stations operate based on the permits given by Govt for distributing the fuel from oil marketing public sector companies, getting them to cross sell crop insurance to farmers in rural areas, can be easily possible.
It is time that these fundamental flaws in the insurance product and product structure / design, besides the issue of lack of awareness & poor penetration, are rectified to enable the farming community to effectively hedge their risks and on a different note, to enable the world at large to hedge its food security.
Better Price Discovery
Companies, be it manufacturing sector or the ones in services sector, price their offerings such that their bottom lines are well taken care of. They also enjoy the benefits of reaching the end consumer directly in some cases and in some cases through retail outlets like FMCG sector wherein the protection is there in the form of MRP (Maximum Retail Price). Now take the case of farmers, their produce reaches the end consumers after passing through a chain of middlemen and every time it changes hands from one middleman to another, it undergoes a price change obviously towards the upper side. Thus, by the time the agricultural produce reaches the end customer, the price is increased many fold. The notable pain point in this entire process is that the farmer gets only a miniscule value for his produce when compared to the price paid by end consumer. Readers may note that the agricultural produce does not undergo any value addition by the time it moves from farmers hands to the kitchens of the end consumer – hence there is no rational for the many fold multiplication of price). There are multiple effects of this pain point that we observed. One, the farmer does not get a good value for his produce (read: poor price discovery) and second, equally important effect is that the nation as such will face the problem of food inflation. (Mathematically extrapolating this to global stage – the same is found true for global economy as such due to what can be called as spill over effects).
One way of ensuring that this twin problem of poor price discovery for farmers and high food inflation of the economy can be addressed is by enabling the farmers direct access to the markets of the end consumer by establishing what is called as “farmers market” at different locations across the country (high density population areas are preferable) wherein the farmers get to take their produce to that market on designated days of a week and sell the same to the end consumer at a good price. This has been successfully attempted in many developed economies and to some extent even in parts of developing world. This will ensure that the farmers get a better price discovery for their produce (and that would mean increased rural income levels for the economy as such), consumers get a fair deal for their purchases and the twin effect of this is better control over food inflation.
Cost Savings & Improved Productivity – Higher Yield At Lower Costs
Again, companies, be it manufacturing sector or the ones in services sector, have multitude of ways (such as six sigma, TQM, Lean, Setting up of Shared Service Centres (SSC) etc) to improvise their productivity on a continuous basis and also to reduce their costs without impinging on the product quality and productivity. These offer farmers lots of good lessons as well. Due to the bottlenecks in the form of vastness of the rural hinterland, inadequate literacy levels in some places and therefore as a by product of this, inadequate awareness levels, etc. all these concepts cannot be taken to them as a whole. But instead the most essential ones can be taken forward and brought to the notice of the farming community. On an analysis of the current agricultural scene in India, the single biggest problem hindering productivity is “small land holdings” of the Indian farmer which is not conducive for mechanised farming and also which does not enable the farmers to exploit any kind of economies of scale in their other related activities like purchase of seeds, purchase of fertilizers, renovation to irrigation lines, etc.
As a solution to this the Shared Services Centres Model of the corporate world can be borrowed here effectively. Applying the fundamental base of the same, the farmers need to be incentivised to go for “co-operative farming”. The model for the same can be easily created and infact one tried and tested model is readily available, that is that of the successful white revolution.
Milk farmers in India (in the white revolution) formed cooperative societies and a number of cooperative societies of a particular region will have a parent cooperative society to which they will be affiliated members. In the same manner, the famers of a specific region (this will benefit all farmers- in particular the small farmers stand to gain the most) need to be incentivised to come together to form cooperative society and pool their land holdings together and perform cooperative (read: joint) farming. The benefits are countless and we will actually need a full book to comprehensively explain them. Here we try and compress the same into a nut shell by focussing on the prime advantages accruing to the farming community, in particular to the small farmers (that is farmers with small land holdings). When small land holdings are pooled together in a specific geography (say, as discussed earlier by formation of a cooperative society to give it a strong legal form) the resultant large single piece of land can be subjected tofull fledged mechanised farming but still retain the economic viability of doing so. (For readers who are unfamiliar to the operations aspects of agriculture, lets communicate that an economically viable, produce wise viable, full fledged mechanised farming is unthinkable for a small farmer). Besides this, a large single piece would also help in bettering the chances for exploring and implementing a multi-crop farming thereby leading multiple benefits in terms of productive yield per hectare of land. Further, the cost and earnings numbers in terms of cost incurred per hectare yield of land (and this can be further sub divided into inputs cost (ie. Cost of seeds, fertilizers and water) per hectare yield of land, labour cost per hectare yield of land, ploughing cost per hectare and other costs per hectare) and revenue earnings per hectare of land will also show a dramatic improvements under a successful, well planned multi-croping system. And besides these there always exists the un-doubtable, significant benefits from economies of scale with regards to the core operations aspect of a large pool under a system of joint farming.
