A Checklist to Begin the Journey of Improved Business Performance”Culture isn’t just one aspect of the game – it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.” Lou Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Reviewing the management process of a large, nationally operating company recently highlighted once again the continual challenge of remaining objective about the business we lead. Our repeated observation is owners and managers of businesses may declare they want to implement new ways to enhance business performance, but rarely understand and accept that as leaders of the enterprise, their own personal change must accompany or precede business change.Although senior management may name a set of values they assume will create the organizational culture, the real culture will be determined by how all workers perceive daily operations are actually practiced and rewarded. An old maxim states, ‘Perception is stronger than reality’. Our work teams will see, feel, sense and then practice the culture of our business long before they adopt any stated values or formally announced strategies and processes.Behavioural change will not come through talking, written communications, lecturing or demanding a particular process. Effective long term change to increase company value and stability requires carefully thought out modelling of the proposed practices and processes plus showing all team members what needs to be done and how to do it. Rose-coloured glasses will maintain business performance at mediocre levels, based on historical practices in the company.Bill and Kristine Schneider of the Corporate Development Group (CDG) emphasise how company value and growth is likely to be highest when the cultural practices, leadership style and strategy adopted by a company are aligned.The following is a detailed checklist allowing any business to begin the journey of improving business performance. It is not intended to be comprehensive but will highlight sufficient key issues for your business to review. Please use the checklist as a positive assessment of how you can kickstart new growth and understanding of your business strategy.Company Leadership:
Does your business have a clearly defined written strategy as a foundation for all decision-making?
Does your leadership team pro-actively research, discuss and adopt what is required to enhance business certainty and clarity?
Do you conduct frequent regular reviews of operational and strategic planning?
Are you confident about what is required to take the business to the next level?
Have all business owners and senior management team members formally indicated they will learn and adopt all required changes to enhance growth?
Have all business owners and senior management team members formally indicated they will commence the journey of personal change required to enhance their own leadership?
Have you listed 5-6 practices of yourself or other leaders/managers in the business clearly inhibiting growth and clarity for the future?
Do you know how to lead all staff into a program of change and improvement?
Can you succinctly explain the Vision and Mission of the business?
Have you done any specific leadership and management training in the past 10 years?
Do you read about and study businesses, leadership and management frequently?
Do you have certainty and clarity about the business in all areas?
If not, how do you deal with this? (This may include personal skills you struggle with, tasks you are required to do for which you do not feel equipped, team issues, business functions, how suggestions or recommendations are handled… or anything!)
How would you describe your leadership and management style and practice? (be honest!)? How do you think others would describe it?
· Autocratic/Controlling· Participative/Democratic· Developer/Trainer· Visionary/Big PictureStaff Training:
Many companies limit growth by neglecting staff training. The resultant focus on short term targets delays expansion or stops it completely.
Do you have a specific program of in-depth staff training?
Does formal staff training include learning methods additional to lecture style and written instructions?
Has the business designed and implemented on-the-job training processes to model and demonstrate all systems and processes?
Can staff have some autonomy and be free to make mistakes as they learn?
Does every staff member have a personal training and development plan?
Do all business owners and senior managers have a personal training and development plan?
If each staff member was asked about on-the-job training would they say it is frequent, relevant and equips them well for their role?
Marketing and Customer Service
Do you view marketing as unnecessary?
Do you have a multi-strategy marketing plan?
Is there a procedure and schedule in place to frequently review your marketing?
Do you have a specific written description of your key target market groups?
Can you identify your primary customers (ie customers who create 80% plus of your business)?
If so, is the plan known by all key personnel?
What perception do your primary customers have of your business? How do you know?
What uniqueness are you giving clients to create competitive advantage?
Can you list the performance drivers of the business? i.e the factors that determine success – they must happen or everything heads south.
Are Innovation, Creativity and Research being specifically nurtured, developed, tested and measured?
Do you have a system of testing and measuring all marketing and advertising strategies?
Do you have a clear picture of how many leads are required to obtain 1 customer and what the process of lead generation costs?
Are your staff trained in how to use an effective sales process?
Does the business have a specific program for writing effective advertising copy for all marketing strategies?
Would relevant staff say all marketing and sales processes are frequently reviewed and therefore work well?
Financials, Performance and Business Control:
Is business growth decided and planned? (the alternative is merely hoping it will happen)
Do you have a Gross Revenue & Net Profit target for each Market/Industry segment as relevant to your business?
Do you have other targets for various indicators relevant to your business?
Do you have a written comprehensive strategy with detailed action plans and teams to move toward strategy achievement?
Have you identified key issues and risks hindering achievement of growth plans?
