Kay factor

Organizational Demand Planning preparedness: Future Planning

2008-10-18T17:56:00.006+05:30

a) Get the process right. The most important thing we need understand is that, Demand planning is a process within sales and operations planning or integrated business planning, not a stand-alone activity. Create an integrated business plan that is a cross-company activity and drives the rest of the business forward for profitably meeting customer demand.

b) What levels you need to plan demand at that make sense for your business. This is an important decision to make i.e. some companies analyze and plan demand at the product family level, customer level or geographic level. The way you forecast and plan demand is unique to your business. Don't be dictated by limitations of your IT technologies -- and be prepared to change how you plan demand according to changes in your business.

c) Demand planning is a collaborative process, not a test of statistical algorithms. The statistics provide a solid foundation to work with, but the real value comes from over-laying knowledge that systems cannot possibly know. Deploy internal collaboration before external collaboration, recognizing that the closer you get to the true demand signal, the better the forecast will be.

d) Demand planning is not just forecasting. Forecasting is a component of demand planning and relates to your best estimate of future demand. Companies that excel in this area will challenge the forecast (and the integrated business plan) and seek opportunities to influence demand through marketing events and promotions to bring the forecast more in line with the company plan.

e) You can't control what you can't measure. Put the right set of linked key performance indicators in place and measure regularly against these.

f) Educate before training. Because the demand planning process is cross-functional, many people input to the forecast without realizing the importance of their contributions. As a result, the quality of their contributions may suffer. A good educational program will help everyone understand their contribution and impact on the performance of the demand plan.

g) Cleanse the data. Don't spend all your time questioning it and losing confidence in the process, which can create a breeding ground for others to second-guess the demand plan and produce their own version. Demand planning deals with huge quantities of data and robust processes are required to keep the data cleansed.

h) Trust the numbers and manage by exception. 80% of your return can be achieved by reviewing 20% of the items.

I) Use the error in your forecast to positive effect. A good statistical forecast will have an appropriate error which drives an appropriate safety stock target. This leads to good inventory management and delivers higher service with lower total inventory.

J) Deploy a proven best-in-class solution. A recent Aberdeen study shows that companies that excel in demand management -- reporting higher forecast accuracies and lower inventories -- are two-and-a-half times as likely to have implemented a best-in-class demand planning system.

Supply Chain Management – Today’s Mantra

2008-09-18T17:33:00.002+05:30

The principle of ‘Survival of the fittest’ remains valid in the present global economy characterized by the presence of ever changing business environment. Every modern company needs to struggle for the existence & growth under such a competitive environment. One surest way to achieve this is to offer best quality of product at reasonable rate, which suits well to the requirements of target customer. To impart a feeling of delight in the minds of consumers and provide quality product at reasonable price manufacturer has to bring shift in his emphasis from mere cost ascertainment to cost reduction to reduce cost of production. Thus, cost reduction is the main managerial mantra as once quoted by all well-known strategists. There are number of strategic cost management techniques available like Supply Chain Management (SCM) , Business Process Re-engineering (Value Re-engineering), Total Productive Maintenance to reduce cost. Of these Supply Chain Management is prominent tool to reduce cost.

Supply Chain Management has become a very powerful technique as it increases the responsiveness to the changing business conditions and enhances the competitiveness of the organization. In today’s intense competition, and increasingly global economy, to survive and grow, organization must enhance their market responsiveness and become cost competitive. The supply Chain framework is a method of breaking down the linked set of value creating activities from basic raw material/component supplier to the supply of the end product to customer/consumer.

A supply chain is a business process that links manufacturers, retailers, customers and suppliers in the form of a chain to, develop and deliver products as a single virtual organization of pooled skills and resources. Supply chain management is process of synchronizing the flow of physical goods and associated information from the production line of low level component suppliers to the end consumer, resulting in the provision of early notice of demand fluctuations and synchronization of business processes among all the co-operating organizations in this supply chain.

Supply Chain & Cost Reduction Solutions:
SCM aims at cost reduction without affecting quality. SCM strategy is to reduce cost by eliminating all non value added activities in the flow of goods from Raw material supplier to End consumer. The Objective of SCM is to increase the competitive advantage of the channel as a whole. The means to accomplish this objective is through creating customer value superior to the competitor’s value offering and, thus, to enhance customer satisfaction, either through improving efficiency (lower cost) or effectiveness (added values at the same cost).

Decisions in supply chain management:
Decisions for supply chain management can be classified into two broad categories - strategic and operational. As the term implies, strategic decisions are made typically over a longer time horizon. These are closely linked to the corporate strategy and guide supply chain policies from a design perspective. On the other hand, operational decisions are short term, and focus on activities over a day-today basis. The effort in these types of decisions is to effectively and efficiently manage the product flow in the ” strategically” planned supply chain.

Four major decision areas on supply chain management are:
(1) Location
(2) Production
(3) Inventory
(4) Distribution

Location decisions: The geographic placement of production facilities, stocking points, and sourcing points is the natural first step in creating a supply chain. The location of facilities involves a commitment of resources to a long-term plan. Once the size, number, and location of these are determined, so are the possible paths by which the product flows through to the final customer. Although location decisions are primarily strategic, they also have implications on an operational level.

Production decisions: The strategic decisions include what product to produce, and which plant to produce them in, allocation of suppliers to plants, plants to Distribution Channel’s(DC), and DC’s to customers markets. These decisions have a big impact on the revenues, costs and customers service level of the firm. These decisions include the construction of the master production schedules, scheduling production on machines, and equipment maintenance. Other considerations include workload balancing, and quality control measures at a production facility

Inventory decisions: These refer to means by which inventories are managed. Inventories exist at every stage of the supply chain as either raw material, semi-finished or finished goods. They can also be in process between Locations. Their primary purpose to buffer against any uncertainty that might exist in the supply chain. Since holding of inventories can cost anywhere between 20 to 40 percent of their value, their efficient management is critical in supply chain operations. It is strategic in the sense that top management sets goals.

Transport decisions: The mode choice aspect of these decisions are the more strategic ones. These are closely linked to the inventory decisions, since the best choice of mode is often found by trading-off the cost of using the particular mode of transport with the indirect cost of inventory associated with that mode. Customer service levels, and geographic location play vital roles in such decisions. Since transportation is more than 30 percent of the logistics costs, operating efficiently makes good economic sense. Shipment sizes (consolidated bulk shipments versus Lot-for-Lot), routing and scheduling of equipment are key in effective management of the firm’s transport strategy

Why Supply Chain.
The importance and need of SCM will increase in the future. Customers will demand faster, timelier delivery of orders. Manufacturing will expect greater knowledge of order requirements to better plan its operations and procurement processes. Similar expectations apply to external entities. This need for increased coordination among customers, suppliers and service providers dictates greater visibility and collaboration throughout the supply chain.
Dynamic business environment characterized with Time-based competition, Synchronization with other corporate functions, Service customized to specific markets and customers, Increased consolidation of suppliers and service providers, Further privatization and deregulation, Continued emphasis on outsourcing, Development of performance measures encompassing supply chain partners, Increased collaboration between supply chain partners, and Electronic commerce to enable communications throughout the supply chain will increase the need of of supply chain.

