Oh Prof...

He started off organizing the group like Shamrock organization

He used intellectual capital to help him mark the glass ceiling.

In an attempt of establishing a free agent economy, he created multi level pyramid like Maslow’s hierchy.

In which talked about ethics and social responsibility

Then he got confused among utilitarian and individual perspectives
He tried getting help from Weber and Taylor, but they lead him to the talk of morality and justice.

Then he tried establishing a culture with visible but deep values.
He got confused with what should be his vision as a leader.

He called upon a group meeting, in which he faced conflict due to classical and behavioral thinking.

Then he figured why we don’t use innovation, for which he tried brainstorming that created lack of communication, for which appointed out a leader, who showed lack of motivation

Then he tried improving the whole structure and creates a whole new network through blogging.

And finally, he realized it was a little too much attempting and he decided to let the class decide their own future through creativity.

Poet Irfan Mazhar

Now, what I think about management?

Before, I took any class on management, I always thought it was the ability of one individual to be able to exercise some sort of control over the other and one's ability to make an efficient use of given resources. Now, that I have learn about management, I think that I was completely wrong.
The term management does mean being able to manage things, but not so that you can exercise control over others. Its one's ability to get all of the given resources together and blend them in a way each is performing it's best. A good manager is not who can get things done, but the one who exercises his powers in a manner that is does not hurts the systems but unites the system to achieve its very best. It about planning, organizing, implementing and control. Not simply implementing and control. I never had considered planning was in any form part of management. Another thing is that a good manager is not born with skills, they are developed through experience and learning. A good manager is not the one who understand its resources and utilizes them to perfection, it is the one who understands his or her limits and their place in the process and then combines all the good and bad towards a greater good for all.
I don't regret that I was wrong about management, what matters is I learnt it my mistakes soon enough.

The effectiveness of the blogging process....

This was the first time, I used a blog as a way of communicating with others. My psychology professor did use blackboard discussion board as a way to make people interact and share their opinions on specific topics. But it was very limited to the topics that were discussed in the class but by using blogs we were able to talk about certainly anything without limitations to each other and discussion our views on the topic of management. I think this is a very helpful tool to keep people in contact. I replied to many people without knowing who they were in person. This did give me freedom to openly share my viewpoint with others. In a way, it was very effective as compared to other tools used by my other professors.
But it did had a problem. Majority of the people did not used blogs with an intention to communicate with others but to fulfill course requirements. Meaning they only did it because they had to, that was not were encouraging. If people were allowed to freely speak about anything they wanted they may have performed better while communication via blogs. It definitely was not annoying because it was designed to improve our network, which will play a major role in future as managers.
We are about eighty people in classroom, it is impossible to get everyone involved in conversations during the class time, which is only seventy five minutes. So communicating through blogs does really give everyone an opportunity to discuss their viewpoint on subject matter discussed in class. Another thing not everyone is good at communicating openly in class, by having an online communication they also get an opportunity to share their points.
It definitely did allowed me to openly think about the class activities and relate them to my personal life experience. This way not only I understood the point of all the inclass activities but also how they relate to my life. Also this helps improve learning by allowing students spend more time on certain subject matter and learn it in more detail.
The professor blog entries were interesting and random but were quite rare indeed. I barely remember responding to the professor blog. So it would be a good idea to expand the number of entries. Even though they were limited they were interesting to think about and write about. I think the professor has done a good job by bringing together different subject matter and allowing us to relate that to the different management topics.
I also think blog is a place where you can place your ideas every once in a while and then keep checking back on them to make sure your thoughts align and make sense in the long run.

Sometimes I wonder....???

Sometimes, I wonder what really is management
Should I call it an art or science.
Then I realized it is both art and science
It is an art of making people more effective and science of how it is done
Now I wonder how to do it
Do I need to plan, organize, direct or monitor.
Then I realized they are all part of the process, I need to do all of these to be effective.
Plan in a way my goals are understood, organize in a way that my goals are achieved, direct so that people understand how to achieve them and monitor so that they are achieved right.
And finally I wonder how good a manager am I.