Do you have a risk management plan to protect the business against all reasonably foreseeable scenarios?
Do you have a plan to ensure all systems and processes to keep up with proposed growth are reviewed, installed, updated or changed?
Is there a plan to adequately fund all proposed areas of growth for the business?
Combined, the answers to these questions will give you a general, overall picture of the strengths and weakness of your business. This will give you clarity as you move towards improved business performance.
Do You Want To Improve The Performance Of Your Business?
The Pros and Cons of Private Student Loans
College students are often cautioned to avoid private loans unless absolutely necessary, urged instead to take advantage of all other financial aid options first.The advice is sound. Generally speaking, private student loans, which are offered by banks, credit unions, and other private lenders, don’t offer the same level of borrower protections and benefits that government college loans do.As a student, you should seek out grants and scholarships first — money for college that you won’t have to repay — before taking on college loan debt. Then, if you’re still going to need college loans, you should, in general, make sure you’ve maximized all your available government loans before you consider taking out a private student loan.Interest Rates & Repayment OptionsFederal education loans have fixed interest rates and more flexible repayment terms than private loans. The Department of Education offers income-based repayment options that keep your monthly payments at a figure you can afford, repayment extensions to give you more time to repay, and loan deferments and forbearances that can temporarily postpone your college loan payments if you’re facing financial hardship.If you go to work in the public sector, you may also be eligible for the discharge of some or all of your government loan debts.With private student loans, on the other hand, your interest rate is almost always variable, and private lenders aren’t required to provide the kind of repayment flexibility that comes standard on federal college loans.The current foreclosure crisis that began mushrooming, in part, because of adjustable-rate mortgages should be enough to make anyone leery of adjustable-rate loans on anything.But it’s worth keeping in mind that when interest rates are low, as they are now, adjustable-rate private student loans can have a lower interest rate than their fixed-rate federal counterparts.If you have excellent credit, or if you have a parent or co-signer with excellent credit, you may qualify for the lowest-rate private college loans, which currently carry interest rates that are as much as 3-percent to 6-percent lower than the rates on federal student and parent loans.Interest rates are destined to rise as the economy continues to recover from the recession, so private loan rates won’t always be this low, but if you or your parents are in a position to pay that private student loan off relatively quickly, you may be able to save money over a government-issued college loan.
Covering Your College CostsSo why take out a private student loan at all?Private student loans are meant to “fill the gap” in college funding that may be left after you reach your federal student borrowing limits. In many cases, families find that scholarships and federal financial aid simply aren’t enough to cover the rising cost of college.Without private student loans, you may not be able to pay for college or continue your studies.Statistically, college graduates have a better chance of being gainfully employed than non-graduates do, and college graduates, on average, earn more money in their jobs than workers who don’t have a college degree. For you as a college student, better job and salary prospects may make the burden of a reasonable amount of private student loans easier to bear.Working With Private Student Loan LendersCollege loan companies aren’t deaf to the economic realities that college graduates are facing. Recently, some of the largest private student loan lenders have instituted new guidelines for the repayment and forgiveness of college loan debt.Wells Fargo and Sallie Mae, for example, both announced this year that they would begin discharging private student loans upon the death of the borrower. Beforehand, that debt was being left to the co-signer to repay.And as the recession and large swaths of unemployment among recent college graduates has led to higher rates of delinquency and default on college loans, some private lenders have shown a slight uptick in their willingness to work out modified repayment plans with troubled borrowers who are unable to repay their private student loans.Being a Smart Student BorrowerFor students who must turn to private education loans, it pays to shop around. Interest rates are always important, but they aren’t the only factor worth considering. Repayment policies, payment deferral options, default and late-payments penalties, interest-rate caps, and other terms may give some private student loan programs a clear advantage over others.Always be mindful of the total amount of your debt from all sources, school loans and otherwise, and aim to limit your reliance on college loans, both federal and private.The Department of Education’s National Student Loan Data System can help you track all your federal loan debt. Additionally, if you’re carrying debt from multiple federal college loans, the Education Department’s student loan debt consolidation program can help simplify the repayment process and may lower your monthly loan payments.As you begin to repay your school loans, make it a priority to pay off the higher-interest loans first.By taking advantage of college scholarships, using all your federal financial aid options, and minimizing the amount of debt you take on to pay for school, you can benefit from the careful and limited borrowing of private student loans to help pay for your college education.
