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Are you old enough to remember the good old days when careers practically managed themselves and there weren’t so many job-related decisions to make? Even if you are not, you probably did grow up with the notion that you would work in the same field for most if not all your career, and that you would have long tenures with one or just a few employers. However with American employees now working on average only 4.2 years in a job, many of us will make numerous stay-or-leave decisions over the course of our careers.

This article addresses the issues surrounding two common career mistakes: staying too long in a job, and at the other end of the spectrum, changing jobs too often. My objective is to provide insights and guidance that will enable you to make better career decisions and to be strategic and proactive in managing your career.

DEAD END JOBS

A dead-end job is one that no matter how well you perform, your opportunity to grow professionally is limited or non-existent–either because the job or environment is not a good fit for you or because of industry or company factors. If you’re in a dead end job, you should start developing a plan to move on at an appropriate time. Here are some factors that a job might be a dead end.

1.) Declining industries

Declining industries trap many employees in dead end careers. People who have jobs that are quite industry specific are most vulnerable. Remember type setting? It was a thriving industry at one time and then, almost overnight, with the advent of digital word processing, it ceased to exist. Steel? Automotive? Telecommunications? U.S. employee populations in these industries have shrunk dramatically in these sectors in recent years. Reduced employment numbers bodes poorly for employment stability and upward mobility.

Generally speaking, if you work in a declining industry and have more than a few years until retirement, you should think about redirecting your career to a growing field. That said, we cannot begin to cover all the possible circumstances that might apply to readers of this chapter, and thus have to be careful about categorical recommendations. In fact, if you are in a later stage of your career and earning a high income, it may make sense to stay with a declining industry. Your best strategy here is to set aside a nice nest egg in case you lose your job and to develop special expertise or additional skills that would help you in the job market.

If you work in a declining industry you are at the most risk if the job you do has a good supply of talent, relative to demand. Conversely, if you work in a specialty that is growing and in-demand – albeit in a shrinking industry sector – your prospects might still be very promising.

The longer you wait the harder it will be to switch fields. Taking an initial pay cut, going back to school, and relocating are just a few things that are easier to do earlier in your life rather than later when you are more established and are more likely to have family obligations. And the more years of experience you have the more difficult it is for employers to be willing to hire you as a trainee – no matter your enthusiasm and willingness.

2.) Inertia

Sometimes it’s the employee who allows him or herself to get stuck because the prospect of change is uncomfortable, scary and/or a lot of trouble. We are not talking about people who are at least moderately happy in their jobs and made a conscious decision to remain with an employer long term. We are talking about employees who dislike or even hate their jobs, believe they are underpaid, or are angry about not getting ahead, but don’t take action.

Unfortunately for some, changing employers is daunting. Inertia to stay in your current job can be rooted in lack of knowledge of how to look for a new job, the lack of obvious opportunities, the fear of change or of the unknown, or a combination of all those things. The Five O’Clock Club is an excellent resource to help reluctant job seekers overcome these issues with its proven strategy for job search, guidance from trained career coaches, and support and feedback from other job seekers.

3.) Great Job – for Somebody Else

It goes without saying that if a job is totally wrong for you, you should move on. However, a surprising number of people pursue and stay in jobs to fulfill the expectations of their parents or others. No matter how glamorous, fun, important, prestigious or stimulating your career may be to someone else, if it doesn’t work for you, you owe it to yourself to find out what does.

4.) Loyal to a Fault

Loyalty to one’s employer is of course a good thing. We should all aspire to work for an employer we admire, trust, and with whom we are proud to be associated. Some people, however, become so loyal that they overlook serious issues at the company or put their employer first at the expense of their own career.

5.) Career Path Requirements

The need for advanced degrees or highly specific training in certain jobs may portend an eventual dead end if you don’t choose to obtain the necessary education and you seek an upwardly mobile career.

6.) Downward Spirals

When you’re in the situation you may not recognize it, but executive and career coaches see it all the time: a tense but stable boss/subordinate situation takes a turn for the worse, and then everything starts going wrong. This can happen quickly, blindsiding the employee who didn’t see it coming. Once the situation begins to spiral downward, it can be very difficult, if not impossible to reverse. Sometimes there is an underlying issue or personality conflict between the boss and subordinate, but in other cases it may have little or nothing to do with the employee. Perhaps the company is having financial problems, or the boss has family or personal problems that are contributing to his apparent irrationality.

HOW TO RECOGNIZE A DEAD END JOB

It is very easy to get caught up in focusing on the near term instead of thinking about your job from a more strategic long term perspective. The quiz below will prompt you to think about where you job may or may not be taking you.

Are you in a dead end job?

Read the following statements in the context of your current job. As candidly as possible, indicate with a number between 1 and 4 the extent to which you agree with each statement. 1= completely disagree; 2 = mostly disagree; 3 = mostly agree; 4 = completely agree):

___ Most days I feel enthusiastic about going to work

___ I’m good at what I do and my job takes advantage of my abilities

___ My company is thriving and future prospects are good

___ My industry is thriving and future prospects are good

___ My recent performance review or feedback was above average to superior

___ I get occasional calls from friends or recruiters about jobs in my industry

___ I’m continuing to learn and grow professionally

___ My job/career path play well to my strengths

___ I fit in well with the company culture

___ I’m well regarded by executives, peers, and subordinates at my company

# of 1’s _____ # of 2’s_____ # of 3’s_____ # of 4’s______

If you have two or more statements that you ranked as completely or mostly disagree, this could be a dead end job. If more than half your responses are 1’s and 2’s, this would definitely suggest that you should make plans for a change.

If you think you are in a dead end job, that doesn’t mean you should quit right away, or take the first job that might come along. Timing of course will vary according to your particular situation. Sometimes we work to satisfy near-term needs or objectives, especially income needs. You never know how long it will take to find your ideal next job, so it’s usually a good idea to hang on to your current one until you do. If you’re working in a particular job to get certain skills or experience, be sure to stay long enough to truly get that experience, even though strategically it’s not where you want to be long term.

ANOTHER REASON TO CONSIDER MOVING ON

Burnout and Illness

The term burnout, as we use it in American business jargon, refers to feeling powerless, hopeless, fatigued, drained or frustrated. When work activities you once enjoyed become drudgery, you dread going to work, you find yourself cynical or easily annoyed about your boss or coworkers, or you don’t care as much about the quality of your work –

you may be experiencing burnout.

Some job situations these days are so intense that your mental and physical health may be jeopardized. From insomnia to ulcers, back problems, clinical depression, anxiety attacks, stomach problems and headaches, there is no end to the consequences of stress. Quite often, these health problems disappear after the situation at work is resolved. One concerning consequence is that burnout can cause one’s performance to suffer.

If your physical or mental health is deteriorating, or you begin to feel burned out from prolonged periods of a stressful work situation, you should take steps to address the underlying problem(s). It might require developing and proposing a plan to your boss for adding or reorganizing staff resources, or having some part of your job automated. Perhaps getting some training, taking a management development course, or working with a coach could help you improve your productivity so you don’t have to work such long hours.

It may also help for you to take a vacation, or even some extra, unpaid time. More and more companies are allowing valued employees – usually those with some tenure – to take sabbaticals – paid or unpaid leaves of absence. If these measures fail or are not feasible, and you continue to experience undue stress, burnout, or illness, it’s time to move on.

WHEN YOU SHOULD STAY

Job Hopping

In contrast to those described above for whom inertia is a driving force, others have a natural preference for just the opposite. These individuals prefer change and variety over routines and they excel at adapting to new information and spotting new trends. They are more likely to embrace entrepreneurial opportunities. The downside of these positive attributes however is that these individuals are not as good at following through and sticking with things as they are at starting new things. When the going gets tough or the job gets routine or boring, they like to move on.

These individuals may become job hoppers – a term loosely defined as one who moves around to different jobs and doesn’t stay in one place too long. We’re not referring to workers who freelance or contract for projects with employers. We’re talking about people who want to work on-staff on an ongoing basis within an organization.

So, what’s acceptable and what’s not when it comes to frequent job changes? It depends on many factors, including industry sector. Technology firms and early-stage companies for example, attract and embrace employees who have changed jobs more often than the norm. More traditional companies such as consumer packaged goods, oil companies or utilities firms tend to have much longer tenured employees. Tenures less than a year, even two back to back are usually not a problem for recent college graduates, but this would be an obstacle for a mid-career person with the same situation.

The Employer’s Perspective on Stability

Employers want to hire people that will stay a while at their company. It is expensive and disruptive to fill vacant positions. They also would like to have talent waiting in the wings to promote people from within when openings arise. In evaluating your candidacy, your career history is the best evidence they have to try to predict how long you might work for them. If you have a history of short tenures because you got recruited away for bigger jobs, they might be impressed, but they have to worry that you would be easily lured away from them, too.

Employers also want to know that the experience you claim to have is solid, not just superficial basics learned from a quick tour of duty. This becomes more important as you go up the ranks to higher levels. They may discount your success in short tenured jobs because you didn’t stay around long enough for the results to stick. This is true even if one or several of your short stints is a result of factors beyond your control such as mergers, financial downturn, new management, etc.,

Stability Capital

When you work for a substantial period of time for one firm you build up what I call stability capital. It’s like having stored up goodwill that can carry you through a rough patch. If, for example, you had a very long career with one firm before one or maybe two recent short tenured jobs, your stability capital from your long-term employer will help to offset your recent instability in the minds of prospective employers.

While having a respectable stint at a brand name employer won’t change the reality of short tenures at other companies, it can serve to mitigate a potential employers’ negative impression. I can hear someone defending your candidacy with “She was at Blue Chip for four years, and we know how high their standards are – she wouldn’t have lasted there even one year if she hadn’t been a good performer”.

If you jumped around a lot early in your career, but you’ve been at recent employers for solid stints, your earlier lack of stability is not likely to be a problem. Also, if you’ve made a major career change and have stability in your new field, earlier hopping is probably irrelevant. In these cases you can make an entry on your resume called “Various positions in retailing” or whatever, and indicate the overall dates for that period of time, not for specific employers. You also have the option of leaving early experience off altogether, but give it some thought before you do. If the employer feels like you are hiding something or withholding relevant information it can work against you.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON’T HAVE STABILITY CAPITAL

To gauge your stability capital and see your job history through the eyes of a hiring manager or recruiter, take a pen and in the margin of your resume next to your dates of employment, write the number of years you worked at each place. This is something they really do! Assume you are a reasonable person who works in your field, write the tenure for each job in the margin, and listen to how your gut responds when you look at the data.

If you lack stability capital and you are currently employed, most likely your best strategy is to stay put and build some tenure. If you’re ready for new challenges, perhaps there are other jobs within the company that are appropriate, or perhaps you can focus on developing skills or experience on special projects within your current job that will prepare you for an eventual move.

If you lack stability capital and are already in transition, be sure to invest some time looking at the underlying reasons for your job changes. Look for patterns and factors that have contributed to jobs ending prematurely, as well as the positive factors that contributed to your staying at jobs where you worked longer. Write down your key findings and incorporate them into your job search plan. Your goal of course is to make better career decisions going forward, and maximize the likelihood of staying at your next employer a while. You will want to perform extra due diligence on your prospective employers and pull out and review your career plan before you accept your next job.

You should have a knock-out resume, chock full of accomplishments, and you should prepare clear, concise answers to questions you will inevitably be asked in interviews about short tenures. If you stumble on your reasons for leaving jobs and/or ramble on, you will come across as defensive and your reasons will sound less credible.

You want to arrange your resume so that your jobs with the longest tenures and the employers with the best reputations are visible – preferably on the first page. If you had multiple jobs with the same employer, be sure to give the dates of your overall employment at that company. If you had an employer that was acquired by another company and you worked for the successor company, represent it as one employer, not as two separate entries.

There are many creative ways these days to “spin” your work experience in your resume in a flattering way and still be honest. Note that in today’s employment world, a resume is a marketing document, not an official record of your job history. So, within reason, you can take some liberties. For example, if you held a job for just a few weeks or months, it’s okay to leave it off your resume.

Consider Becoming A Free Agent

If you have a history of short job tenures, and your self analysis shows that a traditional employment environment doesn’t suit you, perhaps you should consider working for yourself. Many technology and creative professionals have been working as independent contractors for decades. Now, virtually every field has possibilities for professionals to work in ways that enable you to do what you do best for clients, and have the independence and flexibility of working for yourself at the same time.

Portfolio Careers

Individuals with a wide array of talents and interests may job hop in search of outlets for their abilities. The Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, an organization that provides aptitude testing services and researches aptitudes as they relate to careers, defines an aptitude as a natural talent that is not influenced by education, training or socialization. Their research reveals that most jobs take advantage of three to four aptitudes at most. Individuals who have five or more high aptitudes will have trouble finding jobs that fully utilize all their talents. Hobbies can be a great outlet for many aptitudes. Another possibility is a “portfolio career”.

Many professionals today earn a living from multiple jobs or types of work–what has come to be known in recent years a portfolio career. If you think about it, there is some built in job security to a portfolio career – if one of your income sources dries up, you will have other sources of revenue. There may be synergies between the activities, such as teaching, consulting, and writing books in your field of expertise. Or they may be unrelated – accountant by day, wedding photographer on Saturday nights, with each endeavor utilizing quite different abilities.

