Pillars of Life

Pillars — dictionary meaning is a vertical structure, in the language of fine art or architecture a vertical structure made up of metal, stone which provides support to superstructure. Now you will think that what is the connection between the pillar, its definition and life. Well, yes there is connection. As strong foundation provides strength to the building pillar’s strength is important for the stability of a building, same way principles of life gives strength to life.
I visited to a mall in Dubai and came across these 7 pillars of life:
1) Acceptance
2) Perseverance
3) Friendship
4) Consideration
5) Encouragement
6) Wisdom, and
7) Compassion

Lets see what role each of these pillar in our life.

First Pillar is Pillar of Acceptance. Acceptance is answer to every question. Acceptance is saying “yes” to whatever comes to your way and working with that situation. Life becomes easier when we stop resisting and start accepting. This does not mean that do not try, do not dream. Accept defeat as a learning experience. Accept failure as stepping stone towards success. Accept that you are a human being with endless capacity to bring your dreams into reality.

The Second pillar is Pillar of Perseverance. Winning is not always important, what is more important is finishing the race. What matters is achieving your goals and we all know slow and steady wins the race. Be focused. In other words, try, try but don’t cry.

Friendship the third pillar of life. At every stage we need friends around. It is said that when you don’t care how look, how you behave and you laugh it means that you are with friends. Friends who will listen to you, who will guide you through hard times. You need to choose your friends carefully. This is important aspect of life.

Fourth important pillar is pillar of Consideration. “A little consideration, a little thought for others, makes all the difference.” It is easy to say and advice anyone without being in that situation. Consider yourself in the place of sufferer and you will realize how difficult it is. Consideration in small things makes a big difference. Have you ever seen how pleased a sweeper in your office if you ask him his name and appreciate his work?

Fifth pillar is pillar of Encouragement. Do I need to say more about this word ‘Encouragement’?? We all need it. Encouragement is that little extra push which makes impossible possible. I define encouragement as ” You can do it”. There is no hard and fast rule that says how to encourage. A pat on back without any word also gives you that push which makes things happen.

Sixth Pillar if pillar of Wisdom. Basic philosophical definition of wisdom is the best use of knowledge. Wisdom is combination of knowledge and personal experience.
“Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life.” – Sandra Carey
Knowledge helps us to earn our living but wisdom teaches us the way of life. Wisdom is the foundation of life. If the foundation of a structure is strong then a structure can be safe.

The last but not the least pillar is pillar of Compassion. Compassion is more than putting yourself in some one else’s shoes. It is often confused with empathy. But compassion have an element of reducing the suffering of another. In Hindu tradition, compassion is often defined as Daya, along with charity and self-control.

When I saw these images hanging in the mall, I thought we really do not pay our attention to these important aspects of life. So let’s decide to make the foundation stronger.

DESTINY have plans for all.

I completed my MBA and came to Dubai in June 2010. The day I landed here search started first for accommodation and then for job. Got accommodation then I started looking for job.
I never thought that searching a job will be such a difficult task. I kept applying for every single opportunity. But I heard nothing from anyone. Just 3 calls of interview in 7 months.

I had almost made up my mind to leave and go back to India. BUT destiny had some different plans for me. While going through facebook I came across a competition going on at Global Village (Annual Fest in Dubai ). I just had to quote my favorite pavilions in the Global Village and if I win then I will get a VIP car park pass along with 100 VIP entry tickets. I gave answers and surprised I won. Initially I didnot believe but when I received a call from the organiser’s office I believed.

I collected a pack. Then me and my husband Sangram started thinking about the free tickets which we received. We thought some we will keep for ourselves and some we will give to construction site labors who may not afford to pay the price and go there. I was not aware that this decision will change my life, but as it is said that destiny have its plans for you. Destiny had a beautiful plan.

