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Friday, October 7, 2011

HOW TO CREATE MORE JOBS WITHIN YOUR BUSINESS




Entrepreneurs are one of the biggest forces in driving job creation. Read this article to see how you can polish the employees you currently have, and create more jobs to bring in fresh minds.

Five Steps to Job Creation

FIRST OFF, FORGET BUDGET-CUTTING AND THINK ABOUT TRAINING YOUR EXISTING STAFF

n this market the common theme is to cut costs, restrict budgets, and focus on survival. We’ve witnessed many companies large and small runing through this same drill but still ending up in trouble. The core issue in any political agenda or economic discussion is, and has been, job creation. Yet companies continue not only to shun job creation but also to concentrate on staff reduction. Taking the following steps will fuel growth that leads to new jobs.
1) Think Revenue, Not Budgets
Budget meetings and budgetary concerns can easily distract an entire executive team and alter values. Business owners forget that revenue creates budgets. Without revenue, it’s pointless to assess the budget over and over. The focus must shift fully on actions that will drive revenue to generate fresh income that can cover and exceed budgets. You can’t attain affluence by cutting expenses, so you must zero in on every item that can serve as a profit center and take methodical actions to make it so.
2) Measure Weekly
Quarterly numbers are important but not the best method of keeping your finger on the pulse and ensuring survival. Measure all key numbers weekly and keep a graph that shows what each statistic, such as income or number of sales, is doing from week to week. Measuring by week and managing by week can better help you avoid a catastrophe.
3) Survey to Clarify Needs
Survey your clients or prospective clients monthly so you can focus your efforts on what they need or want, which will give insight into what you should market and sell. We use short surveys created on Google Doc forms made up of five to seven questions and e-mail them as a link monthly. Give each survey a theme or topic. For example, you might compose a survey to find out what consumers like about one of your products. Instead of “yes or no” survey questions, create questions that encourage feedback so you can use that data to improve operations and deliver what your clients revealed they need or want. If you take the time to find out exactly what your customers will buy and ensure you are delivering those items, it will result in a less resistive path to revenue.
Continue reading at Businessweek.com

Laos- Nam Theun 2: The difference a road can make

The Road to Academic Excellence: Lessons of Experience



Cover of The Road to Academic Excellence

When I published my first book on World Class Universities two years ago, I certainly did not anticipate the world-wide exposure it received. Now, I sometimes worry about having contributed to raising expectations about the importance of world-class universities. 

 

When I visited Nigeria last year, I was told that the country wanted to have 20 World Class Universities by 2020. Recently, Sri Lanka announced that it would increase its higher education budget in the hope of having at least one world-class university. Today we launched The Road to Academic Excellence, a new book I edited withProfessor Phil Altbach, and already, the burden of guilt regarding the possible consequences of the new book haunt me.
 

This new book brings together nine case-studies, telling the story of 11 institutions undergoing a complex transformational process as they strive to become world-class research universities, either by following the “upgrading” or the “starting anew” path to academic excellence.

 

The sample of institutions reviewed is too small to be conclusive, but the case studies suggest that establishing a new institution is a relatively faster and more effective approach to becoming a world-class research university. Still, new research universities face special challenges. They need to sufficiently innovative and represent a convincing alternative to existing institutions to attract top academics and good students. Indeed, the book identifies global talent search strategies among the most powerful accelerating factors for establishing world-class research universities.

 

Interestingly, new niche programs seem to have an easier time attracting top talent. The book highlights several cases of such niche programs including the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology which stands out as being the most successful in terms of attracting top talent, in part thanks to the founders’ deliberate reliance on the Diaspora to jump-start the new institution. 

 

Another significant finding from this book is the fact that outstanding research universities do not operate in a vacuum. It is necessary to takes into consideration key forces at play at the level of the tertiary education ecosystem, within which institutions evolve. The case studies show several ways in which these tertiary education ecosystems affect the performance of individual institutions, either positively or negatively, depending on the circumstances. 

 

My final thoughts are that even top research universities find it hard to achieve a harmonious balance between equipping their students with technical skills and rigorous methodologies while imparting the ethical values needed to pursue scientific inquiries in a socially responsible manner. Case studies in the book illustrate the concern to maintain a curriculum that blends a strong scientific training with a deep humanistic conviction. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of a new university that is being established in the Indian state of Orissa, says “only an education that can nourish inbuilt virtues can impart true intelligence.”

 

As this book is launched, it is important to remember that research universities are but one component of a comprehensive tertiary education system. They certainly deserve attention and resources, but governments should be careful to keep investing also in the other institutions—community colleges, polytechnics, teaching universities, open universities, all of which are important parts of a strong tertiary education system.

 

Watch the lively and accomplished panel consisting of Elizabeth King, Jamil Salmi, Philip G. Altbach, Shamsh Kassim Lakha, Patti Peterson and Phil Hay discuss the book and it’s key findings.