MCccccDonalds.... you rock

About five years ago, before coming to United States, I had only been to McDonald’s once in my whole life, so it kind of seemed something luxurious. But since I came to US, I find McDonald in about every neighborhood, so it has lost that place in my way of thinking. About any restaurant, I don’t really matter to me how fast or slow they fulfill my order, as long as the food is what I expect it to be. So when I usually go to McDonald’s I’m am pretty sure the sort of service I will get. Up until today, I haven’t paid whole a lot of attention to the process the management goes through as they fulfill my order. Today was one of the times when I actually tried to dig deep into the managerial process involved in fulfilling my order.
First, giving my order to the cashier. As I walked up to the register, there was only one person in front of me; he was almost finished with receiving his order. There were total of three cashiers taking the orders from the customers. So I walked to one of them and told them what I needed, he seemed confused and asked me again, then his fellow cashier came along and tried to explain what I asked for, I am pretty sure the first person was on training. So the actual person who punched my order was the last cashier who was the manager at the time. Simply, there were three people involved in just getting my order. It may seem that it may have taken a while, but it was pretty quick.
Secondly, getting the order ready to take out. Simply, punching the number into computer can tell the chef what to make, but the cashier went to the chef and told him exactly what I asked for. First, he asked him for cheeseburger, then I corrected him that I actually needed hamburger, so he corrected the order to the chef. The inclusion of chef involves the total of four people into the process. And then the fries, I think they had just took out fresh fries from the oil, so they just gave it to me without any salt on them, so it was not a big deal for them to get me fries with no salt.
Now the total time it took for them to complete my order, seriously, it took them exactly three and half minutes to complete my order, which is pretty quick. Maybe because my timing was wrong, I went there at a time, when there were not too many customers in the restaurant. I went there at 8:35 PM, while my friends awaiting in the car.
There were no problems with the treatment I received while I was in the restaurant. Because the order was quite unique, I was expecting some sort of negative feedback from the server, but actually nothing of that sort actually happened. The server ensured that I received the right order with exactly the same topping I asked for, he used the term “exactly” when he told the chef what I needed to ensure accuracy. I really have to give them credit for that.
On the scale of 1 through 10, I would rate the order preparation to be 10, because it was prepared in timely and accurate manner. I would rate communication 8, because I did have to tell them several times, what I actually was asking for. I would give 9 to coordination, and 10 to customer service, because the server or the cashier did ensure several times that I received exactly what I asked for. As a consultant to McDonald’s to help them improve efficiency, I would definitely make some recommendations. Especially with communication, the server didn’t need to go the chef to ensure that I received accurate topping. He should have signaled some way on the computer to let the chef know that I wanted exactly that, that way time would have been saved and could have been used for better customer service, which was already great without question.
My experience today at McDonald’s has made my beliefs stronger about the servers at McDonald’s. I can definitely trust the restaurant servers for quality and accuracy. The McDonald’s Management team is doing a great job, as a team, and I’m proud of them.

Did D,I,S,C evaluated my managerial skills accurately..?