Conclusion
Having discussed, in simple plain terms, without usage of any jargons and theories, the benefits of marrying some of the simple concepts in risk management, cost savings, productivity improvisations and price discovery mechanisms from the non agricultural sectors in the corporate to agricultural sector, it can be hoped that this will go a long way in bettering the lives of farmers in the developing economies on one hand and in controlling food inflation and improvising food security to the world as a whole on the other hand.
References:
1. www. indiastat. com;
2. www. indianchild. com/agricultural_system_india
3. Research Internship Papers (2001), Centre for Civil Society (A paper by Jennifer Ifft)
MCAD and PLM markets are maturing and a PLM market that continues to miss the hopeful expectations of the industry pundits. There have not been significant advances in MCAD since the late 1980′s. The game changing technology of ‘feature based solid modeling’ has become a commodity as all of the players have caught up over the past decade. For a variety of reasons the PLM market has underperformed. Although the theory of product lifecycle management is sound, realizing the vision has eluded many companies, taken far longer, cost much more than expected, and failed to deliver as promised.
According to Frank Azzolino, President of aPriori Technologies, “Real time, predictive cost assessments are required to allow discrete manufacturers to reduce product costs, drive profits and support. One of the reasons for this is the inherent disconnect between the goals and objectives of the product-centric engineering constituents and a company’s financially based business objectives. There is no better example of this disconnect than the stark difference between the language of engineering and the language of business. MCAD and PLM have historically focused on the engineering and design aspects of product delivery. The language of engineering as spoken by MCAD and PLM is based on physical attributes of the product and technological capabilities of the software solutions used. ”
The language of the business is time and money. It is no secret that the profit motive is what drives critical company decisions. It is also no secret that much of a product’s ability to achieve the expected financial goals is driven by design and manufacturing decisions that occur very early in and continually throughout the product delivery process. The holy grail of ‘collaboration’ is meaningless if the parties are not speaking a common language. The ‘lingua franca’ that translates the language of engineering into the language of business is ‘cost’, specifically, product cost.
Extending beyond the design engineering value, accurate product cost estimates offload the estimating burden from manufacturing engineers and planners already challenged with demanding production schedules, decreasing capital investment, and a dwindling experience base. In addition, predictive cost assessments offer procurement and sourcing professionals a much needed “should cost” from which to make better, more efficient sourcing decisions while negotiating from a fact-based position. Finally, program and project management benefit from real time visibility to product cost information continually throughout the product development and delivery process thus avoiding the sudden shock of bad news late in the process.
The result, product cost knowledge, is the common language spoken across the enterprise and is clearly focused on the business goals (as opposed to parochial product or feature oriented goals) that reduce costs, increase margins and contribution, drive profits and support growth.
