Loud Thinking

Archive for 2013

Learn How to Lead in a Crisis

When you are leading in a time-pressured, make-or-break situation, you might wonder if you should take charge and command action or take the time to enable the innovation of others. You can do both. Here are three things to do in a crisis that are both directive and empowering:
Set a vision that instills both realism and hope. Assess the current situation and how it’s likely to evolve. At the same time, articulate the possibility of succeeding against all odds.
Bring people in. Set clear boundaries for who is on and off the core team, but invite in helpful collaborators as well. People may have to work in fluid, shifting arrangements, rotating in and out of teams as the demands of the situation evolve.
Engage. Dive in and start doing the work. Lead a disciplined, coordinated execution while also encouraging innovation through experimentation and learning along the way.

Adapted by HBR from “Leadership Lessons from the Chilean Mine Rescue,” by Faaiza Rashid, Amy C. Edmondson, and Herman B. Leonard.

@nayyarahmad: @PMOIndia @nawaz_sharif @CMShehbaz @MaryamNSharif forget about peace between India and Pakistan till such time Indian establishment headed by Indian army & intelligence agencies has a vice like grip over Indian government.

Mr. PM kindly order inquiry that why PCB is paying Eid bonus to the most undeserving cricket players under most difficult and weak PCB financial situation.

This Eidi decision of PCB Chairman to dish out millions of Rupees to our most undeserving team members, may be a contempt of the IHC decision, wherein, chairman PCB is only allowed to function the day to day affairs of the PCB.

No justification after the debacle of champions trophy and ignominy of South African tour, where our team even got out for 49 runs in a Test match innings.

Beating West Indies was not such an achievement which was the second last team of the CT in UK and last team in WI, in the triangular tournament with India and Srilanka.

Even Indian team did not get any such cash award or bonus on winning CT in England and Triangular tournament in West indies.

Moreover, did we impose any penalty on our players when they abjectly surrendered in South Africa and in the Champion’s Trophy played in England, without even putting up a decent fight? Remember in the CT our team performed worst ever in the history of the CT tournament and was ranked at the last (8th) position.

PCB and the players must know that board is in a very difficult financial condition, wherein, it has been reported that PCB cash reserves have fallen down from Rs.8 billion to just Rs.2 billion.

PCB and players also must know that many international cricket boards are paying much less to their players, than what our board is paying to the Pakistani cricketers. Even in Pakistan no sports organisation is paying so lavishly to their players, compared to what PCB pays to its employees, officials and players.

In Zimbabwe, their cricket board refuses to pay for the players hotel breakfast and meals, but still their players are just playing for the sake of the nation.

As such, the PCB management is requested to immediately withdraw the Eidi cash gift notification to the players, which is absolutely a undeserving and wasteful expenditure and without any justification.

PCB has no right to play wastefully with the public money.

Moreover, as per the IHC decision, the chairman PCB can decide only the day to day affairs. Hence, this Eidi gift apparently looks a violation of the court orders and also may be construed as a contempt of the IHC court orders.

Wishing a very happy 1434 AH Eid Mubarak to all Facebook friends the world over.
Stay blessed.

“Life is just like an Ice Cream, enjoy it, before it melts”.

“Everybody in your situation has the same choice: you can rue your situation or you can dedicate yourself to changing it. Accept responsibility for your future. Refuse to complain, criticize, or condemn.”

— Mark Ford

Practice is a learning method that can lead to perfection.

“Practice is the best of all instructors.”

Publius Syrus –
Latin moralist

2 Things Your Data Visualization Needs

Data is easier to understand when it’s presented visually. But sometimes designers get wrapped up in the exercise of making something beautiful and forget to make it functional. Here are two things to keep in mind when creating an infographic:

Know your audience. You can’t help your viewers make a decision unless you know what they’re looking for. Ask yourself: How will they read and interpret the information? What do they know already and what do they want to find out?

Tell a story. The right graph and data range should convey a compelling narrative. Create a visual that helps the viewer observe, understand, and make sense of the information.