Evolution of Supply Chain Management:

1. Span of Responsibility
Earlier: The components of SCM traditionally were viewed as “functional silos” and typically included outbound transportation (i.e., customer delivery); field warehousing and finished goods inventory management.

Present: Today’s SCM executive generally has a much broader range of responsibilities. that the majority of these executives have responsibility for transportation, ware-housing, inventory management , customer service , purchasing / sourcing, demand planning, production planning/scheduling and international logistics.

2. Organizational Position:
Earlier: SCM traditionally was viewed as a cost center, adding little or no tangible value to bottom line results. Individuals responsible for SCM were typically at the manager level, reporting to directors or vice presidents responsible for operations, marketing or other functional areas.

Present: SCM executives are now well positioned. Executives in charge of marketing / sales, manufacturing and other departments are now generally peers rather than reporting officials. In recent survey it is observed that In U.S. companies, 52 percent of SCM executives report to an Executive Vice President or COO/CEO. In Asia, this percentage was slightly lower (48 percent); in Europe this percentage was only 31 percent.

3. Education and Training
Earlier: Historically, relatively few universities offered SCM education. In these institutions, the academicians who taught SCM coursework were usually housed within a larger department, e.g., Operations or Marketing. Some schools offered continuing education and seminars in SCM, but these forums generally focused on a specific aspect of SCM, such as carrier negotiations, inventory management techniques, warehousing and material handling systems and international trade

Present: Today, there are numerous, well-recognized universities–in the U.S. and abroad–offering degrees at all levels in the field of SCM. A recent CLM listing identified nearly 50 institutions with SCM-related curricula. Continuing education seminars and workshops with SCM themes abound.

4. Contributions to Corporate Performance
Earlier: Historically viewed as a cost center, SCM contributions at the corporate level were judged to be minimal. Since reporting systems focused on managing operational-level activities, any strategic value associated with SCM was difficult to quantify.
Present: Leading-edge manufacturers report SCM costs between 4 percent and 5 percent of sales, compared to the industry average of 7 percent to 10 percent Successful SCM can improve delivery performance by 25%, reduce inventory levels by as much as one-half and enhance overall productivity by at least 15 percent.
To conclude, In this dynamic market place, the equations are kept changing very fast with the leaders of yesterday being displaced by the fast-paced and agile new entrants. Intense competition, demanding customers, shrinking product life cycles, rapid advances in technology- all these factors are fast changing the competitive dynamics in global environment. This volatile business environment is making it harder than ever for marketers compete effectively. The traditional approaches are too slow to keep pace with the evolving global complexity. These developments are putting pressure on business community to look at the each and every components of business like procurement, logistics, marketing etc. Effective linking of functions of these processes puts companies in strategic position. Every link in SCM can add up to a competitive advantage. Time was when companies looked at their supply chains as a means of focusing on their own core competencies, of leveraging those of vendors, of lowering their costs, and of becoming more responsive to customers. Those goals won’t be swept away by the supply chain in the new millennium. But they will be superseded by a singly super-objective: competing on the basis of how well companies’ manage their supply-chain.

Practical Behavior Improvements

2008-07-05T17:45:00.004+05:30

A) OBSERVE HOW THINGS GET DONE:
Knowing the game inside out is the key to winning it. Don’t be afraid to ask some key questions to your bosses, like for example, about values and vision.

Are short or long-term results most valued? How are decisions made? How much risk is tolerated?

The answers to these questions should give you a good sense of the CULTURE of the Organization.

B) PROFILE POWERFUL INDIVIDUALS:
Okay, this is important, if you dream to be an achiever then pay attention to your boss’s communication style, network of relationships and what type of proposals they say. Emulate those traits in your strengths.

C) DEVELOP A POSITIVE TRACK RECORD:
PLANNING is crucial as soon as you join the company.
If you have a rough idea on how long you want to do the job, work on developing your image as someone who gets results. This will give you an edge in all Political corners. On the other hand, style without substance will not gain you respect, especially in organizations that focus on outcome.

D) BLOW YOUR HORN, OCCASIONALLY:
We’re not saying you start an outright show-off, but if no one knows of your good work, you may lose at the game of office politics – when you really DESERVE to win.

Let others know what you’ve accomplished whenever you get the opportunity.

If you don’t know the fine art of diplomatic bragging, you might get lost in the shuffle of your co-workers.

E) RESPECT COUNTS, ESPECIALLY DOWNWARDS:
It is no new rule to treat your superiors with adequate greetings, but few executives make the folly of behaving with their co-workers and subordinates in a manner a king rules over his “jagir”.

Don’t show preferential treatment or give the heat to co-workers you think won’t be of use to you.

You never know to whom someone might be connected, and rude behavior may come back to bite you.

F) DON’T ALIGN TOO MUCH WITH A GROUP:
While an alliance where that smart CEO is calling the shots may be powerful for the moment, new leaders will often oust existing coalition and surround themselves with a new team.

Bridging across factions may be a more effective strategy for long-term success if you intend to stay in your current organization for some time.

G) COMMUNICATE PERSUASIVELY:
No matter how intense the politics is at your office, developing an assertive style backed with solid research will always give your colleagues and superiors a positive feeling, even if they’re after you.

Remember, Good leaders always adjust their message for their audience and are well – prepared.

MANAGERIAL & LEADERSHIP SKILLS - 2

2008-05-08T13:09:00.007+05:30

Management and leadership are both important, as leadership complements management, it doesn’t replace it.

“Throughout life, we will be called to play many roles. Two of the most important work roles relate to that of leader and manager.”

“Some leaders cannot manage - some managers cannot lead” You need a solid balance of both management and leadership skills to reach your greatest potential.”

Common Activities of Managers focuses more on:
Planning
Organizing,
Controlling
Coordinating
Directing
Resource use
Time management
Logistics and the supply chain
Finance and money management
Budgeting
Strategy
Decision Making
Problem Solving

Leader’s focus more on:

Vision
Inspiration
Persuasion
Motivation
Relationships
Counseling
Coaching
Teaching
Team work
Listening

Here are some key points The Manager maintain the status quo, the Leader promotes change:-

The Manager accepts the status quo, the Leader challenges it

The Manager administers, the Leaders innovates

The Manager is a copy, the Leader is an original

The Manager focuses on systems and structure, the Leader focuses on people

The Manager relies on control, the Leader inspires trust

The Manager has a short-range view, the Leader has a long-range perspective

The Manager ask how and when, the Leader asks what and why

The Manager has their eyes on the bottom line, the Leader has theirs on the horizon

The Manager imitates, the Leader originates

The Manager is the classis good soldier, the Leader is his own person

The Manager does things right, the Leader does the right things

I’ve learned as a manager, as well as an employee having a manager, that most people do not want to be managed, they want to be led! If you want to manage someone, you have to be able to manage yourself. You can’t lead someone if you cannot manage yourself.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The Boss & You”

2008-04-07T16:10:00.001+05:30

i There is no magic stick available, nor written in any book so as to how best you can manage your bosses.

Approach to the boss is important, they are people and had a lot of experience of past, follows the rules of engagement they have been taught, considering the facts it’s becomes all the more important to know about there past experiences and take things accordingly.

