Thursday, January 29, 2009

Leadership is about more than charisma

Health fears surrounding Steve Jobs led to a fall in the price of Apple shares and have
highlighted the value of charismatic leaders to their companies
If there is a cult of the chief executive, then Steve Jobs must stand at its head. Many business leaders have been closely associated with their brands, but none more so than the chief executive of Apple. Mr Jobs, with his understated black polo necks and round glasses, has come to personify his company, a fact highlighted when recent news of his medical leave of absence caused Apple's share price to tumble.

“Apple is surprisingly dependent on Steve Jobs,” Tim Morris, director of the high performance leadership programme at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, said. “He has the magic combination of a fantastic technical insight and an ability to understand the market. He's also a master communicator.”

And he is an archetype, in his case the model of a charismatic leader - and that, in turn, is both a towering strength and a potential devastating weakness.
“Charismatic leaders can gather people behind them,” Jo Hennessy, director of research at the Roffey Park Institute, said. “They're inspiring and strong and, if they're able to engage staff, the results will follow.”

Maria Yapp, chief executive of Xancam, a business psychology company, said that “a big magnetic personality” can launch and revitalise brands, products and companies. “Tony Blair was great for new Labour to kick-start it,” she said, “and Steve Jobs has revitalised the Apple brand.”
But, Ms Hennessey said, “they're like the central pole in a big top: take the pole out and the tent will collapse.”

Rob Goffee, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and co-author of Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?, said that strong leaders were good at developing disciples, but not successors. “The people that make leaders charismatic are their followers. Barack Obama, for example, is clearly charismatic, but he's also enigmatic. You can't pin him down and so he allows us to project our dreams and hopes on to him.”

Ms Hennessy said: “A charismatic leader who likes fame and glory may be more concerned about results today than a long-term legacy. When we coach chief executives to develop their own succession plans, we say: ‘Does it always have to be you? Can you spread the leadership around more?'”
Gareth Jones, visiting professor at Insead, the international business school, said that people were fascinated by how leaders got results. “We're interested in those who excite others to exceptional performance. For instance, when Martin Johnson led England to victory in the Rugby World Cup, people were saying: ‘How the hell did he do that?'”

Johnson's successors might have wondered the same thing and, perhaps, if some of his magic might rub off on them. Sadly, in Professor Jones's words: “You can't borrow someone else's charisma. The task for leaders is to work out what it is about themselves that is compelling. We're all looking for the next Richard Branson or Steve Jobs and we're not looking at the different ways people are leading.”
Professor Goffee said that figures such as John Major, the former prime minister, used their very ordinariness to lead: “I get worried about the use of the word ‘charisma', as people think that these are extraordinary qualities that ordinary mortals haven't got.”

Moreoever, the tide of popularity can turn quickly. Ms Yapp warned: “If you're known on the strength of your personality, it's much easier to fail. People in the City tend to panic and see Steve Jobs as being Apple, in the same way that they see Richard Branson as being Virgin.”
There are several things that companies can do to ensure that they do not fall victim to the cult of the chief executive. They can build the loss of a leader into disaster recovery plans, Barry Spence, chairman and chief executive of Cubiks, an HR consultancy, said. They should ensure that they have a strong organisational structure and management team underpinning the leader and that all those in that team get a chance to shine. Crucially, companies should build the product's reputation as strongly as they build personalities. “While James Dyson is regarded as an innovator, the product has been developed in parallel. So if Dyson went under a bus tomorrow, people would still buy Dyson vacuum cleaners,” Mr Spence said.

And while we may love inspirational but fallible leaders, only one thing matters to the markets: results. Last week Apple posted record revenue of $10.17billion (£7.19billion). As Mr Spence said: “The numbers will always win out.”

Famous Four

Henry Ford
The founder of the Ford motor company revolutionised mass production and brought car ownership to middle-class Americans. An avowed anti-Semite, he was admired by Adolf Hitler

Sir Richard Branson
The self-made entrepreneur launched the “world’s first spaceline”, Virgin Galactic, in 2004 and was ranked the 236th richest person in the world by Forbes magazine last year

Jack Welch
The former chairman and chief executive of General Electric increased its value from $13 billion to several hundred billion. Dubbed “Neutron Jack”, it was joked that he eliminated employees but left the building standing

Dame Anita Roddick
Founder of ethical cosmetics group the Body Shop, she was a high-profile environmental campaigner before her death in 2007

How to be your own (very good) management consultant

Dear fellow manager,

You can make a good case for using business management consultants. They are not committed either emotionally or intellectually to the status quo.

Not only can they see what changes are needed for business development, but have acquired expertise - which their hosts have not - in structuring a change programme, selling it to the participants (willing and unwilling), and easing the strains and pains the change is bound to bring.
But the consultant is, of course, tied to the people who pay the fees. If the executive managers can't make a clean break from the past, all the management consultants in the world can't help to achieve radical change in business strategy.
But supposing we give you the ammunition, the logic and procedures to introduce 'best practice' techniques into your work practices? As an insider, could you make change happen?

First, let me explain where we get our information: Via two of the world's greatest management thinkers, you can learn from the world's most successful business leaders and management gurus - such as Tom Peters, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jack Welch, Peter Drucker and Andrew Grove.


What if two of the world's greatest management thinkers were invited into hundreds of businesses, talked to Chief Executive Officers and their executives about business theory, took an analytical look at how their management processes work, and then sent you a monthly briefing on what techniques are working and where?

Could you use that personal information to improve your own business management skills, performance and prospects? Could it help you achieve quality management? Could it boost creativity in managers you employ? Could it help you improve business strategy and put an effective business plan into place?

The Letter to Thinking Managers provides solutions to hundreds of common management problems. I'd like you to try it, at no risk, over the next two months.
Most managers are far too busy to do our kind of investigative business management analysis. And we are the best, by far, at doing it.

