In economic downturns, you must constantly evaluate the impact of your actions on both your short-term and long-term financial performance. Three general rules to be followed are: Avoid reactionary budget cuts; position with value engineering; and select products, services, and above all, customers.

Avoid Reactionary Budget Cuts

During difficult economic times, often organizations completely abandon their marketing strategies and cut back on their marketing efforts. If these cuts are reactionary and are made without regard to strategy, such actions can be a mistake. A downturn may be the most important time to maintain your level of marketing activity – or even increase it. Especially if your competitors are reducing their marketing expenditures, your own marketing expenditures will become much more effective. If you decrease your marketing budget, you may be helping your competitors.

Position with Value Engineering

Reactionary cuts in costs may affect not only marketing efforts but also the performance of products and services. When the economy is in a downturn, the instincts of many managers are to cut costs, any costs. Cutting costs may be unavoidable but you must be very careful of what costs are cut and how much they are cut. Cutting the wrong costs by too much can accelerate the negative impact of the downturn on the organization

Select Products, Services, and Customers

Difficult economic times do not affect all products and services to the same degree, nor all customers. You need to evaluate all your products and services and customers to determine where you wish to decrease, maintain, or increase your marketing efforts. (See David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter, “Seize Advantage in a Downturn,” Harvard Business Review, February, 2009, pages 50-59).

Survive and Thrive

You can develop and evaluate possible strategies in a downturn with the Growth Matrix (see Exhibit I).

The Growth Matrix has two dimensions – markets or customers and products or services. The organi-zation’s current strategies are in the upper left cell – current markets or customers and current products or services. Strategies that move the organization to new products or services are in the upper right cell and strategies that focus on new markets or customers are in the lower left cell. Strategies where the organization moves simultaneously to new products or services and new markets or customers are in the lower right cell.

Strategies for Current Customers and Current Products and Services

During difficult economic times, you need to focus on your current customers – at least on those that you want to keep. You want to retain those customers that are most attractive to you, and if possible, obtain more revenue and profits from them. It is always costly to recruit new customers, but in an economic downturn it may be very difficult to replace any customers you lose with new ones.

As shown in Exhibit II, there are four major components of customer contribution:

• Your customer’s total unit usage of the product or service.

• Your organization’s share of that usage.

• The variable margin per unit (price less variable cost per unit).

• Your customer’s loyalty.

To obtain higher contribution from your current customers, you can focus on any of these four components.

Total Unit Usage

Total usage consists of all the units of a product or service that a customer purchases during a specific time period. For example, total usage of soda would be all the liters of soda that he buys and total usage of business stationery would be all the pages of stationery a company purchases. If you can find a way to increase your customers’ usage of your product or service, then you can increase your contribution, provided, of course, that they make a significant percentage of those purchases from you.

Share

You would like to receive all the purchases of your customers but usually that is not the case. Instead, you typically receive a share of their purchases. By increasing that share you can increase your contribution from your current customers.

Your share depends on the performance of your product or service relative to that of your competitors. A bicycle store can increase their share with quicker repair service. A contractor can increase their share with innovative design and durable and attractive materials.

Price

During a downturn, often there is pressure to decrease your prices. You may need to do so but, if you do lower prices, lower them selectively – on those products and services and for those customers so that you will obtain the most positive effects in the long term.

Costs

Ideally the costs you cut should be unrelated to customer value. If you are constructing buildings and some parts of the building are not visible, then you might consider replacing one material with a cheaper but less attractive material – as long as they both perform at the same level.

Cross Selling

You can obtain more contribution and profit from your customers by selling them more products and services. What other products might your customers be willing to purchase from you? If you have a real estate agency, your customers may be willing to take your advice on purchasing property as well as homes. However, if you are a dentist, you may not be able to sell property as well.

Loyalty

Loyalty drives the customer contribution model in Exhibit I. It is the probability that your customer will make their next purchase with you.

Suppose for example that you supply containers to apple farmers and they sign a contract with you each year. Assume you start with 100 customers. If your loyalty rate is 80%, then 80 of those customers will remain with you for a second year, 64 for the third year, and so on. (Assume for simplicity that a customer who does not stay with you does not return in a later year.) On the other hand, suppose your loyalty rate is only 40%. Then the second year you have only 40 customers from the original 100 and only 16 the third year.

