EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION

Everyone is a leader in his own ability and capacity. The success behind any kind of organization is effective leadership and administration. However, there are people who are born as leaders but it's important to note that leadership and administration is an art and every art can be learnt. I have met many people who never thought of being leaders but have effectively learnt the art of leadership and emerged as leaders to be admired.


In any kind of leadership, the first area of effective administration is the administration of funds. Be it in business, government departments, church or any other kind of organization, you will have the most effective leadership if you learn to use the funds properly. If any of your employees wants to paralysis your operations and bring down decades your leadership, the first place to target is your finance or/and accounting department. Your employees in this area should therefore be people of integrity and who have internalized the vision of your organization.


The second area that determines how effective you will be in your leadership is managing people. The human resource directly affects the operations of your organization. You must begin by placing every employee in the department where he/she will work best. You therefore begin by identifying where to place your staff. This means that an effective leader is close his or her staff and spends time them. After placing them in their rightful places, you need to monitor their performance. Performance of your staff is closely tied to motivation. Every employee needs to be motivated. This entails different strategies. Know which kind of motivation to use. It is not necessary to promise your staff a reward for good performance. This may bring in unhealthy competition, hatred and lack of cooperation between staff who want to out-do each other. Therefore reward unexpectedly.


Motivation may be as cheap to the organization as recognition, but make sure you recognize a staff in the midst of others. Do not do it in a closed office. It may not serve the purpose. Other strategies may include promotions, gifts, added responsibilities and increase in salary. You must also ensure that your staffs are working as a team. Working together ensures the staffs are focused towards the goals of the organization.


Effective leaders give an ear to every stakeholder of the organization. Know that the whole organization is looking on you to give direction. Begin by listening to every stakeholder then give a direction. Sometimes it's necessary to give directions basing on what you believe is best for the organization regardless of other peoples views. But this should not be always because it does not mean that you are always right. Conflict resolution strategies are important. Know that there will always arise conflicts. The win/win strategy works best for most organizations. Therefore make sure that each of the conflicting parties does not feel offended.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

IDENTIFYING BUSINESS FAILURES

What makes your business go down? There are many reasons why that business may not be performing to the expectations. The following article tries to open your eyes towards particular factors that may be hindering you business. Carefully, study the reasons below and see which identify with you business.

Loss of customers
Is you customer base the same as when you were making high profits? If you have lost any single client then establish why he/she was not happy. Remember that your business exists to satisfy customers.

Dissatisfied workers
Your staff will determine whether you will be successful or not. Dissatisfied employees will do their best to frustrate you efforts. Employees who are not close to you are fear your presence may be unwilling to air their grievances. Encourage employee unions and cooperatives.

Extravagant spending
Are you spending the incomes in the right projects? Your failures may be actually because of unwise spending. Cut down cost as possible but not at the expense of quality services. Remember, that quality should not be compromised.

Declining public image
Sometimes people buy your products because of the good name that your business holds. If they perceive that you are loosing customers, then be sure that you will loose more. Ensure that you guard against a bad name. A good name is business goodwill.

Dissatisfied suppliers
How have you been treating your suppliers as they deserve? Well treated supplies will ensure that you get quality raw materials that will in turn give quality products.

Guidelines to Effective delegation

Power, duties and responsibilities can effectively be passed on to subordinate staff to facilitate a smooth running of your business and hence result in profitability. The following guidelines will help you have a competitive edge and put your business on the tract of profitability.
1. You must grant proper amount of authority to the person who is given the responsibility. The authority should always achieve the desired outcome. Granting excess authority may encourage misuse of power.
2. Define the results expected to be achieved. This means that the managers should set and define in advance the expected results.
3. You must as well consider the capabilities of the subordinates. This means that before delegating authority, managers should consider the experience, background and intelligence of the person the authority is being delegated to.
4. Clearly state the delegated authority. Subordinate should know how the amount of authority and responsibility granted to them.
5. Where necessary, you need to allow for the modification of the delegated authority and responsibility. You must consider changes in your environment and react to them in the best way. You must therefore retain the powers to revoke, increase or decrease delegated authority.
6. You must develop the willingness to delegate. This means that subordinates should be allowed to work without necessarily receiving direct instructions from the manager.
7. Develop a supportive working environment. This includes a positive attitude and encouraging subordinates to participate in the decision making process.
8. Allow free communication. This helps you learn the problems facing your business and adopt proper mechanisms.
9. Establish control mechanisms. You should control the responsibility and authority delegated.