Based in Concord, MA, aPriori (www. apriori. com) is the technology leader providing innovative cost management solutions to the discrete manufacturing industry. aPriori’s Cost Management Software Platform enables manufacturers to better understand product cost decisions early and throughout the product lifecycle. aPriori’s Cost Management Platform empowers manufacturers to lower cost-of-goods sold (COGS), provides real-time visibility to “cost-critical” decision information, and builds critical cost knowledge to go on the business “offensive. ” aPriori’s patent-protected cost management platform allows companies to assess, control, and reduce cost of goods sold by whole percentages. The aPriori Platform truly enables “Cost Knowledge Before it Matters. ”
“aPriori has customers in a variety of industries including High Technology, Industrial Equipment, Automotive, and Heavy Machinery. Recent aPriori customers include John Deere, Panasonic, Thomas & Betts, JLG, Wrobel Engineering, and Dana Corporation. ”
Principally, the important thing among people coast to coast is whether dental implants cost is covered by medical insurance. Implants don’t come cheap as metallic implants are inserted into the jaw bone artificially. It is a foreign object and could take more than a few months for your natural formations to get accustomed to it. Healing takes time and the process is long drawn and implants could also be uncomfortableNot an essential medical procedureThe most important explanation for be apprehensive the dental implants cost is that it is not considered a necessary medical procedure. You don’t have to do it and dentists are not known to urge you to get it completed for reasons of your dental health. People consider for implants as a cosmetic procedure instead of requiring them for dental healthiness. Medical insurers are not known to finance the full costs and most pay very little for the high cost of implants. Patients have to shell out much of the dental implants cost as very little is available from insurance companies even after deductibles. Costs are different from the amount of implants that need to be done with the quality of the metallic roots used. If you be obliged to do it for your entire jaw, it could cost you a fortune. Many Americans coast to coast let the jaw remain as it is and opt for false teeth as it is affordable. You may also need doing implants on a regular basis if your condition is serious. Many patients are required to resort to regular implants in the wake of accidents and injuries to their jaw. Not simply would you have to bear the pain and the dental implants cost, other than there are chances of infections, injuries and maintenance of the metallic implants as well. Get background informationYou should consider all your options and the condition of your dentures before going in for implants. Can you afford the high cost although the medical insurance companies do not support them? Even though some of them do to a little extent, can you bear the cost if they are still high and expensive even after the deductibles? Are you eager to risk potential injuries and infections that are part of implants? But, help is handy online if you can check out the dental implants cost from specialists with the American Dental Association. You can make sure their records about implants, the years they have been in practice and if there are any complaints against them. These are crucial information and required if you want to get an implant done. Check which insurance carrier they work with and cross check how much of the dental implants cost would be covered.
President Barack Obama recently released his proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year. As expected after his State of the Union speech, it includes increases in funding for job creation. However, the soaring budget deficit has become a significant concern among politicians, as well as the American people That is why many other federal programs are facing a spending freeze in the new budget. Meanwhile, healthcare reform is no longer his central domestic issue. Legislation is in a holding pattern, with Congress neither having the appetite for approving the already-passed Senate bill as is, nor the ability to get newly powerful Republicans on board. Obama has said that he refuses to let the bill die, even if doing so would be better politically. Therefore, he has included some health insurance reform in the proposed budget. It does not look like the comprehensive legislation pushed by Democrats: no public option, no individual health insurance mandate, no regulated exchange market. It doesn’t even touch politically popular regulations, such as forbidding health insurance companies from denying medical insurance to people with pre-existing conditions. If the provision in the budget does none of those things, what is its impact on healthcare reform? For one thing, it also seeks to cover millions of Americans at risk for being uninsured. The difference is that it applies to those eligible to receive health insurance from an existing program, Medicaid. It provides medical, vision, and dental insurance to the poor and working-class, and is funded by both the national and state governments. As millions of Americans lose their jobs and see their COBRA health insurance benefits expire, an increasing number of them are turning to Medicaid. In fact, programs like Medicaid typically see their nationwide enrollments increase by one million per 1% increase in the unemployment rate. The main problem with this is that individual states are also struggling with their own budgets. Unlike the federal government, states are not allowed to run budget deficits. That leaves them without funding to provide medical insurance for an increasingly needy population. The nation’s 2011 budget would give $25. 5 million to the states in order to support Medicaid, extending the funding from last year’s stimulus package. Comprehensive healthcare reform bills in the House and Senate included funding extensions. With their passage looking like a foregone conclusion, states already accounted for the continued funding in their own budgets. The possibility of reform failing, when even more of their residents must do without individual health insurance, leaves state governments in a bind. The budget only requires a simple majority, as opposed to a super-majority, in order to pass. (In other words, they will need just 51 votes, instead of 60, in the Senate. ) Democrats will be able to pass this measure easily in both houses of Congress. Although the deficit is worrying, the purpose of the funding itself is relatively noncontroversial with state constituents. Some political analysts predict that this provision in the federal budget serves as a way of sneaking the medical insurance reform issue under the radar. A few conservatives may find themselves at a loss when justifying their simultaneous opposition to the rest of the healthcare reform proposals. Republicans, meanwhile, would insist that the Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) is a tiny slice of what the full bill would do; for example, relaxed eligibility requirements would result in a 25% increase of those enrolled in Medicaid. This may actually be an example of the bipartisan compromise Obama is seeking, though many other issues will no doubt prevent the minority party from voting in favor of his budget. (Image: Jeff Keen under CC 2. 0)
When you’re not feeling well, when you’re sick or have recurring aches and pains, probably the last thing you think of is journal writing. But the fact is that journaling for the health of it can be an excellent starting point for a voyage of discovery about what your body is trying to tell you.