In our class activity on Monday,April 7, 2008, we used personal profile system called "D,I,S,C" to evaluate our managerial skills. Each letter in the term D,I,S,C refers to a unique managerial style. "D" stands for Dominance style of management. "I" stands for Influential style of management. "S" stands for Steadiness style of management and "C" refers to conscientiousness style of managing.
People who score high on "D" style are very active in dealing with problems and welcome challenges. They are also considered demanding, determined, ambitious, aggressive,and strong willed. This person desires an environment that gives him an authority, power, prestige snd opportunity for advancement. he also requires freedom from controls and supervision, and is more open to welcoming new and varied activities.
Secondly, people who score high on "I" are capable of influencing others through their way of communicating with others. This type is also considered to be emotional type. The person with this type care more about making a favorable impression, creating a motivational envirionment, generating enthusiasm and entertaining people. This person desires an environment that leads to popularity, social and public recognition, freedom form controls and details, and creates democratic relationships. Of all the four type this type is considered the most effective.
Thirdly, people scoring high on "S" demand a steady pace, predictable, and secure path to doing things. These people are calm, relaxed, patient, and tend not to take think from emotional perspective. These people try to resist instant changes in their way of doing things. They prefer routine tasks, and demand credit for their accomplishments at work place. They try to identify themselves with some group and resist identification as an individual. Our management professor also belong to this category, that should give you some idea of what kind of person this type is refering to.
And finally, people with high score in "C" tend to lead a structured life where all the directives and standards are fully understood. They tend not to make mistakes and get it right the first time. They people are analytical type who are very diplomatic with people. They desire an environment where all the regulations are fully set forth. An environment that values their qualities, and that demands expertise.

After choosing between long list of vocabulary words that best suited my peronality, and graphing the results, the test concluded my type to be "D high I", meaning I was high on dominance style and Influential type to be my second highest trait. I think that test was quite accurate in judging my management type. I am always looking for immediate results, deciding and finishing up things quickly, sometimes I do try to take charge of things and try to enforce my perspective on things. I also like it when people distignuish my accomplishment as an individual. I also like to try and learn new and different ways of doing things and be better at doing things than others. I definitely hate it when someone tries to dictate rules and limit my perspective on certain issues. I also don't like to get to answer indirectly, I like the direct way of reaching to conclusion. Simple, I think it was quite close.
At first, when professor was describing each type of styles. He mentioned that best of all four type was Influential type, I instantly wished that I was that type. But when he said that both D and I were pretty much best of all four ways, that relived me alot. This also took away the doubt that I was not the best, but after finding out that D and I were not that much different, my tension went away, and I said to myself that at least I'm good enough.
I really think this kind of test is helpful to a person because this allows them to see where they stand in an actual life. This also always them to think differently when faced with future problems. Let's say I'm "D" and I know it, but I feel that "I" is better, next time I will do something, I can try and be less directive and act more as an "I" type and reduce the effect of "D" in my management style. After taking the test, when I went back to the workplace, I attempted to stop at certain times and try to act differently so that I can improve the relations and better understand the other perspectives.
If you haven't tried it yet, try taking it and see how different you perceive things...

My vision to be the owner of undisputed auto service company... "We keep them running!!"

In life, I have my dreams to make true. Be rich, earn alot of respect, tour the whole world, have the most loving family, live a luxurious life, be the best street racer, play street basketball... it continues. On the back of my head, I also know that not every one of these visions are going to be true for me. You just can't lead all sorts of lives all at once. Since high school all of these visions seemed realistic but the first day I walked into college, I started to learn the harsh realities of life. I had to choose among all of these what I meant the most to me. Of all those visions I decided that I wanted to run an auto service company that provides the best auto service in the whole industry. That was that. Surely, making such a vision into reality required alot of effort and capabilities, as well as a wide variety of knowledge, not just in auto mobiles as well as business management.

Since, that day I have made this my life. I always had an opportunity to work with automobiles since my family was in auto business for last ten years. That was motivating and encouraging, now that I had some place to begin. I needed to know how to manage this business. I started visiting my dad's repair shop every other day. I learned alot about automobiles, even though I only managed the shop. At college, I have declared my major as management, so that I can learn about different ways of managing businesses. I hope to expand my dad's shop as i get my degree from college. Even though I still go to college, I try to visit the shop at least three to four times a week. Only thing I know now is that all that I have worked with since yet is automobiles. I never worked any place else in my previous life. If not best, I will it make it something, where people would love to bring there cars at.

That was my vision, whats yours...

Importance of vision in our lives!!