ZUMA AND KIKWETE

President Jakaya Kikwete,who is also the African Union Chairman speak to the head of ANC-SA Mr.Jacob Zuma at Sandton Sun SA soon after attending the heads of states of SADC on Zimbabwe issues

BUSINESS ENTERPRISE: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND SPOTTING BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES



These columns provide an enlightening perspective on the business of being an entrepreneur. For a start, that's the real business of the businessman and woman - being enterprising, spotting and seizing opportunities.
Opportunity abounds. There's nothing else in common between running conference centers for other businesses, making fabrics for office furniture, providing stock-taking services, forecasting the business future, etc, etc. Each provided an opening that non-entrepreneurs would have ignored or rejected.
Everybody has probably had one or several business ideas of a similar nature: a product or service which (like puncture-proof, environmentally friendly bicycle tyres) is either not being provided, or not being provided well. But there's a huge jump between seeing the possibility of a unique business and creating it.
For virtually all the entrepreneurs featured, that giant leap was hazardous, with a grave threat of falling short. The despair felt by the founders of the Harrogate Management Centre in their first, money-losing months has been experienced by many others. Persistence in the face of adversity is indispensable.
Persistence beyond adversity is equally vital. These entrepreneurs are perfectionists. Good is never good enough. Camborne Fabrics, with its costly efforts to improve on a 97% next-day delivery record, is only one example of the continuous entrepreneurial drive to create a better business with even more satisfied customers.
That emphasis on customers wouldn't have figured anything like so prominently a decade ago. Customer-first policies have been preached to big companies by management gurus, but small entrepreneurs reached the same conclusion through practical necessity. Like being good, just having customers isn't enough today.
The only sure defense against the competition, to which the dissatisfied modern buyer will turn in a flash, is to make good customer service into excellent. It's the toughest task in business, because no two customers are the same, and because no system will ever generate perfect service. Only people can - and they often fail.
That's why people have moved into the forefront of business thinking, along with the customer. If you don't satisfy and train the men and women who work with and for you, they're most unlikely to satisfy the customer, still less to produce excellence. Big companies agonize over this fact - but here smaller firms have the edge.
The proprietor can get to know everybody, not just by name, but as real people with a real contribution to make. Talk to employees in any large company, and you'll be struck by two things: the depth of their knowledge of the business and how it can be improved: and management's lack of interest in that profitable know-how.
The large company concentrates too much on profit, too little on the non-financial elements that create that bottom line. In contrast, the entrepreneur, however good at the basic business, often lacks a sound grip on the business basics - among them, stringent cash control, earning a goodly return on capital and minimizing debt.
Return on capital is an equation. Earning a decent profit is only half the battle. Keeping the capital employed as low as possible is the other half. Achieving rapid growth carries risks: growing revenues fast while restraining overheads and maintaining effective controls is the demanding, but perfectly feasible task.
It's become much more feasible because of developments like the personal computer, business information services of all kinds, advanced telecommunications, and fragmenting markets - all of which mean that the smaller business can go for growth with far fewer of its traditional disadvantages.
As a London Business School survey showed, however, many small companies aren't keen on expansion. Even among those who were, a quarter of the study lived by the philosophy: 'I am very keen to expand the business and then find a buyer to buy me out' (which happened to the conference centre company, Style).
Though others say that 'I am very keen to expand the business and continue to run it myself' takeover may still be the end-result. That's no tragedy. Even if the entrepreneur doesn't stay on, making one small fortune provides the wherewithal to start on the road to another - and there's always another road.

CAN YOUR BUSINESS AVOID THE ERRORS OF THE US AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY?

The woes of Detroit are examined in an article by Umair Haque on Harvard Business Online, as he highlights the six crucial mistakes made by the US automobile industry and advises on how to avoid them.

Haque argues that Detroit followed old rules in business where new, 21st century rules need to be established. These new rules, he says, can be used by managers everywhere to start preconceiving, reinventing, and revolutionizing their own organizations.

The first mistake of the automobile industry was to 'choose evil'. "Detroit chose lobbying, marketing wars, and low-cost hardball - to always and everywhere try to socialize costs and privatize benefits," explains Haque. However, in the 21st century, moral imperatives are also strategic imperatives: "doing good - for customers, employees, suppliers, or society - is a radical strategic choice that unlocks new pathways to innovation and growth".

The next mistake was 'selfishness' to serve self-interest, where, for instance, Detroit lobbied to oppose stricter fuel efficiency standards. This should be replaced in the 21st century by 'purpose' for self-interest. What's needed is "a more enlightened self-interest: one factoring in a longer timescale, fuller contingencies, and an honest and broad consideration of hidden and unintended consequences to people, society and the environment".

The third mistake was to 'maximize destructiveness', destroying the ability of others to imitate or commodities others. But now businesses should 'get constructive', letting demand spark and fuel co-creation, co-producing from a pool of shared resources and allowing value activities to be co-managed.

The fourth mistake on the list is 'seeking differentiation'. "Why pay a steep premium for a Buick if it's just a Chevy with slightly nicer trim?" asks Haque. Instead, real 'difference' should be sought so the distinction and demarcation is one of reality and not just perception.

The fifth lesson from Detroit is to seek 'crisis' rather than 'agility'. "Industrial-era corporations seek agility... by insulating themselves from real-world economic pressures," explains the author. But, he adds, this leads to the dilution and sapping of incentives for innovation and renewal.

The final mistake of Detroit was to seek "a nakedly competitive advantage - against suppliers, dealers, consumers, and society alike". In the 21st century advantage should be sought 'for' and not 'against': "far more radical, potent, and disruptive are corporations who can use market power to create an authentic advantage for buyers, suppliers, customers, consumers, and society, not against them," concludes Haque.

CREATIVE RISK: DON`T BE AFRAID TO REALISE YOUR ORGANISATION`S POTENTIAL THROUGH CREATIVITY

You can sometimes be sure about the past. You can observe and measure. You can know what has happened. That is what history and science are all about.

