Skills & Jobs: Lost in Tandem

The average duration of unemployment in the U.S. jumped to a record 35.2 weeks in September, up from 16.5 weeks when the recession began in December 2010, according to the Labor Dept. Today, almost half of unemployed Americans have been out of work for 47 weeks or more (the official definition of long-term unemployment), vs. 30 percent in June 2009.

PERISHABLE SKILLS 

Industries with highly perishable skill sets include health-care technology, telecommunications, and finance, where regulations have changed dramatically in the past year. The toughest, though, may be information technology. Companies in that sector have cut payrolls for 32 of the last 33 months, through June, for a cumulative loss of some 312,000 jobs, or about 10 percent. In technology, "if you've been out of work for a year or two, you're probably somewhat outdated," says Shami Khorana, president of HCL America, the U.S. arm of New Delhi-based HCL Technologies, which employs about 5,000 workers in the U.S. He plans to hire at least an additional 600 people as the economy improves and anticipates retraining some candidates with obsolete skills.

Unemployed workers in construction, retail, low-level health-care jobs, and teaching are more likely to be attractive to employers once hiring picks up because such jobs don't change as quickly, experts say. "You don't get the sense that residential construction has changed that much in the past decade," says Harry J. Holzer, an economist at Georgetown University and the Urban Institute in Washington. The skills needed to work at a grocery or clothing store—running the cash register, for instance—are "rudimentary," he says.

There are downsides to switching careers, because doing so can push workers into fields where their training isn't valuable, creating a less skilled workforce, says Daniel S. Hamermesh, a former Labor Dept. official who is now an economist at the University of Texas. "It's tremendously difficult [for workers] to decide when the skill is no longer valuable," he says.

When employers start hiring, they'll want to see prospective employees who have done more than pump out résumés trying to find a new job. Accenture (ACN), for example, will want to see "how the applicants used their time" to stay marketable, says Catherine S. Farley, a Seattle-based managing director at the consulting firm. "Did that person do something to keep their skills fresh?"

The bottom line: As more workers remain jobless for half a year or longer, they risk losing skills needed to get hired.

A sad situation that can cost this country dearly in the end. Solutions need to be proffered up and implemented as soon as possible. But will it be soon enough? 

Business Communication: Doing it Better

An insightful PDF booklet with many suggestions for enhancing your business communications.

Business Communications Tips    

Ethical Business Practices

The work ethic is a cultural norm that advocates being personally accountable and responsible for the work that one does and is based on a belief that work has intrinsic value. The term is often applied to characteristics of people, both at work and at play. In sports, for example, work ethic is frequently mentioned as a characteristic of good players. Regardless of the context, work ethic is usually associated with people who

work hard and do a good job.

Steps Towards Better Work Ethics

1. Attendance - Attendance and punctuality often have a large impact on individual and team success. Tardiness or absenteeism can also profoundly impact job performance and retention.

How You Can Maintain Good Attendance:
•Make work a high priority
•Know your schedule
•Make use of an ALARM clock
•Get enough sleep
•Arrange your transportation
•Inform your supervisor of an absence

2. Character - An employer expects employees to work together toward achieving the objectives of the company. The wise employee who is interested in having a good relationship with an employer will try to help the employer achieve success. Thus employer expects employees to develop certain desirable traits that will help them to perform their  jobs well so that the company can succeed. Some of these traits include the following:

•  Loyalty
•  Honesty
•  Trustworthiness
•  Dependability
•  Reliability
•  Initiative
•  Self-discipline
•  Self-responsibility

3. Teamwork - It is vital that employees work as a team. It is important
not only to their personal success and advancement, but also to that of
their co-workers and to the company. Sometimes working as a team
takes place in a classroom setting. Teamwork doesn’t necessarily mean
helping your classmate. Teamwork in the classroom might be working.

