Spend on: Home Remodeling
Don’t Think About: Vacation
Once you receive your one-time lump sum from your home equity loan, you may run the risk of being in more debt once you mismanage the cash in your hands. Worse, you may be paying only the interest but missing out on the payments for the principal. That’s why it is important to use your money in expenses that will give a good return. Here are some suggestions:
Spend on: College Tuition Fees
Don’t Think About: Debt Consolidation
By the time home values have rebounded and you decide your house to place in the market, your home’s appraised value can increase with the recent improvement. That’s aside from being able to use the remodeling or extension for years; you’re money hasn’t gone down the drain at all. It’s not much of a priority these days to spend so much for something that’s temporary like vacations. Resist booking your trip to Miami and spend your cash wisely.
Spend on: Another Property
Don’t Think About: Presents during holidays, etc.
Unless you are 100 percent sure that your reformed spending habits will cause an absolute turnaround in your credit card bill, never make the mistake of bundling your debts in the hopes of averting higher interest in your balances. Besides, you can never secure an even lower interest rate in the first place. On the other hand, spending it on your daughter who’s away in college is a wiser investment. The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business currently costs $97,165 for tuition and fees while a Harvard University diploma costs $101,660.
Spend on: Retirement Programs
Don’t Think About: Cars
You can eliminate the costs of private insurance on your next property purchase that is, if your purpose of obtaining a loan is for another investment. Other savings that may come from buying another property include possible lower interest rate and tax deductions. One bad habit of those who avail of home equity loans is that they use a portion of the amount to buy their families with presents. There’s an immediate need in American families to spend for things, mostly unnecessary, just to celebrate the holidays. In the end, they end up using a large part or the entire loan to these gifts instead of spending the proceeds wisely.
Spend on: Small Business
Don’t Think About: Lavish celebrations
Just because you’ve received a hefty amount from your lender doesn’t mean you’ll be using that as downpayment for an SUV or a slick sedan. Unless there is a pressing need for it, you may consider a second-hand unit. Today’s low gasoline prices are forecasted to bounce back and you may sell the car in a few months. Instead, why not think about financial security by the time you’re 65? Starting early with your contributions will obviously give you higher amounts of benefit.
Sure, you’re wedding day should be memorable but more couples have found innovative solutions to hold receptions in practical ways. Good planners use their savings and not the money from their home equity loan. During downbeat economic conditions like today, laid off workers are growing interested on starting small businesses whether they be the mom-and-pop type or marketing the products online. Because the business is still in its infancy, there is little risk from suffering huge losses. It’s more fulfilling to watch your garaged-based shop develop into a medium enterprise rather than a video of a single night’s
Read More..
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Writing & Marketing: 7 Tips to Your First Internet
You have heard about how much traffic, prospects, publicity and profits article writing can produce. At the same time, the thought of writing an article leaves you frozen.
Here are 7 simple tips to get you started on your very first article.
Tip 1 - Identify a specific niche within your area of expertise.
With whom do you work? Who is your ideal client? This is an important step because if you are not clear on who is in your niche, you can't be clear on to whom you are writing and marketing.
Tip 2 - Identify a specific pain or problem your niche experiences.
What keeps people in your niche up at night? What do they worry about? What problem would they most like solved?
Tip 3 - Make a list of 7 tips you could offer your ideal client to help them with their problem.
Simply write down 7 suggestions, tips, tools, or solutions that speak to the specific pain.
Tip 4 - Pick one of these tips and add a few more lines of information.
Explain your tip, give an example, tell a story. Think of it as adding some meat to the bone of your tip.
Tip 5 - Do this same thing for each of your six other tips.
Just go down your list of tips and add some more information for each of your tips.
Tip 6 - Write an introduction to your 7 tips.
You want to write your introduction in a way that demonstrates to the reader that you get it about their pain and problem.
Tip 7 - Write a conclusion to your 7 tips.
Wrap it up. Make a clear statement about the benefits of using your 7 tips.
Read More..
Here are 7 simple tips to get you started on your very first article.
Tip 1 - Identify a specific niche within your area of expertise.
With whom do you work? Who is your ideal client? This is an important step because if you are not clear on who is in your niche, you can't be clear on to whom you are writing and marketing.
Tip 2 - Identify a specific pain or problem your niche experiences.
What keeps people in your niche up at night? What do they worry about? What problem would they most like solved?