It is not often that you can be sure about the future. If you explode a bomb you can be sure there will be some destruction. This is because we are following the routine of the past. A doctor who treats a streptococcal infection with penicillin can be reasonably sure that it will effect a cure. Again, this is repeating a routine that has worked in the past.

But if you are doing something new, something creative, or something different, you cannot be sure about what will happen. You can reasonably hope that putting together ingredients with known actions will produce a certain effect. This is what a cook would do when creating a new dish.
If a City Council decreed that people could only use their cars one day a week, could they fully predict what would happen? Traffic in the city might be reduced. Policing the system might be difficult, expensive, or even impossible. Citizens might be so upset that they voted out the Council at the next election. There might be vigorous protests. Businesses might start to move out of the city. Retailers might be very upset, etc. There would be a multitude of effects - both direct and indirect.


In addition to the difficulty of forecasting the effects, there is the even bigger difficulty of forecasting the extent or strength of the effect. How strong would protests be? Would people remember this at the next election? How many businesses would move out of the city? How long would it take people to get used to the idea?

In London there is a ‘congestion charge’ for driving into the centre of the city. This is currently £8. If this charge is low, then people accept it, take it for granted and still drive into the city centre. If the charge is raised and is perceived to be too high, then there are protests and a negative effect at election time. How do you estimate the right level of charge to reduce traffic and yet not upset car drivers too much?

Consider an alternative idea. Suppose everyone who lived within a certain radius of London were to be given a free permit to drive into the city centre. But to drive in you would need to display four permits. So four friends or neighbors could agree to share a car. Or, you could rent or buy permits from other people. This would mean that some people were now being paid for leaving their cars at home, and taking public transport into the city. The overall effect would be a definite reduction to one quarter of existing car traffic into the city. There would not be the uncertainty of the congestion charge level (though the city would not make money if the permits were free).
In China there is said to be a deficit of 100 million women. This is the result of the ‘one child’ policy. Baby girls are not much valued because they are not so helpful in the fields or in your business. Girls get married and then look after the ageing parents of their husbands. So who is going to look after you when you get old? So, somehow, the girl babies disappear. The result is a deficit of 100 million women - and even wife kidnapping.


Now it may well be that this outcome was actually foreseen right from the beginning. The deficit of 100 million women would cause a significant decline in the population. Was the deficit deliberately planned, or an unforeseen consequence of the one child policy? Risk means that things do not turn out quite as planned. Consider an alternative idea for China’s large population.
Each family is allowed to have one boy and must then have more children. This is the ‘one boy’ policy. The result is equal boys and girls. At the moment of conception there is an equal chance of the embryo being a boy or a girl. Since no one is being killed, this equal chance continues. On average each family has two children. This is less than is required for population replacement, which needs about 2.3 children. So there is a declining population of equal boys and girls and everyone gets the chance to have a boy. No babies are ‘lost’ or killed.


PILOT SCHEMES
There are pilot schemes, test-marketing and other ways of exploring the impact of a new idea or new product. These are valuable, but may not be as simple as they seem. Many years ago,
McDonalds had the idea of serving breakfasts in their restaurants. They had the image. They had the locations. They had the staff. Why not open up this new source of revenue?
For four years the company lost money on this new venture. People were not in the habit of eating breakfast outside their homes. Any time in that four years, the new venture could have been scrapped and treated as a ‘failure’. They did not give up. After four years, serving breakfasts became the most profitable part of McDonalds’ operations.
How long is long enough for a pilot scheme? That is an impossible question to answer. Changing culture and changing habits takes a long time. To get people used to the idea of having breakfast outside the home was a change in both culture and habit. So the test could be expected to take a long time. But how long is a long time? Three years? Four years? Five years? Etc.
There may also be background factors. In times of inflation some cultures spend more money - but other cultures save money. The particular circumstances in which a pilot scheme is carried out will affect the results.


THE DESIGN OF IDEAS
Many toll bridges and toll roads operate with radio-sensed cards that allow a driver to go through the gate without paying any money on the spot. This seems to work very well. Could the same system be applied to car parks? So a driver would just show his card (which could be attached to the windscreen), and the gate would open.
If the car park was full, the driver would be rather upset at having bought a card and not being able to use it to park. How long would the card be priced? Someone who needed to park every day would be willing to pay quite a high fee, but someone who only parked occasionally would not.


How could the idea be designed to take these difficulties into account? A mixture of card and normal payment might work if the car park was big enough. Another possibility would be to make it time-dependent. Before 10am your card would work, but not after that time (to allow parking for work, but not for shopping).

Risks need to be foreseen. Creative ideas need to be designed to minimise the risks. It is not enough just to have a basic creative idea and then set out to use it. Many excellent creative ideas are lost because there has been insufficient attention to the design stage. The creative idea is tried in its original and crude form. It does not work, so the original idea is shelved. Yet with some design effort, the idea might have been very successful.

POLICY
We should not assume that creative ideas are always going to be high-risk. The result of such an assumption is that we avoid creative ideas as a matter of policy. The result of such a policy is that our organization or enterprise is operating considerably below potential. The more efficient an organization, the greater the need for
creativity. Why?
Because every efficiency will extract the maximum benefit from a new idea. Inefficient organizations will be inefficient with new ideas. Efficiency and creativity are complementary - not opposites.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Will the recession inspire innovation in 2009?


While admitting that 2009 would seem to be a tough a year for innovation as consumers and corporations continue to tighten their belts, Scott Anthony uses Forbes.com to remind us that a surprising number of great companies such as General Electric, IBM, McDonald's and Walt Disney were formed through innovation in times of recession.