One of the possibility which researchers talk about is that sometime Big bosses are mystified by layers of misinformation, gossip and fantasy about who and what they are. In this case the essential point is that sub-ordinate should filter out the noise and make its own independent analysis and keep it till yourself and align its own strengths and weaknesses with his real needs. You may later adjust it according to the pretty sounding objectives outlined in corporate brochures.

For example – You may be good at working under pressure, but hate detail planning. While it may seem necessary to appear structured and systematic if your boss likes order, always look for opportunities to shine, and emerge as a crisis management hero.

Here by mentioned are certain TIPS which might be helpful in coming days.

1) SOCIAL DIRECTOR - He has strong views on everything your hairstyle, your dress, your food habits, your friends etc.
TIP – Don’t react. Be calm; avoid doing stuff that he strongly dislikes. Know that he is a boss who still believes in hierarchies.

2)I THE GREAT – They think they are god gift’s to mankind so praise him, gush over his new presentation and keep a daily dose of compliments ready. Find out about his passion and weaknesses, eulogize him depending upon his mood on his new projects, his mobile, and other stuff he has.
TIP - Be generous and innovative about your compliments. Such bosses like small talks and indulge in them, no matter how frivolous.

3) MR. RIGHT – He is the boss and you are the sub-ordinate relationship is very clear. He will take all the decisions good/bad, successful/failure are presumed good for the company and you.
TIP – He hates taking no for a answer so master the art of saying “no” without uttering it. You will do well as long as you are willing to be a good listener and an executioner.

4) FOG MAKER – Will keep things hazy, unclear, and tentative, will keep you guessing, so when a move backfires, he might be the first to tell you “I didn’t mean that”.
TIP – Learn the art of cc-ing on email. Spell out points of discussions and actions weighted explicitly on email.

5) DREAM BOSS – Rare but real. He is a professional, a good human being, a great mentor. He will value your time and give you space. He knows how to handle the super boss. He will give you credit where you deserve and take the flak when things are difficult. He may be your boss but his leadership qualities attract others to seek his advice.
TIP - Just be yourself and njoy till it lasts. Being honest and transparent will be critical. Try and cultivate a mentor – ideally boss pear or a super boss to manage. Quitting as the last option always exist
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

UNDERSTANDING SUPPLY CHAIN RETAIL & MANUFACTURING

2008-03-03T19:58:00.000+05:30

In Retail industry the primary investment is in the merchandise flowing through its network, at rest or in motion. Exclude any real estate assets from this discussion as these are not core to supply chain operations. Whether a retail company owns the stores, or leases them, does not impact its operations substantially. Therefore managing this asset (inventory in the network) becomes core to a Retailer’s success. That is why the Retail supply chains are distribution focused. After the cost of merchandise, the largest overheads in retail are related to their stocking and distribution of goods. So much so that GMROI for Retailers is quite commonly interpreted and computed as Gross Margin Return on Inventory (as against Gross Margin Return on Investment).
A lean distribution chain means optimal services levels between the supplying and consuming network nodes and a higher inventory turns. The level of inventory directly affects the operational cash-flow and ability to service customers – and both these competing needs must be managed effectively.

In a Manufacturing industry /environment the goods (raw materials as well as finished goods) within the network are a large investment, but another substantial investment is in manufacturing/process equipment, and resources. All equipment gets depreciated over time irrespective of the percentage utilization. However such equipment adds value to a manufacturer’s operations only when it is being utilized. Therefore manufacturers must worry about maintaining optimal levels of inventory to maintain the services levels among the supplying and consuming network nodes but also about keeping the equipment and resources effectively utilized. In doing so the focus of the supply chain changes considerably from being distribution focused to being asset focused. This introduces the need for manufacturing planning, scheduling and sequencing so that all manufacturing operations as well as transportation operations are optimally planned for best use of resources.

Network:
Another difference that accentuates the different core requirements for the Retail and Manufacturing supply chains is simply the size of the network. A retailer’s network typically consists of multiple warehouses, and a large number of retail locations that may run into thousands. A manufacturer on the other hand will normally have only a handful of manufacturing locations and warehouses. Therefore managing the flow of material (merchandise, raw materials, or finished goods) through this network through optimal transportation, and warehouse planning becomes much more important in a retail environment.
Also the sheer number of items dealt within the Retail environments is huge compared to most Manufacturing environments (exceptions exist). This adds a large number of vendor shipping locations to the network making it unwieldy and complex for retailers.
As above, Retailer’s network primarily consists of storage locations (such as warehouses) and selling locations (such as stores). A Manufacturer’s supply chain network primarily consists of storage locations (warehouses for raw materials, or finished goods), and manufacturing locations (factories). An extended network for both the environments can model the vendor’s shipping points as well.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KUNAL BHASIN

INDEX FACTOR

2008-03-01T16:15:00.000+05:30

Many people see the sensex levels and make there investments, but we need to be aware of the fact that how the sensex level is calculated.

I am here by sharing my findings on the small topic; hope this information will be beneficial for the readers and investors.

Sensex is basically calculated on the Free-Float Market Capitalization methodology
As per this the level of index at any point of time reflects the Free-Float market value of
Selected front line stocks, the market capitalization of a company are determined by multiplying the price of its stock by the number of shares issued by the company. This
Market capitalization if further multiplied by the free-float factor to determine the free
Float market capitalization.

Example: - A&B is two different stocks.

Suppose Company A has 1000 shares in total, of which 200 are held by the promoters, so that only 800 shares are available for trading to the general public. These 800 shares are the so – called “free-floating” shares.

Similarly, Company B has 2000 shares in total, of which 1000 are held by the promoters and the rest 1000 are free-floating.

Suppose the current market price of stock A is Rs 120. Thus, the total market capitalization of company A is Rs 120,000(1000 x 120) but its free-float market capitalization is Rs 96000(800x120).

Similarly, suppose the current market price of stocks B is Rs200. The total market capitalization of company B will thus be Rs 400000 (2000x200), but its free-float market cap is only Rs200000 (1000x200).

So as of today the market capitalization of the index (i.e. stocks A & B) is Rs 520000 (120000 + 400000), while the free-float market capitalization of the index is Rs 296000 (Rs96000 + Rs200000).

The Year 1979 is considered the base year of the index with a value set to 100. What this means is that suppose at that time the market capitalization of the stocks that comprised the index then was, say 60000( with some +/- of old new stocks, does not matter much) then we assume that an index market cap of 60000 is equal to an index-value of100.
Thus the value of the index today is = 296000 x 100/60000 = 493.33

Thus the value of sensex is calculated

The factor 100/60000 or 0.001667 is called the index divisor or factor.

BEGINNERS IN THE STOCK MARKETS

2008-02-20T13:57:00.000+05:30

· Be Paranoid of success – never take it for granted.

· Realise success can be temporary and transient.

· Build a fighting spirit – take the bad with the good.

· Do whatever you love to do.

· Be realistic in the expectations.