Teamwork involves the following aspects:

• Respecting the rights of others
• Being a team worker
• Being cooperative
• Being assertive
• Displaying a customer service attitude
• Seeking opportunities for continuous learning
• Demonstrating mannerly behavior
• Respecting confidentiality

4. Appearance - A person makes their first impression of someone in

three seconds. If you appear unkempt and wrinkled, someone is going

to think that you do sloppy work. If you dress as a professional, your

first impression will be excellent.

5. Attitude - It is very important to demonstrate a positive attitude,

appear self confident, and have realistic expectations for self.

Developing and maintaining a positive attitude involves setting

realistic expectations for ourselves at school and at work. These goals

should be challenging, but obtainable.

6. Productivity- In order to be a productive student and employee, a

person must follow safety procedures, conserve materials, keep the

work area neat and clean and follow directions properly.

7. Organizational skills - Employers consider effective time
management and organizational skills as good work habits. To begin
managing wisely the time you spend at work, to prepare for
assignments at home, and to manage your life at home and work
simultaneously, you need to know and to put into practice some good
time management techniques.

Some Simple Techniques:|

• Believe - As you enter into your new work place
  believe that you are in control.
• Ask For Help - help comes in many forms so ask for it.
• Prioritize –whats most important?
• Set Timetables - list what you have achieved and what is
  still pending.
• Spend Time Wisely

8. Communication - Is how we interact with each other. Communication
whether it is verbal or nonverbal must be clear, to the point, empathetic, and one must keep in mind that we must always treat others as we would like others to treat us.

9. Cooperation- involves developing good working relationships, following the chain of command, good at conflict management, and being a good problem solver.

10. Respect – it cannot be emphasized enough that every working relationship from the top to the bottom of the chain of command is based on respect. Respect your subordinates as you do your superiors.

Leadership: It's all about style

Running a business has its challenges, one of which is learning how to pick a good leadership style. Everyone has their own leadership style that works for their business and works well with their employees. To help you find a leadership style, here are a few of the most popular:

Charismatic Leader
This is the type of leader everyone wants to have. A person with natural charisma is full of life. They enjoy what they do and people love working for them. They have knowledge that helps to bring out the best skills in the people they lead. A charismatic person also sees the joy in life and helps to create a positive atmosphere.

People like to be around a person that has charisma because they can find a way to get through difficult situations. Being around a group of people is easy for them because they have natural charm that others gravitate towards. The other important quality a person with charisma has is the ability to establish trust with their employees.

A charismatic leader always has a plan for the future. They have a vision that is easy for others to follow and they have smaller goals that can help their employees understand how they can reach the end goal. Because of the leadership qualities this person has, employees don't even think twice about following this person wherever they go.

The Micro Manager
Many small business owners are micro-managers. Since they started their own business, they have more money and interest vested into the company. This causes them to have a hard time relinquishing control to their employees. When you deal with employees that are blue or white personalities, a micro manager will be successful because they can help to push those individuals. Micro managers are red personalities because they like to be in control all the time. They may not always bring a positive attitude to the office, which can cause employees to become stressed and overwhelmed. Micro managers have a difficult time taking criticism from others and they often are not afraid to hurt other's feelings.

If you know that you are a micro manager, you may need to work on yourself to start offering more control to your employees. Start by assigning some of your smaller projects to your employees and work on establishing trust with your staff. Your people skills will need a serious overhaul so make sure you look for different ways to connect with your staff.

You can still be a micro manager, but you just need to loosen up a little bit and learn to accept that your employees will not work the same way you do.

The Passionate Leader
Similar to the charismatic leader, the passionate leader is a person that absolutely loves what they do. A passionate person has a vision for the future and they can easily convince others to follow them. Their passion for their job can easily rub off on their employees as they see how enthusiastic they are.

A person that is passionate has a vision, but they usually need help to find a way to make this vision a reality. Involve your employees in the brainstorming process and ask them to help you discover goals. This helps to energize the office as everyone is working toward the same goal. A passionate person can get a large following and they are often the best leaders for non-profit organizations.

There are several other types of leaders, but these are the top 3 that are often seen in the business world. Don't be afraid to come up with your own leadership style just make sure you are a trustworthy person and you are willing to listen to your employees. Bring a positive attitude to the office to harbor a positive workplace.