Adapted by HBR from “The Three Elements of Successful Data Visualizations,” by Jim Stikeleather.

Mian M Nawaz Sharif Sahab PM Pakistan why your government is even slower and tardy than the last government of the PPP when you and Mian Shahbaz Sharif are personally working so hard…???

Please read this Dawn News dated 7 August, 2013.

Delays hang over Pakistan 3G lifeline.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s cash-strapped government has promised to sell 3G mobile telephone licenses to raise revenue, match regional rivals and drive prosperity, but the process has been beset by delays.

Even Afghanistan, Pakistan’s far less developed western neighbour with a weaker economy and more fragile state, has the technology.

But Pakistani consumers struggle to transfer data by phone, video streaming is often interrupted — although technically YouTube is banned — and video calls problematic.

Two months after the new government took office, there is little sign that the process will start soon.

Pakistan’s state minister for information technology Anusha Rehman told AFP that the auction alone could take six to eight months.

“The base price for 3G licenses is not set yet. Only once it is done will I be able to give a figure on how much revenue will be generated by the licenses sale,” she said.

But first the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) needs to be constituted and Rehman conceded there could be substantial delays.

“I am not sure how long it is going to take because the appointment of members have to be made by the cabinet,” she said.

A senior civil servant initially told AFP that key appointments to the PTA were expected to be finalised in July. The first half of August in Pakistan is dominated by religious and national holidays.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, elected for a historic third term in May, faces the daunting challenge of bringing down an 8.8 per cent budget deficit, yet his first budget was conservative.

He offered no major tax reforms and within weeks, his government was forced to seek a $5.3 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund: enough only to keep on top of old loan repayments.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar sought to fend off some criticism about the lack of tax reform by saying that a 3G auction would fetch a “considerable amount of foreign exchange”.

Cheap mobile phone telephony took Pakistan by storm in the early 2000s and according to the PTA there are more than 122 million mobile phone subscribers — or 68.6 per cent of the population.

PTA officials estimate that a 3G auction could raise $1 billion in annual license fees, which could be ploughed back into reducing the crippling $5 billion circular debt in the energy sector.

But delays are not the only problem.

“The previous government could not auction 3G licenses because it wanted to bypass the standard tendering practices,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

“There was infighting within the PTA over the auctioning of licenses as the previous government wanted to bypass standard procedures and there was resistance by the members which delayed the process,” the official said.

Raza Rabbani, a leading senator from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, has criticised the inclusion of 3G license sale proceeds in the first budget of the Sharif government.

“These are illusionary figures. There is nothing concrete,” he told AFP.

Of the five mobile phone companies in Pakistan, only Oslo-based Telenor has so far expressed public interest in acquiring a 3G license, saying it could be operationally ready at the end of 2013.

“Telenor Pakistan is presently going through a massive network modernisation exercise which is expected to finish by the end of this year and is essential in making our state-of-the-art network 3G, 4G and LTE enabled,” a company official told AFP.

He said the technology would drive prosperity and that increasing Internet penetration by just 10 per cent would raise GDP by 1.5-1.6 per cent.

“It is a paradigm shift from voice to data that will open many doors for GSM operators in the country to serve their customers through innovative avenues,” the official said.

Shahzad Ahmad, country director of Bytes for All, an independent technology think tank, says Pakistan should forget 3G and move directly to more advanced 4G LTE bands.

But he also called for clean bidding.

“The process should be transparent so that Pakistan gets a better price for its asset and ensure that there is no corruption,” he told AFP.

“So far there is no transparency in the process, nobody knows how many licenses are going to be auctioned and to whom?” he added.

Ahmad said that 4G technology will speed up telecommunication in Pakistan and create new jobs in online media content creation.

Consumers seem unfazed, saying they already have to pay more than 40 per cent taxes and service charges on recharges and calls.

“The amount of taxes on mobile phone calls is insane. I recharge a 100 rupee card and get only 60 rupees credit. The rest all goes into taxes, duties and service charges,” construction worker Mohammad Afzal, 35, told AFP.