Herbal health

The increase of diseases and the sophistication of complications in the human body have left the world wondering where to turn to. But there seem to be some sign of hope in the herbal medication. The world is drastically changing to this kind of medication, a speed that can only be compared to the way technology is growing. The cause of the rise in complications is that people have ignored the key principles of life and this has left us with no medical solutions to most problems. These problems simply arise when few individuals want to become rich quickly and therefore violate the basic human principles to healthy living. Do you remember the uproar when GMOs were introduced? I wonder what has been done about it. Many people have blamed science which comes up with such kind of products and afterwards disqualify them as harmful. the truth is that thou the world needs cheap foods, this should not be done at the expense of human health.

The herbal medics are offering an alternative solution towards for such kind of dilemmas. It is painful for people to hear that the medicine we take could as well leave a lot of chemicals in the body which later needs detoxification. One would wonder why medication should also turn deadly. This and other simply facts that should convincing have formed the basis for herbal specialists to argue and defend their medications. In Africa this has not be absorbed very easily. Herbs were associated with witchcraft and therefore it took the church a long time to buy the idea of herbal health. Anyway, what matters to a sick individual is the need to get well and not by what means.

What shapes politics and democracy in Africa?

Africa has for a long time been seen as the continent where democracy is a mere dream and far much beyond reality. I must admit that this mentality greatly affects the path of politics in this wealthy continent. Believe it or not, there are great similarities between campus and national politics in Africa. If you ever want to predict what will be the outcome of the elections in any Africa country, just spend quality time studying the politics in the local African universities. It is sad to note that this happens mostly because of the deep rooted tribalism in these countries. African politics is a dangerous affair where ethnicity is the order of the day. They say that politics is a dirty game; you will not know how dirty it is until you know what happens at the back of most African politics.
The most frightening thing is the reality that ethnicity greatly affects campus politics, the place where most of the African leaders are molded and trained to take responsibilities in the national leadership. I would not expect leaders who survived on tribal lines during their years in campus to change when they climb the leader. We have known students leaders to be people who promise heaven, pretending to be reformists and delivering hell during their term in leadership. I have found this characteristic in most African leaders. They are only seen in their constituencies during campaigns with a packet of maize flour and sugar, after which they disappear till the last year towards the end of their term. What Africa needs to learn is that the rat and cat game that most leaders are fond of playing should be brought to a stop.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Investing internationally

One of the most profitable ways to do business is to do it internationally. Anyway, it is nothing to run to. Unfortunately, today, if you are thinking of doing business abroad, then there are two important factors that you will not ignore.

First, you must consider the current world economic crisis. There are big companies which were previously being doing good business abroad but have since closed or laid off majority of the workers. Nevertheless, this is not a concrete reason to stop your dream.

Secondly, you have to consider the value of the currency that the country you intend to invest in operates in against your own currency. You must ask yourself if the currency you will operate in will be favorable for your operations.

Thirdly, you can not ignore the kind of business you want to engage in. There are businesses which do well regardless of the economic situations. I have written much on investing in the three basic needs. That is, food clothing and shelter. Regardless of economic conditions, people will still eat, buy clothes and live in house. These are just a few examples of what you can comfortably invest in without much worry. Remember that hoteliers are the world’s richest.

Fourthly, the country itself should have a good environment for business establishment and growth. There are countries where the political situation is so unpredictable. Do not invest in such countries unless you have direct links to supply the government.

International investments can be very tricky sometimes but remember that trick business earns more.

Total quality management

Total quality management is a management aspect which ensures that there is continuous improvement in quality of products and services you provide in your business. Quality should not be compromised on any ground and should be a continuous process. Total quality management proposes that total quality can not be achieved. This means that there should be continuous efforts to improve quality on daily basis.

Total quality management supports the idea that quality is a sum total of very individual effort in the organization. This simply means that every one from the chief executive officer to the toilet cleaner, all have substantial contributions towards the success of your business.

A customer looking for quality services should receive a warm welcome from a happy receptionist and proceed to get value for his/her money. If a wrong impression is created at the entrance of the business, he/she may not enjoy the services. Always remember that a satisfied customer will tell one or two of his/ her friends. A dissatisfied customer will discourage at least five.

Total quality management further proposes that quality is free. This is because the benefits of quality are far much beyond the money used to facilitate the process. This is to say that you should not avoid providing quality products and services on the excuse that it is expensive. The benefits supersede the costs.

There are known companies that provide poor quality products at very cheap prices. If you want to be in business for long, just provide quality things regardless of their prices

Business plan: the right way

Succeeding in business in the current financial crisis can only be through a proper laid down business plan. The issue of having a business plan is a modern business idea which many experienced managers may not have gone through during their days in school. Anyway this should not be a reason for your business to operate without a plan. The following guidelines meant to give you the main sections of a business plan.