A NOTE TO HIGH POTENTIALS

From the employer’s perspective, perhaps the most desirable employees to have, but most challenging to retain, are those referred to as “high potentials” or sometimes “high potentials/high performers”. Whether they are hired directly from top universities with stellar grades, or recruited from industry with big salaries, the corporation looks to develop them to be future executives. These bright, ambitious employees are accustomed to steep learning curves and a constant stream of new challenges or assignments as they move up the ladder. But if the next promotion seems a little too far off, they tend to head for the door. It’s easy for them to do so, since there is always a good job market for high potentials.

Does this profile fit you to some degree? If you fall into this high potential/high performer category, you may be tempted to change jobs whenever opportunity knocks. I have counseled some talented individuals whose job hopping became a real problem in their job search -no matter their impressive education, employer names and potential.

Before you launch an external job search or consider taking a job for which you are being recruited, be sure to consider your options with your current employer. Sometimes a little patience pays off big. If your tenure with your current employer is short, you should have a really good reason to change jobs.

In the early years of your career your employer may move you quickly through different positions, and this affords you excellent experience quickly. As you move into mid or senior level roles however, try to stay long enough in a position to get substantive experience and verifiable results. Sometimes you learn the most from a job just after the learning curve has begun to flatten. You may think the job is done when you’ve made obvious improvements or solved key problems in your job. But sometimes solving the smaller problems, getting that next degree of improvement, or managing the aftermath of a transformation, provide equal management challenges. Savvy employers can see through quick fixes -they want to know that the success you claim was also sustainable. It’s hard to show this if you have a history of moving on before the dust has settled.

TIMING

Timing is everything they say, and certainly when it comes to your paycheck, timing can be critically important. In the ideal world, most of us would prefer to have a new job in hand before leaving our current employer. There are obvious advantages to conducting a job search while you are still employed: a certain cache to employers, plenty of time to be selective, and of course steady income. A little less obvious is that you get access to a lot more jobs over a longer span of time, instead of being limited by jobs available during a shorter period of time.

The adage our parents taught us that it’s always easier to get a job when you have a job, is still pretty good advice, but it’s not as true as it once was. In their generation, before the restructuring and downsizing of recent times, employers were quick to suspect that an unemployed professional had been fired from his last job. The stigma associated with being unemployed has diminished significantly in recent years. Today’s employers know that even the most talented candidates can lose their jobs through no fault of their own.

Whereas until recently it was almost unheard of for an employee in good standing to quit a job without having another one lined up, it does happen more frequently today. Let’s face it: some jobs are so demanding that conducting a job search while working is practically impossible. For those that can afford to quit, or have been fired or laid off, being able to conduct a full-time job search has some definite advantages.

If you were looking to sell your house, you would want to let as many potential buyers as possible know about it, right? While you are employed you typically cannot announce your availability to the world, and thus you’re at a disadvantage in attracting all possible employers. With limited time to devote to a job search, it can be hard for an employed candidate to generate enough activity and momentum to ensure a successful search.

If you choose to resign from a job before lining up your next one, you will certainly be asked about it on interviews. A truthful answer such as “As a client services manager I was available to my clients virtually around the clock – there was no way I could effectively look for a new job and do my current job well at the same time”.

ONE FINAL THOUGHT

Whatever career decisions you make along the way, I hope you will think about the implications of your decisions for your longer term career. The best career strategy is one that gives you the most qualifications for the type of jobs you would like to have down the road.

There’s an old Chinese proverb to keep in mind: “The Road to Success is Always Under Construction”. Indeed.

© 2007 Laura Hill

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Source by Laura Hill

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People generally look at the face first. The second is the shoes and exactly next to the shoes what one observes are the socks, the safeguards of the feet, which prevent the feet from rubbing against the shoes, give the feet a tender feeling and add some style element in ones attire. As fashion has become more individualistic, every product that gives the look and reflects personality has drawn the attention of designers and fashion experts. From hat to legwear, every item worn by a person adds to the overall persona and appeal. In this varied scenario of dressing, every part of the attire has gained a makeover… legwear being the latest. Now various designing looks are given to the pair of clothing so that they have their own importance inside the clothing.

Knitted hose have been a part of clothing for the past 1,000 years. At the outset it was worn by men and not women. The first stocking knitted on a circular machine was made in 1589. The market has improved since then. The first nylon stocking was made in 1938 and the first tights were made in 1966. Over the years stockings have become less popular and, most recently, knee-highs and ankle-highs have become more popular because women now wear more of trousers rather than skirts.

Nowadays, the use of legwear increases with each season. With the introduction of design aspects in the legwear category and the aim of making one such product changing, the legwear production industry is experiencing a huge demand in the summer time too. Hot Sox, DKNY, Givenchy- licensed by JET, American Essentials- the licensee for Calvin Klein and Michael Kors, Leg Resource Inc., Infinity Classics International etc., are a few products that satisfy the demand of designer legwear. Many departmental stores have special hosiery departments that keep the best brands. Designers like Anna Sui, Marc Jacobs and Dolce Gabbana make legwear collections more appealing.

With many aspects of a jigsaw, the new collection offered on the shelves range from elegant classic and natural appeals to fascinating flamboyant styles. The new legwear styles take into consideration the several demands of the present trend and show off perfect style and beauty. The variety is so vast that legwear has appeared as a hip extension for designers to show their abilities. Since legwear is worn by everyone regardless of age, gender or profession, ¬ there are various designs that are made for each and every segment. The legwear market is gaining a specific space in the market, more so due to skirts and now dresses which have gained popularity as the hot fashion products. Legwear designers foresee a bright future for tights, sheers and socks.

Many producers across the globe are trying to renew particular styles in the legwear category in each and every season and market them for the season. Holiday- specific legwear that are aimed at holiday themes, patterns and designs specific only to the holiday season are now a thing of the past. Today, many legwear manufacturers target socks and sheers as they make a good gift due to its affordability and usefulness. The promotional market is another area where it is considered that legwear can solve the purpose.

Sheer with decorative backseams dotted with red flowers in both black or white or sheer red shapes and floral vine pattern are enormous. Sheer shapes are also being made with rhinestones: rhinestones decorate the backseams and are sprinkled on sheer black colour. Kayser-Roth Corporation in its HUE line, Fine Line Hosiery and The Randalman, NC Company are some of the companies that offer a design element to legwear. HUE came out with rhinestone backseams, tuxedo striped sheers in black or nude, lurex rib sheers, shimmer sheers in black, gold or silver; lace trim tulle thigh highs and stockings with built-in garters.

Traffic- stopping graphic prints, romantic openwork, textured legwear, solid opaque, school girl knee- highs, ladylike sheers and ribbed knits are a few of the latest vogue. Forecasted to hit the fashion field are knee-high socks that are anticipated to become one of the new fashion trends. Knee socks in bias plaids, classic argyles in both traditional and gloomy colours, contrast herringbone, heavy tweed styles, stripes and femme angora openwork are arrived in the market. Feature covers colour flecks, fur pom poms and embroidered stitching. In socks, surface attractiveness is vital with visible textures giving preference over patterns. Moretz has set up sock styles with a various tweed textures. Use of luxury blends with wools, angora and cashmere, and romantic affects continue to be the largest in ladies apparel, which provides another increment to the sale of tights and trousers.

In pink, white and black, there are various categories available with contrasting trim and seed stitching on the top of the feet with a flower around ankles. Tattoo sheer pantyhose, checkered thigh highs, cotton knee highs with bows, lycra mesh stockings, lace leggings, skulls and crossbones midcalves, fuzzy multi stripe, striped tigers, argyle clock, micro velour diamonds, shark bite 3D socks, rugby 3-striped, surprise rib and branches tights are a few sets that perform the genesis of designing element spotted on the ‘essentials’, as accepted by today’s generation. The persistence of beadwork, embroidery and crochet in apparel and accessories compliment the net/ crochet designs and opaque textures used in a sizable way in legwear. Opaques (dark and ribbed) and cable knit tights, men’swear patterns and footless tights are anticipated to have a huge market share.

For many producers, collection of fashion tights covers bold plaid opaques, textured tights in leopard, houndstooth and herringbone, antique openwork, crochet and nets and colourful, crazy tights motivated by Pucci’s graphic designs. Fine Line Hosiery offers many plated tights in diamond, floral heather patterns and ribs. The beauty of legwear is further enhanced with the use of colours in the perfect mix. Browns command the colour palette along with affluent burgundies, warm greens, gold and robust tones. Attractive palettes of blue cover turquoise and teal. Inky blues offer a sophisticated casual look with a laid-back attitude that matches the best with denim wear and offer a break from the khaki family. Colours of inky blues include Rio, Wonder Blue and Midnight. Metallics have become the new mortals.

The new transparent lines of curved hosiery from Hanes are available in many flesh tones that are transparent enough to facilitate consumers to harmonize their skin tones with superior support. Captivating its influence from movement in the beauty industry, which is blowing up with products meant to offer a tanned, shining effect to the legs, Hanes also deals with Sheer Radiance, a line of edge that offers a slightly tanned and shining look to the leg. Leg Resource Inc., which makes legwear for Anne Klein and Via Spiga, among others, is all about facets with zigzags, curlicue motifs and sewn-on lace. Items from Infinity Classics International, a Brooklyn-based producer and marketer of hosiery for Italian line Levante and British import Jonathan Aston cover ultrasheers and sheers; opaques in chevron, spiral or diamond patterns and fishnets in mini and maxi weaves. Silhouettes include a regular growth or an unusual low-rise ‘hipster’ cut.

The legwear market covers only a small fraction of the total apparel business, the US imported legwear worth $ 1.24 billion in 2004. Canada imported $ 120 billion while EU imported Euro 2.66 billion, a 21 per cent, 20 per cent and 10 per cent increment, correspondingly over the previous year. Though, India could raise its share only in the EU market from 1.39 per cent to 1.47 per cent.

US market of legwear

US import of legwear boosted by 20 per cent in 2004

Legwear, including hose, pantyhose, tights, socks, stockings and other hosiery products and a necessary apparel items are quite popular world over. The US imported such items worth $1.1 billion in 2003. The imports rose by about 20 per cent to reach $ 1.3 billion in 2004. Legwear imports add just 2 per cent to total import valued at $ 65 billion of apparel into the US.

Stockings and Tights – UK market

Today’s hosiery market is divided between sales of tights (84%), stockings (3%), hold-ups (4%) and knee-highs (9%).

In 2004 the fine hosiery market was about £250 million; with more than half a million pairs of tights, stockings and hold ups being purchased every day. Legwear is the most regularly purchased item of clothing with women purchasing on average of ten pairs a year. The average price of a pair of tights in 2004 was £1.19; though. In UK Pretty Polly, Elbeo Levante etc are the leader in tights and stockings.

India’s legwear market in the EU’s perception

For legwear in the EU market, China with a contribution of 1.5 per cent was better than India and all others in the Indian subcontinent. Though, legwear imports from China in the year 2003 decreased in value terms by over 4 per cent despite a raise of about 13 per cent in volume terms. Here again, Pakistan with a contribution of over 1 per cent was at number two position and imports of legwear from Pakistan raised by over 46 per cent in the year 2003 as against 2002. Among China and other competitors in the sub-continent, India gained number three position with making 0.55 per cent contribution to the legwear market in the EU. In 2003, import of legwear from India rose by about 13 per cent.

EU a large market for legwear

The market for legwear in the EU is quite larger than the US. The EU imported legwear worth Euro 2.66 billion in 2003, increased by 3.6 per cent from Euro 2.57 billion in 2002. Legwear imports add to the total apparel imports valued at about Euro 83 billion of the EU to the size of 3.2 per cent.

Over the last two years, the business from India has increased significantly. Many producers have got a growth of almost 40-50 percent in their business. Experts believe that the export market of India will keep up provided the manufacturer can produce the products with latest trends with other yarns that are no longer restricted to any particular weather, besides cotton legwear. Though in cotton legwear still manufacturers have to move fast to sustain in a long run.

India has colourful presentation for buyers in Legwear – Cotton still well demanded

Europe is a larger market as compared to the US in legwear with advancement in blends and designs. Though, India has only a 0.5 per cent of share of legwear worldwide with its strong existence in the cotton socks segment.

The US imported legwear amounted to $ 1.3 billion in 2004, while EU imported Euro 2.66 billion worth in 2003. In the subsequent periods, Indian exports raised by about 13 per cent to the US and 38 per cent to the EU in that order. The total quantities exported in legwear from India to the US and the EU accounted to 21.32 per cent and 94.44 per cent respectively, which were cotton legwear. With increased incursion of Asian countries, mostly China, the US Socks Industry is susceptible to rising imports. US manufacturing plus outward processing of socks decreased 13.2 per cent from 2001 to 2003.

Though China escorts offensively with new machines pursued by innovations in yarn, compositions and blends, India has begun building a strong existence with huge exporters investing in socks production and the traditional exporters aiming at expansion. Even foreign investors are peeping at India as a feasible manufacturing hub with application of a variety of yarn blends though cotton remains the key potential.

Colour, prints and new designs were the most accepted legwear fashion for 2005. As many fashion accessories are used in various designs and styles, likewise legwear also has a preference with various designs and looks with many interesting styles. Plains, plating, ribs, links, sports terry, anklet, various motifs are some of the regular designs made from India under the legwear category for both the domestic and the export market. From black to pastel to light colours, there is no substantial variation in the types that Indian producers are offering to both the markets. Besides the stylish and gentle like hosiery, novelty yarns like Lurex in soft colours, short shorties and knee high with delicate embroidery combined with appliqués have made the legwear more trendy and stylish.

