Home Office – Emerging Possibilities

Advances in technology and the downsizing of organizations offer opportunities for micro enterprises particularly for extending professional services, apparel design, crafts manufacturing and sales, catering, computer programming, copy editing, financial planning, graphic art & design, insurance agency, interior decoration, interior design, event management, realting, research, tailoring, travel agency, tutoring, and data entry/typing. You can also offer home/office cleaning services, or an errand service. The more you know about the business that you may undertake, the better.

 Subcontracting is another option. Procure orders and sublet to experts.

 My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Elaborative Creativity

Elaborative creativity is the innovative amplification of a core idea or principle. The difference is between say, staff empowerment as a core belief and its amplification into personnel policies, participative management structures, training programs, and so forth. Elaboration can become innovative when it is creatively contextualized, that is, creatively fitted to the organization’s situation rather than simply borrowed from elsewhere. It can become innovative when it is done participatively, involving various viewpoints and much brainstorming, and the ideas are creatively synthesized. It can become innovative when not just one but several powerful, possibly partially conflicting ideas are fused together to form its basis, such as the ideas of centralization and decentralization, control and authority, or internal entrepreneurship and efficiency. Elaboration can also become innovative when it is periodically reviewed and creatively modified to suit changing circumstances. And it can become innovative when it is benchmarked, not with practices of the leading competitor, but the world’s best practitioners. And not necessarily in the organization’s industry, but in any sector of activity, for then it may reveal gaps that can be bridged only innovatively. When elaboration is made innovative in these ways, it is difficult for others to copy it, and therefore such elaboration confers a competitive advantage on the organization.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Preparing a Resume

All job applicants need to have information circulating that reflects positively on their strengths. That information needs to be sent to prospective employers in a format that is understandable and consistent with the organization’s hiring practices. In most instances, this is done through the resume.

No matter who you are or where you are in your career, you need a current resume. Your resume is typically the only information source that a recruiter will use in determining whether to grant you an interview. Therefore, your resume must be a sales tool; it must give key information that supports your candidacy, highlights your strengths, and differentiates you from other job applicants.

It is important to pinpoint a few key themes regarding resumes that may seem like common sense but are frequently ignored. If you are making a paper copy of your resume, it must be printed on a quality printer. The style of font should be easy to read—Courier or Times New Roman. Avoid any style that may be hard on the eyes, such as a script or italic font. A recruiter who must review 100 or more resumes a day is not going to look favorably at difficult to read resumes. Use an easy to read font and make the recruiter’s job easier.

It is also important to note that many companies today are using computer scanners to make the first pass through resumes. They scan each resume for specific information like key job elements, experience, work history, education, or technical expertise.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Taking the Office Charge

Once your office is settled, you should make an inventory so you will have proof of what you own. To make a simple office inventory:

1. List each item, the year it was purchased, its original cost, and its present value.
2. Also list the model number, brand name, dealer’s name, and a description of the item. Save and attach receipts.
3. Keep a copy of this inventory in a safe place other than your office (a safe deposit box, for example).
4. Update the inventory regularly, possibly as often as every three or six months while you are still buying major items for your office. At minimum, update it once a year.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Take Risks

• Think excellence. Great satisfaction comes from doing your best in every activity. Average performance is never good enough.
• You are being copied by others in everything you do. So, set the kind of examples you want followed.
• Speaking up is essential to leadership. Express yourself at every opportunity. Conquer fear by speaking up. You need other people to help you achieve your goals. So, win their cooperation.
• Invest all the praise you receive.
• Take 100 percent responsibility when things go wrong.
• Coordinate the knowledge of other people.
• Have the courage to take risks. Taking risks is as essential to success as breathing is to life.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Availability of Warranties

In countries where consumer rights are protected, the seller makes the written warranty terms available to the prospective buyer before the sale. The text of the warranty is often displayed next to the product, or on the package in which the product is enclosed. Warranty terms can also be collected in notebooks in the department that sells the goods and may even be microfilmed, so long as the prospective buyer can readily use the microfilm reader. The maker of the warranty is required to make the text of the warranty available to sellers in forms that sellers can readily use, such as providing copies of the written warranty with each product, or on a tag, sticker, label, or other attachment to the product, or on a sign or poster. These warranty requirements also cover catalog and door-to-door sales.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Direct-mail Marketing: Checklist