Selecting Customers

You may not want all your current customers and you may not want to expend the same amount of effort on all the customers you do want. During an economic downturn, you need to know the contribution of each of your customers or group of customers so you can make more effective use of your resources. Customers that are attractive include those that are relatively price-insensitive and those that buy large volumes (at reasonable prices).

You can organize your customers by revenue and by the cost of serving them (Exhibit III). The customers in the upper left quadrant of Exhibit III are attractive – high revenue and low cost of serving. You can expect competitors to try to obtain them, so be prepared to defend them. Customers in the lower right provide relatively low revenue for the costs incurred. You may want to `fire’ some of these customers – no longer serve them. (Perhaps give them to your competitors.)

Conclusions

When you market in difficult times, you must pay even more attention to each of your marketing decisions. In good economic times, you have some leeway to make mistakes; the margin for error is much smaller in not so good economic times. In particular, you must be precise in your choice of target markets and positioning and efficient in your tactics such as communication and distribution. Your first priority is your current customers. You should ensure that you retain the customers you want and explore ways to generate more revenue and more contribution from them. You should not disregard efforts to attract new customers or to introduce new products or services, but you should proceed carefully with such strategies and apply the same ideas of precise targeting and positioning that you use with your current customers.

Introduction

The ideology behind Islamic banking, i.e., `interest-free banking’, is based on basic ethical standards with just one main difference – Muslims are not allowed to pay or receive interest. This does not mean that business activities or making a profit are not encouraged, in fact, they are, but only as long as they don’t involve interest in any form. To fulfill this purpose and to satisfy their needs, financial instruments have been introduced by the Islamic financial institutions. For instance, equity financing is used, instead of debt financing. Furthermore, instead of giving a fixed interest rate on the savings account, Islamic banks offer a share of the bank’s profit, as a return on deposits.

The modern banking system was introduced into the Muslim countries in the late 19^th century. These banks founded branches in the capital cities of major Muslim countries to cater to their business needs. However, the branches were limited to the capital cities while other surrounding cities were totally ignored by the banking system. Nevertheless, most local businesses still refrained from engaging with these `commercial’ banks, mainly for religious purposes.

Current Practices

Generally speaking, all interest-free banks agree on the basic principles of Islamic banking. However, individual banks differ in their internal characteristics, functions, and services. These differences arise as a result of the country’s laws, the citizens’ needs, and the individual bank’s objectives and experiences. Despite this, Islamic banks have deposit accounts: All Islamic banks have the same types of deposit accounts – current, savings and investment products. While the number of current accounts has steadily declined, savings and investment accounts have proliferated. The reason for this is due to the increasing confidence of savers and investors in Islamic banking. Although the current accounts are the same as in conventional banks, the savings account operates in a different manner.

In some banks, the depositors allow the banks to use their money but they obtain a guarantee of getting the full amount back. Banks adopt several methods for inducing their clients to deposit with them, but no profit is promised. In other banks, savings accounts are treated as investment accounts but with less stringent conditions as to withdrawals and minimum balance. Capital is not guaranteed but the banks take care to invest money from such accounts in relatively risk free short-term projects. As such lower profit rates are expected and that too only on a portion of the average minimum balance on the ground that a high level of reserves needs to be kept at all times to meet withdrawal demands. Investment deposits are accepted for a fixed or unlimited period of time and the investors agree in advance to share the profit or loss in a given proportion with the bank. In addition to the above deposit accounts, some Islamic banks have additional accounts as follows:

Trust Deposits: These deposits are not subject to any conditions for drawing or depositing. The bank may use such deposits at its own risk and responsibility in respect of profit or loss.

Joint Investment Accounts: These are deposits received by the bank from persons who desire to participate with the bank in multilateral and continuous investment operations. Such deposits receive a certain percentage of the annual net profits realized. The way of investing these funds is left to the bank’s means of financing. Banks adopt several means of acquiring assets discretion or financing projects and these can be categorized in three areas: investment, trade and lending.