At the end of the quota regime, Delta Galil Industries, a foremost producer of intimate clothing, supplying to brands like Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, Nike and Ralph Lauren, started a $5 million socks factory in Silvassa in the Union Territory of Daman, Dadra & Nagarhaveli (INDIA). The factory will use over 200 looms plus specific finishing equipment to satisfy a target of one million pairs of socks per month. The company considers that the factory’s production will make $ 15 million with buyers in Europe and the US once it is fully operational. The company penetrated the Indian zone in an attempt to locate low-priced production locations to increase its competitiveness with an objective to develop business.

While this company from Israel observed business benefits in India and entered all the way post quota, Trend Setters, a famous name in garment export from India already has a devoted 100 per cent export production socks unit since 1999. TSI Industries Pvt Ltd, Faridabad, makes cotton, nylon and cotton blended legwear with elastane for kids, ladies and men’s category.

However, since the technology needed to produce ladies leggings is not available in India, the company ventured into cotton lycra leggings apart from its usual products. The total production capacity of the unit is 800 dozen pairs of socks per day. The company functions generally on the design patterns, colours and packaging offered by its buyers. With good output the company intends to put in Matec machines by 2006 to increase production and ranges.

In starting period of time, India made the export as well as the import market with only 100 per cent cotton items. It has also slowly started for other yarn compositions and blends. Some of the new compositions cover polyester, acrylic, wool, nylon, polypropelene and polyester viscose with a maximum of 5 per cent of spandex. Besides others, polypropelene is used only for the domestic market. Other yarn categories are intended both for domestic as well as export purposes. As other fashion accessories are offered in various designs and styles, likewise legwear has left the plain look behind and brought forth various appealing styles.

With a manufacturing capacity of 10,000 per/day, a New Delhi-based exporter of socks, Olympic Overseas Private Limited, produces socks for ladies and gents, as well as stockings. Apart form the common yarn types like cotton and nylon, the company even uses polyester viscose for both the domestic and the international market. The Rs 1.5 crores company supplies to France, UK, Germany and Belgium, working with importers and wholesalers like Benjamin SA, a key importer from France. Olympic Overseas offers only socks. They make stockings for the domestic market but not for international business. According to industry experts International demand for stockings is for fine quality yarn in which India is not that strong. Overseas has offers ‘arguile’ designs (shapes like diamond, rhombus, and triangle) and customized legwear in nearly 20 different styles. There are four set and size of legwear which they offer; the ankle length; the normal size that is 5-6″ above the ankle; then comes the long set that is immediately below the knees and finally stockings. In the international market, long socks are offered in the size of 1″ above the knee.

V. V. Hosiery is another Delhi-based legwear company of Rs 5 crore conglomerate, selling products under the brand name ASTRA. It mainly concentrates on ribs, links, sports terry, anklet and cutter motif styles. In addition to socks for gents, ladies and children, the company also exports stockings to various countries. It generally uses cotton and polypropelene. With a production capacity of 10,000 pairs per day, out of which 50 per cent is exported, the company has recently set up the export business of socks through importers in Dubai. Another hosiery producer who makes socks on demand is Office International Inc., the Tirupur based producer who focuses on children’s winter socks made of cotton with embroidery and prints.

A Mumbai-based trading house, Lee-On Impex exports sports socks for gents to Indian exporters like East Asia Trading and players from Kuwait and Australia. White is the most popular colour preference for the category which they are working for. Dark colours are used for striping. The conglomerate supplies on an average 2,000 pairs of sports socks per day. In gent’s legwear, navy blue, brown, black, light grey, dark grey, white, olive and green are the most popular colours which are in demand. With these shades, other frequent light colours are used for ladies legwear. School socks for children are patterned by shades of white, grey, navy blue and maroon. Pastel and baby colours like pink and rose are the preferred colour combinations in fancy socks.

New products for Winter 05 were remarkable. Many producers have created socks with air passages for Autumn Winter 05. Olympic Overseas has exported their usual products with specialized designs and looks for the season. Seamless stitching on toe, pre-shrinkage and softening finishes and antibacterial treatments were also well demanded in the season.

Fishnet stockings, fishnet thigh highs and micro-net are fashions in the stockings’ market. Generally, nets provide airy comfort to the legs. In addition, a unique type of remedy like beading and ruffling, the international trend for legwear, includes some shoe treatments into legwear like gel bottoms to offer socks more of an athletic appeal. Attractive floral designs are ample in ladies’ legwear. Many international companies who have arrived with these trends are Kayser-Roth Corp., Soxland International Inc, Levante, Hot Soz and Wolford, among others.

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Source by Gaurav Doshi

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Have you ever heard someone say they had warped brake discs? Typically someone had the discs resurfaced to cure the problem and after a relatively short time the roughness or vibration came back.

In almost every case, this problem is not caused by a warped discs, but that the brake pad material transferred unevenly to the surface of the disc. This uneven deposition results in thickness variation or run-out due to hot spotting that occurred at elevated temperatures.

Friction is the mechanism that converts dynamic energy into heat.

Just as there are two sorts of friction between the tire and the road surface (mechanical gripping of road surface irregularities by the elastic tire compound and transient molecular adhesion between the rubber and the road in which rubber is transferred to the road surface), so there are two very different sorts of braking friction – abrasive friction and adherent friction. Abrasive friction involves the breaking of the crystalline bonds of both the pad material and the cast iron of the disc. The breaking of these bonds generates the heat of friction. In abrasive friction, the bonds between crystals of the pad material (and, to a lesser extent, the disc material) are permanently broken.

The harder material wears the softer away (hopefully the disc wears the pad). Pads that function primarily by abrasion have a high wear rate and tend to fade at high temperatures. When these pads reach their effective temperature limit, they will transfer pad material onto the disc face in a random and uneven pattern. It is this “pick up” on the disc face that both causes the thickness variation measured by the technicians and the roughness or vibration under the brakes reported by the drivers.

With adherent friction, some of the pad material diffuses across the interface between the pad and the disc and forms a very thin, uniform layer of pad material on the surface of the disc. As the friction surfaces of both disc and pad then comprise basically the same material, material can now cross the interface in both directions and the bonds break and reform. In fact, with adherent friction between pad and disc, the bonds between pad material and the deposits on the disc are transient in nature – they are continually being broken and some of them are continually reforming.

There is no such thing as pure abrasive or pure adherent friction in braking. With many contemporary pad formulas, the pad material must be abrasive enough to keep the disc surface smooth and clean. As the material can cross the interface, the layer on the disc is constantly renewed and kept uniform – again until the temperature limit of the pad has been exceeded or if the pad and the disc have not been bedded-in completely or properly. In the latter case, if a uniform layer of pad material transferred onto the disc face has not been established during bedding or break-in, spot or uncontrolled transfer of the material can occur when operating at high temperatures.

The organic and semi-metallic pads of the past were more abrasive than adherent and were severely temperature limited. All of the current generation of “metallic carbon”, racing pads utilize mainly adherent technology as do many of the high end street car pads and they are temperature stable over a much higher range. Unfortunately, there is no free lunch and the ultra high temperature racing pads are ineffective at the low temperatures typically experienced in street use.

Therefore – there is no such thing as an ideal “all around” brake pad. The friction material that is quiet and functions well at relatively low temperatures around town will not stop the car that is driven hard. If you attempt to drive many cars hard with the OEM pads, you will experience pad fade, friction material transfer and fluid boiling – end of discussion. The true racing pad, used under normal conditions will be noisy and will not work well at low temperatures around town.

Ideally, in order to avoid either putting up with squealing brakes that will not stop the car well around town or with pad fade on the track or coming down the mountain at speed, we should change pads before indulging in vigorous automotive exercise. No one does. The question remains, what pads should be used in high performance street cars – relatively low temperature street pads or high temperature race pads? Strangely enough, in my opinion, the answer is a high performance street pad with good low temperature characteristics. The reason is simple: If we are driving really hard and begin to run into trouble, either with pad fade or boiling fluid (or both), the condition(s) comes on gradually enough to allow us to simply modify our driving style to compensate.

Regardless of pad composition, if both disc and pad are not properly broken in, material transfer between the two materials can take place in a random fashion – resulting is uneven deposits and vibration under braking. Similarly, even if the brakes are properly broken, if, when they are very hot or following a single long stop from high speed, the brakes are kept applied after the vehicle comes to a complete stop it is possible to leave a telltale deposit behind that looks like the outline of a pad. This kind of deposit is called pad imprinting and looks like the pad was inked for printing like a stamp and then set on the disc face. It is possible to see the perfect outline of the pad on the disc.

It gets worse. Cast iron is an alloy of iron and silicon in solution interspersed with particles of carbon. At elevated temperatures, inclusions of carbides begin to form in the matrix. In the case of the brake disk, any uneven deposits – standing proud of the disc surface – become hotter than the surrounding metal. Every time that the leading edge of one of the deposits rotates into contact with the pad, the local temperature increases. When this local temperature reaches around 1200 or 1300 degrees F. the cast iron under the deposit begins to transform into cementite (an iron carbide in which three atoms of iron combine with one atom of carbon). Cementite is very hard, very abrasive and is a poor heat sink. If severe use continues the system will enter a self-defeating spiral – the amount and depth of the cementite increases with increasing temperature and so does the brake roughness.

SO HOW DO I PREVENT BRAKE SHUDDER/VIBRATION?

There is only one way to prevent this sort of thing – following proper break in procedures for both pad and disc and use the correct pad for your driving style and conditions. All high performance after market discs and pads should come with both installation and break in instructions.

Don’t worry, the brake-in procedure is also good for the discs and will relieve any residual thermal stresses left over from the casting process (all discs should be thermally stress relieved as one of the last manufacturing processes) and will transfer the smooth layer of pad material onto the disc. If possible, new discs should be bedded with used pads of the same compound that will be used going forward.

Heat should be put into the system gradually – increasingly hard stops with cool off time in between. Part of the idea is to avoid prolonged contact between pad and disc. With abrasive pads (which should not be used on high performance cars) the disc can be considered bedded when the friction surfaces have attained an even blue color. With the carbon metallic type pads, bedding is complete when the friction surfaces of the disc are a consistent gray or black. In any case, the discoloration of a completely broken in disc will be complete and uniform.

Depending upon the friction compound, easy use of the brakes for an extended period may lead to the removal of the transfer layer on the discs by the abrasive action of the pads. When we are going to exercise a car that has seen easy brake use for a while, a partial re-bedding process will prevent uneven pick up.

I HAVE BRAKE SHUDDER/VIBRATION ALREADY. HOW DO I FIX IT?

The obvious question now is “is there a “cure” for discs with uneven friction material deposits?” The answer is a conditional yes. Simply fitting a set of good “semi-metallic” pads and using them hard (after bedding) may well remove the deposits and restore the system to normal operation but with upgraded pads. If only a small amount of material has been transferred i.e. if the vibration is just starting, vigorous scrubbing with garnet paper may remove the deposit. As many deposits are not visible, scrub the entire friction surfaces thoroughly. Do not use regular sand paper or emery cloth as the aluminum oxide abrasive material will permeate the cast iron surface and make the condition worse. Do not bead blast or sand blast the discs for the same reason.

Taking time to properly bed your braking system pays big dividends but, as with most sins, a repeat of the behavior that caused the trouble will bring it right back.

To read more about brake discs and maintenance, please visit our brake-tech section: http://www.alconkits.com/index.php/Learn/Brake-Tech/

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Source by Chris Streit

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What do we mean when we say we have made an experience?

How to photograph and photo-retouching of food images to follow the rules of its archetypes.

The experiences in my life I have always held for me jealously. It was a bit ‘my system to make a barrier between me and the other because there is always someone who wants to be your own business and to tell everything they have heard from you, so my experiences were as a result, it became insignificant. So I learned to lie about what I was doing it my mood about all my experience. In fact, it is very hard to describe their own experience and make it clear to your listeners exactly as you saw you because it is something that touches some of our internal emotional strings. Ropes that are unique in all of us. An experience to remember because it is accompanied it our emotions experienced at the very moment in which we have had that experience. And tell our experienced it downgrades to a simple image that others have of you. But you can do an analysis of what and experience to understand how it binds to our ability to live, to love, to communicate and to understand things. You always have to start from knowing what you want to understand, know what they do not teach in school not because it does not exist as knowledge, but it seems that it is not important to know what we should know all, for example on key natural laws of our universe, on his geometry, on his lack of perfect symmetry, the symbology on the archetypes, what makes us sensitive and allows us to understand things, etc. etc… But you can do an analysis of what and experience to understand how it binds to our ability to live, to love, to communicate and to understand things. You always have to start from knowing what you want to understand, know what they do not teach in school not because it does not exist as knowledge, but it seems that it is not important to know what we should know all, for example on key natural laws of our universe, on his geometry, on his lack of perfect symmetry, the symbology on the archetypes, what makes us sensitive and allows us to understand things, etc. etc…

We must always start from the origin of what you want to understand and then try to necessarily start from the archetypes of all things. What is an archetype? Basically, it’s the idea of something. It still has a meaning, not yet, but it has the idea of how to that particular thing. All we know of this universe we live in is recorded in our mind in the form of an idea how to be everything and these primordial ideas we have just called archetypes (a definition that is found abundantly on the Internet and on any dictionary). To explain their meaning and to understand why is there all this talk with photography I can give an example. We can use the food. What are the ideas of edible food, qualitatively good and palatable? To put it directly, we see what are the archetypes regarding food photography.