· Should have immense patience.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KUNAL BHASIN

“Planning & Analysis is Important in Equities Investment”

2008-01-03T16:11:00.001+05:30

1. PLANNING – Have a trading plan and does the homework diligently

2. Avoid Overtrading

3. Does not get unnerved by losses

4. Try to capture the large market moves

5. Always Keep learning

6. Always look to make some money with less risky strategies as well

7. Treats trading as a business and keeps a positive attitude

8. Never blame the market

9. Keep a cushion

10. There is no holy grail in the market

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KUNAL BHASIN

“Tips – Saving yourself from not loosing money in Stock Markets”

2007-12-15T15:54:00.000+05:30

1. Trading during the first half-hour of the session: The first half – hour of trading is mostly driven by yesterday’s trends and mostly driven by emotions. Most of the traders look out for the initial half hour before taking any positions.

2. Failing to hear the market’s message: One should try to hear the message of the markets and then confirm it with charts. Watch if the markets are able to hold on to a certain level or not. This technique is Tape watching, if the markets are choppy and oscillate in a small range then, market’s message is to keep out.

3. Ignoring the phase of the market: It’s important to know the phase of the market i.e. weather it is trending or trading phase. You need to be extremely flexible in changing positions and trying to develop a feel for the market. This feel is then backed by the various technical charts in confirming the phase of the market. Undisciplined marketers driven by ego, often ignore the phase the market is in.

4. Failing to reduce the position size when warranted: Marketer should be flexible in reducing their position size whenever the market is not giving the clear signals. Book your profits from time to time.

5. Failing to treat every trade as just another trade: The risk should not be increased unless your account equity grows enough to service that risk. Undisciplined marketers often think that a particular situation is sure to give profits and sometimes take risk several times their normal levels. This can some day lead to a heavy crisis in things does not go your way. Every trade should be done for normal profits and not supernormal earnings should be expected.

6. Over eagerness in booking profits: If at all profit booking is to be done then, and then it should be done in stages, always keeping some position open to take advantage of the rest of the move. Remember trading should be done for small profits and losses.

Its boring to do nothing once a position is taken but the maturity of the trade is known not by the number of trade he make but the amount of time he sits on the profitable trades and hence the quantum of profits he generates.

7. Trading for emotional highs: Market trading is an expensive place to get emotional excitement or to be treated as an adventure sports.

8. Failing to realize that trading decisions are not about consensus building: Since childhood we have been taught to take decisions with consensus or consult people whenever take a decision and do what the majority thinks its right. The truth is that the market will not do what the majority will think is right.

One should definitely talk about the methodology then what the other trader thinks about the market. Traders should constantly try to improve their trading skills and but trading skills it means not only charting skills but also position, size, and money management. Successful traders recognize that money cannot be made equally easily all the time in the market. They back off for a while if the market is too volatile or choppy.

KUNAL BHASIN

“Work Experience & Knowledge – Deadly combination”

2007-11-14T16:18:00.000+05:30

Business knowledge, Management tools, & exposure to techniques – concepts, are always proved to be useful in running any Business. But there are certain things that you have to learn on your own i.e.

People related matters: Anywhere you go, people matters the most, hence one need to handle the situations tactfully so as to keep moving.

Life is non-linear: We think life is linear while using excels sheets; however it is the other way round.
Most projections underperform in the short term, but massively outperform the expectations in the long term.

Having vague aspirations: Managers has to be precise and quantitative. Hence the plans they make are definitive rather than aspirational. Also Mangers should be realistic. What can we solve today, as opposed to what can I create tomorrow.

Outcomes are more stochastic or non determinable than we assume : For example some of the Mangers believe work on the principle that X input will generate a Y output or that X stimulus will have a Y response However, in the real world, life leans towards randomness.

People are not always rational: People has emotions, ups and downs, likes and dislikes. As a manager one has to take into account all these factors, including our own emotional being. Most of these traits cannot be taught, only acquired by experience. Hence it is important to have a combination of experience and Management techniques to be successful in the career.

KUNAL BHASIN

“Contrarian Strategy - How to be an Intelligent Investor”

2007-11-01T14:28:00.000+05:30

Legendary Investors has talked about this on many occasions, That the stocks become more risky when prices are high and less risky when prices are low. This we know is also true for all our purchases. Goods and services are less attractive when prices are high and more attractive when prices are low. However while investing in equity markets we sell our stocks when prices are falling (Low) and when they are rising we feel safe to invest.

Investing is a strange business. It’s the only one we know of where the more expensive the product gets, the more customers want to buy them.

Another thing is that and individual considers someone a speculator if that person was to invest in the equity markets after they have fallen massively. Same individual will treat someone as an investor when that person invests into equity markets after they have risen sharply. What is more speculative in nature – to invest at low levels or high levels?

Since it is difficult to see future, we take shelter in past to predict future. It is like driving a car by seeing only rear mirror, which shows the road we have already traveled. The reason we consider an investor speculator when he invests after market have fallen is because we are referring our judgment on past events. The same is true when we refer to someone as an investor after markets have risen. However we all know that “past performance may or may not be repeated” – To drive ahead we need to look in front and not in rear view mirror. It is common sense that to earn good returns we need to buy low and sell high. This also means sailing against the tide. Buy when everyone is selling and sell when everyone is buying. This strategy is called as CONTRARIAN STRATERGY.

It takes patience, discipline and courage to follow the contrarian route to investment success because as human beings we prefer being with the crowds. We are not comfortable being seen opposite the crowd. When we are on the opposite side of the crowd whole world can see us. We feel that if we make a mistake then crowd will laugh at us. On the other hand if we are with the crowd and even if our strategy goes wrong nobody will laugh as everybody would have gone wrong.

At the end Elders has said to us that “Individuals who cannot master their emotions are ill-suited to profit from the investment process”.

KUNAL BHASIN

“Seduced By Success”

2007-10-01T11:46:00.000+05:30

Success leads to the damaging behaviors like lack of urgency, proud ness, protective attitude, and entitlement thinking. Essentially, you believe that what enabled you to become successful will enable you to be successful forever, nut that is not the case always. After analysis this is been found that there are nine dangerous traps into which successful people & organizations often stumble, so read them and implement wherever necessary.

Factor One: Sticking to old Practices

People should look at all the aspects of there business consistently and review them thoroughly, they should identify the areas which are weak and then plan to overhaul them.

Factor Two: Pride

You may be superior to some one today but soon you are going to become inferior to some one else, you need to plan to beat your competition everyday.

Factor Three: Boredom

One must keep re-inventing new things, people has tendency to become dull and lazy, but this is no excuse, one must keep doing things and hard work is the only key for this.

Factor Four: Complexity

Success usually leads to decrease in the intensity, with which you tackle challenges. Also, success leads to a belief that since we are doing so well, we probably need to reward the people in the organization.

Factor Five: Bloat

Rationalizing your loss of speed and agility

Successful organizations and individuals tend to create agility and complexity.
Look for things like bureaucracy, duplicating capabilities that already exist in an organization, try to focus on this and obtain flexibility.

Factor Six: Mediocrity

Condoning poor performance and letting your star employees languish

When people and organizations are successful, they have a tendency to stop doing hard things, and dealing with poor performance is a really hard thing. Successful organizations are especially vulnerable to this trap, since companies that achieve success often have high morale and pride. And who wants to spoil the fun by dealing with tough personal issues, which is an onerous task for most managers? Any excuses to put it aside will be embraced.