Investment Financing: This is done in different ways like:

Musharaka (venture/equity financing) is where a bank may associate with another entity to set up a joint venture, both parties participating in the various aspects of the project in varying degrees. Profits and losses are shared in a pre-arranged fashion. The venture is an independent legal entity and the bank may withdraw gradually after an initial period.

Trade Financing: This is also done in many ways. These include:

Murabaha (Cost-Plus financing) is a contract between the bank and its client for the sale of goods at a price plus an agreed profit margin for the bank. The contract involves the purchase of goods by the bank, which then sells them to the client at an agreed mark-up. Repayment is usually in installment. This type of financing is very commonly used for various installment-related financing needs. As an example, we can look at a customer who wants to finance a car purchase for $10,000 but cannot afford to pay the full amount now. The bank buys the car on the customer’s behalf and sells it to the customer for $15,000. The bank charges a mark-up because it is willing to accept installments (over 60 months) instead of one lump sum payment. The mark-up is profit as the bank acted as a middleman; no money was lent, a product was only bought and sold. If the customer decides to pay off the entire amount next month or at the end of the 60^th month, he will still owe the same amount.

Leasing is where the bank buys an item for a client and leases it to him for an agreed period and at the end of that period, the lessee pays the balance on the price agreed at the beginning and becomes the owner of that particular item.

Hire purchase is where the bank buys an item for the client and hires it to him for an agreed rent and period and at the end of that period the client automatically becomes the owner of the item.

- Sell-and-buy-back is where a client sells one of his properties to the bank for an agreed price payable on the condition that he will buy the property back after a certain time for an agreed price.

Letter of Credit is where the bank guarantees the import of an item using its own funds for a client, on the basis of sharing the profit from the sale of this item or on a mark-up basis.

Lending: The main forms of lending are:

Loans with a service charge is where the bank lends money without interest but they cover their expenses by levying a service charge. This charge may be subject to a maximum set by the authorities.

No-cost loans is where each bank is expected to set aside a part of its funds to grant no-cost loans to needy persons such as small farmers, entrepreneurs, producers, etc.

Overdrafts are also provided but are subject to a certain maximum. These are free of charge or with a small fee. It should be noted that Islamic banks are not active in lending like that of the conventional banks because they are not interest-based. The point to be noted here is that lending in an Islamically acceptable form. It is not very profitable to the bank and they, therefore, have to resort to other `lending’ related practices, such as leasing and mark-up transactions. Islamic bonds are becoming very popular and Malaysia and Bahrain are currently developing global Islamic bonds.

Services: Other banking services such as money transfers, bill collections, trades in foreign currencies at spot rates etc, where the bank’s own money is not involved are provided on a commission or charges basis. Many Islamic banks provide traditional banking services to the extent that Shari’ah and the local government rules and regulations permit for example, they receive OPEC surplus funds and trade Euro currencies.

Shortcomings of the Islamic Banking System

Islamic banks are now providing almost all the services that are provided by other common banks. However, the only exception seems to exist in the case of letters of credits, where there is a possibility of interest being present. There have been, however, some other major difficulties involved with Islamic banking that are mentioned below:

Shortage of Experts in Islamic Banking: Trained or knowledgeable bankers have delayed the expansion of Islamic banking. The lack of training affected not only Arab domestic banks (both Islamic and non-Islamic) but also foreign banks. Academic institutions, international organizations, and translation firms must respond to the need by organizing training materials, lectures and workshops.

Absence of Accounting and Auditing Standards Related to Islamic Banks: Uncertainty in accounting principles involves revenue realization, disclosures of accounting information, valuation, revenue and expense matching etc. Thus, the results of Islamic banking schemes may not be adequately defined, in particular, the profit and loss shares attributed to depositors.

Lack of Uniform Standards of Credit Analysis: Islamic banks have no appropriate standard of credit analysis, especially for profit-and-loss-sharing (PLS) schemes. Likewise, there is a extensive training need involving allied aspects such as financial feasibility studies, supervision of ventures and portfolio evaluation.

Potential Conflicts with Central Banks: Islamic banks have been established as separate legal entities and therefore their association with central banks and/or other commercial banks is uncertain. Problems may be complicated when an Islamic bank is established in a non-Muslim nation and is subject to the nation’s rules and regulations.