Well, first of all, I must be very saturated. Any other non-vivid colour would correspond to the exact opposite of what constitutes an idea of palatable food. Then it must have a lot of glitter on the surface, because this means that the food was freshly cooked and then, in addition to having the right degree of humidity, especially fresh. And finally the last archetype concerning the palatable food: is very good light to pass through the mid-tones. What does it mean? It means that if the light passes through the mid-tones (light has a spectrum, a range of frequencies, the mids are simply the frequencies that are in the middle), the food is soft, it is still young. But what exactly determines that it is a qualitatively good food to eat? And ‘where the light passes through the mids that the colours become even more saturated. As the light cannot make it cross the colours are switched off or become much less saturated. If you want proof, take a slice of butter and look at it through the light of a bulb. Or a hand, a part of your body. The saturated colour of our archetypes is the life, is all that is natural is healthy.

Anyone who faces food photography or photo-retouching of food unless it takes into account these simple archetypes does a poor job. You might even talk of meanings in photography because in this case, we would not have exceeded even the basics that are accessed by the inexperienced.

There is another aspect to consider. A photograph is processed using the RGB colour space that has the quality to contain many more variations for each colour of the CMYK colour space instead is used for printing. In practice, it means that the RGB picture can contain very highly saturated colours even fluorescent colours. Be careful because once you convert photos to print, fluorescent colours disappear and then the food to our eyes, instead of switching on freshness archetypes, we turn on the stale food archetypes.

Infinitely complex or evolved?- Digital photography

I would like at this point to clarify the difference between complex and evolved. In the chapter on I introduced the archetypes but even if I went in that direction I would complicate my story.

I would immediately arrive to discover that photography is geometry, a geometry that embodies archetypal meanings, symbolic, conceptual and especially emotional, but I risk to get into complicated for me as I already wrote it. But what I want to realize with these items, it is a constructive talk, always in that direction, but always constructive and without complications within the theme doing photography.

As an example of complication or evolution can be used in the advent of digital photography. Do you think the fact that the art of photography has gone digital is a complication or an evolution? The same comparison you could also do to the human race when you look at the West compared to African countries.

The photographic art actually always respects the same rules, a photographer artist never based his art on the knowledge of the computer or camera, but his art he uses the moment they look into the camera viewfinder and shoot! This is its art, namely being able to take at the moment, in the position and perfect brightness. So the evolution of photography in the digital is not an evolution in photography, but a complication because all the photographers have had to learn new technologies. If anything, one can speak of an evolution of the cameras. Nor does the fact that today’s cameras can take thousands of times instead of one is an evolution because the real artist photographer knows when to shoot and do it once. All other digital shots, they go down the drain.

The art has remained so since she was born, are the techniques, it is technology that has evolved. As evidence of this, I resurrected an old problem that had been at the beginning of the digital age.

For any analogue photographer was a humiliating moment the digital switchover. Once, before the digital, development occurred through chemicals and various processes on an exposed film from the light, that was, in the sense if they could not change a single part in the colours created by the original light. It was completely altered with the products. Today the same photographers who initially developed the colors or black and white in the darkroom, some of them not all, claimed that the computer does not use it and do not even want to learn to use it because at this point the people in front of a beautiful photography would have said that was also photo-retouched. Today I think we are all adapted to computer use, it can not do without if only for the size of the files, but at the beginning of the digital era as well. That is their fear that it could be diminished the photographer’s art urged them not to learn the use. Today the files of the images come from the camera just as numeric values, then the computer with a mathematical calculation turns them into as many numbers that the computer reads them this time as three light channels. Red, green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from the analogue camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong. That is their fear that it could be diminished the photographer’s art urged them not to learn the use. Today the files of the images come from the camera just as numeric values, then the computer with a mathematical calculation turns them into as many numbers that the computer reads them this time as three light channels. Red, green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from the analogue camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong. That is their fear that it could be diminished the photographer’s art urged them not to learn the use. Today the files of the images come from the camera just as numeric values, then the computer with a mathematical calculation turns them into as many numbers that the computer reads them this time as three light channels. Red, green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from the camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong. Today the files of the images come from the camera just as numeric values, then the computer with a mathematical calculation turns them into as many numbers that the computer reads them this time as three light channels. Red, green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from the analogue camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong. Today the files of the images come from the camera just as numeric values, then the computer with a mathematical calculation turns them into as many numbers that the computer reads them this time as three light channels. Red, green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from the analogue camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong. green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from analogue camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong. green and blue. And this product at this point can be called the true original photograph, similar to the one that came out on film from analogue camera. So there is a process that does the calculation computer to translate the sequence numbers (8, 16 or 36 bit), in bright channels and anything that can be done after this time with a computer becomes photo-retouching. But there is nothing more wrong.

E ‘can still perform a development of the photo without changing the numerical values of the same, that is, without performing editing. E ‘possible with a Photoshop technique to perform a second development changing what has been achieved in the first. This is not photo-retouching because they are not altered the colour information contained in the three channels. A real shame because maintaining this confusion, that is not addressing this complication at the time, has only contributed to downgrade the category. This method I learned from the man who is internationally regarded as the father of colour correction, Dan Margulis. Dan Margulis has always used Photoshop and knows every secret…

Of consciousness and colours Geometry

But what it does that have to do the technology (and science) with human consciousness and (therefore spirituality)? What has to do primarily a photography course with human consciousness? When we hear that word, they were taught to think of religion to Catholicism if we are Italian, which means being bigots and even a little ‘annoying, because if we are, we are also moralists in the sense that we preach well but we scratch about very bad and there have inculcated that speak of consciousness is a big waste of time as well as much of a hassle. It is not marketing, it’s not something you eat, is not money, and above all is not science, and therefore, what is the use?

I disapprove totally.

As I mentioned earlier, we live with no one teaches us that between religion, or spirituality (I prefer the latter term because with religion we enter more specifically and complicated) and science there is a deep bond. Deepening these arguments one can not see a relationship difficult to ignore. I began to introduce the archetypes, talking about food, but I’ve only talked about archetypes thousandth class. The basic archetypes are little more than twenty, beginning with those who speak the sacred geometry of our universe. Leonardo certainly knew them as the Golden Spiral, the Vitruvian Man, he drew them precisely describing our geometry. A unique geometry throughout the universe. The number Phi, the Vitruvian Man, the Golden Spiral, the Mandala, the Fibonacci sequence, the Mandelbrot set and consequently the fractals, the Julia sets that show us how the Golden Spiral can draw all things in the world we know, everything coincides and describes only one geometry, our. Among all these archetypes, which basically are few, there is the first that could be precisely the idea of ​​geometric existence (because geometrical described by geometric archetypes) of our consciousness. After Consciousness is energy, modern scientists say it also, and it is energy occupies a space that must necessarily have a geometry. I say that could be the description of what in essence is consciousness because no one has ever tried this, but I would get with simple observations. Only Dr Malanga to my knowledge, scientist and chemist and physicist genius, I met many years ago during a conference on the Super Spin, went on to explain consciousness through the archetypes. I will not pretend to do the same thing now I mean, I would not have either the skills. It ‘a process that may be able to make a longer because of very complicated time. So instead of wallow in an attempt to show that the face of consciousness than simply Matches between archetypes, I step back and I look again all over again trying not to stare any complexity.

You could also consider the quantum physics that states that only by taking into account the existence of the observer consciousness, you can explain certain laboratory experiments. But in addition to being very complicated, I find it rather boring and I do not have a laboratory capable of using photons for today.

Instead, we offer our observation skills that not even centuries of Inquisition and other wars of all kinds have been able to take off. Our common sense and Treccani says common sense (or bonsènso; most com. COMMON SENSE) sm [expression cast fr. bon sens]. – natural Capacity, instinctive, judging uprightly, especially in view of practical needs. Now tell me if our common sense, it should not be an option for anyone, it is not really our conscience?

The word consciousness, according to Jung, accurately defines what remains as a result of having had a positive and constructive experience. Any experience long as it is positive. There are many dictionaries from which I extract this meaning, but Jung, who knew something about the human psyche, defined the word conscience in this way. Technically it is what allows us to be different from others because everyone does their own experiences. What makes us different from the others that are in the first analysis, the consciousness born of the experiences we have with our parents when we are born, then the experience of the school, then for the experiences at work, with friends, with colleagues etc. etc. Where education is knowledge, and experiences are the conscience.

It ‘a little’ how to join the Spirituality and Science. We are made of these two components, why this nonsense of enemy makes in our history?

Yes, if we think about it, we are more aware of the areas where we have developed more experience, we are not where we have not developed, but it is also what others recognize us without this happening with a logical reasoning. We are a bit ‘as the works of art, if we are beautiful works we are nice people, if we are not it means that we have gained little conscience in our lives. It can also be inborn, of course, he inherited from the life of grandparents, great-grandparents and transferred to us as a form of memories and energy within us when we are born, but already born with two parents who know what love is, and grow with them, creates in us a certain (very specific and character) generous consciousness.

It ‘s a bit like photosynthesis, if you are born when you come nourished by light, grow up healthy and strong if you get nourished by you will be able to play the same love, and you will have a strong vitality, normal, but not so much in common our society. The consciousness is the thing that distinguishes a work of art by an artisan work done as it should. What on earth will the work of art that stands out from everything else done as it should? It contains aware of the meanings that arouse in us emotions can make us feel an experience observing the work itself. The work itself will watch and we look at it through the emotions that she always did well for us. In practice an artwork contains the author’s message, contains the meanings aware that the author himself wanted to impress in his work.

We all have a conscience, but we are losing the idea that consciousness is for us the most important thing in our lives. And it is true that every person, every animal, everything has its own consciousness. Although it may be little awareness of an object, as it expresses its use and that’s it, but it is always consciousness. Have you ever used a tool of another for the first time without knowing its true and proper use? beginning do not understand it, then when you see it used by the owner who has understood rather well the meaning, we understand well the meaning us. Seeing it used properly, it makes you recognize something about the object that only with our eyes do not see, of course, his conscious meaning. That is so simple and that’s all.

A particular person who has made it his unique technique a real art, he always said: it is foolish not to teach because the person who comes to us the same, that we can not even if unable to explain it. What did he mean by that, he meant that those who acknowledge that manages to get close to his art learn it, those who do not have it he cannot even if he explains. It ‘very important to observe this in us when we approach to photography, in its development and in the eventual editing. One has to understand well what we are led to be able to do a job with passion, love and perhaps with a “conscience.” If we can find our passion when we work we reload, rather than if we do something we do not like, we consume.

One thing that no one wants to learn, for example, in photography or in the photo processing is the use of colour spaces, ie the use of the colour geometry. But there is, it is a complication which required digital photography and does photography with a passion we have to understand what it is.

This is referred to colours, colour geometry, resulting methods of viewing and printing and its translators who are the colour profiles (on this subject they have called so many that even today only a few have really understood the use of colour profiles and colour spaces using Photoshop with its render engine).

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Source by Angelo La Rosa

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Viral marketing strategies are becoming implemented more as we’ve come to know more about it’s power to propel a business faster. Viral marketing has really taken off in the last couple of years and with it, so have many of the viral marketing examples and strategies in which people are utilizing. In the course of just the last year we have seen some amazing software products and several programs in which to spread your viral marketing campaign farther.

In any viral marketing campaign, there are certain things that a person or company has to keep in mind. For one thing, behind every campaign there has to be some type of gain or incentive for the person to want to pass the message on. Campaigns that don’t really give back to the sending party, most likely won’t benefit from viral marketing advantages.

For example, if we are speaking of cases of viral marketing for list building, many viral marketers have taken to using tell-a-friend forms. But, regular tell-a-friend forms are not usually enough to give a person the needed incentive to push a campaign along. It’s for this reason we started seeing products such as Viral Friend Generator come into play. With Viral Friend Generator, we seen that by adding a third step to the process, we could add a bonus of some type to the sending party. Prior to this, regular tell-a-friend forms weren’t really hitting the mark.

In some cases of viral marketing it doesn’t always need an incentive such as material goods to be effective though. In fact, the most successful viral campaigns are the ones that are created with emotion being involved. People that have been touched either by compassion, laughter, or shock are usually the most effective. If a person can have some type of profound experience by receiving a message this can spark a huge viral campaign. We don’t have to look very far to find campaigns of this type online. With the advent of video being used so much in marketing these days, it has completely impacted the way in which viral campaigns are developing.

Blogs are becoming much more viral friendly as well. Some of the WordPress plug-ins that have been developed for boosting people’s posts in many of the Social Bookmarking sites, or RSS submission services are really getting amazing. It’s so great to see some of the technology that’s coming out with helping in viral marketing. But, remember to use some of these plug-ins you do need to have a WordPress blog hosted on your own hosting account. Otherwise, most aren’t created for use with such blogs created on Blogger.com or WordPress.com.

There are a few very good products and strategies that have come to very good use for marketing viral. Definitely one of my favorite outlets these days for re-branding and creating my own versions of viral marketing software came with a membership I got with the guys at IMBuzz software. Each month I get a brand new one, and each of these has always been of very good quality. It’s one of the best memberships I think I’ve ever been a part of. Since I’m in the viral marketing niche, this software suited my business like a glove with some key advantages for viral marketing! I’m also a huge fan of Viral Spiral. It’s helped a very good friend of mine and myself to create a good sized mailing list, and also provided a place to help people along with their online marketing careers. It’s great to be able to do this virally, plus help people at the same time.

