COLUMNSDeath of substance
‘Let style be your substance’ screams at me from a billboard in Colombo as I find my way through traffic generated by one of our No. 1 imports – motor vehicles. Latest models pass me, blaring their horns in a hurry to get to their destinations and I know that no way are these magnificent crawling machines able to truly express their engine capabilities on most of our roads.
Feeding the world
The Economist newspaper organised an international conference in early February on a subject which should be of interest to developing countries such as Sri Lanka. The subject of the conference was ‘Feeding the World’.
Get your Key Account Management right
“Account management is the process of maximising the return on your investment in a customer by defining and actioning appropriate plans that will enable you to build on the present, to manage the future”
An account manager is a person in a business who is responsible for the management of the sales and relationship with particular customers. They are usually allocated particular customer accounts, especially key accounts that provide the most business.
What is Key Account Management (KAM)?
KAM is an approach which indulges developing long term relationships with strategic customers whose needs you to understand in depth, and for whom you develop a special offer with a differential advantage over the offers of competitors.
Happiness drives executive performance: Who controls yours?
Often my clients and students try to explain how their unhappiness is caused by others. Who are the people making you unhappy? They could even be your spouse, child, brother, sister or even mother-in-law.
How do they make you unhappy? They can make you feel guilty. They can find fault in “no fault”. They can “infect” you with their unhappiness. We all know some individuals who invariably cause unhappiness.
Now there are methodologies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that changes the patterns of thought, behaviour and emotions we can use to increase our happiness. With CBT you may not be able to change the world but you can change the way you respond to adverse events. And, that makes a world of difference.
Getting up to speed
Last week I wrote about how there was a clash of speeds, how various sectors of our economy were not synchronised with each other. My focus was on the Southern Express Highway and how we need a plan to get moving!
I travelled up north last weekend, along the A3 to Puttalam and then to Anuradhapura and from there to Mannar. Right along my journey, the roads were in excellent condition; so good that in many places I spotted Traffic Police with speed guns to discourage motorists from travelling at Southern Highway speed limits.
India’s new Micro Finance Bill
A comparison with Sri Lanka’s draft legislation
India’
s Ministry of Finance has announced that it will be soon submitting the new ‘Microfinance Institution Development and Regulation (MID&R) Bill to the Cabinet of Ministers for approval and thereafter submit it to Parliament during Parliament’s Budget Session beginning in March 2012.
Strange things Whitney Houston taught business
Even though Whitney Houston has won 415 awards in her career with two Emmys, six Grammys, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards, which made her the most awarded female of all time, be it in music or in sports, the funny thing is that the world was not shocked when the announcement came that Whitney had died.
Shocking the economy with cold-turkey policies
The founder Governor of the Central Bank, John Exter, had wonderful advice for anyone wishing to make a bet with a central bank regarding the success of a central bank’s policy when such policy goes opposite to the market’s collective wisdom: You bet on the side of the market and not on the side of the central bank and you will always win.
Hiring hurdles: Facts and fallacies
I just came back after a session on hiring. It was a leading bank and they wanted to train their functional managers who are involved in interview panellists in selecting employees. On my way, I was reflecting on hiring in the Sri Lankan context. Today’s column will discuss the details.
Strategic context
Ulrich and Brockbank (2005) propose six Bs with regard to selecting and developing employees. In fact they are strategic, as the consequences are long term, with high impact to the bottom-line.
Piracy: Threat to world peace
Maritime piracy is a threat to all nations and is a crime subject to universal jurisdiction. States are called upon to favourably consider the prosecution of suspected and imprisonment of convicted pirates, consistent with applicable International Human Rights Law and United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
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