Potential Conflict between Domestic Banks, Foreign Banks and Islamic Banks: It seems that domestic and foreign banks will experience continuing difficulty in implementing Islamic banking practices, including the PLS scheme, until they become more certain of the results.

Lack of Deposit Insurance System: The lack of such a system becomes of greater concern because Islamic banks have standard measures of reserve requirements or liquidity ratios.

Legislation: The depositors’ funds are one of the basic asset acquiring methods of Islamic banks. The existing banking laws, however, do not allow banks to engage directly in business enterprises using these funds. Therefore new legislation and laws have to be established.

Re-training of Staff: The bank staff will have to acquire substantial knowledge and skills for new procedures to operate the Islamic banking system. This seems to be a very time-consuming process as a large number of persons have to be re-trained.

Taxation: The bank is comparatively a big business and thus needs to disclose its profits and losses every year. The Government requires banks to perform an audit of its financial statements and determine the result of the operations. Once this is done, the taxation authorities commence to claim the taxes due from the bank.

Uneasy Questions of Morality: The practices in use by the Islamic banks have aroused questions of morality. Some argue that the practices that involve interest have simply changed names to appear in an interest-free manner. It is questionable whether the Islamic banking system is truly adopted by Islamic banks and institutions or not.

Conclusion

Though Islamic banking system is still at a nascent stage, it has already been implemented in most Muslim and non-Muslim nations. Of course, though there is such wide acceptance, one can over look the problems associated with it. Islamic banks, however, can eliminate the uncertain forms of financing and offer a clean and capable interest-free banking. This can be put into effect by making use of only two forms of financing — loans with a service charge and Mudaraba (or participatory financing) — both of which are fully accepted by Islam. Such a system will create a competitive advantage where Islamic banks and conventional banks both co-exist. In addition, Islamic banks will have no difficulty in establishing and operating in non-Muslim countries. Mudaraba is an exclusive feature of Islamic banking and can suggest accountable financing to socially and economically relevant development projects. This is an additional service Islamic banks propose in excess of the customary services provided by conventional commercial banks. Therefore, Islamic banks have the potential to compete with perhaps even outperform the common commercial banks that are currently available if they follow the Shari’ah rules and put it in effect.

Under the regime of its former CEO, Chuck Prince, Citi invested in toxic derivative products by assuming good returns. However, as the market suffered losses, its reserves fell drastically, leave alone profits. Besides, Citi’s retail banking business in the US has a small reach with over 800 domestic branches and just 2% of US deposits. In contrast, Bank of America operates over 6,000 branches across the US and controls 14% of deposits.

Indeed, Citi could build the largest global retail network through its deals in Mexico and Turkey, but it typically ranked 3^rd or below in a national market. The reason: its economies of scale are considered to be lower than those of its national competitors, as the costs for processing checks, loans and credit cards are very high. Ken Lewis, CEO, Bank of America, referring to both Citi’s US and international retail businesses, said that “Citi’s problem is being unimportant in many places.” In general, experts believe Citigroup crisis or bank crisis is an emblem of capital crisis and not liquidity crisis. It is a glaring spotlight that could be applied to dozens of other banks as well. Because big banks such as Citigroup always held that problematic markets, not their poor balance sheets, were to blame for falling share prices. Many believe that if all its Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs) were brought back on the balance sheet and marked to market, it could have pointed out the lack of capital. Citigroup is one such example. Bank analysts say that since Citigroup’s tangible common equity is now even lower as a percentage of total equity, it is tough to run a bank with common equity that is too low. This is one big reason why Citigroup is in such a dire shape today.

Goodbye supermodel

The focus is on segregating all the `core’ and `non-core’ operations into separate lines and scaling it back to a manageable size. While Citicorp focuses on universal banking operations, Citi Holdings emphasizes on riskiest investment assets. Citi has also decided to hive off its consumer finance business, including credit cards and consumer banking. It has already pledged to separate its proprietary trading desk which bought the toxic real-estate securities. Expectations are that more focus could shift towards traditional advisory and lending practices. Citi could most likely keep its attractive retail-banking operations in Mexico and South Korea. It is also on the hunt for a `strong manager’ to head Citi Holdings. John Havens, a former top Morgan Stanley executive, has been named head of the global institutional bank at Citicorp.