Anthony explains that in his forthcoming book The Silver Lining (due to be published in the spring by Harvard Business Press) he argues that the challenging economic
climate could be good news for innovation.
In fact, the author believes that abundance is at the heart of many corporate struggles with innovation. He writes: "Companies with overly deep pockets can flood a bad idea with money. Overly patient companies can let bad ideas linger for years."
But during times of scarcity, says Adams, organisations are forced to focus on creativity and innovation in order to deliver customer value. He adds: "Innovators can draw on high-quality, low-cost tools to develop, test and begin to commercialise ideas without tens of millions of dollars of investment."
Adams believes 2009 could be the year that innovation loses its reputation for being random and unpredictable. He asserts that academic and field work over the last 20 years have taken away much of the randomness and companies can now approach innovation in a more confident and disciplined manner.
The author concludes: "As long as there are problems to be solved, there will be innovators to solve them. Companies that use the current tough times as an excuse to de-emphasize innovation are going to severely regret it."
Innovation During The Great Disruption
Scott Anthony,
Forbes.com,
16/01/09.

When do leadership strengths become weaknesses?

Leadership strengths are discussed by Robert E. Kaplan and Robert B. Kaiser in the February issue of Harvard Business Review. However, contrary to the traditional advice that managers should concentrate on their strengths, the authors warn that you can take strengths too far - to the point, in fact, where they become weaknesses.

For instance, take the leadership strengths of forcefulness (driving the team hard). If you are extremely forceful, the productivity within your team might improve in the short term but morale could suffer, proving detrimental to productivity in the long term.
Now take the leadership strength of consensus-building (obtaining agreement from everybody on decisions). Contrating too much on consensus-building could improve morale but productivity could suffer, with the decision-making process taking too long - this could be detrimental to morale in the long term.
To strike a balance, Kaplan and Kaiser suggest seeking evidence that your strengths are being overused - very high ratings on a 360-degree feedback, for instance - and then seek to redirect them. You can ask co-workers what they think you should do more, what you should do less and what should continue unchanged.
The authors also recommend asking yourself, “Do I privately pride myself on being superior to other leaders in any way?” If this is the case, this could be precisely the attribute you’re at risk of overdoing.


Once you have identified the strengths you are overplaying, you can redress the balance by doing more of the opposite. The HBR article offers the example of a manager whose preference for consensus-building resulted in overly long meetings, much to the chagrin of her team. To counter this, an 80% majority consensus was accepted instead of 100% and meetings became much more productive.
Stop Overdoing Your Strengths Robert E. Kaplan and Robert B. Kaiser, Harvard Business Review, February 2009

"The Quick, Easy, And Automatic Way to Invest just like Warren Buffett"


"There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult." - Warren Buffett


Stop wasting so much time and energy trying to find the perfect stock. Discover...
"The Quick, Easy, And Automatic WayTo Invest Just Like Warren Buffett"


Dear Investor,
Let's face it, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people out there trying to invest just like Warren Buffett and only a very rare few are actually getting Buffett results. Of course, it's no wonder why so many people want to invest like Buffett.
After all, Warren Buffett is, unequivocally, the greatest stock market investor of all time.
But have you tried to invest like Buffett? Have you read the books on Buffett? Have you scoured through his annual letters? Have you watched his interviews? Have you taken the advice of the latest "Buffett experts" on TV?
And is all this time and energy adding up to Buffett results? If not, I know how frustrated you feel.
However, I urge you not to throw in the towel just yet!
Believe me, I know how tough investing can be. I know how painful it is to spend weeks thoroughly researching a stock only to watch it tumble lower and lower as soon as you buy it. I know how maddening it is to buy a stock on the advice of a "Wall Street expert" and then watch it immediately plunge. I know how helpless it feels to watch your portfolio account get smaller and smaller and smaller...
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The Fully-Automated Way To Invest Just Like Warren Buffett
Have you noticed that the one thing all those other Buffett books and products seem to leave out is an actual step-by-step guide to investing like Warren Buffett?
Oh sure, they’ll tell you all about his childhood and his brilliant investment decisions. They’ll tell you about his commitment to Benjamin Graham and Phillip Fisher. They’ll walk you through the basics of value investing, complete with terms like “intrinsic value” and “margin of safety.” And of course, they’ll even throw in plenty of Buffettisms to make the product nice and neat.Now, there’s nothing wrong with these products. I’ve certainly learned a lot from reading through such things myself. But they’re all missing the most important information of all: telling you exactly how to invest like Warren Buffett.

The Buffett System is much different from anything else you’ve seen. It was created for people who are already somewhat familiar with Buffett.It is assumed that you are already familiar with the basic investment philosophy of Warren Buffett and that you now want to know how to actually follow in his footsteps. The Buffett System sits you down and shows you exactly how to start investing like Warren Buffett…RIGHT NOW!

With The Buffett System, you punch in a few quick numbers, answer a few simple questions about your stock and poof: you're told right away whether or not that particular stock is a "Buffett stock" worth investing in.
Once I started following The Buffett System, everything became clear to me. My results immediately improved and I was finally able to stop worrying so much about my investments. I now felt as though I was truly being guided in my investment decisions. I was no longer blindly following other people's advice or spending countless hours trying to do all the work myself. I no longer felt helpless as an investor.
Imagine...
No more wondering if NOW is the time to buy.
No more dissecting financial statements.
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No more listening to the contradicting stock gurus on TV.
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No more questioning whether or not you made THE RIGHT DECISION.
The Buffett System takes ALL the guesswork out of investing in the footsteps of Warren Buffett. And it does so with any stock at any time you wish!
But how could this be? How could something so simple produce such phenomenal results?
I asked the same questions and found the answers in Buffett's own words of wisdom:

"Success in investing doesn't correlate with I.Q. once you're above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing." - Warren Buffett
"If Calculus or Algebra were required to be a great investor, I'd have to go back to delivering newspapers." - Warren Buffett
"There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult." - Warren Buffett
Buffett himself has stated time and time again that the mistakes most investors make come from over-complicating the simple process of sound investing.
How The Buffett System Works
The ultimate goal of The Buffett System is to be the next-best-thing to asking Warren Buffett himself if you're making a good investment decision.
Let's assume you're thinking about investing in a particular stock. And, let's say that to help you make your decision, you want to see it through the eyes of the most successful investor of all time, Warren Buffett.
Now, you obviously can't call up Warren Buffett or Charlie Munger to get their advice. But, you can open up The Buffett System and let it guide you step-by-step through this decision using the investment principles and teachings of Warren Buffett.