The Art of Selling: B2B and More!

Most people are always striving to better themselves. For proof, check the sales figures on the number of self-improvement books sold each year. This is not a pitch for you to jump in and start selling these kinds of books, but it is an indication of people's awareness that in order to better themselves, they have to continue improving their personal selling tips abilities.

To excel in any selling situation, you must have confidence, and confidence comes, first and foremost, from knowledge. You have to know and understand yourself and your goals. You have to recognize and accept your weaknesses as well as your special talents. This requires a kind of personal honesty that not everyone is capable of exercising.

In addition to knowing yourself, you must continue learning about people. Just as with yourself, you must be caring, forgiving and laudatory with others. In any sales effort, you must accept other people as they are, not as you would like for them to be. One of the most common faults of sales people is impatience when the prospective customer is slow to understand or make a decision. The successful salesperson handles these situations the same as he would if he were asking a girl for a date, or even applying for a new job.

Learning your product, making a clear presentation to qualified prospects, and closing more sales will take a lot less time once you know your own capabilities and failings, and understand and care about the prospects you are calling upon.

Our society is predicated upon selling, and all of us are selling something all the time. We move up or stand still in direct relation to our sales efforts. Everyone is included, whether we're attempting to be a friend to a co-worker, a neighbor, or selling multi-million dollar real estate projects. Accepting these facts will enable you to understand that there is no such thing as a born salesman. Indeed, in selling, we all begin at the same starting line, and we all have the same finish line as the goal - a successful sale.

Most assuredly, anyone can sell anything to anybody. As a qualification to this statement, let us say that some things are easier to sell than others, and some people work harder at selling than others. But regardless of what you're selling, or even how you're attempting to sell it, the odds are in your favor. If you make your presentation to enough people, you'll find a buyer. The problem with most people seems to be in making contact - getting their sales presentation seen by, read by, or heard by enough people. But this really shouldn't be a problem, as we'll explain later. There is a problem of impatience, but this too can be harnessed to work in the salesperson's favor.

We have established that we're all salespeople in one way or another. So whether we're attempting to move up from forklift driver to warehouse manager, waitress to hostess, salesman to sales manager or from mail order dealer to president of the largest sales organization in the world, it's vitally important that we continue learning.

Getting up out of bed in the morning; doing what has to be done in order to sell more units of your product; keeping records, updating your materials; planning the direction of further sales efforts; and all the while increasing your own knowledge - all this very definitely requires a great deal of personal motivation, discipline, and energy. But then the rewards can be beyond your wildest dreams, for make no mistake about it, the selling profession is the highest paid occupation in the world!

Selling is challenging. It demands the utmost of your creativity and innovative thinking. The more success you want, and the more dedicated you are to achieving your goals, the more you'll sell. Hundreds of people the world over become millionaires each month through selling. Many of them were flat broke and unable to find a "regular" job when they began their selling careers. Yet they've done it, and you can do it too!

Remember, it's the surest way to all the wealth you could ever want. You get paid according to your own efforts, skill, and knowledge of people. If you're ready to become rich, then think seriously about selling a product or service (preferably something exclusively yours) - something that you "pull out of your brain;" something that you write, manufacture or produce for the benefit of other people. But failing this, the want ads are full of opportunities for ambitious sales people. You can start there, study, learn from experience, and watch for the chance that will allow you to move ahead by leaps and bounds.

Be Better Than Good

If greatness is your goal, whether in your business life, your personal relationships or your own personal growth, here are some guidelines to get you on your way. Greatness is possible! You can achieve the goals you set for yourself and you can make a difference in your own life and those who live and work around you! Set greatness as your goal! Here’s how:

Identify greatness for yourself. While there are some basic generalities that most people would consider great, there are broader definitions of greatness, ones that each individual sets for him or herself. For example, most people would consider Mother Theresa great while only some would consider Donald Trump great. Helping humanity is a broad generality while building a real estate fortune isn’t. So what you need to first do is ask, “What does greatness look like for this company, organization, family or for myself?” From there you can develop values and a mission statement etc. But if you don’t first identify it, you’ll never reach it.

