Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘My Views’ Category

“We are all weird. And life is weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we call it love.”

— Robert Fulghum

“One mistake does not have to rule a person’s entire life.”

— Joyce Meyer

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881);
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Boost Your Team’s Performance with a Task Map

If your team isn’t functioning as well as it should, ask whether employees are in the right roles. People are happier and more productive if they have opportunities to use their skills, but misalignments of abilities and responsibilities can happen over time. Get back on track by creating a task map: a visual tool that allows you to see where skills are lacking or duplicated on a team. It can realign people’s tasks to fit their skills, and result in greater productivity, high performance, and reduced turnover.
Assess people’s skills by looking at their accomplishments and assessments.
List their primary and secondary abilities on a whiteboard to see redundancies and gaps that have arisen. (For example, you may have four great analysts, but only one stellar project manager on your team.)
Create a list of the responsibilities and tasks required of your team members. How do their skills match with their tasks?

Adapted by HBR from “ Use a Task Map to Improve Your Team’s Performance” by Allison Rimm.

“Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you, or makes you happy.”

— Robert Tew

Provincial governments beware : Mango ripening chemicals are cancer causing and injurious for human health..!

Dear all the heads of political parties and the CM’s of the provinces,

AoA.

Sir,

The following news published today, by the Times of India, reveals a very grave danger for human health in mango ripening, with extremely harmful cancer causing chemical, named calcium carbide.

Industrial-grade calcium carbide contains traces of arsenic and phosphorous which are harmful to the body. It damages the skin, kidneys, heart and liver and also causes ulcer and gastric problems.

As such, all high and mighty who are in power in the provinces of Pakistan, are earnestly requested to order an immediate and most severe crack down on this criminal activity of the unscrupulous mango traders in Pakistan, where ripening of mangoes using hazardous chemicals is rampant, as well.

TOI News

AHMEDABAD: In the last few days, the health department of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has seized large stocks of mangoes artificially ripened using cancer-causing calcium carbide. On Wednesday, the AMC team inspected the Kalupur fruit market and seized 989 kg of mangoes that had been artificially-ripened. The team also seized more than 40 kg of the deadly carbide from the market.

Mangoes normally ripen towards the end of April, said senior officials at APMC Vejalpur. Hence those which are available in the market before mangoes are due have been ripened using acetylene gas produced from calcium carbide, said a mango vendor in Drive-In area. “In fact, mangoes cannot be ripened in 12 hours with carbide pouches. It is the skin of the fruit that turns yellow when acetylene gas is released from the pouches,” the vendor said.

Industrial-grade calcium carbide contains traces of arsenic and phosphorous which are harmful to the body. It damages the skin, kidneys, heart and liver and also causes ulcer and gastric problems.

Bhavin Solanki, Medical Officer of Health (MOH), said for artificial ripening, raw mangoes are packed in cartons and one small packet of calcium carbide placed between each mango layer. “Some traders put packets of calcium carbide to provide maximum artificial heat to quickly ripen the fruits,” Solanki said. Carbide is used in welding and even a small quantity if consumed can cause serious health problems.

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Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

Overcoming is to prevail over a struggle or conflict.

“Today is a new day. You will get out of it just what you put into it…If you have made mistakes, even serious mistakes, there is always another chance for you. And supposing you have tried and failed again and again, you may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

Mary Pickford (1892-1979);
actress

Questions Successful Innovators Should Ask

Asking a lot of questions is one behavior that successful innovators share. Instead of just rushing to take action, posing questions helps you crystallize the entire innovation process by improving your ability to spot new growth opportunities, pinpoint disruptive threats, and more. Consider using questions like these to increase your odds of success:
What problem is the customer struggling to solve? If people are spending time or money trying to solve a problem (and existing solutions fall short), there’s no clearer sign of an opportunity for innovation.
Who has already solved this problem? It’s likely that someone has already found a solution in a different industry, country, or company. Gaining inspiration from their successful approach can speed up your process.
What can you do that few other companies in the world can do? Zero in on what makes you unique (a trusted brand, access to a distribution channel, technological know-how) to maximize the chances of creating a powerful and compelling offering.

Adapted by HBR from “ Eight Essential Questions for Every Corporate Innovator” by Scott Anthony.

An eye opening letter published today in the daily “Dawn”.

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif the public will be looking to the answers of the questions raised in this letter..!

Pakistani bonds
From the Newspaper

Comment Email Print

THIS refers to recent news reports on Pakistan bonds. I think the issue was good news for US fund managers. Most of the allocation was taken up by them. It was also good earnings for the four leading banks concerned with the issue.

The recently floated Sri Lankan bonds, with five years’ maturity, had a coupon of 5.13pc. Our Pakistan bond of a similar period and maturity has a coupon of 7.25pc. This is a substantial rate difference.

The nation would be interested in knowing from the finance minister as to how many countries have issued sovereign bonds in the last 12 months with a yield as high as the Pakistani bond?

Shiraz Sachedina

Karachi