Title page
The title page gives the name of your business.

Table of contents
This is the page which shows the various contents in your business plan. All the main titles in that plan should be reflected on this page with their respective pages.

Executive summary
This is a short summary (normally around one page) which tries to explain the whole business plan.

Business description
This is where you briefly explain what kind of a business you are engaged.

Description of industry
This part explains the industry in which your business operates. For example service, manufacturing, tertiary etc

Marketing plan
These are the laid down strategies that will be used to market your products.

Financial plan
The way you will finance your business operations matters a lot. This should be well shown in your business plan.

Production plan
This is a well description of the way you intend to do the production of your products. Here the procedures and the raw materials for manufacturing industries can be shown.

Organizational plan
This is the plan that shows the leadership structure of your business

Operational plan
This is the part which has the way operations in that business will be, that is, the day to day running of your business.

Identifying the right business opportunity

There are millions of business opportunities which one can invest in. The main reason why new businesses fail is because many investors put their money in opportunities which they can not identify with. It is not how good the opportunity looks, but how much will you earn and how safe it is.

Every opportunity that comes your way is not for you. I have seen people failing in a particular business and close down, while others succeed in the same business and conditions. Now, what happens? The truth is that there is no magic in business. If you can not succeed in it, look for another. The problem is identifying the other because may end up in another mess.

In coming up with the best opportunity, there are specific factors that you have to put into consideration. First, it is obvious that you will look at the returns. Thou this might be the main consideration, do not be quick to invest on this grounds only.

The risk factor is also important. You must know how big the chances for survival of your business are. Of course, high risk businesses earn much profit. But remember that it may be too risky that you end up loosing even before you get any returns.

You must consider the government policy on the business. Some businesses like drug trafficking earn high profits but are illegal. Do not engage I such businesses; you will end up loosing in the long run.

Capital to be invested is another factor. Do you have enough resources for the business? An opportunity may have very good prospects but require money that you do not have.

SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH IN THE CURRENT WORLD ECONOMIC CRISIS

What’s next for small businesses? This is one of the questions I have been made to tackle in my undertakings to save my clients from collapse of their businesses. The global economic crisis is not only a nightmare to big businesses but has threatened to bring down the entire economy which is generally made of small businesses. Small business managers are therefore faced with the challenge of remaining in business and also ensure continued profitability.

A good manager that wants to ensure a continued growth and profitability must first understand that the world is really facing a crisis. This calls for new strategies to curb the problem. You do not need to close your business but come up with a mode of adaptation. Some managers have ignored this fact only to be ambushed by unpaid debts and other under performances.

Secondly, know that the challenges of the crisis can as well be used as opportunities. It is very unfortunate for managers who are struggling to keep down costs instead of trying their best to increase sales. I want you to know that while cutting cost may increase your profits, it’s a clear sign that your business is not performing to the required standards. A good manager will take time to study and see what can be done to increase sales. Do not give up; there are businesses which have recorded increase in profits, yours is the next on line.

Thirdly, you must do your best to satisfy your current customer needs. The current world economic crisis has also brought up current customer needs. Know them, satisfy them.

WHO WILL I MARRY?

The question ‘who will I marry’ is a critical one to everyone who dreams to ever get married. It’s almost certain that everyone living in this world has to ask himself this question a least once in a lifetime. If you fail to ask this question, you may as well find yourself asking ‘who did I marry’. There are many theories surrounding this area of marriage, this article highlights key issues that I have learnt from personal experience, research and through extensive and intensive study on the area. I therefore intend to be as practical as possible so that I do not end up introducing another unrealistic theory.
Where do I start? This might be the question that is ringing in your mind. Start where you are. Remember that everybody starts somewhere. Have you prayed about this issue? I want you to know that issues of marriage are very serious and there is no chance for trial and error. It is sad to note that in some countries marriage has been taken to be a form of contract and hence not given the weight it deserves. Please remove that from you mind. If you do not intend to spend your whole life with someone, do not waste his/her time. There is no marriage for kids, so if you are a kid, please stay away from it. There are some young adults who want to behave like kids, always looking for pity, bringing unnecessary arguments and disagreement. If you are that kind, stay away. You are yet to qualify. Marriage relationships are for mature people with a goal, which is marriage.
Do not form a habit of moving from one person to another. This shows that you are not ready for marriage. In fact this may mean that you are the person with the problem. However do not be afraid to break a relationship if both of you feel that it cannot work out, it’s better a broken relationship than a broken marriage.