Maximize targeted end results. As Covey says, “begin with the end in mind.” What end results do you want. Be specific. Come up with all of them. Maximize them. Leave no stone uncovered. Set out for yourself all of the goals or end results you must hit in order to reach greatness. Write them down, memorize them and distribute them broadly (if doing this for a group). Maximize your targeted end results!

Make distinction your endeavor. What is the endeavor of the great? Usually it is to distinguish themselves from the average. They seek to rise above the rest by the quality of their product or service. Everything goes toward the goal of making themselves distinct from the run of the mill. That is their mission. And in doing so, they make themselves great!

Map your effort thoroughly. The three most important words in real estate are “location, location, location.” In reaching a goal, the three most important words are “plan, plan, plan.” Okay, “execute” and “persevere” work too, but go with me here! Too many people wish they would achieve something but never write down a plan for getting there. When I want to go on a long trip I don’t just wish to get there. I plan on how to get there. I get a map, I figure out distances, times etc. Map out your goal thoroughly. This will help you achieve greatness.

Regularly take time for regeneration. Achieving greatness is hard! You will care more, work harder, and take more lumps and setbacks than the rest. So you will need to take time to regenerate so you can fight again another day. Your body needs rest. Your mind needs rest. Your emotions need rest. Your spirit needs rest. I firmly believe that a person who rests well can do more in less time than the one works without setting aside time for regeneration. You may be able to reach goals without rest, but somewhere along the line, you will fall harder and longer if you aren’t regularly regenerating yourself. So take your vacation time this year!

Have a strict evaluation process. Every plan and goal needs an evaluation tool. And it should be a strict evaluation process. This is how you objectively decide whether or not you are proceeding toward your goal. If you have the right evaluation tool and you look six months into it and you aren’t hitting the goals, perhaps you need to change the goal or the way you are going after it. The evaluation process is not to be underestimated in its importance!

Take somebody else with you. True greatness is not individual. The one who becomes great spreads the reward of greatness around. Incorporate many people into the plan and let them eat of the fruit of success. I live in an area that has literally thousands of millionaires created by a company that had a vision of greatness. And while yes, they experience the reward, the rewards then go out many levels through the whole community, from businesses that support our community to non-profit groups, churches, and schools. True greatness blesses those many levels away.

Learn to party! Party? Yes! What good is greatness if you can’t enjoy it? And not just the final destination but also the entire journey. Be sure to stop along the way and relish in your movement. Celebrate small and large victories. This keeps the sprit high and the big mo rolling! Spend the money, buy the food and blow up the balloons – it’s time to celebrate!

Managing Information Overload: Is it Possible?

We are observing increasing hype about the wonders delivered by newest information technologies in an era characterized by knowledge as the critical resource for business activity. With the advent of new technologies, such as datamining, intranets, videoconferencing, and webcasting, several technologists are offering such solutions as a panacea for meeting the business challenges of the knowledge era. Trade press coverage of the 'productivity paradox' has further added to the speed of the information technology (IT) treadmill by suggesting that increasing investments in new information technologies should somehow result in improved business performance. For instance, some recent stories published in the trade press have asserted that certain technologies, such as intranets, have some inherent capability for facilitating organizational transformation initiatives, such as knowledge management.

Interestingly, some technology experts and academic scholars have observed that there is no direct correlation between IT investments and business performance or knowledge management. For instance, Erik Brynjolfsson, a professor at MIT Sloan School, notes that: "The same dollar spent on the same system may give a competitive advantage to one company but only expensive paperweights to another." Hence a key factor for the higher return on the IT dollar is the effective utilization of technology. How industry executives should go about deciphering the mantra of 'effective utilization,' however, remains an illusive issue. This conclusion is supported by the industrywide analyses of IT investments by the technology economist Paul Strassmann. There is no relationship between computer expenditures and company performance whatsoever. On a similar note, John Seely Brown, director of the Xerox Parc research center in Palo Alto, California, underscores that in the last 20 years, US industry has invested more than $1 trillion in technology, but has realized little improvement in the efficiency or effectiveness of its knowledge workers. He has attributed this failure to organizations' ignorance of ways in which knowledge workers communicate and operate through the social processes of collaborating, sharing knowledge and building on each others ideas.