Studies have shown that people who write about their traumatic experiences feel better overall and visit doctors less frequently. It has even been demonstrated that journal writing can improve the health of asthmatics, and people with rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions.
One woman, who was diagnosed with chronic Epstein-Barr Virus, relates, “I started a Healing Journal, a place where I could record all my thoughts and feelings about what I was experiencing … I could fall apart, scream and yell or get irrationally angry and my healing journal hung on my every word. At first I mostly complained in the journal, but over time I found I wrote more about how to cope, dreamed about what I’d do when I got well, and I started to brainstorm on how to get help and improve my health. ”
Our bodies hold the key to understanding our emotions and psychological patterns. Dis-ease is our body’s attention-getter. It prompts us to investigate what’s happening on a deeper subconscious level.
Journaling can lead you through sickness into better health. Once you determine what is ailing you, you can think of new ideas to help heal yourself. (Note: Journaling does not necessarily replace medical care; for serious health concerns, consult your doctor – and bring your journaling notes!)
So how exactly does keeping a journal help with health issues? By writing in your journal, you are intently listening to your body. And by listening very closely, you become attuned to your body’s messages. The more you become present to your body, creating a dialogue with it through a journal, the more you learn about the errors and omissions that may have led to stress and dis-ease. But much more importantly, you learn about your infinite possibilities.
Try the following simple steps:
1. Have a daily conversation with your body through the pages of your journal. Ask it questions and write down its responses. For instance:
Starting with your head and going down to your toes, check in with individual parts of your body. Identify any sensations as specifically as possible.
Now ask, what improvement would you like to see in your body’s health today?
If you could sum up what your body is trying to tell you right now in one sentence, what would it be?
2. Continue this conversation with your body every day for a week. Then read over your journal. On a fresh page, consider the following:
3. Keep up this practice of regular writing, reading, and reflecting over the weeks and months, making note of patterns, changes, and progress.
After a while, you will look back on your experience with great awe and respect, knowing that by listening to your body you have become a major contributor to your own good health.
Ease Your Financial Burden Through Finance Debt Consolidation
If you fall for a incomparable knowledge history you may be considering you options for bad credit finance. Visit Here now http://all-type-loan. blogspot. com
It may want to buy a vehicle, or a home, but aren’t clear-cut whether you can get the finance requred for the purchase. Bad credit finance isn’t something you should loose vitally mightily sleep over, because there are quite a few financing options available regardless of how choicest your conviction history is although some lenders may charge a higher relate rate or want you to provide some additional security, but fame the dispatch may be seemly what you’re looking for. Automobile FinancingIf trying to finance the purchase of a extra or used vehicle, your crowing option would betoken a finance company rather than your local bank. There are some otherfactors in that lenders to consider when offering finance on a vat. Factors like type of car or truck, where it is through bought from, besides what type of insurance you have. Other factors that will be implicated into causation include your annual and monthly income, any cosigners that you might have whereas the loan, and cut recommendations or referrals that you might have. Finance for Buying a PropertyIt may not be quite as open forward to realize bad credit financing seeing a pay deal. Major factors in getting a mortgage lender to approve you for bad credit finance options corner your income, any insurance that you will purchase for the house or legit estate, the amount of a down remuneration that you’re willing to offer, besides part references of former landlords that you can offer. You can find many mortage lenders that offer cool thesis loans on the internet, or you can go to a premium way estate agent, or property company. Other financingFinancing other items funk collectibles of electrical appliance might be more difficult. Smaller and less useful items are often harder to compensate further find buyers thanks to than vehicles besides real estate, so many finance companies are hesitant to support money to kin hush up bad hypothesis in order to purchase these items. Instead of financing, you might want to consider other venues for bad credit loans (such as auto title loans and the like) to get you the money that you need for your purchases. Now, it is feasible to find companies that competence lend on these items, but if you get rejected try asking for a recommendation for contrastive leading suspicion central companies. Visit Here now http://all-type-loan. blogspot. com
. . a talk at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre, Thailand
During crisis, most times, we think about training staff, stop overtime-time payments, cut expense on your Human Resources, unpaid leave policy or even lay offs. I cannot say this is wrong, as long as it is most suitable and relevant to the situation.
