Loud Thinking

Posts Tagged ‘My Views’

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.

God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.

Mother Teresa

Volunteering is to freely offer your time or talents.

“I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941);
poet, playwright, essayist

Avoid These Strategy-Making Pitfalls

When creating strategy, far too many leaders give in to temptations that result in weak strategic choices, and ultimately, failure. Here are three common mistakes and how to avoid them:

Failing to choose. Attempting to be all things to all customers isn’t a winning strategy. Select specific segments of consumers with particular characteristics that you can serve best.

Acquiring to change playing fields. Acquisition usually just adds unnecessary complexity. If you can’t strategize in your current environment, you won’t necessarily excel in a different one.

Accepting an existing choice as unchangeable. A company always has a choice of where in the market they will play, so don’t use this as an excuse for mediocre performance. Change won’t happen overnight, but you can alter the course with focus and dedication.

Adapted by HBR from Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works.

@etribune: (News) #IMF approves $6.7 bn #loan for #Pakistan http://t.co/aM66Olahx9 #economy

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

— George Bernard Shaw

Compassion is to feel deep sympathy and a desire to help.

“We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977);
comic actor, filmmaker, writer

Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan

AoA.

There is a strong feeling that government is mortgaging the future of the country with the foreign donor agencies, by taking so much huge amount of loans (that too just for the repayment of the old loans), which this poor country may never be able to repay. This means that in every terms, we have gone bankrupt; and can’t even breathe, without the debt life line.

The gravity of the loan repayment situation can be gauged that during the FY 2102-13 Pakistan spent about 1 trillion PKR out of the FBR’s revenue earnings of less than 2 trillion PKR.

Today, Pakistan is not under huge debt, rather, it is completely buried under the debt. The government has borrowed Rs.611 billion in just 40 days from the state bank of Pakistan, as against Rs.507 billion in full year (2012-13). In other words, the PMLN’s government has borrowed Rs.15.3 billion per day in 40 days, as against Rs.1.4 billion per day by the previous regime in 2012-13.

The 6% depreciation of Rupee vs the USD in the last 80 days, has cost Pakistan Rs.3.5 billion per day and has added additional Rs.276 billion in public debt in the last 80 days. (Figures quoted in this para and its preceding para were reported by Dr. Ashfaque H Khan, in his article, titled “A nation’s debt” published by the daily “The News” dated 27 August, 2013).

H’able Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif Sahab, you always spoke against the debt burden through out the last 5 years tenure of the PPP.

However, now your government has broken the entire 365 days record of the PPP government in just first 40 days, as per the details explained above.

As such, kindly take it as very serious matter (of the economic life and death of Pakistan) because, all the world knows that the USSR, the strongest nuclear power of the world, was broken, not because of any enemy action, but by its own economic melt down.

Sir, unfortunately, all financial indicators points that your era is moving the country fast towards economic melt down.

You may remember, I requested you to to take the personal charge of the affairs of the country, lest the situation may not come to a pass, where even you may not become helpless, to stem the rot.

In this regard, after declaring an economic emergency, the following economy and austerity measures are suggested for adoption, to at least put up an impression to the masses, that government is seriously contemplating to improve the economic resurgence of Pakistan. And also to dispel the impression that your economic policy is not to just blindly run the country on domestic and foreign loans and to merely pass your tenure of the government, without bothering about the repercussions of the future inability of the country, to pay back these loans.

SUGGESTIONS

1. Immediate 50% reduction of all the pay and perks of the entire government servants/employees (except all the security personnel who are shedding their blood for our safe and better tomorrow) from president to the peon. This should include all government employees, employees of the government semi-government/autonomous corporations/ banks, PIA, Railways, Steel Mills etc.
However, upon improvement of the economic situation the unpaid 50% salary amount should be gradually given back to the employees.
Moreover, for all these government employees, there should be a 50% rebate in payment of all utility bills and educational fees of their children during this period of economic emergency.

2. 50% expenditure reduction in the entire PSDP.

3. Absolute ban on the foreign trips of the government officials. All international meetings to be attended by the respective envoy’s of Pakistan, in that country.

4. Absolute ban on the foreign medical treatment on government expenditure, right from the top to the bottom.

5. Cessation of the entire subsidy on the food items available to the Senators, MNA’s and MPA’s at the Parliament’s cafeteria, where Roti is served almost free; and even in Peshawar, it is selling at Rs.15/- for the general Public.

6. Complete ban (in real sense) on the official entertainments at all levels.

7. NAB may be directed to take very immediate steps (absolutely ruthlessly) to recover (from within and outside Pakistan) all the looted national money, on a fast track basis.

8. Immediate nationalisation (without giving any time to the ultra rich people to move their precious jewellery out of Pakistan) of the GOLD, DIAMONDS, GEMS and precious metal in Pakistan.

9. Reduce taxation rate of all types of taxes, GST, levies, excise etc. to a maximum of 10%.

10. During the currency of this economic emergency period, there should be a ban on increase in the prices and rates of POL, utilities and all essential items.

With warm regards and best wishes.

Sincerely Yours,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Moderate a Panel Like a Pro

The panel discussion is a go-to format for many conference planners. These forums may be exciting for the panelists but they’re often a bore for audiences and a chore for moderators. Here are some tips for keeping it fresh next time you’re asked to facilitate a few speakers:
Involve the audience in the first five minutes. Ask a few people to introduce themselves to get a sense of who’s in the audience. This keeps your panelists from acting as if they’re in a bubble.
Ban slides. PowerPoint presentations will usually gobble up your time and prevent any kind of interesting interactions from happening.
Don’t go down the line for every question. Two answers are plenty, unless a third person is dying to jump in. Instead, ask a related question, ask for a concrete example, or simply shift gears and ask your other panelists something else.

Adapted by HBR from “How To Moderate a Panel Like a Pro,” by Scott Kirsner.