I really liked the video that we watched during our lecture today, regarding the importance and need of vision not just at corporate level but in our everyday activities. The point that video was trying to make was that having a vision in mind does play a role in how things work out in our lives. It is what makes our actions worth something. It also emphasized the relationship between actions and vision. Taken from the video, "vision without action is a dream; action with vision is passing time and vision with action is making a positive difference" by Joel Barker. Another thing I liked about the video was it gave us an allround perspective on the the idea of having a vision. It emphasized how having vision in mind relates to different things around us. Not just in corporate life, but also in schools, times of hardships and at the times when one lacks tools to make something come true.
I have to say, it did made a lasting impression on me. And made realize how vision has been playing a role in my life. Even though I didn't really thought about it in actual life, I'm having a feeling that it actually have some truth to it. I believe that if you really visualize something, you want to work towards it and make it true. It sets a sort of objective or goal that you can look forward towards. It allows you see whether what you actually visualize correlates with what you achieved.
Here are few quotes that I really found interesting about the idea of having a vision in mind:

"We are limited, not by our action, but by our vision"- author unknown.

"Everytime an artist dies, part of vision of manking passes with him" by Benjamin Franklin.

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” by Helen Keller.

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.” by Ayn Rands.

Hope your vision becomes better as you move on with your life not just in your career but also with other activities that are part of your day to day activities.. mine did..

What do I want to do with my first Exam Grade?? Drop... curve...drop the class....

The in-class activity on Monday about decision making was an interesting experience. It was the first time, any of my professors allowed us an opportunity to decide amongst ourselves to how to account for our grade on the exam 1. Even though he limited us to a point, at least we got the say to decide what we wanted to do.

Some limitation and rules that were set forth by professor:
-Decide how to account for your first exam grade and the format of the second exam.
-our time was limited to one hour
-our decision should have say of every student in the class, meaning 100%.
-After we have concluded, professor would make the final call, even though he gave his opinion along the way.
-Nothing we come up with has to do with final exam or other activities like blog or participation.

First reaction: I wanted to just get up from my seat and get my hands on the computer and drop the course, and find some other professor next semester. But then I thought it wasn't worth dropping it, because it better to learn things hard way than looking for easy gains. Tests are not the only thing that matter. It's what we learn, from that perspective this class is pretty good. Finally, I said lets do something about this grade, since he is giving us an opportunity to do so. At this point, I left the idea of avoidance and changed my strategy towards getting the most of this opportunit, in conceptual terms, I decided to compete and grab all that is possible off the table. At first, I thought it would be piece of cake, because I think no one would say no to free gifts. After few failures among the group, I start to have a feeling it was not going to be easy. One of us, attempted to get up and get everyone organized and steer the talk in a desireable direction. Unfortunately, his technique failed to get everyone on the same page. He suggested that we all divide into small group and come up with some idea and then by picking one representative from each group would make it easier to make the decision. As soon as he finished he idea was criticized and he had to step back. I have to say, I also supported that criticism, because the time constraint does not allow us with enough time to divide and regroup and then decide. It seemed to be good idea to remain in a group of one and do everythink collabrately.
After the first failure, two students try to be leader and lead the group. Both of them attempted to gain feedback from some students and create few options for the group to choose from. Even though not every student was part of the feedback, majority compromised the options. Many were also trying to stick to practice avoidance. By the time, we got to this point we were already half a way through our time. I started to get really mad at all the others, because this would keep us from getting any thing at all. I attempted to talk everyone through but was useless and criticized most of time. So I tried shut up, and letting the group go along themselves. After alot of argument between a very small minority and a large majority, we agreed on the option of curving the exam and dropping the lowest grade of both exams. After this issue resolved, I got some satisfaction. But we were almost nearing our deadline, and we had to decide about the format of the exam. And I was already hurt by the existing format, I suggested we drop the essay part because it was not fair to poor writer but people were so much amazed by their grade on their essays that they want to keep it. I decides to accomodate with the group. And decide to avoid rest of the conversation regarding the format, because it was already against my thoughts. I did get some peace when they added extra points to the exam.
It was hard sticking to one strategy because at times it feels like you are only one following that strategy. In the end, it was enough for me to remain competitive for a good grade in the class.