If you have ever been interested in implementing what is now available to you with viral marketing, there really couldn’t be a better time than now. We are living in a perfect time with access to some very powerful platforms and programs to help with your viral marketing campaigns.

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Source by Davin Ogden

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DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY (ARCHETYPES): – “All material bodies are condensations of frozen bodies.” (2) Jung is becoming ‘in vogue’ again, I hear. Perhaps this time around it won’t just involve so little real appreciation for all that he meant and understood. Dream interpretation and projected Western values can be a Freudian gambit – Jung grew to see things few will ever admit to in the present ideologies of the West. He was able to contact the future before the First World War and it almost convinced him he was mad, until he saw his visions were right – then he knew it wasn’t himself who was mad – it was the world he lived in! His archetypes may be a contact with the genetic ‘history book’ that the Director of the Human Genome Project talked about recently when he announced that only 2.8 centimetres of 1.8 metres of a gene are required to make the human being. It might be a collective ‘tap-in’ or even the ‘medulla oblongata’ has the ability to record the knowledge of previous evolutionary experience of man’s development. Personally I feel it is a matter of some of each of these things and the factors relating to chaos and the interference of conflicting vibrations or wavelengths in the confusing array of bandwidths and personalities.

The ‘archetypes’ and our dreams are definitely important to our discovery of what the soul and oversoul is trying to achieve. Our conscious waking experiences are far too influenced by convention and peer pressures or the five senses, to differentiate the ego’s interest from the purpose we are here to explore and refine. Is there a connection between the archetypes and the helical structure of all the naturally occurring paradigms like time, harmonic building blocks of one dimensional force, nanotubes, DNA and telomeres, etc.? Is that structure part of a form which is unique to the earth experience or does it have close corollaries in other parts of the universe? We are on the verge of breaking down the insights of intuitive attuned masters of the philosophies that are aware of the ego and its NEEDS. Soon the Eastern mystics and shamans of the world will be universally appreciated, I hope. Their ethic is a clear requirement to explore if we are to begin the ‘New Age’ in a position to make the most of all that can be! It might be required by other life forms we call alien before we are allowed to participate in the cosmos and its order. That would be great!

“When I go past the dark alleys and passages of my mind, I come to the core of my Being. – At the core of my Being I am in touch with the light and the love and the knowingness that are inherent properties of my natural state.” (3)

One of the outcomes and plans involved in the rape and pillage of aboriginals and nature-worshipping cultures around the world was a history that injected war into the lives of the Mayans. Personally I have a hard time accepting that the ‘missionaries’ of the Keltic/Toltec or Druidic tradition that are reported in the stories about Kukulcan and Quetzacoatl were responsible. However, they were probably accompanied by those members of their society (or followed by) who brought the mindset of European power-mongers and aristocrats. I can see where the Ostrogoths disappeared to and it wouldn’t surprise me if the Sybarite/Milesian faction had ousted other ‘Bruttii’ before the 6th century BC., who found their way to the Upper Mississippi area of the Great Lakes before moving south to the more extensive mounds they built.

There is mounting evidence that the Basque played an important part in the Mayan scheme of things. Their language is connected as is the Rh factor in the blood. It is rare and traceable to Iberia, (the one between the Black and Caspian Sea) and the Mayan. They also seem to have lived in harmony until the Norman or other conquests were occurring in Europe. Needless to say the conventional wisdom is trying to paint them as sacrificers of barbaric proportions, but that too can be traced to Moshe (as in Moshe Rabbenue) and European influence and practice. There is no doubt in my mind that the nature and archetypes of the Mayan culture make it clear there was a long tradition of harmony and awareness of the ego and its conflict that adds so much negative inputs to our shared experience with nature. I like the words of the following author who has lived in the lifestyle or with these people even more than I have.

“Even though the Mayan temples became overgrown with jungle lushness, the Mayan beliefs have survived. Because of their togetherness all these years and their deliberate lack of contact with the Spanish, the Mayans have managed to practice their beliefs and practice them today almost as they did thousands of years ago.” (4)

The Mayans say we should be careful and observe our involvement with nature and the progressions of different forces. They say: “Do not put yourself, in front of your SELF!” Most people are unable to quiet their mind and keep order in their memory and recall, due to a lack of proper tools (like Ars Memoria, in the ‘Symbols and Concepts section’) and the spiral of educational inputs that have no flow and fit. If we have a through-line of purpose and ethic these problems of the busy-mind disappear and a greater sense of mental and other well-being permeates our lives. The Mayan are naturally this way and if Western Man succeeds in abusing them with greed and need then it will be a greater loss in my heart than I wish to bear.

The inner quest

The tradition of vision, and the inner quest by the shaman, the Druid, the saint or the holy man, seem to be connected at specific places where the energy forces of the planet are located {In the microcosm of our mind or the macrocosm of the universe, too.}. The Celtic and pre-Celtic shaman, the living embodiment of the collective psyche, was the link with the ancestral spirit world. He performed the ceremonies connected with the dead, and the annual rites of renewal on behalf of the living. The age-old communal tomb which was the source of his power {Like relics of the Catholic Church. The lattices of the DNA archetypes and stone enclosures were designed to house the forces of personal and tribal attunements.} was the place where the forces of heaven and earth could meet. The vulva-shaped megalithic dolmens from Cornwall and India show how widespread was the ancient belief in the burial receptacle as a womb-place of the Earth Mother and the Other-world. These tombs were usually constructed with giant stone slabs forming a chamber and a trenched passageway, the gaps filled with dry-stone walling and covered by a great mound of earth. Dolmens, quoits and cromlechs are the remains of the original chambers. Natural caves and artificial chambers cut into the rock were also used.

The block of sandstone, 28 ft. (8.6 m) long, which is called the Dwarfie Strane, is an example, unique in Britain, of a rock-cut chamber. It may have been used for meditation or initiation; for ‘at each end is a bed and pillow of stone capable of holding two persons, with a hole above to admit light and allow smoke to escape’. {We believe the king’s chamber in the Pyramid has a resting place rather than a sarcophagus. There were no mummies or bodies therein, and there was no top to this bed. The ‘debunkers’ of ancient knowledge say there was a grave robbing enterprise. These were not robbed and their uncovering through tunneling is well recorded. The grave robber priests of the second millennia and later BC are a fact but they went were the material treasures were housed and did not get into the Giza Pyramids. They are also part of a time when the ethic and culture of the supposed Stone Age or earlier ‘primitives’ were no longer in charge. After the Trojan Worldwide War things became worse in leaps and bounds. There was a 400 year ‘Dark Ages’ as the Keltic/Phoenician ‘Red-Heads’ such as those being burned at the graves of their long ago leader Osiris; decided New Zealand and the Americas were better places to live and love life.} The early Christian saints of Ireland and Scotland {Like Columba and Pelagius, who still endeavoured to retain old ‘Brotherhood’ ideals [Iesa=Jesus] from before Rome when deviate behavior swept this opportunistic church.}continued the tradition of using rock cavities for meditation and prayer. They chose mountains, islands and desolate places not only to avoid distraction but also to be closer to the Sacred. The church near Bilbao, actually built round a group of natural standing stones, and dedicated to St. Michael, the dragon-slayer beloved of the Celts, is a remarkable example of the Christianization of a sacred place.” (5)

We will go further along the path of science that is proving the existence of templates and archetypes in all of nature as we cover Dr. Robins’ work and Lamarckian evolution etc. Yes, the universe might have an over-riding purpose and potential that insists on growth and creativity. If we don’t allow each member of our human family to be able, through enabling support, we might not only be diminished; we might have a re-start of universal proportions as Martin Rees is saying about the whole of our universe. He is a recognized expert in the field for whatever that is worth, but what he says is in line with the cycles of Hindu astrology to be sure.

Here is a simple exchange of knowledge from a forum on the World Wide Web. It includes Iesa in a gospel that reflects back to the things which ancients learned and gradually got imbedded or imbued into our genes and archetypes. But that knowledge of the ‘oneness’ or what Jung calls the ‘collective unconscious’ has another side or oppositional element. There are those who would use our ‘oneness’ against the good of ‘the collective’.

“Hymnal prayer from the Gospel of the Egyptians

IE IEUS EO OU EO OUA

Truly, Truly! IESSEU MAZAREU IESSEDEKEU,

the living water!

The child of the child!

O glorious name!

Truly, Truly! The one existing eternally!

III EEEE EEEE OO OO UUUU OOOO AAAA

Truly, Truly! EI AAAA OO OO

O one who exists, who sees the aeons!

Truly, Truly! AEE EEE IIII UUUUUU OOOOOOOO

The one who exists for ever and ever!

Truly, Truly! IEA AIO, in the mind, who exists!

UAEI EISAEI EIOEI EIOSEI

This, your great name, is upon me, o faultless,

self-born one, who is not outside of me.

I see you, O one invisible before everyone.

For who will be able grasp you in another language?

Now that I have known you, I have merged myself

with the one who does not change. I have armed

myself with luminous armor and have been luminous.

For the mother was there on account of the lovely

beauty of grace. Therefore I have reached out my

folded hands.

I have been formed by the ring of the wealth of

light which is in my breast, which gives form

to the multitude born in the light, where no

accusation reaches. I shall sing your glory truly,

for I have grasped you. SOU IES IDE AEIO AEIE OSIS O!

Eternal, eternal god of silence, I honour you completely.

You are my place of rest, O son, ES ES O E,

the formless one who exists in the formless ones.

He exists, he raises the one by whom you shall purify

me into your life according to your indestructable name.

Therefore the fragrance of life is in me. I have blended

it with water, from the pattern of all the rulers,

so that I shall live with you in the peace of the saints,

you who exist forever.

My response:

Thank you for the Hymnal Prayer of the Egyptians. It has much of the meaning of Iesa (Iesous in the fish symbol [IXOYE] stolen by Christians) and even Zeus comes from this concept of the Brotherhood of Man. That ‘one mind’ or collective that is known to the ancients and which Jesus (Iesa through linguistics) may have allowed himself to be known.”

The Keltic program of ‘Brotherhood’ required sending children to far away places for their upbringing as we have mentioned. In the matter of psychology it served to ensure disciplined people with few ‘spoiled brats’. Much of our insanity comes from a confusion created in the minds of undisciplined people. Habits and ego or choices to behave as idiots seem more likely causes of aberrant behavior than most psychologists want to allow. After all if discipline and meditation were all we needed then a lot of people would see what is going on: and education would have to become enabling for individuals rather than for our bureaucratic propaganda and psycho-civilizing purposes.

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Source by Robert Baird

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The Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai is the only 7-Star hotel in the world. It is a place where imagination becomes reality. Designed to look like the blowing sail of a yacht it is an impressive structure at 321 metres tall. It is also the tallest hotel of the World.Its sight at night is unforgettable. It is surrounded by choreographed colour sculptures of water and fire. This all-suite hotel reflects the finest that the world has to offer.

It is a stricking 28-story All-Suite Hotel housed in unique sail-shaped building overlooking Jumeira Beach. It charges from 1,000 US dollars per night for a one-bedroom Deluxe Suite to 10,000 US dollars for a Royal Suite. It has enjoyed growing popularity and 90 per cent occupancy rate six years after it opened in Dubai.

The hotel boasts of offering the world’s best service, and continues to attract guests from all over the world despite the emergence of more luxurious hotels, like the three-billion-US dollar Emirates Palace which opened in March, also in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Burj Al Arab ([http://united-arab-emirates.ixs.net/hotels/burj-al-arab-hotel/index.aspx] ) does not have rooms; it has 202 suites, each one arranged over two floors. Ranging from a capacious 169 sq. mts to an astonishing 780 sq. mts in size, the floor to ceiling glass windows offer simply breathtaking views of the Arabian Gulf.

Decorated with lavish textures and exuberant colours, each suite features a sumptuous living and dining area, state of the art entertainment system and office facilities. Their sheer opulence in every tiny detail is underpinned with technology that does everything from controlling the 42 inch Plasma screen TV to closing the curtains.

With your chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, discreet in-suite check in, private reception desk on every floor and a brigade of highly trained butlers who provide around-the-clock attention, you can be assured of a highly personalised service throughout your stay.

Offering the highest levels of personalised service in the most luxurious surroundings imaginable, your private butler will ensure that every little need is met. Designed to provide maximum comfort, our unique service levels mean that even your check in will be in the privacy of your suite.

Its Deluxe suite having 1 Bedroom is ideal for life. With beautiful views of the Arabian Gulf, the Deluxe Suite features a handsome spiral staircase that leads you from one floor to the next, perfectly separating the entertainment and living spaces. Area – 169 sq. mts Lower level – Living room with large lounge, dining table for 4, private bar counter, guest washroom Upper level – Dressing room, bedroom with king size or twin bed, luxury bathroom with Jacuzzi Occupancy – 2 Adults and 2 Children below the age of 12, or 3 Adults. Transport – Chauffeur driven Rolls Royce or BMW available at a charge

Burj al Arab is full of Leisure Facilities. Assawan Spa & Health Club situated on the 18th floor with magnificent views over the Gulf. Treatment rooms, hydrotherapy baths, oriental massage, stand-up solarium, sauna, steam rooms and jacuzzi, two swimming pools, squash court, two fully equipped fitness studios and an aerobics floor. It also provides Unlimited access to Wild Wadi Water Park.