After answering a few simple questions and checking on a few important numbers, The Buffett System will rate your stock, tell you if you should buy it, and let you know the price you should be willing to pay for it.
No second-guessing, no listening to vague advice, and no more worrying about whether you're making the right decision. The Buffett System forces you to keep it simple and stick only with the fundamental principles that have made Warren Buffett the world's greatest investor.
It really is that simple!

How The Buffett System Was Created
Before jumping in, you probably want to know more about how The Buffett System was created. The Buffett System was created by meticulously retracing the footsteps of history's most successful investor: Warren Buffett.
Multi-billionaire Eddie Lampert followed a similar path:

Eddie Lampert has invested his way to a net worth of $3.5 billion while still in his 40s. How did he do it? He says he carefully studied Buffett for years. He read and re-read Buffett's writings and spent countless hours analyzing Buffett's past investments. He says he "reverse engineered" Buffett's investment decisions: "Putting myself in his shoes at that time, could I understand why he made the investments? That was part of my learning process."
The Buffett System was created by first uncovering and analyzing Buffett's writings dating all the way back to 1951. Special attention was paid to the specific reasons Buffett gave for each of his buy and sell decisions.
Next, Buffett's actual stock purchases were analyzed with special attention given to viewing these decisions only with the information that would've been known prior to the purchases. What did Buffett see? What was he looking for?
Then came the thorough examination of literally thousands of pages of Buffett interviews, articles, and books - always looking for new nuggets of information to provide insight into the mind of Buffett.
And finally, based on the advice of Buffett himself, all the influential mentors and authors who made an impact on Buffett's investment philosophy were studied.
The result: more than 50 years of Buffett information has been researched and analyzed to develop this breakthrough product.
How long would it take you and how much money would it cost you to do what The Buffett System creators have done to create this product? Really think about the countless hours and the thousands of dollars you'd have to spend.
Everything You Need To Immediately Start Investing Like Buffett Is Here!
You won't believe how simple this step-by-step investing guide is until you try it.

First and foremost, you'll discover the three biggest mistakes 99.99% of all investors make just prior to investing in a stock. Once you know what these mistakes are, I guarantee you'll be kicking yourself as you look back at all the money you've lost in the past by making these mistakes time and time again!
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You'll learn how to master Buffett's No. 1 rule of investing: Never Lose Money! This isn't just a clever piece of advice, there's a real, definitive way to avoid breaking this Golden Rule of Investing and The Buffett System will show you how.
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You'll discover how to automatically ensure that you never again pay too much for a stock! This benefit alone is worth thousands and thousands of dollars. If you take nothing else away from The Buffett System, please make sure you learn how to follow this crucial valuation method.
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You'll find out how to protect yourself in even the harshest of bear markets and economic recessions. How has Buffett been able to avoid this trap for so long? Discover his recession-proof secret.
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Never again waste precious hours analyzing balance sheets and income statements. Instead, The Buffett System does this for you and shows you exactly how to find the few numbers that actually matter when it comes to investing in a stock.
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You already know Buffett demands that any company he invests in must have a well-established "moat" to protect it from competitors. But how exactly do you determine if your stock has a strong enough moat? Discover the four simple questions that determine whether or not your stock has an acceptable moat.
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Buffett tells us that we shouldn't think about investing in a company for 10 minutes if we wouldn't be happy investing in it for 10 years. Fair enough - so how do we figure out what a company will be like 10 years from now? With The Buffett System, you'll learn the three questions that absolutely must be answered in order to determine the potential longevity of a company.
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You'll find out how to structure your portfolio just like Buffett. The Buffett System will show you exactly how many stocks you should have and how your portfolio should be structured to ensure safe diversification.
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You'll learn exactly when to sell your investment. Sell decisions shouldn't be based on vague theories and opinions, they should be based on cold, hard facts and The Buffett System tells you precisely when a stock should be sold.
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As you can see, this isn't another 600-page Buffett biography or an academic examination of Buffett's investments. This is a step-by-step guide to actually investing like Warren Buffett.
Finally, you can cut through the thousands of pages of Buffett information and theories and get right to the point: HOW TO INVEST LIKE WARREN BUFFETT STARTING TODAY!