Toward A New World Order of Business

The contrast highlighted above may be attributed to a transition of the economy from an era of competitive advantage based on information to one based on knowledge creation. The earlier era was characterized by relatively slow and predictable change that could be deciphered by most formal information systems. During this period, information systems based on programmable recipes for success were able to deliver their promises of efficiency based on optimization for given business contexts. Success stories of IT miracles of this era, such as Mrs. Fields' Cookies, have been chronicled by the Harvard Business School case writers and many others in the academic and trade press. However, as argued by Brian Arthur, Dean of Economics and Population Studies at Stanford and author of Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy, the new world of knowledge-based industries is distinguished by its emphasis on precognition and adaptation in contrast to the traditional emphasis on optimization based on prediction. He suggests that the new world of knowledge-based business is characterized by "re-everything" involving continuous redefinition of organizational goals, purposes, and its "way of doing things." This new business environment is characterized by radical and discontinuous change which overwhelms the traditional organizational response of predicting and reacting based on pre-programmed heuristics. Instead, it demands anticipatory response from organization members who need to carry out the mandate of a faster cycle of knowledge-creation and action based on the new knowledge.

Knowledge Management in the 'Old' Information Era

In the information era characterized by relatively predictable change, technology gurus, as well as hardware and software providers, have been offering out-of-box solutions that are expected to enable knowledge management. Such off-the-shelf solutions are expected to offer means for storing best practices devised by human experts in information databases which may be later used for crunching out the pre-determined solutions based on pre-defined parameters. For example, a Software Magazine article defined knowledge management in terms of understanding the relationships of data; Identifying and documenting rules for managing data; and assuring that data are accurate and maintain integrity. Similarly a Computerworld article defined knowledge management in terms of mapping knowledge and information resources both on-line and off-line. The convergent and consensus building emphasis of such systems is suited for stable and predictable organizational environments. However such interpretations of knowledge management -- based primarily on rules and procedures embedded in technology -- seem misaligned with the dynamically changing business environment.

Such programmed solutions may be good enough for devising strategies for a game of business that is based on pre-defined rules, conventions and assumptions. However such mechanistic solutions based on the traditional information-processing emphasis of knowledge management are increasingly inadequate in a business world that demands increasing flexibility and resurfacing of existing assumptions. This is the world which requires not playing by the pre-defined rules, but understanding and adapting as the rules of the game, as well as the game itself, keep changing. Examples of such changing rules, conventions and assumptions of business are suggested by the changing paradigms of organizations with the emergence of virtual corporations and business ecosystems.

A Definition of Knowledge Management for the New World

We propose a definition of Knowledge Management that attempts to go beyond the quickfix solutions or unidimensional views offered by many others. This definition is intended to move the thinking of corporate executives towards the strategic, non-linear and systemic view of Knowledge Management reviewed in this article.

"Knowledge Management caters to the critical issues of organizational adaption, survival and competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change. Essentially, it embodies organizational processes that seek synergistic combination of data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human beings."

Knowledge Management in the New World of Business

The traditional paradigm of information systems is based on seeking a consensual interpretation of information based on socially dictated norms or the mandate of the company bosses. This has resulted in the confusion between 'knowledge' and 'information'. However, knowledge and information are distinct entities!! While information generated by the computer systems is not a very rich carrier of human interpretation for potential action, 'knowledge' resides in the user's subjective context of action based on that information. Hence, it may not be incorrect to state that knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection of information, a point made two decades ago by West Churchman, the leading thinker on information systems.