The wonderful Royal Suite of this only 7 Star Hotel in Dubai is located on the 25th floor. It is indeed the last word in luxury, with its lavishly appointed interiors, majestic colour scheme and sumptuous furnishings. The Exclusive privileges include private elevator and private cinema. Its special features are Marble and gold staircase, leopard print tufted carpets, Carrarra marble flooring and mahogany furniture Lower level – Dining area, Arabic majlis (reception) style lounge and library Upper level – Master bedroom with rotating four-poster canopy bed and second bedroom, each with adjoining marble bathrooms with spa bath, walk-in shower, fine porcelain fittings and full sized Hermes 24 – Faubourg fragrances and body products Occupancy – 4 Adults and 2 Children below the age of 12, or 5 Adults (only). Chauffeur driven Rolls Royce or BMW are also available at surcharge.

The world’s most luxurious hotel has its very own helipad 200m above ground, but it appears unlikely any helicopters will be landing.

Burj Al Arab ties to provide an international atmosphere to make guests from all nationalities feel comfortable. Its staff come from many countries and speaks 15 languages.

A Heritage Of Hospitality, A Vision Of The Future : Burj Al Arab is a Monument Worthy Of A New Millennium. The Arabian Experience, its Influence and achievements, can all be found in this true reflection of a culture of hospitality.

For more information about Dubai 7 Stars information visit [http://united-arab-emirates.ixs.net/hotels/dubai-7-star-hotel/index.aspx]

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Source by Jackie Gates

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Ron LaVine (pronounced, “La V-i-n-e,” like “grapevine”) is the CEO and founder of Accelerated Cold Call Training Incorporated which is based in Oak Park, California just north of Los Angles. Ron has been delivering his Mastering the Art and Science of Cold Calling workshops since 1997 and has helped well over 150 clients in a variety of industries, and thousands of sales reps across 29 cultures worldwide to improve their outbound cold calling skills, boost sales revenues and get in front of decision makers over the phone.

Question: Ron, let’s start with the basics. Why cold-call training?

Answer: Good question.

First off, before we begin with cold call training, let’s step back and look at the term ‘cold calling.’ The term has received a bad rap, and it’s really misleading. You can call it introductory calling, warm calling, intelligent calling or even referral calling, but at the end of the day, somebody has to call someone they have not met before, introduce themselves and their ideas and both people need to determine if the cold caller’s ideas can be of service to or help the person they are speaking with to gain a competitive advantage or avoid a problem. Or even a potential problem the prospective decision-maker may not even be aware of.

That process over the phone has usually been defined as quote-unquote cold calling. What it all boils down to is this. Although this is a simplification, cold calling or whatever you want to label it, whether is it done over the phone or in person, and when it is done correctly and skillfully, is simply introducing yourself, your company and your ideas to another person. To someone that you have not met before, to understand how they currently do business, so you both can mutually determine if you and your company can be of service to them, by helping them do a better job at what they do. Then finishing the conversation by agreeing on what the next step should be, such as an appointment to continue the conversation that was started.

Now, back to the question of ‘why cold call training?’ In 1995, after many years of cold calling and selling all types of products and services for other companies from consumer electronics to industrial tools to software, I discovered and developed a simple, repeatable, cold calling system that consistently helped me to get through to decision-makers, get them on the phone and get them to agree to take time and date specific action steps such as meetings or appointments. The best part about this cold calling system, was that it was easy-to-learn, easy to implement and easy to teach others how to do it.

After working for 5 ½ years for a major software company that was acquired by an even larger software company, I was laid off one December 1st along with 400 other people. I was recently married and suddenly I didn’t have a job or career. What was I going to do next? Well, I had created my last job with the software company as a Sales Researcher finding money for the sales reps by generating sales intelligence out of thin air. Later on I was promoted to the Sales Research Director.

So when I got laid off, I did what I did best at the time which was to find money. I became a cold calling consultant whose job it was to cold call on large corporations, find opportunities and then set appointments with executives.

After 1 ½ years of doing this, a different division of my former employer who had hired me as a consultant contacted me and said, “could you show us how you do what you do over the phone?” Then another company I was consulting for did the same thing followed by another and soon I was in the training business and I have not looked back since.

Question: Who needs cold-call training? Let’s talk about the roles, and the size and type of the organization.

Answer: Who needs cold call training? I believe that any person whose role in sales is to find new opportunities or what I call to find money, whether they are a field or inside rep, business development or lead gen rep, in any size or type of organization… if they need to pick-up the phone, and call to find and speak with decision-makers, then they need the skills to learn what to say and how to say it or, in other words, how to cold call effectively and efficiently to produce results.

Me personally? I train all those types of reps across many types and sizes of organizations and industries across the board. I’ve trained one man shops to Fortune 500 companies. I’ve worked with salespeople who sell complex technologies to those who sell educational materials to those who are not necessarily selling, but rather are positioning their company to be recommended as the supplier of choice.

For example, let’s say a printing project comes up for bid and a fine paper company wants their paper chosen or let’s say when it comes time to build a skyscraper, an engineering company wants to be chosen for the construction of the building. I specialize in teaching these people how to reach the people who have the final authority to make the decisions as to which supplier will be used and which one will not.

Although my clients come from a wide range of sizes and industries, they all have one thing in common. They all need to find money. They need to learn the skills necessary to be able to cold call more efficiently and effectively. The bottom line is they need to ultimately produce more revenue for their employers. That being said, and although I’m biased because I teach cold calling, I am a firm believer that cold calling skills training is a must for anyone who makes outbound cold calls into any organization.

Question: Without naming names, tell us about some of the companies you’ve called into in the past, what were some of the challenges or issues they faced?

Answer: I’ve called into many different sizes and types of companies in a variety of industries and they all have one similar challenge in common, which is how can we do more with what we have, or how can we do business better, gain a competitive advantage or avoid a problem or potential problem.

Here’s a new flash. Our prospects in particular don’t care about anyone but themselves and their company. So we, as sales reps need to use the word you, your, and your company, as much as possible, when it comes time to developing our sales messages for our prospects.

Our sales messages need to speak to and be all about the person who is receiving it because in all honesty they do not really care about us. You may have heard this before and it’s true. First and foremost, prospects are concerned about what’s in it for them and their company. So don’t beat around the bush. Get to the point. Tell them what they want to hear.

Once you’ve gotten their attention, explain how you can help them avoid the pain of taking the wrong action or inaction or how they can gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Question: Talk about cold calling fear and reluctance…

Answer: Cold calling fear and reluctance is a complicated subject because it requires that we think differently about what is taking place in our minds, right after the call we made does not have the outcome we expected.

It might be a scenario where, we hang up the phone and begin to think “Hey, that call I made was just terrible. But I thought I said the right words, the right way and in the right order.”

Or the thinking could be “I said the words just like they told me too, how come I didn’t get the appointment? What did I say or do wrong?”

Then we start thinking to ourselves, “Not only must I have said or done something wrong, but I’m afraid to do it again because I might think those terrible thoughts again and therefore I’m reluctant to pick up the phone and make the next call. I don’t want those same thoughts to enter my mind all over again because then I think I’ll feel even worse.”

So now the self-talk going on in our minds is making us think and feel even worse. And on and on it goes into a negative spiral. More fear, more reluctance, more bad thinking and the end result is fewer and fewer calls.

The solution to cold calling reluctance and fear is to STOP and BREAK that negative thinking right away. Instead of thinking “Hey, that call I made, was just terrible… ” we need to STOP! and think to ourselves… “What could I have said differently or better that may have made that call a better call?” followed by “Why don’t I try saying something different on the next call and see what happens? Gee, that could be kind of fun. I might learn something new that works.”

Now you’re turning cold calling into a type of game. Each call becomes a learning experience. It’s a whole different way of looking at each call.

When I’m cold calling, I like to see how much information I can get on every call. That’s part of the game I play. If the call doesn’t quite work out as planned, I can still say to myself, “it wasn’t a total loss, look at how much information I collected.” Now let me get onto the next call to see how much better I can do if I tweak what I say and the game continues.

I think a good way to handle fear and rejection is to say to yourself, “Okay that call didn’t go as I planned. Now what did I say that I can improve upon by saying it differently on the next call?” Then challenge your mind to find ways to improve what you say on your next call rather than think about the rejection you experienced because a call didn’t work out as you planned.

By reframing in our mind how we feel about each bad call, as an opportunity for improvement to make the next call even better, there is no room for fear and rejection. You simply move on and place the next call knowing you will do better or learn to do better.

Question: How do call scripts or what you call guides and the opening value statements help?

Answer: When an actor does a movie, what do they use? A script, right? Why? Because if they did not, there would be chaos and the movie turn out terrible (and even though movies use scripts some still turn out terrible… )

A script, or what I call a cold calling conversational guide, is designed to provide the rep with exactly what to say and to whom and also what to say in different situation should the call move in different directions. Scripts are a necessary means of making sure a cold call comes off as planned or begins to meet the objectives decided upon prior to the call.

Question: Who are the “inbound lead time wasters?”

Answer: Although I do not deal with inbound leads very much because my training workshops focus on outbound cold calling, I do recommend reps call the inbound lead after they have had a chance to do some homework on the person who inquired and their company.

You do have to be careful about how you handle inbound leads because some can be time wasters and others can be legitimate leads. You never know who has the decision-maker’s ear or if it is even one of the decision-makers who is part of a committee that is inquiring.

The other part of the equation depends on if it is an inbound lead who is hitting your website and filling out a form or if they are calling into your company and transferred directly to you because you are in sales and they are requesting information on your products and services.

Both are still somewhat cold calls, in the fact that you have never met the person before, however at least you know a little bit more about the person who filled out the form and have a more time to prepare.

Either way, before you can start asking questions, you need have a list of qualifying questions prepared in advance. The basics are:

• What is their need, problem, challenge or what some people call ‘the pain’ or what, in essence, prompted their inquiry?

Next I need to understand if their inquiry fits into my target market or, in other words, does what their company needs match up with what my company can provide and if not, who can I refer them too?

On the other hand, if there is a fit, then, after listening to why they inquired, I’ll begin to explore with them exactly what is their need, how urgent is their need and if their need is urgent, whether or not they are they willing to act now.

If we make it past these steps then it is onto:

• Who is the final decision maker or who are the decision-makers in the case where a committee or group will make the decision?
• What, if necessary, are the timings for the evaluation, decision making and the implementation?
• Has budget been put aside for this acquisition or is there access to budget?
• And finally in the case of a technology sale, do they have the right technology in place to take advantage of what we have to offer?

The best way to handle inbound leads is to tread very cautiously. Get them comfortable by concentrating on them, what they do, why they inquired and why they think you can help them. Ask one question at a time.

Too many questions at once overloads a person and they don’t know which one to answer first and it becomes uncomfortable and even frustrating. Ask a question. STOP. Wait for a complete answer. If you need to, put your finger over your mouth so you can’t speak. You never know when you might start to talk over them while they are still answering your question and by then you may have missed something important. Train yourself to STOP and really concentrate on them and only them. Then feedback your understanding of what you thought they said before asking your next question. It is a little technique I call Q/A/F/Q – question, answer, feedback, question.

Question: Please talk about some typical performance improvements you’ve been able to deliver. And what are the metrics used?

Answer: According to one of my clients, the year they used me to train their reps, their sales tripled from $9 million to $30 million. Another company said, after I trained all their business development reps, sales were up 39% and they weren’t even finished with the year. Both these clients attributed their sales increases to my unique cold calling system.

Another metric used is the number of appointments set by reps who have attended my workshops both during and after the workshop. I’ve gotten emails or letters from sales management saying: “In the first week, our appointment volume increased over 25%” or “I’ve seen a 20 to 30% increase in meetings due to this methodology” or “Our virtual contact center lead generation performance has tripled while the Inside Sales group has doubled its results in setting qualified appointments.” These are all very gratifying and I’m very grateful to receive them.

I also get emails from past students telling me about the dollar amounts of the deals they closed where they used the skills they learned during my workshops. I received an unsolicited email one time from a former student. He said he got an appointment with the CEO which led to a $6 million deal. Another former student left me a LinkedIn recommendation saying he used the skills he learned to help him close the largest deal of his career, a $2.8 million deal at a major insurance company.

In fact, someone from sales management in one of the top three largest technology companies in the world (and I can’t tell you who but I can tell you that the company has three initials in their name) left me a recommendation saying in part that his qualified pipeline increased by 219% after my workshop. I’m very thankful when I get these types of recommendations, emails and letters.

How fast the client’s training investment pays for itself is another metric used. One client wrote, “We more than paid for the costs associated with Ron’s training in less than 3 months’ time.” Another wrote, “We sold more during the calls then we invested in the training. Now that’s ROI!”

Yet another sent me an email saying, “Ron, I just wanted to let you know that a New York City rep closed a $208,000 deal in December that paid for your entire cold calling program for the entire year.” I really like reading those emails.

To sum up, the main metrics used to measure the success of the live cold calling workshop are the increases in the dollar amounts or percentages of sales, increases in the numbers of appointments set during or after the workshop, the dollar amounts of the deals closed as a result of the skills learned during the workshop and how fast the training workshop pays for itself.

The lesson I teach my students is to constantly remember to ask for testimonial letters and recommendations right after you complete work for a client. With over 55 testimonial letters on letterhead from clients and over 170 recommendations on my LinkedIn profile from sales reps and sales managers who have been through my workshops over the last 16 ½ years, I try to practice what I teach.

Question: Any final thoughts?