• Is there a perceived need for the product or service?
• Is it practical?
• Is it unique?
• Is the price right for your customers or prospects?
• Is it a good value?
• Is the markup sufficient to assure a profit?
• Is the market large enough? Does the product or service have broad appeal?
• Are there specific smaller segments of your list that have a strong desire for your product or service?
• Is it new? Will your customers perceive it as being new?
• Can it be photographed or illustrated interestingly?
• Are there sufficient unusual selling features to make your copy sizzle?
• Is it economical to ship? Is it fragile? Old shaped? Heavy? Bulky?
• Can it be personalized?
• Are there any legal problems to overcome?
• Is it safe to use?
• Is the supplier reputable?
• Will backup merchandise be available for fast shipment on reorders?
• Might returns be too huge?
• Will refurbishing of returned merchandise be practical?
• Is it, or can it be, packaged attractively?
• Are usage instructions clear?
• How does it compare to competitive products or services?
• Will it have exclusivity?
• Will it lend itself to repeat business?
• Is it consumable, so that there will be repeat orders?
• Is it faddish? Too short-lived?
• Is it too seasonal for direct mail selling?
• Can an add-on to the product make it more distinctive and salable?
• Will the number of stock keeping units – various sizes and colors – create problems?
• Does it lend itself to multiple pricing?
• Is it too readily available in stores?
• Is it like an old, hot item, so that its success is guaranteed?
• Is it doomed because similar items have failed?
• Does your mother, wife, brother, husband, sister, or kid like it?
• Is direct mail the way to go with it?
• Does it fill an unfilled niche in the marketplace?

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Communicating Responsibilities

How do we communicate responsibilities to a person so that he has a clear understanding of what is expected of him? And how do we keep those responsibilities in the forefront of his mind so that he is always on track, working on the correct activities?

Before a person is hired he should be shown a written description of the job. At the time he is hired, he should be given a copy of the description to keep. When you review the responsibilities section with the person ask him for feedback. You want to make sure that his understanding of the responsibilities matches your own understanding.

The responsibilities section of the job description should be the basis upon which the employee’s performance is evaluated. Therefore, it makes sense to review the responsibilities with the person at the beginning of each review period and at the time of the annual written review.

Whenever, you verbally review the person’s performance, which should be on a fairly frequent basis, the responsibilities should be reviewed at that time as well.

If you have difficulty with a person, if the person consistently works on activities that do not lead to the fulfillment of his or her responsibilities, you may have to review the responsibilities more frequently.

The objective is to make sure the person clearly understands what he is to do at all times. Understanding, of course, cannot take place without communication.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

 

Choosing the Network Partners

Although many business schools and consultancies have a public commitment to learning from, and sharing, best practice, this has not stopped some of them, and those who use their services, from jumping of  techniques such as reengineering as if they represent a revelation.

Mindless copying can result in the spread of panaceas, hype and misunderstanding, and gives added momentum to the latest craze. While it may be good news, for those who ride bandwagon, it is not so hot for those whose toes get in the way.

When external suppliers, such as consultants, do get hold of a best practice ‘gem,’ their motivation is often to spread it around their client base as soon as possible. Thus the corporation’s competitive edge can quickly become industry commonplace.

Some consultants receive as good as they give. Companies invite various experts to pitch for business and then ‘do it themselves’ using ther best of the various ideas they have picked up. The learning organization is a voracious and insatiable plunderer and consumer of intellectual capital. The wary choose their network partners with care.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight

Benchmarking

We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are. Shift from the original status is the key for success.

If a company is loosing the market (or) customers, the company has to realize that somebody is doing well ahead. So it is necessary to find out the ways to get their competitor’s level and have to beat them to retain the market and customers. An ideal tool to meet this level is benchmarking.

Benchmarking is a way to go backstage and watch another company’s performance from the wings where all the stage tricks and hurried re-alignments are visible. It is the practice of being humble enough to admit that someone else is better at something, and wise enough to learn to how to match and even surpass, them at it.

It is the process of identification, understanding and practicing the outstanding practices and processes from organizations anywhere in the world to help the organizations to improve its perfomance.

While benchmarking, it is not ethical to benchmark a product with another. This will give only the numerical values of weight, width, height, number of defects and number of rejections. But the objective is to benchmark a process with the best processes anywhere in the world having that best product as a target.

Benchmarking is not copying or imitating. This involves observing and learning from others. it is not a time-bound event. It is a continuous journey and an ongoing process without end, till the company is existing. The more we split the process into small segments the more will be the value added to each individual process. This is the key feature of benchmarking.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, Lectures, Line of Sight