Bill George, former professor of Organizational Behavior, states that for organizations to make good decisions, “contention is essential”. And for this to happen, the top must have the courage to demand and reward high contention, else it will not operate in other places. According to him, effective decision making involves: one, raising probing questions and insisting that managers present each situation in objective terms rather than with a positive spin, and two, acknowledging and thanking those who disagree by telling them that it is their discussion that made the ultimate decision much better. Indeed, George recommends: “You need to reward and promote the mavericks or else the organization will lose its creative edge. You try to create tension inside because the outside challenge is so great.”

Michael Tushman, professor of Organizational Behavior, HBS, is also of the opinion that for sound decision making in organizations, there must be an aware, open, and inquiring senior team. According to him, unless senior teams are able to hold paradoxical ideas, the past will always trump the future—people prefer not to know about the future because it is so threatening to entrenched interests and to career competencies.

The all-pervasive economic gloom—rising unemployment, foreclosures and corporate bankruptcies, capped by a forecast of fall in growth in world economy by 0.8 percentage points to 2.2% by the IMF—made everyone expect something dramatic to come out of the recent economic summit of G-20 countries held on 15th November in Washington, DC. Indeed, many have gone to the extent of calling it `Bretton Woods-II’, hoping it would—like the original meeting held in New Hampshire under the shadow of World War II that created the IMF and World Bank, fixed exchange rate system, and a body to oversee world trade—come up with some such dramatic tools.

But such a comparison sounds silly, though the current summit is equally of paramount importance for a variety of reasons: first, the whole world is in a great hurry to somehow contain the financial crisis that the US has created, which has exploded into a systemic crisis, said to be the worst since the recession of the 1930s, affecting the emerging economies adversely, that too, for no fault of theirs, all because the world economy is now so strongly interrelated and interdependent that what happens somewhere deep inside the financial system of one country is enough to wreak havoc in another country that lies far off from it. Second and the obvious fallout of the first expectation is: financial regulation. The flaws of the existing system have become evident, calling for the establishment of a new financial architecture that can avert recurrences of such crises. Third is the disturbing phenomenon of global macroeconomics that is highly skewed: high savings of Asian and oil-exporting gulf-countries and Western spending.

And the comparison, if any, of the current G-20 summit with Bretton Woods meet in 1944 just ends there, for the original was a meeting that lasted for three weeks backed by two years’ of hard technical preparations involving the likes of Lord John Maynard Keynes and Harry Dexter White, backed by politicians like Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Also, at that time, unlike today, the US, being the only economic superpower in a position to rescue the world economy from its depths, could maneuver its way, of course with the active support of Britain, and the rest of the few Western countries that mattered in global economy fell in line in fixing the woes of the war-torn economy. But today, there is no single country which can dictate terms to global economy just as the US did in the 1940s. The very fact that G-20 countries—a mix of developed and developing countries along with European Union—assembled at the summit, rather than limiting it to the G-7 club of rich countries to reset the rules of global finance, is in itself a clear acknowledgment of the fact that today there are many countries which matter in setting the global economy in order. But it is too much to expect instant solutions, that too for a problem of such magnitude, from a gathering of such a large group of Presidents and Prime Ministers, which hardly had time for preparing for the summit and from a meeting that lasted for a short span of 5-6 hours presided by a lame-duck President of the US. No wonder that it could not deliver a satisfying solution to fix the global financial crisis.

Another important message of the summit is the need for improving the existing standards of regulatory framework of countries meant for overseeing financial markets and aligning them internationally. It is felt that there is a great need for better multilateral surveillance of both macroeconomic and financial developments. Members have actively discussed about creating a sort of “collage of supervisors” to oversee the biggest financial firms which are currently accused of playing havoc in the market through their `regulatory arbitrage’ games. But for it to happen, global politicians must be willing to give up their craze for sovereignty in favor of a global regulator, which is a far cry today.