We approached to one lady Ms. Saba Hussain who is the founder of an organisation “Mums Who Share”. This organisation share food with construction site labors on every Thursday. As they meet labors every week we thought that they will be the best to give tickets to labors. I contacted her and she said yes they can do it and they will be happy if we can give them tickets.

Sangram and I went to her place. While talking to her she asked me what do I do? I simply replied that I am looking for job. She asked me my qualification, I said MBA in HR. GUESS WHAT??? She immediately her husband is looking for a person to manage his office and it’s a law firm. I smiled and said that I am also a law graduate. It was so kind of her to say that I will give you email id of her husband Mr. Syed Mujtaba Hussain. I contacted him. He immediately asked me to join.

I was just like a dream for me. I also joined his office. Since I believe that DESTINY have plans for all. You just have to believe in it. FAITH is the only key.

Its been four months now that I am working in this organisation. This organisation is another example of how an organisation should be. I think I will write about it in another blog.

A Price for Everything

Dear Readers,

Recently there was a topic for discussion in Weekly Magazine here in Dubai as “FRIDAY”. I expressed my thoughts and it was published in a print edition. I am sure when you will read the topic you will also feel the same. The topic is “A Price for Everything?”.

I thought to share this article for you all to read and of course excited to read your views on the same.

Below is the link of the article.
A Price for Everything

Succession Planning

Succession planning is the key
Family-owned businesses need to think early about continuity into next generation
By Manoj Nair, Associate EditorPublished: 00:00 January 19, 2011, Dubai