Leadership and Transforming an Organisation

by Patrick Cescau, Group Chief Executive, Unilever

I am delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you about the transformation of Unilever. I know that Unilever will be well known to many of you, but it is worth noting that the company is today the world's third largest consumer goods business, turning over €40 billion a year.
Our brands help people look good, feel good and get more out of life - 150 million times a day, in 150 countries. Twelve of those brands now have sales revenues in excess of one billion euros a year. To avoid disappointment, let me say straight away that this is a story that does not yet have an ending. Unlike other companies, we in Unilever are in the middle of a transformation, not at the end of one.
For while transformation may be a modern word, the reality is that successful businesses have been transforming themselves since commerce began. Companies that do not embrace this need, die. That is why the average life of a Fortune 500 company is 40-50 years.
Unilever knows this better than most. Way back to its origins in the nineteenth century, the company has been constantly evolving and adapting to meet changing circumstances. It was one of the first, for example, to seize the opportunities presented by new and expanding markets across the world - from its roots in the nineteenth century it became a genuinely multinational business long before the term multinational was even in use.
Indeed, the company was the product of one of the first ever cross-border mergers. This was followed by a period of unprecedented diversification - vertically through the supply chain and horizontally into a range of new business areas. Hardly surprising perhaps that by the middle of the last century Unilever was commonly referred to as a "global concern". Vertical integration made less sense by the 1970s and 1980s, and our business refocused dramatically back to its core heartland. So by the 1990s, the company had already experienced at least three major transformations - first becoming a vertically integrated multinational, then diversifying, then refocusing on the core. Each was much more than evolutionary change; it was almost a re-invention of the business. Each was borne out of a sea change in the industrial environment. Each was essential for survival. And each was accomplished successfully. To return to my point about the Fortune 500, only sixteen of the companies that were in the top 100 in 1957 are still there today, fifty years later. Unilever, of course, is one of them. So, we know a thing or two about transformation. And we know - and I know personally - that the role of leadership in a time of transformation is to make the case for change and to set out the direction of the journey.
Latest transformation
In our industry today, the case for change is overwhelming. Consider just some of the factors which are driving change: We face pervasive price pressure - on input costs, from our consumers and as always from our customers. The nature of competition is changing, dramatically. Our industry is consolidating.
Traditional competitors are becoming more global. And new, low cost competitors are entering the market everywhere. At the same time, indirect competitors - companies like Apple or Vodafone - are targeting the wallets of the same consumers.
And those consumers are getting more and more difficult to reach as media fragments and proliferates. And then there is the changing nature of retailing. Our retail partners rightly ask for more innovation, supported by great brand mixes, rolled out across the world, available at minimum cost. Business has become a battle for organic growth: a battle in which only the fittest survive.
Looking back to 2004, we were struggling to deliver on this. In fact, we decided that we could not deliver unless we transformed the company once again. I will put it more strongly - we concluded that without a major change to the business, we would eventually become less relevant to our consumers and less relevant to our retail partners. That is the challenge we faced.
So what are we doing? We are making changes in four major areas.
To our portfolio.
To our capabilities.
To the organisation and our ways of working.
And to our culture and behaviours.
Let me say something about each, and let me start with our portfolio.
1. Portfolio
The days when a leader could set a direction that would be interpreted by a hundred individual managers are long gone. In today's world, one hundred different strategies adds up to no strategy at all. So now we set much clearer priorities, and we do so on the basis of strategic choices. Our objective is to build a portfolio weighted to market leadership positions and playing in higher growth spaces. Hence our emphasis on personal care, on our businesses in D&E markets, and on realising the company's Vitality mission - our response to consumers' increased attention on health, nutrition and their wellbeing. We are competing to win in these defined areas of focus and are investing disproportionately - and over the long term - to support this objective, whether in R&D, people, trade spend, A&P. Where businesses do not fit with this strategy, we are taking the decision to exit - starting with our cosmetics business, and most recently with much of our frozen food business in Europe.
2. Capabilities
A key part of any business transformation is to upgrade skills, not across the board but in those areas that are mission critical. We refer to these as our capabilities and it is the second of the four areas of change that I want to talk about this morning. In a world where the strategies of the major players are steadily converging, it is the quality of execution that will distinguish the winners from the losers. So you have to decide which capabilities will give you excellence in execution. The most valued capability in Unilever used to be general management. Today, we recognise that we need to put much more emphasis on ensuring we are world class in each of our core processes - everything from innovation to shopper marketing; from customer management to supply chain.
We have always been good in these areas, but not consistently enough. Our performance needs now to be good everywhere, all of the time. Our initial priority has been on customer management. We are running a major programme of change to strengthen our capabilities here and to give it the importance it deserves - right at the heart of the business. We call this programme, Winning with Customers. It has been pioneered successfully in the United States and the Netherlands, and is now being extended to other major markets around the world. On the other hand, where it makes sense for some capabilities and activities to be handled by others, we are outsourcing those functions, whether in IT, HR transactions or in areas of finance. This is leading to lower cost and better service, but also providing more scope and flexibility for us to focus on core priorities.
3. Organisation
The third area of change is to the organisation itself. Here, we are doing all of the things you would expect us to do: delayering the organisation, simplifying the structure, increasing the speed of decision taking. But the critical change we have made is in our decision to move to a more integrated and globally co-ordinated business model. And, paradoxical though it may sound, we have moved the two big pillars of our company in different directions. On the one hand, we have set up global category organisations to be our experts in the needs of shoppers and consumers in all of the markets in which we operate. They are responsible - across geographies - for leveraging all of the things that have to be global. Excellent brand mixes, R&D, innovation, advertising, the allocation of resources, the building of world-class marketing capabilities across the globe. And on the other hand, we have established regional go-to-market organisations to meet the needs of shoppers and retail customers - market by market. In effect, I have asked our country leaders to undergo their own personal transformations; To change from being general managers to being - at least first and foremost - chief customer officers in each of our markets. To refocus their time from being 80 per cent on consumers, to 80 per cent on customers. To view customers, not as a channel through which to sell brands, but as partners in revitalising our categories.
4. Culture and behaviours
The fourth element of our transformation is in our culture and behaviours. This was essential if we were going to make all the other aspects of the transformation fit together - our new strategic priorities, new capabilities and the new organisation. In particular, we needed our people to be more accountable for delivery and more willing to work together at the same time. So managers in the go-to-market part of the organisation cannot succeed unless they work together with their colleagues in the global categories. And vice versa. Behavioural change is never easy. Our history has left us with a legacy of fiercely independent entrepreneurial general managers in 106 countries around the world, wherever possible led by indigenous managers. In many cases they are so successfully integrated into their local cultures that the population would be shocked to learn that Unilever Brazil or Unilever India are anything other than a wholly Brazilian or wholly Indian company.
In a globalising world of intense competition and specialist skills, such independence is an asset but one that needs to be tempered and directed. We all understand that. We have all bought the rational argument. We know that the incredible talent we have in Unilever can adapt. But that does not instantly change how everyone feels. It does not change their mindset overnight. It is hard for a senior leader to change the very behaviour that made him or her so successful in the first place. So we are doing all the things necessary to help facilitate the new behaviours. We have changed our incentive systems. Regrettably, we have had to change some of our people - in fact almost half of our most senior leaders have left the business in the last year because they did not fit. We have changed a lot of the language we use internally. And the new senior leaders in Unilever are acting as role models for the new behaviours. We are making real progress. But you will not be surprised when I tell you we are only part way through. The challenge here has been to move with a combination of pace and sensitivity.
Impact on the business
So how are we doing? Let me give you a quick snapshot of where Unilever's latest transformation - the latest in a long line - has got to. First, growth. The transformation is beginning to show through where it matters - in our results. Unilever's organic growth fell to almost zero in 2004. Last year, we improved that to around 3 per cent, the growth rate for our markets, and we maintained it - as you will see from this slide - into the first quarter of this year.
Some of this growth has been fuelled by our Vitality-driven innovation programme, which is helping to revitalise whole categories. Spreads, for example - a category we effectively invented more than a hundred years ago with margarine but which by the 1990s - was moribund with virtually no growth. The pro Activ/Becel brand, with its cholesterol reducing properties, has helped to restore growth - impressive growth at that - and at premium prices.
By responding both to a consumer desire and a public anxiety over heart health, this brand is at the frontier of functional foods, to the point that it even qualifies now for reimbursement under some French and Dutch healthcare systems. And we are already reaping the benefit of a global category organisation, brilliantly illustrated through the roll-out of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. Highly innovative and commercially successful, it is helping to drive growth in a very vibrant category - skin. The product of an Anglo-US collaboration, it is now being rolled out across the world. Equally ground-breaking, and also being rolled out globally, is the laundry category's "Dirt is Good" campaign, which was originally developed in Brazil. We are also getting the benefit of our increased focus on high growth areas, like our personal care business and our businesses in D&E markets. The results speak for themselves.
And finally, raising our capabilities in our relations with both customers and consumers is also bearing fruit. Customers themselves tell us that they see the difference, exemplified by last year's Cannondale Power Ranking Survey in the USA, which many of you will be familiar with, and which shows Unilever improving - in some cases significantly - in all of the main areas of the survey.
And we are developing some phenomenally successful brand mixes based on brilliant consumer marketing and advertising. Take Axe, for example, our men's grooming brand, which goes from strength to strength on the back of some unconventional advertising that really connects our consumers to the "Axe effect". Little wonder therefore, perhaps, that Unilever was one of the big winners at last year's Cannes Advertising Awards, winning 17 of the coveted "Lions" - twice as many as our leading competitors. Just take a look at some of these...
What is not changing? A vital task for the leader in transforming an organisation is to be crystal clear about what NOT to change. As the English would say, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Every organisation has a unique set of values. The role for leaders is to reassure people that while the business may be transforming our values remain the same.
For us at Unilever, the values that will not change are:
our commitment to responsible and sustainable trading;
playing an active and positive role in the communities in which we operate;
behaving with integrity and sensitivity in all our dealings, whether with customers. employees, suppliers or with our many other stakeholders;
and living out our commitment to diversity.
These values have always provided the glue that helps to bind Unilever together but their adhesive qualities become even more critical in a time of change and transformation.