The confusion between `knowledge' and `information' has caused managers to sink billions of dollars in technology ventures that have yielded marginal results. He asserts that the business managers need to realize that unlike information, knowledge is embedded in people... and knowledge creation occurs in the process of social interaction. On a similar note, Ikujiro Nonaka, the renowned Professor of Knowledge, has emphasized that only human beings can take the central role in knowledge creation. He argues that computers are merely tools, however great their information-processing capabilities may be. A very recent Harvard Business Review special issue on Knowledge Management seems to lend credence to this point of view. This issue highlighted the need for constructive conflict in organizations that aspire to be leaders in innovation and creation of new knowledge.

The 'wicked environment' of the new world of business imposes the need for variety and complexity of interpretations of information outputs generated by computer systems. Such variety is necessary for deciphering the multiple world views of the uncertain and unpredictable future. As underscored by the strategy guru Gary Hamel at the recent Academy of Management meeting address, non-linear change imposes upon organizations the need for devising non-linear strategies. Such strategies cannot be 'predicted' based on a static picture of information residing in the company's databases. Rather, such strategies will depend upon developing interpretive flexibility by understanding multiple views of the future. In this perspective, the objective of business strategy is not to indulge in long-term planning of the future. Rather, the emphasis is on understanding the various world views of future using techniques such as scenario-planning.  

Lessons for Business & Technology Executives

So what can executives do to realign their focus from the old world of 'information management' to the new paradigm of 'knowledge management' discussed here? A condensed checklist of implementation measures for business and technology managers is given in the following table.

Table 1. Implementation Measures for Facilitating Knowledge Management

Instead of the traditional emphasis on controlling the people and their behaviors by setting up pre-defined goals and procedures, they would need to view the organization as a human community capable of providing diverse meanings to information outputs generated by the technological systems.

De-emphasize the adherence to the company view of 'how things are done here' and 'best practices' so that such ways and practices are continuously assessed from multiple perspectives for their alignment with the dynamically changing external environment.

Invest in multiple and diverse interpretations to enable constructive conflict mode of inquiry and, thus, lessen oversimplification of issues or premature decision closure.

Encourage greater proactive involvement of human imagination and creativity to facilitate greater internal diversity to match the variety and complexity of the wicked environment.

Give more explicit recognition to tacit knowledge and related human aspects, such as ideals, values, or emotions, for developing a richer conceptualization of knowledge management

Implement new, flexible technologies and systems that support and enable communities of practice, informal and semi-informal networks of internal employees and external individuals based on shared concerns and interests.

Make the organizational information base accessible to organization members who are closer to the action while simultaneously ensuring that they have the skills and authority to execute decisive responses to changing conditions.

In the final analysis, managers need to develop a greater appreciation for their intangible human assets captive in the minds and experiences of their knowledge workers, because without these assets, the companies are simply not equipped with a vision to foresee or to imagine the future while being faced with a fog of unknowingness. As noted by Strassmann, elevating computerization to the level of a magic bullet may lead to the diminishing of what matters the most in any enterprise: educated, committed, and imaginative individuals working for organizations that place greater emphasis on people than on technologies.

The Business of Business

A business is an entity that provides goods and services to consumers with both a profit motive and social motive in view. There are two kinds of people in the world – the entrepreneurs and the salaried. It is said that those who are entrepreneurs take more risks and are braver to face life. That is why not everyone can get into business and earn a living out of it. It is a fact that the richest ever people in the world have been successful businessmen. We are, of course, not taking into account kings and rulers of various countries. The richest businessmen in the world are

• Andrew Carnegie – Founder of the Carnegie Steel Company. When adjusted, his net worth lies somewhere between USD 75 billion to USD 298 billion.
• Bill Gates – Founder of Microsoft. His current net worth is somewhere around USD 40 billion.
• Cornelius Vanderbilt – He was a shipping and railroad magnet. His personal fortune is estimated to be somewhere between USD 143 billion to USD 178 billion.
• Henry Ford – Founder of the Ford Motor Company. His net worth is estimated at USD 195 billion.
• John D. Rockefeller – Founder of the Standard Oil Company, John D. Rockefeller was the first person ever to become a billionaire when he achieved the feat in 1916. He is considered the richest American ever and his personal wealth is adjusted to be somewhere between USD 192 billion to USD 323 billion.
• John Jacob Astor – He started off trading in fur and later went into real estate and opium. His adjusted wealth is estimated at USD 116 billion.