Family can often be a distraction, especially when it involves a business. Or more precisely, who should run the business.
The Gulf’s corporate history is replete with searing disputes breaking out over succession issues at some of the leading family-owned enterprises. While many of these led to a parting of ways with minimal disruption to the business, there were some which required direct intervention by the highest authorities in the land to broker a lasting solution acceptable to all parties.
But the nature of the way business is run in the Gulf ensured that this were done behind closed doors — and quite unlike what happened at the Ambani Group, the Indian energy-to-telecom Fortune 500 conglomerate, following the death of its founder, Dhirubhai.
Immediately afterward a spat erupted between his sons Mukesh and Anil, regulars in any rankings of the world’s richest, which played out on every conceivable public platform. It finally required the direct intervention of their mother to get them to carve up the original Reliance empire. Yet, the echoes of that break-up reverberate even now in India’s corporate corridors.
In the Gulf, the pulls and pressures of competing familial interests are still there in some of the larger enterprises and becoming a regular feature even in the small and mid-sized business space. And the stakes are higher in SMEs because the very size and scale of their business mean there are less assets to divide among family members.
This is why succession planning at family-owned SMEs is of such vital importance if the founder’s vision is to be carried forward.
“Succession planning involves deciding who will lead the company in the next generation — this is a challenge equally for big, medium and small family businesses,” said Dr Hesham Al Agamy, an executive director at IMD and founder of the Tharawat Family Business Forum for Arab family businesses.
Survey
“A PwC Family Business Worldwide Survey shows that the most persistent problem and, at the same time, the most frequent reason for family business failure was and remains the succession process.
“Yet, over half of the firms surveyed still have not set up proper succession planning. Business owners may be reluctant to face the issue because they do not want to relinquish control, feel their successor is not ready, have few interests outside the business, or wish to maintain the sense of identity work provides,” Dr Al Agamy said.
Even where the planning is in place, it need not ensure a smooth run. In early 2008, a Dubai-based, mid-sized company with interests in light manufacturing and trading was split up between two siblings. The plant and related assets went to one, and the trading and distribution related interests to the other.
But due to the global recession, the manufacturing side of the business was hit by orders getting cancelled, inventory pile-up and a biting cashflow issue. The plant is now running at less than 50 per cent capacity and having trouble meeting its salary commitments.
In contrast, the trading division is cashflow positive and putting in growth of 15 to 20 per cent. The siblings are now engaged in a legal tussle over a more “optimised” division of assets.
This only highlights the fact that succession planning requires forethought and not a little bit of good luck for all the pieces to fall into place. But it also raises the question whether success for an SME in the absence of its founder-entrepreneur can actually be passed on.
“All businesses need to appreciate that the entrepreneurial spirit does not lie within one person or a generation — it lies in the motivation that a person has to search, select, implement and grow opportunities,” said Dr. Ashraf Mahate, head of export market intelligence at Dubai Exports, an agency within Dubai’s Department of Economic Development.
“If the rewards for such activities diminish with time or from one generation to another, so will the entrepreneurial spirit. The rewards are not only financial — although they are very important — but can stretch to non-financial aspects such as the level of control, position, etc.”
It may also be that the second-generation may not be as enthusiastic about joining the family business. If he or she is forced to do so, it represents another dilution in the “entrepreneurial spirit”.
“More problematic and totally inadvisable is the forced transition situation, especially where there is internal pressure and resentment for change,” said Dr Mahate. “Under these circumstances it may be best not to oppose change, but seek ways of bringing the new generation in.
“This needs to be carried out with causing any alarm to the other stakeholders — that is, financiers who may be worried that such a change may increase firm-specific risk. Suppliers may be concerned about providing future credit facilities or even doing business with the company.
“Customers may be fearful of long-term relationships with the company. Therefore, it is in everyone’s interest to have an orderly change to the new structure. At the same time, it is important for the new structure to be transparent and gain the buy-in of all family members with an interest in the business.”
Easier said than done, perhaps. as the situation at a local business house illustrates. The founder and current chairman has two daughters, and their husbands have both been brought in as full-time directors. There is talk seeping through into the markets that not everything is hunky-dory within the boardroom.
“No one expects all members in a family-owned business to have the same vision and how they intend to pursue it,” said a banker. “But when the founder delays naming a succession strategy, it spooks us. We do not want to be caught in any future family strife.”
Mitigating concerns
Dr Al Agamy understands where such concerns stem from and provides a recipe to mitigate them.
“There is no one magic formula to help family businesses face the succession challenge,” he said.
“But there are some basic foundations that the family has to start working on early enough and before they are obliged to do so due to death or illness of the current leader.”
The family enterprise should develop a map of sets of learning experiences and business exposure where the young generation gains a better understanding of the family business, its operations, strategy and visions, he added.
“The next step is the selection process, which should be divided into various phases. It is critical that the selection should be for a pool of talents and one or two individuals.
“They will have to learn how to become leaders in a specific sector of the business and make business decisions and carry the consequences,” Dr Al Agamy said.
Regional dynamics: The extended family
The Middle East has its own dynamics where family businesses are concerned. “There is the additional problem that a consortium of cousins may share the same paternal linage but not the maternal due to multi-marriages,” said Dr. Ashraf Mahate, head of export market intelligence at Dubai Exports. “From a regional perspective, a consortium of cousins or even step-siblings can be aligned to the new structure as it aims to be inclusive rather than exclusive.”
Over 80 per cent of businesses in the Middle East are family-run or owned, with an estimated Dh3.67 trillion expected to be handed down to the next generation in the next five to 10 years. Yet, 48 per cent have no succession plan and of those that do have one, only 50 per cent have decided who will take over the top job. These issues will be debated at the Family Business Retreat, which opens next week in Bahrain.
Facts and figures
• Management expert Nancy Bowman-Upton recommends a four-stage process in succession planning for family businesses — initiation, selection, education, and transition.
• In the US, 90 per cent of businesses are either family-owned or controlled. Combined, they account for about half of the country’s GNP.

What Exactly is a Business Model?

Editor’s note: Prof. Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research at www.wadhwa.com.

In this post, Prof. Wadhwa discusses what a Business Model is and its key ingredients to make your startup work for you.