Factor Seven: Lethargy

Getting lulled into a culture of comfort, casualness, confidence

Success and the resulting tendency to become complacent, which often leads organization and individuals to believe that they are very talented, always have figured things it out, have the answers to all questions, and no longer need to get their hands dirty in the trenches. This is why they loose their sense of urgency & the feeling that trouble might be around.

The leader of the group really sets the tone on this cultural complacency issue. The tendency is to become very proud of your success and protective of the approaches that got you there. It is those very tendencies that lead to an insular, confidence culture that makes people believe that they are on the winning team, while in reality; the world is passing them by.

Factor Eight: Timidity

Not confronting turf wars, Infighting, Obstructionists

Success often leads to the hiring of too many people and the fragmentation of the organization. Business units and subsidiaries work hard to be as independent as possible, often creating groups that duplicate central resources.

Another source of turf wars and infighting is lack of a clear direction for the organization and slow decision making on critical issues. When these kinds of management deficiency occurs, people are left to drift and end up pulling in different directions. That often leads to tremendous amounts of wasted time as groups argue to have it their way.

Factor Nine: Confusion

Unwittingly providing Schizophrenic Communications

When an organization is success or stable, its managers often fall into the trap of not making it clear where the organization is going. Sometimes this is because they don’t know, but they don’t try to get the company’s direction resolved. They do everything they can to keep all options open, such behaviors leads to speculation.

Communications from the head of the organization, be it a small or a big group is critical.
People want to know where they are headed and how things are going. When the words and actions don’t match, confusion resigns.

Pls take care of these points whenever you are in a competitive environment.

KUNAL BHASIN

“How to Think, & Dream Creatively”

2007-09-19T18:49:00.000+05:30

Creative thinking is simply finding new improved ways to do anything, for example figuring out ways to simply record – keeping, selling to the “impossible” customers, keeping the children occupied constructively, making employees really like their work, or preventing a certain quarrel” – all of these are examples of practical, everyday creative thinking.

“A low- income family devises a plan to send their son to a leading university, that’s what is known as really thinking creatively.

A)
Step one is to believe it can be done, eliminate the word impossible from your thinking & speaking vocabularies.

B)
Think of something special you’ve been wanting to do but felt you couldn’t. now, make a list of reasons why you can do it. Many of us whip and defeat our desire simply because we concentrate on why we can’t when the only thing worthy of our mental concentration is why not we can.

C)
Be an experimental person. Break up fixed routines, expose yourself to new restaurants, new books, new theaters, friends, take a different route to work some days, take a different vacation this year, do something new and different this weekend. If your work area is distribution, develop an interest in production, accounting, finance and other elements of the business.

Big People monopolize the listing.
Small People monopolize the talking.

In reaching creative decisions the raw materials are the ideas and suggestions of others.

Stretch your mind all the time, get simulated associate with people who can help you to think new ideas, new ways of doing things. Mix with people of different occupational and social interests. All this will surely help you in becoming successful in life.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KUNAL BHASIN

Ways to Develop : Big Thinker Vocabulary

2007-07-28T14:01:00.000+05:30

1. Use big positive, cheerful words and phrases to describe how you feel.Every time someone ask you, “how are you or how r you feeling today” respond with a “just wonderful, thanks, and you” of say “great” or fine.

Become known as people who always feel great. It wins friends.

2. Use bright, cheerful, favorable words, phrases to describe other people. Be extremely careful to avoid the petty cut-him down language.

3. Use positive language to encourage others. Compliment people personally at every opportunity have a special good word for your wife or husband everyday.

4. Use positive words to outline plans to others, when people hear something like this, here is some good news.

KUNAL BHASIN

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Investment Ideas

2007-07-15T17:46:00.000+05:30

1. Buy the Business and not the stock: Is a very interesting idea, an investor needs to look at the discrepancies between the value of the business and the price of small pieces of that business in the market. Every time don’t look at quarterly earnings projections, volumes, momentum or anything …simply look at the how much is the business worth.

2. Buy when the stock prices are low: One of the most common things we all do is that, we buy only when the markets are doing well. This is not always the best time to invest, we must some time wait for the markets to correct and then buy on dips….

3. For investors as a whole, returns decrease as motion increase: Getting into stock because everyone around you is hoping to make money from it is not everyone’s cup of tea.
As more and more investors get into the stock, prices rise and the chance of making money from the stock goes down.

For investor’s as a whole, returns decrease as motion increases.”

4. There is a thin line separating investment and speculation: The line which separates investment and speculation is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs

“Commit Yourself”

2007-05-29T13:37:00.000+05:30

Is there is something you know you need to do, that you don’t want to do? Do you know you need to make more sales calls, or start an exercise program, or learn a difficult new skill, or confront someone, but you just don’t want to do it? It is very difficult to persuade someone to do something that they don’t want to do. And the same holds true when persuading yourself. If you really don’t want to do it, you won’t. Yet there is something in you that knows you must. So, ask yourself why. And as you begin to see what it is you really want, you‘ll find a way to make the commitment.

You don’t want to start an exercise program – its hard work. But you do want to feel better. So, re-define the activity. Instead of trying to persuade yourself to start an excersie program, start a fee better program. Those are things you do want, things you’ll be willing to “sign yourself up” for. It’s more than a matter of semantics. You’ll do whatever you want to do, no matter what it takes. Get clear on what you really want, and nothing, not even your own reluctance, can stand in your way.

Kunal Bhasin

10 Things Authentic Leaders Do ….!

2007-05-25T10:36:00.000+05:30

Authentic leadership is all about being the person you know in your heart you have always been destined to. Authentic leadership does not come from your title or from the size of your paycheck. Instead, the form of leadership comes from your being and the person that you are.

Here are 10 things that authentic leaders do on a regular basis:

1. They speak their truth:
Speaking truth is simply about being clear. Being honest and being authentic.

2. They lead from the heart:
Business is about people…..Leadership is about people, they spend there time in developing people around them. They are like the sun, the sun gives away all it has to the plants and the trees, but in return the plants and the trees always grow towards the sun.

3. They have rich moral fiber:
They walk their talk and are aligned with their core values.

4. They are courageous:
It takes lot of courage to go against the crowd. Authentic leadership is all about taking the road less traveled and doing, not what is easy, but what is right.

5. They build teams and create communities:
In the new age of work, employees seek their sense of community and connection from the workplace. Authentic leaders create workplaces that foster human linkages and lasting friendships.

6. They deepen themselves:
The job of a leader is to go deep. They know there weaknesses and play to there strengths.

7. They are dreamers:
They spend a lot of time with their eyes closed creating blueprints and fantasies that leads to better products, better services, better workplaces and deeper values. How often do you close your eyes and dream?

8. They care for themselves:
You can’t do great things at work if you don’t feel good. Authentic leaders eat well, excersie and care for the templates that are their bodies.

9. They commit to excellence rather than perfection:
No human being is perfect. Every single one of us is a work in progress. Authentic leaders commit themselves to excellence in everything that they do.