Management and NBA..

The recent trade of Shaquille O'Neal to Phoenix Suns has put Suns' team management team in a decision making position. The Suns' team coach and advisors are trying to figure out how to fit Shaq into the lineup. because by acquiring Shaq, Suns have two options for a center position. Whether to have Shaq or stoudmire run the center position. Another questions they are facing is that whether their decision of acquiring Shaq a valid one, especially while they are nearing the end of the season. Up to this point it does not seems great, but since last night game, it seems like the Shaq and Nash combination is starting to work. Suns are 4-6 since they have acquired Shaq. It is the season ending that will tell, whether it was worth azquiring Shaq at this time of the season. Good Luck Suns????

Gas prices continue to ruin sales in the Auto Industry

According to a recent report in New York Times, as gas prices rise to $100 a barrel, sales in auto industry fell by 10 percent last month. The data on the sales also indicates that Honda is the only manufacturer company that have experienced an increased in their sales as compare to Ferbruary of 2007. The increase accounted for only 0.7 percent. While Honda and other Japanese manufacturers like Toyota continue to sell automobiles at an increasing rate each month, American manufacturers like Chrysler and General Motors experienced a double digit decline in their sales.
Most of the vehicles that these American companies manufacture include sport utility and heavy SUVs that use alot of gas in its engine funcitons. And as the gas prices climb, it is becoming more unaffordable for people to continue to drive such vehicles. So majority of the car owners are switching their tastes towards small compact car or hybrid cars that use battery power to keep its engine functioning. These cars can be very good for our environment because they would result into less pollution and more hands towards fighting or reducing the effects of global warming.
The management decision that are facing these car companies are to whether to shut down or downsize their projects of manufacturing more SUVs, and invest more money into manufacture small compact cars to continue to compete with Japanese manufacturers. The main force driving their decision is that most of thr revenue earned by American manufacturers is through the sales of these large SUVs. They believe the sales of thousands of these small compact cars would only equal sales of several hundred SUVs. They should consider re-evaluating their strategy and broaden their perspective to continue to make more sales. They can consider manufacturing these compact until gas prices become more stable or some other effective method is imposed. This way they would continue to generate enough sales to remain competitive.
The question that also arises from this situation is that why Japanese manufacturers are not facing the similar dilemmas? The answer is good strategic thinking. They were able to visualize the demand of small compact and hybrid cars, way beyond time, so they started to design and manufacture vehicles with such qualities years before this problem became prominent. Today, the demand of these vehicles is rising constantly, and they are taking good advantage by fulfilling these demands, while others manufacturers like General Motors are looking for ways to remain in business.
Let look at the future of just New York City, people have started to rely more and more on subway and other means of public transportation. City is planning on impose on toll on entering thorugh bridges and tunnels. Another important step City is taking is restricting the future use of Ford Crown Victoria to be used as Taxi. The city has already decided that following September, only Hybrid vehicles would be used as Taxi. So what we can see from this is that with in few years, they are going to be more hybrid vehicles in city than any other car. I think City has taken excellent steps to fight with rising Gas prices in return not just helping the consumers but also the society at large. Hopefully, combined efforts by all would bring promising results.

Work Cited,
Bunkley, Nick, "Vehicles Sales Fell by 10% Last Month" New York Times, March 4, 2008.

Plan for keeping an egg from cracking!!!