Everyone in the tech world talks about business models. But I’ll bet that if you quizzed a random sample of people, you’d find that most really don’t know what a business model is. I did just that with my students at UC-Berkeley. Most raised their hands, and MBA student Blake Brundidge’s attempt to answer the question was a valiant one—but none of them really had a clue. The only one who got the answer right was Lionel Vital, a Stanford student gatecrashing my iSchool class.

The reality is that a business model is like the old saying about teenage sex: everyone talks about it all the time; everyone boasts about how well he or she is doing it; everyone thinks everyone else is doing it; almost no one really is; and the few who are are fumbling their way through it incompetently. (Yes, I know you wouldn’t confess it.)

Let me share what a business model is; in case you are quizzed by your potential investors.

So what is a business model per se? (P.S.: Sorry, the teenagers reading this will need to get their sex education elsewhere). I teach only entrepreneurship and globalization.

Step one in building a successful business is to learn what products or technologies your customers really need and are willing to buy. Figuring that out is an iterative process. The vast majority of technology startups fail because too few customers buy or use their products. So don’t underestimate the importance of validation and testing of your ideas.

Developing the right product is hard. But what is harder is building a good business model. Fortunately, there’s nothing magical about a business model. It’s simply the nuts and bolts of how a business plans to generate revenue and profits. It details your long-term strategy and day-to-day operations.

Entrepreneurs put together elaborate business plans showing optimistic market-share projections. Even 1% of a billion-dollar market seems lucrative, right? Wishful thinking is great, but when it comes time to creating a business model, you need to be realistic. The challenges differ from industry to industry, but here are seven basic components of a business model:

1. Reaching customers. Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” The reality is that even if you did, no one would find you. Even when you know who your prospects are, it’s usually difficult and costly to reach them. You have to find them via the Internet and e-mail, or the old-fashioned way—through broadcast media, print ads, direct mail, telemarketing, or references or by cold-calling. And these potential customers are not likely to be waiting to hear from you and may not respond to you. So be sure you know how you are going to find and reach them.

2. Differentiating your product. You think you’ve got the very best solution, but so does the other gal (or guy). There’s always competition, whether you realize it or not. Smart marketing executives know how to develop unique product-positioning strategies that highlight a product’s true value. You need to thoroughly understand the competition and effectively communicate the unique advantages of your product.

3. Pricing. One of the most basic decisions you have to make is how much you’re going to charge for your product or service. Giving your stuff away is the way to go on the web, but remember that you still need to figure out how you are eventually going to make money—you can’t make it up on volume. Start by understanding how much customers value what they’re gaining from you. Then you need to estimate your total costs, analyze the competitive landscape, and map out your long-term strategy. For your company to survive, your product’s price must be greater than its overall cost.

4. Selling. Persuading customers to buy a product that they need is one of the most important skills an entrepreneur must learn (read It’s All About Selling for Survival). You’re going to be selling at every juncture. So you have to understand what it takes to close a deal and put together the necessary sales process. And this process has to be perfectly conceived. Be sure you test your selling strategy as you would your product.

5. Delivery/distribution. This is easy on the Internet. But for big-ticket items, you usually require a direct sales force; for mid-range products, distributors or value-added resellers; and, for low-priced items, retail outlets or the Internet. It’s different in every industry and for every type of product, but you have to get this right. Your products need to be designed and packaged for the channel through which they will be distributed to customers.

6. Supporting Customers. In addition to teaching customers how to use your product, you need to ensure that you can deal with defects and returns, answer product questions, and listen to and incorporate valuable suggestions for improvement. You may need to provide consulting services to help customers integrate and implement your products. If your product is a critical component of a business, you may also need to provide 24/7 onsite or web support.

7. Achieving customer satisfaction. The ultimate success or failure of a business depends on how much it helps customers achieve their objectives. Happy customers will become your best sales people and buy more from you. Unhappy customers will become your biggest liability.