Among the current entrepreneurs, the 10 richest businessmen include

• Bill Gates
• Warren Buffet
• Carlos Slim Helu
• Lawrence Ellison
• Ingvar Kamprad and family
• Karl Albrecht
• Mukesh Ambani
• Lakshmi Mittal
• Theo Albrecht
• Amancia Ortega

When it comes to business, there are many interesting incidents that come up from time to time. It is said that when Roberto Goizueta took over the reins of the company, Coca Cola was struggling in its fight against Pepsi, its biggest competitor. Goizueta took a stock of the situation and famously commented that Coke’s fight was not against Pepsi, but water. The words had such an effect that Coke shrugged off all competition and enhanced its position as the number one cola company of the world. As per Fortune Magazine, the biggest companies in the world currently are

• Royal Dutch Shell
• Exxon Mobil
• Wal-Mart Stores
• British Petroleum
• Chevron
• Total
• ConocoPhillips
• ING Group
• Sinopec
• Toyota Motor

Branding is something that no business can sustain without. Visibility among consumers is one of the most important elements for any business to flourish. That is why there is so much impetus on creating a logo and popularizing it among the masses. Consumers connect with the logos of their favorite companies and that helps businesses to earn more revenue. Some of the most popular brands in the world are

• Google – The Internet search engine.
• Apple – Producers of the iPod, the iPhone and the Mac.
• Nike – The world’s largest sportswear company.
• Target – Their Bullseye logo is considered to be known by more Americans than any other company.
• Starbucks – It brought in revolution in the coffee business and is still the leader in this field.
• BMW – It continues to remain the ultimate driving machine.
• Nintendo – Game lovers simply cannot do without this company’s products.
• Whole Foods Market – The leader in fresh fruits and vegetables.
• Disney – The ultimate in entertainment, Disney continues to attract tourists from all over the world.
• Coca Cola – The world’s largest beverage company still rules. (Half circle full circle half circle A, half circle full circle right angle A….the limerick to describe Coca Cola logo!)

There are many funny and interesting facts about business around the world. I have captured some of them below.

• In 1987, American Airlines decided to omit one olive from each salad course in the first class. As a result, they made a savings of $40,000.
• Bank of America started operations as Bank of Italy.
• If the entire population of the world is taken as 100, then half of the total wealth would be held by 6 people.
• More than 90% of cab drivers in New York are immigrants from other countries.
• The Mall, the biggest departmental store in Washington, D. C. is 1.4 times bigger than the Vatican City.
• Philip Morris, the first owner of the Marlboro brand, died of lung cancer.
• The top three valuable brands in the world in order of their value are Marlboro, Coca Cola and Budweiser.
• Dr. Lieven P. Van Neste owns more than 200,000 domain names.
• A Tupperware party starts somewhere in the world every 23 seconds.
• People in the USA get so hyper about the Super Bowl that the sale of antacids increases by 20% every year after the day of the game.
• Nauru, a small island in the Western Pacific, has fossilized bird droppings as one of its chief exports.
• The soft drink industry spends more than $100 million a year in stopping thefts involving their vending machines.
• The AA, or the Automobile Association was first started in 1905 to warn motorists about speed traps.
• Bill Bowerman, who founded Nike, first got the inspiration of creating Nike shoes after staring at waffle iron.
• David McConnell named his company Avon after the birthplace of William Shakespeare, Stratford on Avon.
• Kids in North America spend an average of about half a billion dollar annually on chewing gums.
• Canada and United States are the leaders in producing paper and paper products.

Businesses are reasons why common people exist. If there were no businesses and no businessmen, there would be no production. The average people would have nothing to buy and the human race would cease to exist. It is these risk takers who make life simpler for us. They reap the profits but where would we be without them?