Starting a non-governmental organization (NGO)

The truth is that setting up an NGO is not easy. Many people go through a rough time in trying to start up such organizations. I have come across many ambitious people whose efforts have been frustrated by the hard circumstances surrounding the foundation of NGOs. Anyway, one major reason why people fail is because they are unwilling to follow the right procedures, especially the laid down policies by the government. Many NGOs have been known to solicit for funds from unsuspecting donors and well wishers and using such donations to enrich a few individuals. If that’s your intention, then what you have is not an NGO but a defrauding scheme, which is against the law. This is why many governments have put in place regulations to help come up with genuine organizations.

A non governmental organization begins by writing down your vision. This helps one to avoid straying away from what you want to achieve. After this, you need to look for people of your kind to help you in achieving it. But always remember that you are the vision carrier and if you do not succeed, then you are the one who has failed and not your friends; success may be credited to all but failure will be attributed to you.

The people who join you will help you in coming up with a mission. This is the game plan on achieving you vision. It also means the strategies that you will take to get to your set objectives.

NGO funding is one of the many strategies that you must make clear. No NGO will survive without money. This calls for writing proposals if you need support from friends. Anyway, many NGOs are also funded from personal or businesses income. Whatever the case, set it clear from the onset.

Qualities of a successful small business manager

A successful business manager has the responsibility of identifying business opportunities, organizing and co-coordinating the factors of production and ensuring profitability. The following qualities are basic for every manager

Clear objectives
A manager must have clear objectives. This is a prerequisite for success because it makes sure that you are focused towards a particular goal.

Mental ability
This simply means intelligence and creative thinking. A manager’s analytical ability helps him in engaging in problems and situations in order to deal with them.

Business secrecy
A good business manager must be able to guard business secrets. Leakage of business secrets to trade competitors is a serious which should be guided against. Your staff should be able to keep your secrets and therefore do a proper staff selection.

Human relations
Some managers are known to have bad relationships with their staff and customers. This is just the beginning of failure. Maintenance of public relations most of the time makes the difference between the successful and poor managers

Effective communication
Good communication means that the manager has the ability to put his/her points across effectively and with clarity.

Technical knowledge
The managers are dealing with situations where sophisticated technology is involved. You must have a reasonable amount of technical knowledge.

Decision making
Running a business requires taking a number of decisions. Here a manager should have the capacity to analyze the various aspects of the business so that he/she arrives at the right decision.

Risk bearing
There is an element of risk in every business, hence, a manager should be prepared to accept failure in its proper perspective and view failure as challenge and opportunity.

Important steps in planning for your small business

Failing to plan means that you are simply planning to fail. Many businesses have failed, not for lack of ideas by because proper plans were not put in place. This means that a very good idea may end up unsuccessful because there were no structures in place to effect it. The following simply framework will give you an edge over your competitors.

Identifying an opportunity
Before you engage yourself in any venture, you need a preliminary search on the opportunities available. Carry out a strength and weakness analysis for each opportunity. This will help you ascertain the viability. Go for the opportunities that show some positive signs.

Establish objectives/goals
You need to know how much you want to earn and after what time. Ensure that you are not over-ambitious because every business needs a grace period to grow. Goals ensure that you are working towards a specific interest.

Planning premises
This means the working environment. Many people have noble ideas but in the wrong operating environment. You must determine what product to produce, its quantity and the price to be charged.

Study the alternative courses of action
For every plan A, establish a plan B. This is an important step in avoiding frustration and discouragement. A discouraged investors never succeeds.

Establish derivative plans
These are supportive plans that must be established. For example, plan for capital expenditure, marketing and advertisement. This act as pillars for

Establish budgets
Each of the derivative plans must be turned into budgets. Budgets are tools for measuring performance.

IDENTIFYING BUSINESS FAILURES

What makes your business go down? There are many reasons why that business may not be performing to the expectations. The following article tries to open your eyes towards particular factors that may be hindering you business. Carefully, study the reasons below and see which identify with you business.

Loss of customers
Is you customer base the same as when you were making high profits? If you have lost any single client then establish why he/she was not happy. Remember that your business exists to satisfy customers.

Dissatisfied workers
Your staff will determine whether you will be successful or not. Dissatisfied employees will do their best to frustrate you efforts. Employees who are not close to you are fear your presence may be unwilling to air their grievances. Encourage employee unions and cooperatives.

Extravagant spending
Are you spending the incomes in the right projects? Your failures may be actually because of unwise spending. Cut down cost as possible but not at the expense of quality services. Remember, that quality should not be compromised.