All the pieces have to come together like a jigsaw puzzle in your business model. The good news is that you don’t have to start from scratch when formulating it. You can give yourself a head start by learning from competitors and other markets. It is not only the successes that provide valuable lessons; it is also the failures.

You can innovate as much in your business model as you do in your products. Be prepared to evolve your innovation strategy as you gain experience and as your market changes. Like your products, it will probably take several versions to get your business model right; you get better with practice.

The post originally appeared on TechCrunch, and edited for Pluggd.in

[IMG Credit]

Thoughts Becomes Things

THOUGHT BECOMES THINGS

We are where we are, because of our thoughts in the past. Thoughts become things. We consciously or subconsciously always think about something. The problem is that we usually think more about things we don’t want, than about the things we want. It doesn’t matter if we want or don’t want something, we’ll get what we mostly think about.
Try to observe your thoughts for a day or two. Do you mostly think about the things that you worry about, you don’t want them to happen, you are afraid of, or do you mostly think about pleasant and wonderful things?
Your present situation is the result of your predominant state of mind in the past. And you are creating your future now. Your future will be like your predominant state of mind now.
The past is gone. You can’t change it, but if you are dwelling on unhappy past now, you aren’t feeling happy now, and you are creating unhappy future.
Because you’re creating the future now, only the present is important. By having predominantly happy and positive state of mind now, you’re creating your happy and positive future. It’s called the Law of Attraction. You can attract whatever you want in your life: happiness, wealth, perfect health, love and wonderful relationships.
But you can also attract things and situations that you don’t want. Actually we do it sub consciously all the time.
Because you are energy, you are like a magnet; everything is energy, you, your mind and your body. But you can control your body, and you can also control your mind.
Your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you don’t control your mind and allow it to dwell on negative thoughts and feelings, it’s your worst enemy, because it creates your unhappy future. If you control your mind, it’s your best friend, because it becomes your best friend which will create your great future.
Of course lives of most of the people are a mixture of happiness and unhappiness because of their flickering states of mind. Now, because of knowing and understanding of the law of attraction you can start creating your happy future and be sure that you’ll get what you want in life.
The Law of Attraction is a broad subject and there’s no space in this short report to explain everything. Fortunately there is now more and more information available on the subject of attraction.
People like Plato, Newton, Carnegie, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Einstein and many others knew the law of attraction and lived according to the law of attraction, but it was a secret for most of the people. Now a lot of people are learning about the secret, the law of attraction and the science of manifestation.

Things I appreciate about Government Offices in Dubai

I was working here and as a part of my job I visited to few Government offices like Municipality, Etisalat (Telephone, Internet and TV connection provider), Banks etc.

When for the first time I went to Dubai Municipality, I was amazed to see the way Government office looks here. I never imagined that the office can be so people friendly. When I went first thing I noticed was a nice reception counter with employees to help me with my queries. The person gave me a token and directed me to the counter. There was ample sitting place available. There were digital number display system in the office and at the same time you can view them on screen. When my turn came I went to the counter where, I was greeted with a smile and answered all my queries and gave me the some forms and also said that in case of any problem I can ask on phone. No hassle no irritation, no bribe. Every one waits for his / her turn and get work done. One more thing I would like to quote is few years back an RTA (Road Transport Authority) fined their own Traffic Officers for using a dark film than permitted. Another incidence which I will quote is an officer filed a complaint against person trying to bribe him.

All Government Departments have their call centers as well as their websites where you can get all the info you want on phone or online. Sometimes it is not necessary for you to go to the government offices for filing application or just for a list of required documents.

Every where you will find separate queue for Ladies and Handicapped people. Even in public transport buses no one else is allowed to be sited on seats reserved for ladies. Even gents are not allowed to stand in between aisle in ladies seats. Once I was travelling to Sharjah and I was not aware of this rule. One male came and sat next to me. The driver noticed that when that person was about to get down and he said Sorry to me again and again and said that he did not notice that.

Easy access of information here in all the offices is really something which I appreciate.