Our objective was to invent a method for keeping an egg from breaking while it is dropped from a specified height. At first, we calculated the amount of time we were given to think about an idea, and resources we were to use. Specifically, 8 straws, a raw egg, and a 2 feet long paper tape. Also, our time to plan was limited to 25 minutes. Secondly, we all offered a viewpoint on how to approach this situation. Each one of us came up with his/her idea of creating something that would keep an egg from cracking. One of us offered to half wrap the egg with the straws, so that it can produce some air suspension effect and 50 percent is visible. Another one of our group members offered a similar technique but argued on whether the egg should be wrapped stand up or laid down. Our third group member offered to use straws in a way that egg never hits the floor while straws do. Our fourth group member offered to use a string that would lower the elevation the egg is dropped from. And finally our last group member presented a view of using straws to be cut into several pieces and cut in a way that they produce a flowering edges, and wrapped around the egg.We tried to put it all together into one unique design that would be the actual design of our product. What we did was used the flowering idea and placed them on the egg in a manner that it creates pointer at different location on the egg that would lead to create a air suspension effect and keep the egg floating all the time. And then we incorporated the idea of string from one of our group members and attached the string at one of the points on the egg, so we decrease the elevation from where egg is dropped. This ended our ideas planning session. This session took about 15 minutes of our time.
Then our focus moved upon to what and how would we need to use our resouces that this idea can be put into practical use. We decided upon using six of our straws that we would cut into several pieces with flowering edges. One edge would attached to the egg and the other would support as a method to reduce the pressure as it hits floor. Then we had to decide on how to make these small pieces with flowering tops because of our limited use of scissors. Then we came up with idea of using a lock key to cut the straws into pieces, and then using pencil pointer to make the flowering tops. And we planned to use the other two straws to create a string that the egg would be attached to. We planned on cutting each one of our straws in a way that it would provide us with several layers taht we could use as a string. And finally, we decided to use half of our paper tape to attach our flowering topped pieces of straws to the egg, and the other haof to lengthen our string.
And final step was to create our planned or designed egg proctector in ten minutes. We decided to put two of our members to create flowering topped pieces of straws,and one to cut the needed tape, fouth to attached the straws to the egg,and the last member to find access to scissor so that we can cut the remaining to straws into several layers so that it can be used as a long string. We used 9 minutes to implement our plan and the final minute to test our creation for success.
For record, we did went through majority of our planning process that one is to go through before implenting one's plan. Our failure was that were so sure that it would work without actually finding fatal flaws our plan before we implemented it. We incorporated all teh suggestions into one, but failed to figure out whether what we had planned would actually work.
We were very sure that our invention would be a success but our creation failed to meet our expection by allowing the egg to break. So much for a failure... We tried...

Business Plan and its importance

What is a business plan?
Simply defined, a business plan is a document that tells an individual or company where it is today, where it want to go tomorrow, and how you plan to get there.

In today's business world, a need of a business plan has increased dramatically. Even if it is not required, it expresses an important need. There are alot of benefits of a business plan. One, it allows one to look into one's idea and criticize it for fatal flaws that can ruin one's investment in future. Second, it forces one to think about one's beliefs and insight of a certain idea and look to see if it is worth investing one's time and efforts into it. It also helps to raise one's confidence by allowing him/her to clarify and eliminate errors in one's understanding. A business plan also shows one's ability to communicate effectively with other individuals in the industry, like investors, customers, and suppliers. Most importantly, investors want to see how capable an individual they are betting their savings on is? Thats why the first question one is asked, when they go to bank or an investor for money is "Where is your business plan?" Simply, it is a company gameplan.
On the other hand, a business plan also has some negatives. The most important of them is time, it is very time consuming. Companies today don't want to spend there precious time planning while they can be engaged in other important activities. This is so important for a business owner to decide how much time they want to spend planning. Because by spending too much time planning one can miss the window of opportunity that was open for them, while they were planning. If they plan too little, they can end up creating a mess for themselves very early moment of their operations. Secondly, a business plan can limit a company from expanding or moving away in a better direction because of the pressure from investors and industry environment.