Declining public image
Sometimes people buy your products because of the good name that your business holds. If they perceive that you are loosing customers, then be sure that you will loose more. Ensure that you guard against a bad name. A good name is business goodwill.

Dissatisfied suppliers
How have you been treating your suppliers as they deserve? Well treated supplies will ensure that you get quality raw materials that will in turn give quality products.

effective revison

EFFECTIVE REVISION
This may be the last thing you may ever think of now that you are done with your studies. But in one way or another you may find yourself sitting for an exam you never expected. This means that you should be armed with important tips not only on how to revise but also the effective ways of taking exams. Every good students knows that exams are not set to be failed but are just a way to show your instructor that you are doing something in that field.

One of the most important things that I want you to know is that success in examinations not only depends on how extensive you revise but also how intensive you do it. You need to have a strategic revision. Most of the times, it does not require you to read everything but only have a strategic revision.

One of the most important strategies is to know that there is no new thing that will ever be examined in any exam. In fact over 80 percent in any paper will come from past papers thou may be examined in a different language. This means that you must spend quality time going through past revision papers. I assure you that they will save you a great deal.

Every students needs to know that your personal study time matters a lot. Scientifically, it has been proved that study to time faster in the mornings when you mind is fresh than in the evenings. I suggest to you that you need to sleep early and wake up early. However those who find it difficult to wake up early in the morning should ensure that they sleep late; just make sure that you have read.

Celibacy

CELIBACY
“Celibacy is not a divine way of Christian life” these were once the words of Dr. Rodig, the head of the Catholic splitter group calling its self ‘The Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ”. Due to this unusual occurrence, the church has found itself in an unprecedented situation that is almost splitting it into two. This has left a growing number of ‘men of the flock’ denouncing the church and found refuge in other denominations and splitter churches.
Father Alberto Cutie, a well known cleric, aged 40, who once despised relationship advice on Spanish radio and television shows and in newspapers, was afterward photographed strolling with a woman on a beach. After joining the Episcopal Church, which allows him to marry, he said that he had fallen in love and broken the celibacy vows.
There are so many father Albertos suffering in silence who have come up with the excuse of splitter groups claiming to be born again and spirit filled. They have eventually adapted a Pentecostal way of worship which contradicts the Catholic doctrine. The number of splitter groups is rising daily, leaving the church with no option but to make a stand. But if they are guided by the Holy spirit as they claim, then the Catholic church should be ready for a split be ready to embrace these changes.
This movement must be giving the Pope a hard time who has the option of leading the Church towards a transition or protecting the doctrines of the church and risk the walk away of half of the flock. But these are very dangerous options for him, a third one could have saved the situation.

AIDS CURE

AIDS CURE?
The acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a time bomb to the world today and threatens to wipe away the human race. This disease has become a nightmare to most of the African countries and most of them are wondering what researchers in pharmacy and their teachers are doing now that they are not giving us the aids cure. Anyway, we should not blame researchers much since they have done their best but not good enough. Some like the Kenya’s professor Arthur Obel have put their names on the world map by coming up with solutions that they claim to be cure for AIDS. He first surfaced and hit the headlines when he came up with pal omega, a drug he claimed to have tested with many patients who he later confirmed to have had positive results. Since then, he has come up with other brands which include pal indica which also have the same effects. But what happened to pal omega? Rumors on the ground say that when requested to give the formulae he used to come up with the drug, he declined saying that he could not sale his God given ability to others. The authorities are also claimed to have banned the drug from being floated in the market. Since then, many herbalists have come up with medications which they believe to be a solution. But there is a ray of hope. There are so many AIDS management drugs. This is simply suggesting that herbal medicine is the way forward. The advantage of going herbal is that the body is kept away of getting into contact with many chemicals from other drugs.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Dimensions of small business management

Small business management does not mean simply getting things done. Every entrepreneur must understand his/her managerial role in order to be successful. The following concepts are timely in acting as a catalyst towards structuring a base for profitability.

Planning
This simply means deciding in advance, what to do, how to do it, who to do it and when it should be done. It is therefore entails business objectives, strategies, responsibility and the time available for that particular activity.

Organizing

A good organizer identifies and defines what is to be done. He/she goes further to break the work into duties and assigning them to responsible individuals

Staffing
This involves determining the human resource needs of your business, identifying and acquiring the people with skills and right numbers. The manager should therefore know what is to be done and who can do it.

Directing
Directing means leading. All good managers lead by example. They direct their efforts towards accomplishing the goals of the business.

Controlling
This involves comparing the results with the projected outcomes to find out if there are any deviations. The proper action is then taken thereafter.