Fire Protection Systems and Business

This article leans towards my career based expertise but relates to any business with assets that need protection from catastrophic fire loss.

Choosing the "best" fire suppression technology is not a simple task. A good starting point is to discuss your risks and operations with your insurance carrier. The large insurance companies have consulting engineers available who will have direct experience with the various systems. Your insurance carrier has a vested interest in getting you the best possible advice.

The fire department's primary concern is life safety, not contents. Their interest in your suppression system relates to safe exit of staff and visitors. It must protect the structure from collapse, which would endanger the lives of the fire fighters. Protecting the contents is therefore the responsibility of the owner.

The starting point for choosing a fire suppression system is a risk analysis to reduce the potential for a fire. Many hazards can be eliminated or reduced. The second objective is to mitigate the damage and to facilitate the recovery effort associated with the type of suppressant used. Regardless of which system is chosen, quality of installation and maintenance is critical. Your insurance carrier can also assist with testing and maintenance procedures. The following is an overview of the common suppression systems:

Wet pipe - A well-designed system will include flow monitors and pressure gauges to monitor the pressure on both sides of the valves when closed. Once the pipe flange seals set after installation and the system is monitored and maintained, it is highly reliable. There are probably more wet pipe systems than any others. They have an excellent track record and of course fast response. As long as it is not a deluge system, heads release as needed at a predetermined temperature as the fire progresses. Wet pipe systems should be discharged monthly (to the outside through an external valve), and pumps, valves, pressure gauges and alarms verified at that time.

Dry pipe and pre-actioned dry pipe and combinations thereof are considered to require more maintenance than wet pipe. Corrosion is a problem in systems with air or nitrogen in the pipes. However, they do have a place in freezing environments. There is a slight delay before water gets to the head at the rated volume and pressure. As with wet pipe, flow and pressure monitoring will alert you to problems. The pre-actioned systems are activated by sensors, and water release can be total or zonal with the heads releasing from the heat of the fire. Pre-action systems rely on smoke detection to get the water into the pipes. If the detection monitoring fails, the system is not activated. Both dry and wet pipe require that water be shut off manually.

Water mist systems are highly efficient but the technology is expensive. Small diameter piping is a plus and the use of a mist reduces damage to materials stored.

Fast response systems respond at an early stage of a fire. There are numerous types (release controls and heads) in this class of system.

Gas flooding systems are activated by temperature and smoke detection sensors. The gas is released under tremendous pressure. Statistics Canada is reported to have damaged certain records (shredded them) that were stored adjacent to the discharge nozzle. In computer rooms gas pressure is reported to have sent heavy floor tiles flying. These systems require that the room be extremely well sealed (doors, windows, ducts, piping, etc.) to achieve and hold the required concentration of suppressant. If the detection system fails there is no gas release. Should there be an equipment failure and the tank is discharged, there is no back-up. This is a major problem if the fire restarts itself. The length of time to get a tank recharged is a period of complete vulnerability.

Clearly the most important aspect of fire suppression is the sensing technology and monitoring (both technology and human, in-house and external). The next most important aspect after design is installation and maintenance. Every aspect of installation must be carefully monitored and inspected.

In one project, water pressure to sprinklers in a large records storage room was supplied by two 750 gal/min. pumps. The seals on the pumps were not evenly tightened during routine maintenance, which damaged the seals and the shaft alignment after about two years. Parts and repairs took almost one month for each pump. When a pump was out of service, there would have been an inadequate water supply to fight a major fire but sufficient for a small blaze. With shafts out of alignment, the pump might not have lasted long enough to combat a fire.

The pump and valve room should be well secured to avoid sabotage. Main supply valves should be locked open to avoid sabotage. Pumps require back-up power supply - another vulnerability.

At the end of the day there are no perfect solutions. You wrestle with options, choose one and accept the vulnerabilities. The protection of your structure, materials and people is reliant on good monitoring technology and safeguards, routine and thorough maintenance and a disaster recovery plan.