10. They leave a legacy:
Authentic leaders are constantly building their legacies by adding deep value to everyone that they deal with and leaving the world a better place in the process.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KUNAL BHASIN

“LEADERSHIP SKILLS : ACTIVE LISTENING “

2007-05-24T12:01:00.000+05:30

In our active world of communication one cannot afford to exclude the art of listening. One needs to actively listen and correctly understand the all messages form all group members.

Active listening is the active pursuit of understanding what the other person is saying and feeling. In active listening the receiver tries to understand what the sender is feeling and what the message means.

Important characteristics of a good listener:

Be There:
Be present in the heart, mind and spirit with the person. You need to hear what he/she has to say. If you don’t have the time, of don’t want to listen, wait until you do.

Accept:
Accept the person as she/he is without judgment or reservation or putting the person in a mental box or category, even though she/he is very different from you.

Trust:
Trust the person’s ability to handle his/her own feelings, work through them, and find solutions to his/her own problems.

Listen:
Don’t plan what you are going to say. Don’t think of how you can interrupt. Don’t think of how to solve the problem, how to console what the person should do . Don’t think to struggle or react …..Only listen !

Keep out of it:
Keep yourself removed. Keep objective. Don’t intrude physically, verbally, and mentally, keep quite.

……………………………………………………..
KUNAL BHASIN

Let's use the formula

2007-05-15T17:13:00.000+05:30

“Let’s use the Formula ”

There comes a time in your life when decision making becomes a bit tricky.

If you need to make money, then you need a clear rationale and a tool by which you can decide if the markets hold long term promise. Imagine if you had a simple formula that gave you an idea about what to do in the stocks market.

This is precisely what Dr. Benjamin Graham has given us.

You might wonder who Benjamin Graham is. He’s the man who taught Warren Buffet.The second richest man in the world (after Microsoft’s bill gates) who earned a lot his wealth from stock markets around the world.

Dr. Graham taught Buffet basic and sound principles of investment. Graham has given a very simple formula that one can use to find out the market’s expectation from a particular stock. Now if I know what type of growth rate markets expects from a particular stock and I have an exactly opposite or similar value, then I can always buy or sell that stock.

The formula is: Value = EPS (8.5 +2G), Where

V = Value of stock in Rupees (if investing in India)
EPS = Earnings per share in Rupees (if investing in India)
G = growth rate in per cent

Let’s use this formula to track the markets and share our experiences.

“Guideposts – Turning defeat into Victory”

2007-04-30T10:37:00.000+05:30

The Difference btw success and failure is found in one’s attitude towards setbacks, handicaps, discouragements and other disappointing situations.

Five Guidelines to help turn defeat into victory are:

I)Study setbacks to pave your way to success. When you loose, and then go on to win next time.

II) Have the courage to be your own constructive critic. Seek out your faults and weaknesses and then go on to correct them. This makes you a professional.

III) Stop blaming luck, research setback find out what went wrong. Remember blaming luck never got anyone where he wanted to go.

IV) Blend persistence with experimentation stay with your goal but don’t beat your head against a stone wall. Try new approaches experiments.

V) Remember, there is a good side in every situation find it! See the good side and whip discouragement.

Kunal Bhasin

Mastering Your Mind: How to run your Brain

2007-03-13T17:15:00.000+05:30

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”

We don’t know how life really is we only know how we represent life to ourselves. So if we have a negative image that’s presented in big, bright, potent, resonant form, the brain will gives us a whopper of a big, bright, bad experience. If we take that negative image and shrink it, darken it, make it a still from then we take away its power, and the brain will respond accordingly.

Remember that the mind can defy the laws of the universe in one crucial way. It can go backward, time can’t, nor can events – but your mind can. In your office whenever you feel frustrated than screaming won’t produce any results. It will only make a bad situation worse. The key is to change your state, to back up and put yourself in a state that will allow you to get things done. That’s what you can do by rearranging your internal representations.

Let’s take an example: - Love

Love for most of us is a wonderful, eternal, almost mystical experience. It’s also important from a modeling point of view, to note that love is a state, and like all states, all results, it is produced by specific set of actions or stimuli when they are perceived or represented in certain ways.

HOW DO YOU FALL IN LOVE?

One of the most important perceptual ingredients of falling in love is associating with all the things you love about someone and disassociating from the things you don’t. Falling in love can be such a heady, disorienting feeling because it’s not always a balance one. Remember you’re not making a balance sheet of a person’s good and bad qualities’, running it through a computer and seeing what comes out, You‘re totally associated with a few elements of another person that you find intoxicating. You’re not even aware in that moment at least, of that person’s faults.

The key to life is to balance all things including the perceptual filters of association & disassociations, we can associate with or disassociate from anything we want, we can control any representation we make in our brain. We are not born with beliefs, they can change. The important thing is that if you can change the structure of how you represent something to yourself, you will change how you feel about it and thus change what is true in your experience of life. You can represent things to yourself in a way that consistently empower you.

KUNAL BHASIN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

“LIVING EXCELLENCE: THE HUMAN CHALLENGE”

2006-12-18T14:13:00.000+05:30

The most powerful tool on the planet is the bio computer between your two ears. Properly run, your brain can make your life greater than any dream you’ve ever had before. The ultimate Success formula is know your outcome, take action, develop the sensory activity to know what you’re getting, and change your behavior until you get what you want. Fabulous success is available to all of us, but those who achieve it are those who take action.

The importance of modeling is tremendous. Model the internal actions (mental) and external actions (physical) of people who produce outstanding results. Another important thing attached to this is the quality of communication. Communication takes two forms; the first is your communication with yourself. The meaning of any event is the meaning you give it. You can send your brain powerful, positive, and empowering signals that will make everything work for you or you cab send your brain signals about what you can’t do. People of excellence can take any situation and make it work for them. The second form of communication is with others.

One can use the power of physiology, the syntax and strategies that people use also have to establish rapport with anyone you meet. The powerful techniques for reframing and anchoring are about how to communicate with precision and skill. Pls be aware of the fact that having unlimited a power doesn’t mean you always succeeds or that you never fail. Unlimited power just means you learn from every human experience and make every experience work for you in some way.

May the road rise to meet you again, May the wind be always at your back, May the sunshine warm your face, the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again……may god hold you softly in the palm of his hand ....till the time we meet again .......its Good Luck and God Bless.

“Value Hierarchies : The Ultimate Judgment of Success “

2006-12-18T13:02:00.000+05:30

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately live at peace with himself.”

- Abraham Maslow

What are values? Simply, they are your own private personal and individual beliefs about what is most important to you. Your values are your belief systems about right, wrong, good and bad. The feeling of congruity, or personal wholeness and unity comes from the sense that we are fulfilling our values by our own present behavior.

It is extremely important to discover what our values are. The challenge for most people is that many of these values are unconscious often people don’t know why they do certain things they just feel they have to do them. Conflict occurs when you promise to be with your family one evening and then a business opportunity arises what you choose to do depends on what you place as your highest value at the time so now it is a tool for discovering people.