Acknowledgement
This article is based on a speech Patrick Cescau delivered at the CIES 50th World Food Business Summit in Paris on 22 June 2006.

Biography
Patrick Cescau is Group Chief Executive of Unilever. He began his career in 1973 when he joined Unilever France as an organisation officer. Since then his career has taken him to many countries across the world. He has held senior positions with Unilever in Germany, The Netherlands, Indonesia, Portugal, and in the US. In 2005 Mr Cecsau was appointed Group Chief Executive of the combined Unilever PLC and Unilever N.V. and is the first person to hold this new position in the company's history.
Mr Cescau is also a non-executive director of Pearson PLC and a Conseiller du Commerce Exterieur de la France in Holland. He was awarded the Légion d'Honneur in January 2005.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

AN OBAMA LOOK-LIKE

WHO IS A REAL OBAMA, LEFT OR RIGHT?

A combination photo shows U.S. president-elect Barack Obama (L), taken January 17, 2009 as he speaks during a ceremony in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Indonesian photographer Ilham Anas, taken January 20, 2009 in Jakarta. Anas, 34, who from some angles bears a resemblance to the new U.S. president, shot to fame in Jakarta after Obama, 47, won the election in November.
Obama look-alike Ilham Anas, a 34-year-old magazine photographer, receives a phone call during an interview at his office in Jakarta, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. Ilham Anas has won media attention in recent weeks as a U.S. President-elect Barack Obama look-alike, appearing in a television commercial for heartburn medication in the Philippines















BUSINESS IDEAS & BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

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Whether you're employed and starting a business on the side, a student or homemaker looking for extra income, or unemployed and exploring your options, there are plenty of opportunities to start a business inexpensively. They may not make you a living right away, but all have the potential to grow into full-time work. Take a look at 10 such opportunities and learn what to do with the Tshs 5000!

Best Business Opportunities 2009: 2008's hot trends become 2009's hot opportunities. If you're thinking about starting a business this year, here are some of the best new business ideas you may want to consider.
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Business Blogs in Africa Read top rated business and corporate blogs in Africaafrigator.com/blogs/business

They think it's your Oval ... it is now!

Getting down to business ... Obama with Rahm Emanuel


For your eyes only ... note from Bush to Obama, President No44




Obama...In oval office

BARACK Obama laid down the law on his first day in the Oval Office yesterday.
The new President snatched just a few hours sleep after his euphoric inauguration celebrations — then faced up to a daunting array of problems.
He had promised “swift action”. And in a series of meetings with advisers and generals, he began to tackle America’s crippled economy, the Iraq war, Guantanamo Bay and the Middle East crisis. He also:
SUSPENDED all orders issued to federal departments and agencies by his predecessor George Bush, pending review.
FROZE the pay of presidential staff earning more than £75,000, and BANNED them from accepting gifts from lobbyists.

The moves were aimed at making his administration more “transparent”. And Obama declared: “Families are tightening their belts — and so should Washington.”
The President began his first working day at a prayer service in Washington’s National Cathedral.
He sat with First Lady Michelle, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Hillary was later rubber-stamped as US Secretary of State by the Senate despite Republican questions over potential conflicts of interest created by foreign payments to her husband’s foundation.