Answer: I know there are a lot of people out there in sales who think the days of cold calling have come to an end and I disagree. Because as long as someone has to introduce themselves to someone they have not met before and understand if there is way they can help the that person they just met to gain a competitive advantage or avoid a problem or potential problem then there will be always need for cold calling.

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Source by David D Howard

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It all began with a Special birthday

“So what would you like to have for your birthday?” I asked my darling daughter Ketki. After all it was her 21st birthday and a very special to all of us. Having known Ketki for that long I knew she would flash her 24 carrot smile and say in her loving tone, “I don’t need anything, Dad.. I’ve got everything” and exactly that happened. You know… the hardest thing my wife Pratibha and I have ever experienced in our entire life is nothing else but to find the right birthday gift for someone. We always struggled with it. But now the question was my own daughter’s 21st birthday gift.

Luckily, my son Kunal came to my rescue and suggested we should sponsor Ketki a holiday trip to New Zealand with a friend of her choice. However, Pratibha wasn’t comfortable letting Ketki go to a country she has never been before, even with her friend, and said Ketki should visit New Zealand with her brother Kunal. “Good as gold” said I, but the matter was not yet over. Now it was Kunal’s turn to voice his opinion. “Why don’t we all go to New Zealand as a family, Dad and have a lot of fun? It will be our surprise gift to Ketki on her 21st which she will enjoy the most.” Pratibha and I decided to take time to smell the roses. “Let’s go”, we both said in excitement.

The itinerary was planned, bookings were made, and there we were.. on our way to beautiful New Zealand – a place we had never been before but we were all so excited about for some unknown reason. We could have very easily chosen another place like Singapore or Fiji for spending quality time as a family together but apparently New Zealand was a destination chosen for us by Him.

New Zealand is the land of diverse landscapes. As we drove our way from Christchurch – New Zealand’s garden city, and traveled south to Queenstown the country greeted and welcome us with open arms. Melbourne, Australia has been awarded the title “The most liveable city in the world” a few times but New Zealand really impressed us. It was different and unique. We found a very close intimacy with a country which is blessed with nature’s scenic beauty. The air was 100% pure, crisp like anything and the freshness in air increased our excitement levels even more. The one thing which we all noticed on our arrival in New Zealand was the warmth in the hearts of people and the tremendous hospitality they literally showered on us. The staff members at every gas station made me feel very special by filling gas in my car whichever gas station we stopped by. It was just the beginning of a true family vacation which we all were looking forward to after migrating to Australia.

The one thing I would recommend to anyone traveling to New Zealand is either to take a train or to drive through this beautiful country as much as you can, instead of flying by airplane. The 300 miles stretch between Christchurch and Queenstown is an absolute driving treat for visitors. The Westland mountain ranges look stunning and the unique pink & purple flowers on both sides of the road are very catchy – you just can’t overlook them.

Depending on the time you have there are many routes to reach Queenstown, but we purposely took the Lake Tekapo route. As we reached this incredible lake I realized we had made the best decision. Rich golden landscapes bordered by brightly colored lupines paved the way for our arrival into Lake Tekapo. This glacial fed turquoise blue lake is a hive of activity for everything outdoors. Considered a Kiwi holiday hot spot, this lake offers scenic flights, walking trails, guided Alpine climbing and walking, mountain biking, kayaking, and much more.

Queenstown – a blissful experience

The Christchurch to Queenstown driving distance with stopovers is around 7 hours but it’s absolutely worth it. Queenstown, in my opinion, is New Zealand’s best town. It would seem that nature God has poured more blessings on this small country town in comparison with others. Surrounded by majestic mountains and nestled on the shores of crystal clear Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown is a South Island location with immaculately gorgeous surroundings. This adrenalin/adventure capital of the southern hemisphere is an extremely popular stop on the travellers’ circuit, especially in the winter months of July and August when the ski crew are in town.

New Zealand has always been a popular tourist attraction to Australians. But I guess, New Zealand’s sheer beauty was brought to the notice of worldwide audience by the trilogy of “Lord of the rings” – thanks to Peter Jackson. We were fortunate enough to visit a few shooting locations of this extremely popular movie along our way.

We visited New Zealand after winter, around Christmas – the best time to visit New Zealand. However, we could still experience the crowns of snow on mountain peaks. Kunal said the mountains looked very graceful from the sky. Queenstown is one of the very few places in the world where within a space of just a few days you can quench your thirst of sky-diving and bungee jumping, experience mountain vistas, ancient forests, volcanic landscapes, river jets, cruises, stunning coastline, ride the skyline gondola for iconic views across Queenstown and lake Wakatipu and much more while spotting wildlife found nowhere else on earth. There’s no shortage of things happening around the region with plenty of exciting events throughout the year.

Milford sound

Milford Sound is a fjord (a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity) at a distance of 6 hours one way from Queenstown. It is right in the middle of a rain forest. The journey to Milford Sound is as spectacular as the destination itself. You can also drive to Milford Sound by car but I would highly recommend taking a cruise, just like one shown above.

Famous English story writer, poet, and novelist Rudyard Kipling described Milford Sound as the “eighth wonder of the world”. Milford Sound was carved by glaciers during the ice ages, thanks to nature’s incredible phenomenon. This gorgeous Sound looks amazingly breathtaking in any weather… beauty which cannot be expressed in words. The fiord’s standing-tall cliffs, rise vertically from dark waters and remind you of the strong ancient warriors protecting you from all sides. From the cruise the mountain peak seem to be touching the sky and the waterfalls, some as high as 3000 ft. cascade downwards. It often rains in Milford Sound and these waterfalls multiply with magnificent effect during the rain.

Judged in an international travel survey as “world’s top travel destination”, Milford Sound is acclaimed as New Zealand’s most famous tourist destination. Stunning views all along the journey, the crisp and fresh air, and nature’s majestic beauty offers you a guaranteed “wow” experience. You get a real taste of turbulent water of the giant sea when the cruise enters the sea and makes a “U” turn bringing you back to the origin of the tour. It is only then you realize how difficult sailing in the sea would be for the fishermen who risk their lives every day for making a living.

Bay of islands

After our lifetime experience of South Island, I must admit, we were little biased about it. We were not even sure if North Island will fulfill our expectations. Even if the internet technology these days offers great information and pictures of places there is no substitute to experiencing the nature yourself. The North Island did not disappoint us.

Bay of Islands is the north-west region of North Island of New Zealand not far from the northern tip of the country. We were lucky to get a booking in a hotel at Paihia, a bustling seaside town also popularly known as “Jewel of Bay of Islands”. South Island is more about nature’s majestic beauty while North Island is about enjoying activities and adventures. Both islands are very different to each other and maintain their uniqueness in all respects.

One of the “must do” tours in Bay of Islands is “Hole in the rock” tour. Piercy Island (often known simply as “The Hole in the Rock”) is located off the north coast of the North Island. This 60 feet long and 60 feet high hole at sea level was created over centuries by wind and waves making it one of the most naturally beautiful sites in New Zealand. This half a day jet boat ride offers unique opportunity to watch dolphins and experience the silence in the middle of the sea. When we visited this place the waters were calm and our jet boat went right through the hole giving us the opportunity to look at the rock texture inside the hole.

If you really want to experience the beauty of Bay of Islands you must visit the northernmost tip of New Zealand to see the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet at Cape Reinga. When the torquise blue waters of these two seas mix with each other they create a canvass of unique colors which gives a feeling of tranquility. So how far are you from NZ?

Ninety mile beach

Ninety Mile Beach is the narrow strip of sand that stretches on the west coast of North Island. This beach is officially a highway, but it’s only suitable for 4WD vehicles. Car rental companies won’t allow their cars on the sand due to safety reasons while private cars are not covered under insurance. Beach activities range from surf casting and swimming to body boarding (tobogganing) down the sand dunes. Both Kunal and Ketki enjoyed this.

The name Ninety Mile Beach is little misleading because it is actually only 55 miles long. When missionaries traveled on horseback on an average a horse could travel 30 miles in a day before needing to be rested. The beach took three days to travel therefore earning its name, but the missionaries did not take into account the slower pace of the horses walking in the sand, thus thinking they had traveled 90 miles when in fact they had only traveled 55. The “Hole in the rock” looks gorgeous from this beach as seen in the background in the above picture.

Another place of interest in this region is Puketi Forest. It is an ancient kauri forest located in Northland near Keri Keri. With the Omahuta Forest it forms one of the largest contiguous tracts of native forest in Northland. The tour guide told us it has 15,000 hectares of kauri, podocarp and hardwood trees and a rich diversity including hundreds of recorded species of plants, some of which are found nowhere else in the world.

The huge trunks of the trees, some of them as big as 12 feet in diameter, blew my mind. I have never seen tree trunks as huge as that. One of the shops in Paihia displays a spiral staircase and a big sitting bench carved out of such massive tree trunks.

Nothing can be as fulfilling as personally experiencing Mother Nature. I can only hope, though, that this report has given you an insight of 100% pure New Zealand. I encourage you to post your views on Face book, Twitter, Google+, or LinkedIn. If you or your friends would like to share your experiences of Mother Nature with like-minded people in the world send your articles (up to max. 800 words) to articles@myparadiseonearth.com. Namaste!!!

Attention Editors and Publishers –

Your republication MUST include attribution with a link to the MyParadiseOnEarth home page as follows: http://myparadiseonearth.com

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Source by Rajiv Bedse

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Grammar speaks of events occurring in three plains. The past was, the future will happen, and we live now, the present. However, operating in the information age, the age of instant global communication, makes the future now. Gates [1] wrote we are citizens of an information society. He noted that past generations, and past societies found ways to gather information, get more work done, increase life spans, and improve their standards of living. Time was not as critical in those past ages. A message from a ruler may take months to arrive by sea courier. The Pony Express was six days. Airmail was cross-country overnight. The time span between thought and action are virtually unidentifiable today. Although leaders rely on collective knowledge sharing, leaders who engage in strategic thinking, imagining events as happening rather than will happen, allows them to view the present as their personal and organizational future.

This paper considers how important strategic thinking is for leaders who want to shape their future and the future of their environment. Strategic thinking is the starting point for creating vision. Traditional planning gives way to flexible organizational structures that change “on the fly.”

Strategy in past generations allowed leaders time for thinking, sensing a vision, clarifying the vision, articulating it to begin considering action plans. Accepting that the future is no longer an event to happen later, this paper explores how leaders think, envision, articulate, and plan. How do leaders continue to use strategy to their advantage in a rapidly changing global environment? The answer is in the age of possibilities [2]. Today, as never before we are free from traditional bonds of work, we are free to choose our futures as well as shape them to suit our own desires and needs.

This age is an extension of Gates’ information society. We have the ability to choose our reality in a way that never before existed. In the past, a baker’s son became a baker. However, many leaders of the past came from unexpected places. The Biblical King David was the young son tending sheep (1 Samuel 16:11) and Jesus was just the carpenter’s son whose mother we know (Matthew 13:55) [3]. Truman had leadership thrust upon him. These people saw a point on the horizon but events changes their vision. The age of possibilities allows us to rewrite our future as events dictate.

Accepting that we can change as events dictate suggests that there is a less linear structure in this image and a more chaotic non-linear structure. Sanders [4] describes an organizational structure as a known initial condition but the future appears random. Using the model of the “Lorenz Attractor,” she presents a view of interacting and interrelated parts that appear disorderly until a closer inspection reveals the spiraling order hidden in the model. The Gates’ information society and the Taylor and Wacker age of possibilities do not depend on a linear progression of thought and action and Sanders holds the non-linear nature of the new science of strategic thinking allows us to understand natural order on its own terms.

Strategy

Does strategy have some mythical or mystical property? Leaders and leadership use the word in many contexts, perhaps not really acknowledging what strategy is. Therefore, a simple working definition of strategy for this paper is the deliberate means of attaining an outcome, being visionary.

Mintzberg, et al [5] explains that strategies inevitably have advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of setting direction is charting a course; however, the disadvantage is narrowing vision, hiding dangers. The advantage of focusing effort is coordination of activity; however, the disadvantage is groupthink. Having a definition of the organization provides understanding of the organization; however, the definition may hide the complexity of the supporting systems. Having a strategy that provides consistency establishes order in a way that reduces ambiguity; however, creative groups appear to operate with little or no consistency.

Strategy involves paradoxes as the above paragraph suggests. One paradox tells us the story of answers and questions, once you think you have all the answers, someone changes all the questions. Taylor and Wacker state this paradox as, “The more you are right, the more wrong you will be.” This contradiction confuses the reader, if you are right, how can you be wrong? How? The speed of knowledge accelerated beyond our ability to absorb it in our traditional learning pattern.

Another paradox for visionary leaders involves predicting the future. Leaders who are successful predictors of the future act as agents destabilizing the present. Taylor and Wacker explain that today’s realities and tomorrows expectations collide. The allocation of resources between present and future “produce a massive future-based political problem with huge consequences for the present.”

Strategy at Work

The State of Nebraska recently made National news with the passage of LB1024 that, in effect, created segregated school sub-districts in Omaha. The bill was the Unicameral’s way to defeat intercity lawsuits claiming “One City – One School District.” The City of Omaha annexed several small suburban communities to its west, provides police, fire, and city services to these communities; however, the communities remained independent school districts.

The City of Bellevue annexed several Sanitary Improvement Districts (SID) to its west, provides police, fire and city services to these incorporated SIDs. Previous mayors and city councils of Bellevue and Papillion drew arbitrary boarders marking the fringes of the two cities school districts in, what were then, unincorporated zones. Population growth attached itself close to Bellevue. Now, Bellevue’s city limits extend beyond the school district boarders. Therefore, Bellevue claims “One City – One School District.”