One can create hierarchy of values for work environment. Create the context of work and ask. “What is important to me about working”? You might say creativity. The next obvious question would be what’s important about creativity? You may answer, when I am creative I feel like growing” What’s important about growing? Continue from there. If you’re a parent, I suggest you can do the same thing with your kids. By finding out the things that timely motivate them; you’ll come up with uniquely effective tools for more effective parenting.
- KUNAL BHASIN

“Keys to Wealth and Happiness”

2006-12-18T11:26:00.000+05:30

The first key to the creation of wealth and happiness is that you must learn how to handle frustration. If you want to become, do all you can do, hear all you can hear, see all you can see, you’ve got to learn how to handle frustration, because it can kill dreams. It happens all the time. Frustration can change a positive attitude into a negative one, an empowering state into a crippling one. The worst thing a negative attitude does is wipe out self- discipline and when that discipline is gone, the result you desire are gone.

The second key to creation of wealth & Happiness is that you must learn how to handle Rejection. How many numbers can you take? How many times have you wanted to go up and talk to someone you found attractive, then decided not to do it because you didn’t want to hear the word “no”? Think how you’re creating limits just because of your fear of that little two- letter (no) word. The word itself has no power; it can’t cut your skin or sap your strength. Its power comes from the way you represent it to yourself.

There is no real success without rejection. The more rejection you get, the better you are, the more you have learned the closer you are to your outcome. The next time somebody rejects you, you might give him a hug. That’ll change his physiology. Turn “no” into hugs. If you can handle rejection you’ll learn to get everything you want.

The third key to wealth and creation is that you must learn to handle financial pressure.
The bottom line is that money is like everything else. You can make it work for you, or you can let it work against you, you should deal with money as with anything else in your mind, with the same purpose and elegance, learn to earn, to save and to give. If you can do that, you’ll learn to handle the financial pressure, and the money will never again be a stimulus to putting you in a negative state that causes you to be unhappy or treat others around you in less than resourceful way.

When you master the first three keys, you will begin to experience your life as hugely successful. If you can handle frustration, rejection and financial pressure, there is no limit to what you can do.

Here is the last key “Always give more than you expect to receive”.

The secret of living is giving: you got to be willing to plant the seed and then nurture its growth. You must have the ability to use power in a responsible and loving way if you are to experience true wealth and happiness. If you can handle these four things, you’ll be able to use all the skills and powers to do wondrous things for you.

Tips for keeping a Positive Attitude

2006-12-14T15:05:00.000+05:30

A positive attitude doesn't just make you feel better. It can also strengthen your relationships with friends, family, and co-workers as well as make it easier to deal with everything from a bad day at work to a major life change. Below are tips for creating and keeping a positive attitude.

Turn negative thoughts into positive ones. Instead of thinking, "I'll never make it to the end of my shift," say, "At the end of the day, I'm going to go for a long walk to reward myself for getting through this crunch." When you have a problem, instead of saying, "This is terrible and there's nothing I can do about it," tell yourself, "Things are going to get better."

Try to be around other positive people as much as possible. Negative thinking spreads quickly, especially at work. But if you make an effort to spend time with people who have a positive outlook, you might find that you'll start thinking more positively, too.

Remember that you can choose to be positive or you can choose to be negative. A positive outlook isn't just something that you're born with -- it's a skill that you can learn with practice.

Keep learning and growing. Learning new things -- whether it's how to fish or how to use a new software program at work -- gives you confidence. Make it a point to try something new whenever you can, and avoid thoughts that begin with, "I'm too old to..." or "I don't have enough time to..."

Make time for the things that make you happy. Whether it's spending time with friends, going to the movies, or just playing with your kids, make the activities you love to do a priority.

Maintain your sense of humor. A sense of humor can help you get through tough situations and it's a great stress-buster. Spend time with funny people, share jokes or funny stories at work, or watch funny movies at home.

Have things to look forward to, whether it's a weekend get-together with family, going to the gym at the end of a tough day at work, or calling a friend you haven't talked to in a long time.

REFRAMING: THE POWER OF PERSPECTIVE

2006-10-23T17:38:00.000+05:30

REFRAMING: THE POWER OF PERSPECTIVE

The meaning of any experience in life depends upon the frame we put around it. If one changes the frame, then context, the meaning changes instantly. If we can change our frame of reference by looking at the situation from a different point of view, we can change the way we respond in life. We can change our representation or perception about anything and in a moment changes our states and behaviors. One of the most effective tools for personal change is learning how to put the best frames on any experience is known as reframing.

Reframing in its simplest form is changing a negative statement into a positive one by changing the frame of reference used to perceive the experience. There are two major type of reframes, or ways to alter our perception about something:

Context reframing
It involves taking an experience that seems to be bad, upsetting, or undesirable and showing how the same behavior or exp is actually a great advantage in another context.

Content reframing
It involves taking the exact same situation and changing what it means. For example there is a story of a famous army general who was known to have reframed his troops during a heavy enemy attack by saying, “we’re not retreating we’re just advancing in another direction.” Another kind of content reframing is to actually change the way you see, hear, or represent a situation. If you’re upset about what someone said to you, you may envision yourself smiling as he says the same negative words expressed in the tonality of your favorite singer.

There’s a famous story about one of the associate’s of IBM. One of his employee’s had made a horrendous mistake that had cost the company ten million dollars. He was called into the office and said, “I suppose you want my resignation”. His boss looks at him and said, “Are you kidding”? We just spent ten million dollars educating you.

There are valuable lessons in everything that happens. The best leaders are the ones who learn the lesson and put the most empowering frame on outside events. That works for politics, business, teaching and your home life as well.

2006-10-18T13:07:00.000+05:30

“How to Handle Resistance & Solve Problems”

Remember that:

“The best solider does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without a struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is called intelligent non aggressiveness. This is called mastery of man.”

In order to overcome resistance there is a tool which is available known as “The agreement frame”. It consists of three phases you can use in any communication to respect the person you’re communicating with maintain rapport with him, share with him what you feel is true, and yet never resist his opinion in anyway without resistance there is no conflict.

Here are the three phrases:
“I appreciate and ……….”
“I respect and …………..”
“I agree and…………….”

In each case you are doing three things. You’re building rapport by entering the other person’s world and acknowledging his communication rather then ignoring or denigrating it with words like “but” or “however” you’re creating a frame of agreement that bonds you together. And you’re opening the door to redirecting something without creating resistance.

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment”

We live in a society that revels in competition that likes to make clear distinctions between winners and losers, as if every interaction must have both. It is good to fight then switch.”

The common ground is the idea of flexibility. If you have trouble putting together a puzzle, you won’t get anywhere by trying the same solution time and time again. You’ll solve it by being flexible enough to change, to adapt, to experiment, to try something new. The more flexible you’re, the more options you create, the more doors you can open, and the more successful you will be.

DISTINCTION OF EXCELLENCE: META PROGRAMS

2006-10-09T10:25:00.000+05:30

DISTINCTION OF EXCELLENCE: META PROGRAMS

People react differently to identical messages, we all know that. One person see the glass as half-empty and another see it as half full? Why does one person hear a message feel energized, excited, motivated and while another hears the exact same message and doesn’t respond at all? This is because if you address some one in the right key, you can do anything, if you address him in wrong one, you can do nothing. The most inspiring message, the most insightful thought, the most intelligent critique, are absolutely meaningless unless they are understood both intelligently and emotionally by the person whom they ‘re being addressed.
They‘re major keys not just to the personal power, but to many of the broader issues. We must confront collectively

If you want to be a master persuader in both business and personal life, you have to know how to find the right key.