Once in the Oval Office, Obama had a brief moment of solitude in which he read a note left on his desk by Mr Bush.
It was addressed “to No44 from No43” — a reference to the pair being the 43rd and 44th Presidents. But its contents were not revealed.

Then it was straight into a summit with advisers, including White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, to discuss plans to revive the US economy with a £600billion injection.
Turning to Iraq, Obama was due to meet Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, and General David Petraeus, head of the US Central Command.
Joining the discussion via tele-conference from Iraq were America’s ambassador to the strife-torn nation, Ryan Crocker, and General Ray Odierno, the top ranking US soldier in the battlezone.
Obama was expected to command the team to draw up plans to pull all US combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months.
On the Middle East, Obama called leaders including Jordan’s King Abdullah, Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The President also ordered a suspension of trials at Guantanamo Bay while a four-month probe is carried out into the whole purpose of the detention camp in Cuba. The move even halted the case of 11 men charged in connection with the 9/11 atrocities.

It was applauded by human rights activists. But guards at the camp — holding 250 terror suspects — were unimpressed.
Though elated at Obama’s inauguration, black officer Patrick Thomas, 43, disagreed with the President’s intention to close it down.
He said: “If you let these detainees go from here they will pop up somewhere else.”
Late yesterday Obama was due to host an “Open White House” for friends and relatives. Meanwhile his staff were rushing to set up offices and computers. Press secretary Robert Gibbs said: “I just have to figure out how to log in.”
AN explosion of Obama-related goodies has appeared on web auction site eBay, including a “My Mama is for Obama” babygrow

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

BUSH AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS: IS IT THE RIGHT TIME TO SEND HIM THE HAGUE?

Bush executes Sadam:Is the killing of human being lies in the hands of God or human being?

I think it the time for Bush to face the reality.

OBAMA`S PRESIDENCY

HOW IS THE PRESIDENCY OF BARACK OBAMA MEAN TO YOU?

BARACK OBAMA-THE WORLD`S INAUGURATION

OBAMA`S INAUGURATION SPEECH...

"A MAN WHOSE FATHER,LESS THAN 60 YEARS AGO,MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN SERVED AT A LOCAL RESTAURANT CAN NOW STAND BEFORE YOU TO TAKE A MOST SACRED OATH"
























































































































































































































































Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Practice ... stand-ins at inauguration rehearsal PRACTICE......STAND-INS INAUGURATION REHEARSAL

REHEARSAL....................

Barack: Let's get U.S. back on track

On a roller ... Barack Obama helps out at a shelter for Martin Luther King Day

BARACK Obama will today call on every American to do their bit to get the country “back on track”.
Mr Obama is set to give the speech of his life when he makes history by being sworn in as the first black President of the United States.
See history in the making
WITNESS history in the making — by following the inauguration live here on our website.
And he will echo the famous 1960 inauguration address by John F Kennedy, who told Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Mr Obama will ask citizens to reject the “culture of anything goes” and instead demand a culture of individual responsibility to help lift the nation out of crisis.
Click below to see more snaps of the historic celebrations.

Yesterday the incoming President warned there must be no “idle hands” and “everybody must act” to tackle the challenges.
He spent Martin Luther King Day — a national holiday in honour of the murdered civil rights leader — visiting wounded troops and an emergency shelter for homeless teens.
Mr Obama, 47 — casually dressed in jeans and shirt — grabbed a roller to help paint the shelter’s walls.
He said: “It’s not a day just to pause and reflect — it’s a day to act.
“I ask the American people to turn today’s efforts into an ongoing commitment to enriching the lives of others.

Supporter ... star Ben Affleck
“We can’t allow any idle hands. Everybody’s got to be involved.
“I think the American people are ready to do that.”
Historic
Writing in the Washington Times, Mr Obama evoked the words of both Dr King and Thomas Jefferson, the third US President.
He wrote: “Let us unite with one heart and one mind. Our nation is at war. Our economy is in turmoil.
“And yet while our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is the same perseverance and idealism that our Founders displayed.

Practice ... stand-ins at inauguration rehearsal
“What is also required is that we break free from rigid ideology and small thinking, and together grab hold of this opportunity to bridge partisan divides and deliver change for the American people.
“The challenges demand that we move beyond the old debates and stale arguments.
“We must focus not on the dogmas of left and right, but on practical answers to the difficult problems.”
Click on the numbers above to read about the key events of Mr Obama's big day.
He added: “As we go forward in the work of renewing the promise of this nation, let’s remember King’s lesson — that our separate dreams are really one.”
Millions of people all over the world will tune in to watch the inauguration on TV.
Mr Obama is renowned as a brilliant orator, but even he admitted he is under pressure — from his own daughter.
Sasha, seven, asked him if he would be giving a speech like Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address — then added: “First African-American president — it better be good.”

Monday, January 19, 2009

WHO IS THE BEST(HEAD TO HEAD): RONALDO v MESSI

Most football fans do not really appreciating Ronaldo`s being the world footballer of the year 2008.If you were you,who would you casted the vote?

OBAMA WITH KIDS

Obama enjoying with his children Sasha and Maria

Djimon Hounsou and Kimora Lee Simmons Expecting Their First Child

US Weekly claimed in an exclusive report, made public Friday, January 16, that model and fashion designer Kimora Lee Simmons is pregnant with actor boyfriend 's baby. The baby will be the first for the couple should the report prove true. Djimon and Kimora began dating in 2007. They initially sparked pregnancy rumors August last year after they were seen paying a visit into a New York obstetrician's office. Neither of them has commented on the US Weekly's report, and a representative for Kimora also refuses to comment, telling WENN, "No comment at this time." Prior to dating Djimon Hounsou, Kimora Lee Simmons was married to music mogul Russell Simmons, with whom she has two daughters; Ming Lee and Aoki Lee. Filing for divorce from Russell in 2007 after nearly 10 years of marriage, Kimora had her divorce being finalized in 2008

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