There is also a message for avoiding `protectionism’ by the so-called developed countries, for it means contraction of exports of developing countries, which will ultimately slow down the growth in economy, pushing millions of people from these countries back into poverty. This would also reduce the growth impulses in the world economy, which is today more interconnected. Hence, it is demanded in chorus that WTO’s Doha Development Agenda must be concluded at the earliest, or at least that is what the leaders from the developing world have pressed for, of course backed by sound economic argument. But unfortunately, in such political jamborees, common sense often takes a backseat.

However, having acquired the rightful place in the world forums that sit for fixing the economic problems, China, Brazil and India must now press for doing what must be done urgently—creating effective regulations to oversee global financial markets, and speeding up the talks under the Doha round.

If you are a manager, do not spend time on technical or production tasks that can or should be delegated, and do not micromanage employees past where it is useful or effective. Many managers engage in these activities because they are comfortable, familiar and make you feel more productive. You need to exercise some discipline not to dive into activities you enjoy at the expense of focusing on management tasks (see examples below,) which can sometimes be more difficult or unpleasant.

• Establish and communicate your team’s mission, goals, and objectives

• Measure progress against these goals and objectives

• Alignment with other departments and partners

• Team building, establish roles and responsibilities, and empower employees

• Set up hiring, professional development, corrective action, and learning practices

• Remove obstacles and resolve conflicts

• Ensure adequate processes, procedures and documentation are completed

• Create (and defend) a productive, creative, positive culture.

If these things aren’t getting done, it’s likely that very little else is getting done, regardless of the busy “noise” around you. If you-re constantly fighting fires, hire somebody else to fight the fires while you manage, or vice versa. It¡¦s much less expensive in thelong run to add another executive to the payroll than to make a critical mistake or miss a key opportunity because everyone is too busy ¡§doing work¡¨ to lead the organization.

Create an Organizational Structure that Makes the Most of the Leaders You Have

The people at the top of the organizational chart have a tall order. It may be necessary to reorganize to ensure that management and leadership are occurring at levels that are effective for your organization.

Flatter organization structures work for organizations that are small, have highly-educated and self-motivated workforce, and where all key strategic information and direction can be shared with everyone. (A real estate sales office is a good example of this.)

More hierarchical organization structures may be needed in larger companies that have a diverse workforce with a variety of employees at different education and commitment levels. Industries that have strategic imperatives, competitive pressures, trade secrets and other key information that need to be controlled should have organizational structures that divide leadership and management jobs at lower levels.

Add Leadership and Management Skills Screening to Your Interview Process

Ask “what would you do in this situation¡¨ questions in your interview process. Evaluate candidates for all positions based on their ethics and judgment. This will help you train leaders within your organization. If you have people that you have hired for technical ability only, you will need to scrutinize their leadership abilities and characteristics before promoting them. Some leadership skills and traits can be taught, others (such as ethics, confidence, and responsibility) are very difficult, if not impossible, to instill in people who do not already have them”.

Train New Managers and Leaders within Your Organization Create career paths and professional objectives for people within your organization. If possible, encourage continuing education (financially if you can, but at least culturally.) Keep a library of books and tapes, and start discussion groups or team-building exercises.

]]> http://www.essayacademiatips.com/2009/11/be-a-better-manager-and-a-better-leader/feed/ 1 http://www.essayacademiatips.com/2009/11/apple-iphone-reviews/ http://www.essayacademiatips.com/2009/11/apple-iphone-reviews/#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:22:30 +0000 admin http://www.essayacademiatips.com/?p=220 “iPhone is Winning!”

iPhone was first termed and phased in the year 2004, when Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Inc. declared that Apple will create a touch-phone which will revolutionize music. iPods were still in the nascent stage at that time, and something like iPhone was never heard of. Still, the hopefuls claimed that Apple was indeed working on it, and the project will see the light someday. Skeptics argued that such hi-fi technology (for example you can flip the photo, just by moving the phone) is nothing but, fiction.

Steve had some other plans. He has done this in the past, and he knew that he can do it now. In fact, only Steve can create revolutions.

At 6 PM local time, on June 29^, 2007 the iPhone was finally unveiled in the US of A. It was a historic moment for the telecom as well as software industry. Nothing in the fast changing world of technology had created so much hype as this launching date. Thousands of Apple fans lined the stores to have a first go at iPhone. And, commercially, it was a success too. Till the quarter ending March, 2009, more than 20 million iPhones has been sold worldwide.