The Path is through met programs, these are the keys to the way person process information. We often delete, generalize information because the conscious mind can only pay attention to so many pieces of information at any given time. Meta programs are internal programs we use in deciding what to pay attention to. Take an example, in order to communicate with a computer; you have to understand the software. Similarly to communicate with a person, you have to understand his Meta program.

Let’s take one more example of “What it takes to convince someone about something”. The convincer strategy, which comprises of two parts, to figure out what consistently convinces someone, you must first find out what sensory building blocks he needs to become convinced, and then you must discover how often he has to receive these stimuli before becoming convinced to discover someone’s convincer meta program ask,” How do you know when someone else is good at job”? Do you have to

a) See them or watch them
b) Hear about how good they are
c) Do it with them
d) Read about their ability

The answer may be a combination of these. You may believe someone’s good when you see him do a good job and when other people tell you he’s good. The next question is. “How often does someone have to demonstrate he’s good before you are convinced?” There are four possible answers.

a) Immediately (for e.g., if they demonstrate that they are good a something once, you believe them.
b) A number of times (two or more)
c) Over a period of time (say a few weeks or a month or a year)
d) Consistently

In the last case, a person has to demonstrate that he’s good each and every time.

Another Meta Program is a “person’s working style”

Everyone has his own strategy for work. Some people are not happy unless they are independent; they have great difficulty working closely with other people and can’t work well under a great deal of supervision. They have to run there own show others adopt strategy of co-operation and they share responsibility of any task they take. If you want to get the most out f your employees, or your children, or those you supervise, figure out their work strategies, the way in which they are most effective.

After reading few examples just practice eliciting people’s Meta programs. Ask them;

#what do you want in a relationship/ career/ car?
#how do you know when you have been successful at something?
#does a person pay attention to you while you are asking these questions? Is he interested in your response or is he occupied elsewhere?
#what is the relationship between what you did last month and what you are doing this month?

These are the only few questions you can ask to successfully elicit the Meta program we discussed.

If you don’t get the information you need, rephrase the question until you do.

KUNAL BHASIN

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Pls feel free to publish your comments upon reading the article, You can also suggest some topics you would like to read.#Every Week on Monday i will be publishing an article on new topics, and my next article will be on Problem Solving : Resistance handling.

The Magic Of Rapport Building

2006-10-03T10:47:00.000+05:30

“The friend who understands you, creates you”

Rapport is the ability to enter someone else’s world, to make him feel that you understand him, that you have a strong common bond with that person.
It’s the ability to go fully from your map of the world to someone else’s world. And what allows us to do that? Is Rapport skills.

“If you would win a man/women’s to your cause, first convince him/her that you are his/her sincere friend”.

How do we create rapport? We do it by creating or discovering things in common, we call this process “mirroring or matching”. One can mirror interests that is, have a similar experience or style of dress or favorite activity or you can mirror association – that is, have similar friends or acquaintances.

Rapport building does not need any sort of NATURAL GIFT to do it, all it needs is the flexibility and attractiveness by practicing consistently you can enter a new world of happiness and joy. Try one experiment engage someone in conversation. Mirror him in posture, voice, and breathing after a while, gradually change your posture or tone of voice. Does the other person follow you after a few minutes? If he does not, simply go back and pace again. Then try a different lead and make the change less radical. If, when you attempt to lead someone, he does not follow it simply means you do not have enough rapport yet develop more rapport and try again.

Remember one finding that 7% of communication happens through words.
38% happens through tone of voice, and 50% happens through body language remaining by facial expressions. So of we are just trying to create rapport merely by the content of our conversation and we are missing out on the largest way

Rapport is rated in one of the most accessible skill in the world. You don’t need text books and you don’t need courses. You don’t need to travel to study at the feet of a master, and you don’t need to earn a degree. The only tools you need are your eyes, your ears, your sense of touch, taste and smell. Rapport is simply doing both in the most effective way possible you can study rapport when you are waiting for a plane by mirroring the people in line with you. You can use rapport at the grocery store. You can use it at your job and off course at home. Do remember rapport building is all about entering a new world and achieving new heights.

KUNAL BHASIN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Pls feel free to publish your comments upon reading the article, You can also suggest some topics you would like to read.

#Every Week on Monday i will be publishing an article on new topics, and my next article will be on Metaporgrams : Distinction of Excellence.

THE POWER OF PRECISION

2006-09-25T18:33:00.000+05:30

We can all remember moment’s when some one spoke with so much force and precision and romance that the words stayed with us forever.

“Words are the most powerful drug used by MANKIND”

If we study successful people, then we can discover one of the most common attribute is the communication skills. A manager has to manage information to be successful, he also needs to get into the heart of information rapidly and communicating to others what they have learned. They also tended to use key phrases and words that conveyed their most important ideas with great precision.

The objective of this article is to learn how to communicate with more precision and effectiveness then you have ever had before. This helps people to get whatever they want, remember words can be walls as well as bridges. There are 5 guidelines for asking intelligently and precisely.

1.) Ask Specifically:

You must describe what you need why you need and by whom you need it, both to YOURSELF and to someone else.

2.) Ask someone who can help you :

Anything you want – a better relationship, job, a smarter program for investing your money, its not enough to ask specifically, you must ask specifically of someone who has the resources – the knowledge, the capital, the sensitivity, on the business experience.

3.) Ask with focused, congruent belief:

If you aren’t convinced about what you’re asking for, how can anyone else be? So when you ask, do it with absolute conviction express that in your words and your physiology.

4.) Create value for the person you’re asking:

Don’t just ask and expect someone to give you something. Figure out how can help him first.

5.) Ask until you get what you want:

That doesn’t mean asking the same person .It doesn’t mean asking in precisely the same way. So when you ask, you have to change and adjust until you achieve what you want when you study the lives of successful people, you’ll find over and over again that they kept asking, kept trying changing – because they knew that sooner or later they would find someone who could satisfy their needs.

“You could ask, what prevents me from doing this now? And thereby become clear about what specifically you need to change”. In any situation, no matter how dismal, there’s a desirable outcome to be achieved. Your goal should be to change direction towards that outcome and away from the problem.

Do this by asking the right questions. There are any numbers of them. In NLP they ‘re referred to as outcome questions”. I will let you know about NLP in my future articles, anyways the outcome questions I was referring to are like this.

“What do I want?”
“What is the objective?”
“What am I here for?”
“What do I want from you?”
“What do I want from me?”

Remember your communication skills should reflect feedback, nor failure. If you are putting together a jigsaw puzzle and a piece doesn’t fits, you don’t usually take that as failure and stop working on the puzzle. You take it as feedback and try another piece that looks more promising. It’s to your advantage to use the same general rule in your life as well.

KUNAL BHASIN
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Pls feel free to publish your comments upon reading the article, You can also suggest some topics you would like to read.

#Every Week on Monday i will be publishing an article on new topics, and my next article will be on Rappot Buliding.