On August 6, 2009 I was invited to be one of the panellists talking about “360 degree management for the tourism and hospitality industry during a “crisis” – organized by KBank, Thailand at Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre. (I personally admire KBank a great deal for their continuous educational activities for their clients and non-clients as what they have done reflecting a sincere banking business).
I was asked what the first thing was in my mind when a crisis happened. My answer was “people”! How all employees can work and help us to go through the crisis together as a team, as owner or general manager could never be the sole person to fight and survive a crisis. I did question the audiences (All owners and managers) whether or not they arranged meetings, to strongly and specifically communicate to all level of staff (even the cleaners) about the crisis situation and on how everyone, as a team, will walk through all difficulties during such and such a crisis.
Of course, the owners / general managers must go to the meeting with clear goals and plans. The meeting must be arranged to purposely have a productive two-way communication as all the employees will need to buy the ideas and follow direction.
Some employees might like to contribute some good ideas as well. I have personally seen hotels’ management who left the staff in the dark and let the staff think that during a crisis, staff better behave well, or they will be the first to be kicked out.
This is very unhealthy management!
Next, for me, is still “people”, this time about our potential target markets and our customers that may be able to help to get through a crisis. Look into all of the guest history and analyze carefully and effectively. You may be able to pull some good ideas out for your next sales trip or your sales planning. This must come together with all your relevant pricing and service strategies. In Thailand, I have seen many hotels cut down prices and believe that it will work to boost occupancy. Sometimes, it does indeed work when certain factors just happen to fit in, but unfortunately most times it does not work that easily.
What I like to emphasize is the “cost strategy”! You really need to watch and audit every business activity to ensure the costs are at a minimum and effective. Each selling price must be carefully set with a very correct and minimum cost. And, this has to be well-communicated to all your department heads and staff.
It is easy –but very wrong – to say that the breakeven point or loss is fine as it creates some activities for staff. This is mostly said by many SME (small-medium-enterprise business) owners or management with no or limited hotelier background. I did experience such a kind of statement as well in managing a hotel! I honestly think this idea is explored to benefit some people for some purposes that nobody knows!!!!! I think one does not need to be a General Manager to make a statement like “It is fine not to make profit; at least we have activities for staff”.
I reminded the audiences that during a crisis, I do agree that sometimes the operators do receive some kind of customer and agent pressure to lower the prices. Nevertheless, costing is ultimately an important factor for the real profit making.
I tried to explain that if you used to have a price of 370. – Baht per head for your banqueting business, and you cut the price down to 325. – Baht or even lower – you must be able to calculate an exact Baht and Satang of how much you finally would make. Consequently, how much of service charge your staff would earn. The staff may work as hard as before or even harder with a lower service charge to be received by the end of the month. In the hotel industry, some operational staff very much depend on the service charge for their living.
I come back again to the management communication in the meeting! You have to inspire and educate the staff and eventually convince them of how to go through the difficulties.
Some businesses can depend on lower pricing with a bulk selling strategy. However, in the hotel industry, you cannot over do it. It does not mean you cannot do, but, I say it again, don’t overdo it, unfortunately many non-hotelier background management or owner could not see the risk.
Many of owners or management accepted to sell at a price that did not making any profit to just show their good face and I think they disrespect their operating team.
Each and every hotel business process needs people. So, to lower the prices with the hope to have quantitative sales will finally affect staff motivation and the expense as you have to finally pay so much for over-time, extra casual paid workers and so on and so forth and please note that some managers never ever calculate things in detail in their whole lives. Therefore, they only look at the revenue and occupancy, but not a detailed profit.