By passing this bill, Senator Chambers [6] acknowledged formal segregation of the districts. LB1024 created two super-districts, one in Omaha, and one in Bellevue. In Omaha, the super-district has three independent sub-districts. The independent sub-districts have authority over teacher hiring, measures of teacher/student success under federal No Child Left Behind, and administration of their own budget. The super-district has academic authority over the smaller sub-districts.

The strongest supporter of the LB1024 is the State’s strongest proponent of desegregation. Why did Senator Ernie Chambers of the State’s 11th district support the bill? He claimed the Omaha school district is already segregated. Segregation re-occurred with the end of bussing in 1999. Yet, no Omaha high school is more than 48 percent African American.

Bellevue Mayor Jerry Ryan acknowledged the drain on city funds fighting to redraw school district lines. The fight in Bellevue and Papillion is over federal dollars to schools with a population of children of military families. Offutt Air Force Base is located near Bellevue and military dependent children attend elementary and secondary schools in both cities. Redrawing district lines would result in more federal money to the Bellevue Public School District.

Strategic Thinking and Vision

Reading the paragraphs above may leave the reader asking, “What were they thinking?” Recall the paradox of predicting the future affects the present in adverse ways, yet successful leaders operate as though the future is now.

Another view is that nothing turns out exactly as expected. This may leave leaders in an action quandary: Strategic thinking in the midst of shifting paradigms servers to help organizations “identify, respond to, and influence changes in its environment.”

Strategic thinking allows leaders to think in terms of opportunities to innovate and influence their future and the future of their organization. Strategic thinking aids in abandonment of policies and procedures that are outdated, obsolete, or ineffective.

Strategic thinking is having an awareness of what has not yet taken shape, having foresight. Foresight has a facet that is an individual ability and behavior and it can be a process or activity in business. On a macro level, foresight is a global practice. Note, reaching a macro level must pass from micro – individual, through mezzo – organizational, to reach macro. Foresight starts with the individual leader seeing or sensing something better [7].

Foresight is more than vision; it is visionary. Being a visionary leader means being provocative and questioning rather than seeing answers. Mintzberg, et al (1998) calls upon visionary leaders to operate on emotional and spiritual resources, values, aspirations, and commitment. Leaders need a mental image, build a mental model of a desirable future state. The visionary state is as simple as a dream or complex as a written document outlining the dream in measurable steps.

Visionary leaders must next translate the dream of the desirable future state into a vision they can share with the organization. Sharing a vision must be proactive, must be like a theater performance. Mintzberg, et al addresses performance by the leader as a rehearsal. Rehearsal is the practice of the vision, learning everything they can about the vision. Upon becoming comfortable in rehearsal, the leader must openly perform the vision. Performance brings a dream to life; however, performance has no value without the attending audience. The organizational audience views the performance while feeling empowered to mimic the performance. Organizational mimicking of the performance serves as a starting point for transformation to a higher state of consciousness, becoming, as Senge [8] describes, a learning organization.

Bellevue, Nebraska is the third largest city in the state. Eight years ago, Jerry Ryan made his first run for Bellevue Mayor winning an election against a popular mayor. Bellevue’s population in 1998 was about 29,000. Improvements in transportation, cost of housing and housing developments, and growth in retail and commercial ventures has caused an explosion in population to almost 50,000 with an extended sphere of services into not yet annexed developments of an additional population of about 15,000.

In the May 2006 primary, Mayor Ryan [9] ran against a field of opponents. Mayor Ryan ran on the ideal that Bellevue has reached a size that requires a full time mayor devoted to the city. Opponents, all in their seventies, do not share his view. Mayor Ryan won the majority of primary votes telling the city his vision. In interview with Mayor Ryan, he expressed how hard it is to run a city of 50,000 part-time. “Citizens think I run the city. They are not aware that it is the City Council that approves all action. And, the City Council doesn’t want a full time mayor,” said Ryan in interview. “If there is one thing I’ve failed to do,” said Ryan, “is adequately share my thinking and vision within the council.”

In the “One City – One School District” battle in Omaha, the school district argued that incorporation of suburban districts into Omaha would create a broader tax base, allow for creation of magnet schools throughout the district, and more equitably share resources. Senator Chambers, in support of LB1024, argued that schools already segregated would have more administrative control over their districts to create educational opportunities for racially distinct schools by racially distinct administrators. Opposition to LB1024 was high before its passing, the Governor faced strong opposition for signing it, the Attorney General believes it is in violation of federal law and unconstitutional and Omaha’s most famous citizen, Warren Buffet, expressed his strong opposition.

Senator Chambers is the only African-American state senator who is controversial and outspoken. Many of his claims include racially provocative statements against police, school administrators, teachers, and fellow senators. By contrast, to Mayor Ryan, Senator Chambers does not appear to have a vision based on strategic thinking. Senator Chambers’ term in the Unicameral ends in 2008 and he cannot run again because of imposed term limits.

Morgan [10] offers some thoughts on social construction of reality. What he writes is people have images of themselves and these images unfold into their reality. Two leaders identified thus far have diversely different views of reality. One holds a vision of what can be for the city while the other fights against change using deeply entrenched assumptions of the power of others to shape events.

Another person, a division head of a large First Data Corporation region [11], offered some insight into strategic thinking and being visionary. In an impromptu interview, she held that having a focus on what is possible helped her rise within a company at a time when it was having serious leadership troubles. When everyone else was seeking safety, she sought innovation-providing direction when it appeared there was none. Her member services region is the western United States, Canada, and Mexico. She said, “I thrive on chaos. When things look the most confused, I see my division diversified, flattened, with empowered subordinate managers.”

Our dialogue continued on chaos with Kim conceding she manages chaos within set organizational plans and policies. This lead to her admission that she is more ordered in her expectations and spends more time planning than thinking and creating vision.

Strategic Planning

Hill and Jones [12] discuss strategic planning with the same cautions of Davis [13]. One concept of planning is doing so under uncertainties. In life and business, the only certain is uncertainty. Organizations cannot plan for the future because it is unpredictable. Another consideration is planning cannot be a top-management function alone. This “ivory tower” planning may result in senior leaders thinking in a vacuum, being enthusiastic about a plan and having no operational realities. Finally, strategic planning often suffers because planners have a short-range view of the current environment missing the dynamics of the competitive environment.

Mintzberg, et al devotes a section to “Planning’s Unplanned Troubles.” They explain that planning establishes inflexibility. They support the assertion presented above with the fallacy of predetermination. This fallacy says organizations are able to predict the direction of their environment, are able to exercise control over the environment, “or simply to assume its stability.” “Because analysis is not synthesis, strategic planning has never been strategy making.”

Reverse course a little, planning is not a bad thing when used in cohort with strategic thinking and visionary leadership. It is applying the controlling element strategy to planning that causes problems. Morgan argues in favor of plans and planning when created in a visionary framework that can evolve as circumstances change. What they insinuate in relating the tail of the “Strategic Termites” is unpredictability of organizational structure. An organization’s leader does not need a strategic plan to impose order. Order, like in a termite colony, emerges in an evolutionary way. Planning is not guided by plans rather by a sense of know what the organization wants to ultimately achieve. Ideas, action, and events occur separately but self-organizing yet apparently disorganized groups of termites seize the opportunity to initiate change.

The Future Depends On It

Seeing the future depends on foresight. Having a future view and strategically thinking of the future creates a new paradigm, part of the paradoxes already discussed. One old paradigm suggests future thought as a prediction and development of plans based on the prediction. Making plans establishes policy necessary to reach the predicted future. When the predictions fail to materialize an organization scrambles to recover. Another paradigm is the invention of the future. This means people both construe and become constrained by the structures they enact and change through practice. Gaspar [7] refers to the work of Mintzberg, et al, saying the old paradigms do not work in future thinking organizations. She tells us we must integrate a strategy that includes patterns and perspectives with planning and positioning.

Take a view of American companies 100 years ago. Of the top 12 companies 100 years ago, ten dealt in selling commodities. Today, of the top 12 U.S. companies, three deal in commodities. The remaining nine companies deal in services, manufacturing, and high technology [14]. The only thing certain is change and business leaders must learn to cope with it in order to manage it. Coping with change and managing it mean businesses can profit from it. The future of business is knowledge driven. Countries must be smart, companies must be smart, and people must be smart.

Countries, companies, and people must be equally smart at the same time. To win the future game, each of the three must anticipate and adapt to change in order to manage it effectively. Mayor Ryan admitted that government is slow to change. By example, he cited the city council established a steering committee to investigate whether the city needed to spend money for computers in the mayor’s office. The city has a web presence but the city council did not adopt an intra- and inter-city email system until the steering committee received confirmation from surrounding cities of their system usage. The mayor is 72; by contrast, the average age of the city council is about 63. Mayor Ryan recognizes the value of technology and aggressively seeks younger citizens to enter city government. He hopes forward thinking younger people will drive the risk adverse council toward active and aggressive risk management.

Senator Chambers is the longest serving Senator in the Nebraska Unicameral. He is 69 years old and suffered racial slurs and isolation from fellow senators when he took office. Slurs and threats, chalked on his capitol office door, remain and he considers these a badge. He does not appear on the senate floor in suit and tie. He wears blue jeans and sweat shirts in protest to conformity. However, Senator Chambers seems to exist in an era when racism and segregation were the norm. He rarely seeks coalition with other senators preferring to be a voice of defiance [15].

These two leaders view the future differently. While one hopes to achieve the future by recruiting younger forward thinking people into the political system, the other remains rooted in the past. Neither manages the future proactively but approach the future based on present and past experiences not through information seeking, strategic thinking, and visionary mental modeling.

Conclusion

This paper discussed strategy, strategic thinking and vision making, planning, and the future. These are not separate activities although the discussion presents them individually. By recognizing the Lorenz Attractor as a spiral of interacting parts of an organization, one can also find this model fits a non-linear process of thinking, vision, and planning. Seeing the future as an evolving present helps leaders comprehend that rigid policies based on formalized strategic plans inhibit response to change.

Strategic thinking and vision creation suggests that leaders continually test their mental model with new thinking and questioning – progressively looping thinking, vision, and new information into new thinking. This cycle process allows leaders to anticipate disruptions in the business cycle. Leaders who question themselves asking, “what if …” know “what if …” These leaders are future seeking and organizations employing these leaders are future seeking learning organizations prepared to change before change occurs.

This paper does not deny the value of planning as part of a strategic process. However, rigid planning that does not calculate the shifting horizon of organizational development leaves the company questioning, “What happened,” rather than “what’s happening.”

Foresight allows for strategic management, forecasting and positioning of an organization. The outcome from foresight in business is the anticipated future becoming an inevitable future.

References:

1. Gates, B. (1996). The Road Ahead. New York: Penguin Books.

2. Taylor, J., Wacker, W. with Means, H. (2000). The Visionary’s Handbook: Nine Paradoxes that will Shape the Future of Your Business. New Youk: Harper-Collins Publishers, Inc.

3. Holy Bible. New International Version. Bible Online. Retrieved from http://www.bible.com.

4. Sanders, T. I. (1998). Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the midst of chaos, complexity, and change. New York: The Free Press.

5. Mintzberg, M. Ahlstrand, B. & Lampel, J. (1998). Strategy Safari: A guided tour through the wilds of strategic Management. New York: The Free Press.

6. Gaspar, J. (2005, August 21-24). Corporate foresight – an attempt to listen to the voices futures’ generations in the strategy making process. Future Studies Department, Corvinus University of Budapest. Retrieved June 15, 2006 from http://www.budapestfutures.org/downloads/abstracts/Gaspar%20Judit%20Abstract.pdf#search=’judit%20gaspar%20corporate%20foresight’

7. J. Ryan (personal communication, April 28, 2006) in discussion of mayoral leadership strategy in a metropolitan community.

8. Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization. New York: Currency and Doubleday.

9. Morgan, G. (1993). Imaginization: The Art of Creative Management. Newbury Park: Sage Publishing, Inc.

10. Hill, C. W. L. & Jones, G. R. (1998). Strategic Management: An integrated approach. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

11. Davis, S. (1996). Future Perfect. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

12. Ong Teck Mong, T. (2006, May 7). Anticipating and Managing Change: The Key to Future Success. Asian Institute of Management 37th Commencement Ceremonies. Retrieved June 16, 2006 from [http://www.aim.edu.ph/home/announcementc.asp?id=741].

13. Ernie Chambers. (2006). Wikipedia. Retrieved May 31, 2006 from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Champers].

14. Blackman, D. A. and Henderson, S. (2004). How foresight creates unforeseen futures: the role of doubting. Futures, 36. 253-266.

15. Johnson, T. A. (2000). An Intellectual and Political Biography of Nebraska State Senator Ernest Chambers: Activist, Statesman, and Humanist, 1937-. Plains Humanities Alliance: Events. Retrieved May 31, 2006 from [http://libr.unl.edu:2000/plains/events/seminars/johnson1.html]

16. Nadler, D. A. and Tushman, M. L. (1997). Competing by Design: The Power of Organizational Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press.

17. Somasegar (No First Name) (2006, January 21). Strategic Thinking. Retrieved June 2, 2006 from http://blogs.msdn.com/User/Profile.aspx?UserID=3644.

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Source by Paul Hoffman