Do You Think Practicing on Trading Simulators Is a Good Use of Time? Check Out the Mess I Made Today
I’ve written several articles in the past about my relative distaste for e-mini trading simulators. I had a trade running on a simulator account today and proved to myself why I continue to believe that they are good for familiarizing yourself with a trading platform but relatively worthless when learning to trade. Are you a simulator warrior?I think that just about every brokerage uses trading simulators to entice prospective clients into sampling their trading platform. With that fact in mind, usually traders have spent a good deal of time on trading simulators before they ever come in contact with me in the trading room. What is the real benefit of all this simulating trades? In my opinion, not too much.In my trading room, I normally trade my DOM up and trade a live account. Because of some changes suggested by my trusted accountant (I really can’t stand accountants when they do stuff like this), I am consolidating in number of accounts into single account at a new brokerage. Because it is a small block account, there is quite a bit of paperwork and signatures to be collected during the move; so I have been trading in a simulated account in the trading room. I had a bad experience and it reminded me why simulators don’t provide the most realistic trading environment in which to participate.It’s important to realize that I was trying to trade the simulated account exactly the way I would trade my normal live account. I entered a trade that immediately began to work against me and instead of exiting the trade as I normally would, I thought I would give the trade a little time to develop. That was mistake 1.When I entered the trade the market was flat, but fortunately I was able to spot the point when the market would break down and take a trade in the opposite direction. That was mistake 2. Of course, it was only a simulator trade; but like I said, I was trying to trade the simulator exactly the same way as I trade my live accounts. After I entered the trade the market moved to the downside and then set up for what I thought was a much larger move down. I did nothing. That was mistake 3. As the market moved against me, I was transformed from a professional trader into a blithering trading hack. I moved my stops; I never move my stops when trading a live account. I doubled down twice; I never double down when getting smeared in a trade on my live account. Those were mistakes 4, 5, and 6. Then I got distracted talking to somebody who stopped by my office and by the time I had finished I had lost $3500 of simulated money. No big deal, it’s just the simulator. That is a problem.And therein lies the rub. Because the trade had no meaning, despite my best efforts to simulate real trading conditions, my entire technique and 30 years of experience wilted under the lack of pressure. Yes you read that right; when nothing is on the line the lessons you learn seem to be superficial and seldom long lasting. On the other hand, when a mistake costs you a couple hundred bucks you tend to remember that mistake and not repeat it.I was shocked at the relative ease I displayed in abandoning everything I knew about trading on this trade. Even though I was determined to make this fake trading as realistic as possible, my mind treated it as superfluous and I traded as if I’d never been taught the thing about trading. It was also unbelievably embarrassing, I felt like an idiot; so embarrassing that I sent a personal email to everyone in the room apologizing for my deplorable trading exhibition. I just could not get over how quickly my mindset changed when I was on this simulator compared to how sharp my mind stays trading real money. I guess at some subconscious level that is the trade has no meaning it doesn’t merit my full attention. I wonder how many people battle this problem?
Are You Choosing the Right Stock Market Advisory Company
What do you do if you want to learn driving a car? You will try to find an expert teacher, isn’t it? You do not want to avail the services of a novice individual to help you out, but a professional person can provide you the vital tips and most importantly guide you efficiently. Similarly, when it comes to investing in the stock market for the first time, you require a knowledgeable advice to attain your financial goals and get profitable returns.
If you are a beginner, then it is quite obvious that you may be having no information about the process of buying the right shares in the market. In such a situation, getting the right tips from an experienced financial advisor or a registered advisory company will truly prove to be a great blessing in disguise. However, there are some of the important things that have to be kept in mind while choosing the top stock market advisory company, which are as follows:
How much assistance do you actually require?
Before you make up your mind to hire an advisor, it is imperative that you must first decide about the kind of service you require from them. You may need their help at the beginning or during the time of any issues. This is because an advisor has to formulate a map according to your requirements. Hence, it is suggested to ascertain your needs first and then take further action.
Choose a top ranked advisory company
It is a very important point that has to be taken into the consideration. Availing services of the well known advisory company or a financial advisor is an absolute necessity. Make it a point to carry out a proper background or research work about the company. Check out their credentials, reputation, experience, etc before hiring them.
Asking for a sample financial plan initially makes sense
When hiring a financial advisor, then do not forget to ask for sample plan first. It is imperative to note that there is no such thing called the perfect plan. A sample plan will help you to determine whether an advisory company is actually making sense according your requirements or not.
Conclusion
The financial planners or advisory companies can really turn out to be the greatest asset for you if you choose the best one. They are just like the professional sailors who can help you out to sail through stock investment related problems quite efficiently.
Deepak is a financial advisor who likes to provide quality tips to the people facing any issues with regard to investing in the stock market. He likes to keep himself updated about the stock market by reading articles, news and blogs, etc.