So, the question remains, Is business plan relevant?
There just don't seem to be any correct answer to this. It all depends on the situation in the market. Even if you had the best plan of all, you may still fail to succeed.

What is CULTURE?

Culture can means different things to different people. It can a belief, set of rules, environment, set of behaviors, etc. I believe that culture is something that attaches value to what we do. For example, a certain action that I perform has no value to anyone, until someone tells you that you have done it good. This someone who tells you that you did fine is the culture in my viewpoint. It is what tells you to do something in a certain manner, live in a certain manner, and understand things in a certain manner. So my culture is all that tells me that I'm doing things good and right in my everyday life.

Some real facts!!

Beginning to Information Age

Management Dilemmas and me!!!

Of all the different things, I have to manage in my everyday life, the most important thing that I have trouble with is to decide whether I want to spend my time in school or at work. Because I believe that once you start to earn money, you keep looking for different ways to earn more, and eventually you start spending more time on work than at school and your studies kind of hang in the middle. I always have an incentive to work but I limit my work hours to the point that they donot interfere my school life. The reason being that I value studies over work. Because you work all your life, but once you stop studing, it becomes hard to return to school and continue studies. So the way I deal with this is by only working on weekends, and try not to even think about money during the week days.
Another thing that consistently puts me on the hotseat is that whether I want to engage in extracurricular activities or concentrate on keeping my grade point average high by putting that extra time studying. What troubles me with this is the question how can I balance each of them out. By just studying I don't thik I am doing justice to the college life, and by just engaging in extracurricular activities I will be risking a drop in my grade point average. So what I do is limit the number of activities I engage in, so that I donot fall behind in any of them. I never actually managed to satisfy myself with this question, because even though I think I'm doing good enough, I feel I'm lacking something.

Giants stun Patriots with an amazing victory!!

It all seemed impossible upto the last minute in the ballgame, when Plaxico Burress caught a match winning TD pass from Eli Manning. But finally they were successful in bring one home. While all the odds were against them and previous records supported the odds, Giants didnot let themselves down and kept themselves into the game. And they won!!!

Different technique of enhancing business management processes!

Due to everyday increasing demands of doing businesses nowadays has led people to look for cheaper, time saving methods of optimizing business processes. Here's one look at a developing plan of some companies to deal with such dilemmas,
"In the home care business, 53% of the expenses incurred are directly related to tasks that employees perform. Because of declining reimbursement rates, it is imperative that businesses find ways to reduce the time it takes to perform each business process and optimize this part of the business.
It is common for home care companies to have 10 to 15 processes that must be performed, like intake, billing and collecting, purchasing, etc. The first step toward optimizing processes is to have a written policy and procedures manual. A detailed description of how procedures are performed is the first step in improving them.
The act of improving processes is often called “business process reengineering.” BPR is artful management. In order to practice BPR, an organization must have a detailed knowledge of the process, a collaborative effort for identifying problems, creative solutions for eliminating problems and a system of accountability for change.
The best people to collaborate with on process changes are those that are on the front lines, actually doing the work. These are the people that can tell you what will make their job more efficient.
There are two types of metrics that should be used to measure each business process: throughput and quality. “Throughput” describes output per time: for example orders filled per day. Quality describes the portion of the work that meets the internal or external customer’s expectations.
Eliminating redundancy is one important way to improve processes. Reducing footsteps can save time. For example, desktop fax solutions eliminate the need to get up and walk to a fax machine. There are few industry norms related to processes such as these but the performance of a person or team can be benchmarked to previous throughput and quality. Benchmarking outside the industry can also provide some good ideas."
“Improving All Processes,” Home Care Magazine

The point to be made from the quote above is that management business is changing continuously and each one of has to upgrade ourselves with these continuous improvements in the processes to better handle the problems that we are to confront in our careers. One can also say, that management is taking a turn towards an innovative form of business. You have to look for ways to accelerate these processes to gain a better understanding and advantages in the competitive world of business today.