I added on another important thing! E-MARKETING. I shared a good story of the company called Mai-BS (Thailand) which is very successful after only 2 months being in operation. Its website is very participative and popular. I told the audiences to leave this important work to professionals and all hotel owners must seriously invest in this as in Thailand, we can depend very little on our government for any help. We all should better depend and rely on ourselves, Kbank, and I wish to extend here that if you are in need for more, you can also reply on Mai-BS.
Not to forget, you have to be very careful of your expense! What I like to extend here is: I do not mean you have to be tight with your expense. You should be reasonable in your spending! For example; you can take out some of the light bulbs from staff canteen or lockers or even from guest corridors and put out an internal campaign on “saving” throughout the hotel. However, in the mean time, it is not wrong to consider purchasing a “lazy susan” for your tables, as it gives convenience to your guests and your staff – especially when you receive many complaints about it.
Child abuse stories, including those by victims of physical abuse, rape and sexual abuse can be very compelling. Others are likely to be shocked when you tell them about your story of abuse. However, if you take an attitude of observation, instead of judgment, you too can write about your experiences and heal from them.
During the summer of 1966, while throwing the Sunday newspaper, a stranger raped me. Many years later, I decided to start journaling my experiences, which turned out to be very beneficial in helping me to heal. It was a cathartic, healing process. However, it was not easy. I presently write with an attitude of observation, instead of reliving the emotions tied to the event.
Many sexually abused survivors do not speak of their trauma because of the perceived shame and guilt they are likely to suffer. According to a spiritual teacher who assisted me in my healing named Charles Crooks, “It is unfortunate that society in general, through the process of judgment, has found it beneficial to degrade those; either through unforeseen circumstances or the emotional effects of trauma. ”
National statistics, including child abuse statistics, report that rapists choose their crime victims based upon availability, and for no other reason. Additionally, these statistics prove that abuse survivors are true victims, not the perpetrator of the crime. Yet, there are many myths prevalent about rape victims and sexual abuse survivors, including the following erroneous fabrications:
As shown, sexual abuse survivors are not to blame. In addition, rape or sexual abuse occurs everywhere, regardless of social economic status, race, gender or religious practices. Yet contrary to the facts, the traditional beliefs remain. Why has this happened? Charles Crooks states, “Our experiences and training from others have most of us convinced that God is outside of us. ” Our impression about God is that He is sitting up in the heavens above, away from us. If God is truly outside of us, then we are separate from Him. Moreover, we can think we are inferior to Him.
I have found from my own testing and examinations that God is not outside of us. One such test includes the authentic Greek to English translation of a bible verse. Revelation 19:6 (KJV) states, “For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. ” The original Greek word for ‘omnipotent,’ as used in this verse is pantakrator, derived from two Greek words, pas and kratos. These words mean ‘whole’ and ‘power and strength,’ respectively. Therefore, you can discern the intention of the original author of this verse. God is whole, encompassing everything.
From my observation, it seems that the Church and many other structured religions appear to teach this same idea. However, there is a paradox, for they also teach a contrary notion. We are taught that you must be ‘saved’ in order to have God come into your being, an action from a source totally outside of you. If God is everywhere, how can He be outside of you? If He is everywhere, is He not within also?
To consider God outside of you creates an imbalanced atmosphere. Believing you are separate causes one to seek superiority over another or feel inferior, resulting in judgment. In other words, one can easily develop a superiority complex, or vice versa, an inferiority complex. When you think you are not equal, you may assume you know more or less than another person. Only when all parts are equal, can there be no judgment. It has been my observation that judgment, either directed from others or within you, leads to destructive emotions such as guilt and shame.
In order to journal effectively, allowing you to heal from rape or sexual abuse, it is beneficial if you take all judgment out of the situation. Learning to observe from a neutral standpoint is more constructive.
Copyright Statement:This article was written by Cindy L. Herb and may be reproduced on any related website provided the text is not changed in any form and this copyright statement is displayed unedited in its entirety at the foot of the article and you use the exact same HTML code to ensure a clickable link back to the author’s site. Further articles are also available. Contact the author for more information. Copyright 2009 Cindy L. Herb, http://www. cherbchronicles. com. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