What is so special about iPhone?

To start with, Times named this phone as the Invention of the Year in 2007. Critically acclaimed as the Best Touch-Phone and Best Multimedia phone ever, iPhone continues to create ripples along the phone industry.

The two most distinguished features of this handset are: Integrated iPod and the magnificent touch screen. Due to these features, iPhone has managed to create a class of its own among the myriad touch screen and multimedia phones available today.

With a generous 3.5 inch touch screen, and around 320 * 480 pixels, the graphics of this handset is just mind blowing. The screen is visible clearly even in the sunshine. Being a 100% touch phone, there is no key-board in this phone. The huge touch screen accommodates the keyboard as required.

And the music department of the handset is being handled by the iPod itself. Having garnered close to 90% share in the portable MP3 player segment, iPod is truly a world beater. With the features and quality of an iPod into a phone, iPhone has truly revolutionized the way phone is being used now. A classic blend of music and technology.

Things which were missed…

In a project as large as iPhone, wherein close to 300 patents in technology were filed across different streams; few shortcomings are bound to surface. Some users complained that the text messaging is not so comfortable in iPhone. Another issue which cropped up was the video recording feature which is absent in iPhone. Videos can only be shot by a VGA camera, whose quality is not much appreciated. Further, the absence of MMS facility and scalable memory can also create some hindrance. But again, these are the small issues compared to the joy and pride one can get by owning an iPhone.

Strolling along a street with a swashing iPhone near to your ears will definitely cause few heads to roll towards you. That is the moment you will feel like repeating what Steve Jobs once said about iPhone: “iPhone is Winning!”

`Mentoring’ is a word which is traced back to its roots from Greek literature, illustrated in the Greek epic, The Odyssey. Odysseus son’s teacher donned the dual role of a coach/mentor to his son and the role of friend to Odysseus. His character as a mentor served as a teacher, advisor and the role model in Homer’s masterpiece. Most of the mentors today serve in much the same way.

In the modern world, mentoring exists both in structured and unstructured contexts. Perhaps the most common form of mentoring today involves the expansion of instant informal relationships into mentoring relationships. Such relationships tend to form between persons shifting into a more professional role or position with persons who are accomplished and experienced. In the current scenario, the inevitability of mentoring is becoming apparent at an increasing pace. We can witness the widespread requirement of mentoring in businesses, schools, industries, universities, etc. It involves the introduction of structured training programs for mentoring, so as to tag on the new professionals to the experienced professionals, in order to overcome the difficulties of new job, culture, environment, situations or for the purpose of pure professional development.

Mentoring involves advising, teaching, counseling and being a role model to the mentee (generally a junior and new to the organization). Mentor (generally a senior and experienced person) tries to focus on and foster the mentee’s achievements and success at the workplace. It is a relationship between a mentor and a mentee, which changes as each one grows, learns and gains experience over a period of time. New employees and professionals involved in a mentoring relationship, enjoy an enriching learning experience besides the practical exposure to the work. Mentoring becomes an increasingly important component during the times of adult transition. There should be someone to fuel the individual internal commitments to bring them into reality.

A mentor can make a huge difference between winning and losing. He has to be positive, experienced, reliable, patient, empathetic and knowledgeable. These are the few attributes of a great mentor. Every individual will have dreams of his/her own. What he/she needs to realize his/her dreams is a mentor. Though a gem may be intrinsically valuable, its real value is realized only when it is finely cut and polished. This value addition in an individual’s case can be metaphorically related with mentor.

There are many types of mentors who have different styles of functioning. But they all positively reinforce their words’ talents and help them attain their goals. Sam Walton, American Retail Executive and Founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said, “Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it’s amazing what they can accomplish.” Great mentors see more potential in us rather than what we see in ourselves. A great mentor inspires us, he understands our strengths and weaknesses and helps us overcome all our constraints and bottlenecks. He will bridge the gap between where we are and where we need to reach, he will believe in us; he gives a big break and initiates a new beginning for the future platform. He places the individual in a safe and desired destination. He vicariously draws his inspiration from dominant personalities who influence his/her life; it’s a scalar chain which continues!