Different Types of Employees and there Wants.

A new study by Maritz, Inc. separate employees into six groups based upon the type of rewards that each would find most motivating. As listed,

• Freedom Yearners: 17% of the workforce; this group is less materially motivated and is best rewarded with flexibility in their hours and projects.
• Nesters (20%): find work/life balance the most important, so flexible schedules and dinners out are great rewards for them.
• Award Seekers (22%): want rewards with both a monetary and trophy value. They are younger and like to travel.
• Bottom Liners (19%): are interested in the monetary value of the reward. They want cash bonuses or award points that they can use to obtain other rewards.
• Praise Cravers (16%): seek recognition from managers and peers above all other rewards.
• Upward Movers (8%): are the least interested in cash rewards or job flexibility. They are best motivated by status rewards like the opportunity to dine with company executives or to mentor other employees.

I completely agree with the analysis and division of employees into these different groups. And the figures that they have come up with clealy align with my managerial experience. I believe that most of my employees belong to award seeking and bottom line category. But I disagree with there conclusion that award seekers are young, majority of my employees who look to seek awards are in there late thirties. But I do agree that they look opportunities where they can find rewards. I think they are not greedy for these rewards because they look taking, but because of there needs for money. Many of the people I know are family leaders and are always grabbing single bits of money so they can feed and raise there families well. Finally, you would find upward movers, but I think those are the most successful ones of all other categories because of their will, motivations, and upward moving desires.

What do you think about the above analysis?

Who am I??

My name is Irfan Mazhar. I live in Brooklyn with my family that includes my mom, dad, two brothers and a sister. Originally, I'm a native of Pakistan and it's been four years since I moved to United States. United States have been a wonderful experience for me as of yet and hope to make it better. About school, I completed my high school education at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn, and have attend Kingsboro community college as a student of continuing education program while I was in High School. That makes Baruch college to be my second college experience. It is my second year at Baruch and I'm making my best possible effort to make it a memorable experience. My intended major is management and may consider Real Estate as my option for double major.
That was school, the very first element of my life outside of school is work. Work is mandatory for anyone staying in New York. I donot know many living in New York without any place to work. I have held a post of manager at an auto repair shop in Brooklyn. I have been at this job for last 31/2years. And I feel really connected to things related to this field now. I consider my job as a way to time pass, because without work life seems empty and senseless now. It keeps me busy and generate a sort of fulfillment in my heart. I tried doing it without any work, but it didnot work out for me. I really enjoy what I do.
Aside from work, I love playing cricket. I donot remember a day without cricket throughout the last summer vacation. Now, it has come to the point that I 'm looking to join one of the teams in Brooklyn Cricket League. And hope to impress them all with my skills in the game. Basketball and football are two other favorite sports of mine. I love watching Basketball especially at the National level. My favorite team is Detroit Pistons, because I love the way they do it. And my favorite player is Lebron James. With football, I can't help supporting New York Giants for some unknown reason. I did try to play for High School Baseball team but it started to bore me.
In my personal life, I feel some uncontrollable rush in my life. I'm always rushing things out of my way. I just want to get things done and still find things incomplete. This really pisses me off, I sometime try forgeting about this world and relax but that relaxation last only for a while and my thoughts take over again. I hope to not let my thoughts ruin my future life.This was me, looking to see what you have to say about yourself.

Some Quotes That Will Change Your Life.

My definition of management..

I define management as my ability to exercise some sort of control over any group of people and influence that group with my individual thinking and planning. I also look at management as my ability to make decision in any circumstances that impact the upcoming events. In a business sense, I define it as one's ability to utilize and stimulate control over a group of people, and uses available resources efficiently. What defines a good manager? It is the understanding and one's ability to understand a certain situatin and act accordingly to it. Simply, he is the one who can control not the one who has control??? Think about it!!