Tip 3 - Make a list of 7 tips you could offer your ideal client to help them with their problem.
Simply write down 7 suggestions, tips, tools, or solutions that speak to the specific pain.
Tip 4 - Pick one of these tips and add a few more lines of information.
Explain your tip, give an example, tell a story. Think of it as adding some meat to the bone of your tip.
Tip 5 - Do this same thing for each of your six other tips.
Just go down your list of tips and add some more information for each of your tips.
Tip 6 - Write an introduction to your 7 tips.
You want to write your introduction in a way that demonstrates to the reader that you get it about their pain and problem.
Tip 7 - Write a conclusion to your 7 tips.
Wrap it up. Make a clear statement about the benefits of using your 7 tips.
Read More..
Strategy Means Saying "No"
I was helping a prominent global company explore the strategy of achieving high levels of client service. We were discussing ways of investing resources and redesigning processes to accomplish this goal. The longer the discussion continued, the more uncomfortable some members of the organization became.
“But what about the clients and customers who don’t want all this high-touch contact?” they asked me. “What are we supposed to do with them? Won’t we scare away a significant portion of our current customer base by doing things they don’t want?”
“Yes, you will,” I replied. “A strategy is not just choosing a target market, but is about actually designing an operation that will consistently deliver the superior client benefits you claim to provide.
“However, each decision you make to be more effective at delivering the preferences of those you target will (inevitably, inescapably, unavoidably) make you less attractive to clients or market segments that look for different benefits.
“But consider the alternative,” I continued. “You could try to design your operations to meet a wide variety of preferences and needs, serving each client or customer group differently, according to their individual wishes.
“Your market appeal will then come down to ‘tell us what you want us to do for you and we’ll do that. We’ll do something different for other people tomorrow!’
“You may get by with this approach, but you will be unlikely to achieve a competitive differentiation or reputation, except as people who, as long as they are getting paid, will do anything for anyone. Which is not an image I think you want to have.”
Finally, someone said out loud what was on everybody’s mind: “But do we have the courage to turn away business? Do we really have the confidence to tell paying customers that we are not right for them?”
My answer? “Not only should you do that, but the only way you can achieve any strategic distinction is to do that. Strategy is deciding whose business you are going to turn away.”
The Focused Factory
One of the first lessons I was taught at Harvard Business School in the 1970s was Wickham Skinner’s principle of the “focused factory.” No operation, Professor Skinner pointed out, can be good at everything simultaneously.
An operation designed to provide the highest quality is unlikely to be the one that achieves the lowest cost, and one that can respond to a wide variety of customized requests will be unlikely to provide fast response and turnaround. Any business that tried to deliver all four virtues of quality, cost, variety and speed would be doomed to failure.
This is not just an operational point, but a marketing one. To be differentiated in the eyes of the marketplace, you have to be known for something in particular. It’s not enough just to be known. (That’s name awareness, which is not the same thing as being seen as differentiated.) And you can’t have a reputation for being something specific if you only do it occasionally.
The very essence of having a strategy is being selective about choosing the criteria on which a firm wishes to compete, and then being creative and disciplined in designing an operation that is finely tuned to deliver those particular virtues.
Consider McDonalds. For any customer that truly places a premium on low cost and speed, McDonalds is hard to beat, because it has been optimized around a clear market positioning.
However, if someone were to walk into a McDonald’s and say, “I feel like having a curry today,” the service provider would not reply “Sure. That will increase our revenues. Let me shut down the grill and make you one.”
Instead, the reply (except, perhaps, in India) would be, “I’m sorry, but we are not designed to meet every possible need. Perhaps I can help you find somewhere nearby that can give you what you want?”
As companies keep discovering to their cost, it is certain business decay if you try to please all possible market segments. The broader the group of clients to which you try to appeal, or the wider the range of services you try to provide, the less customized your operation can be to each segment within that group.
If you never say “no,” you will just be one more undifferentiated firm, trying to do a little bit of everything and, as Skinner pointed out, will almost certainly be superb at none of them.
Read More..
“But what about the clients and customers who don’t want all this high-touch contact?” they asked me. “What are we supposed to do with them? Won’t we scare away a significant portion of our current customer base by doing things they don’t want?”
“Yes, you will,” I replied. “A strategy is not just choosing a target market, but is about actually designing an operation that will consistently deliver the superior client benefits you claim to provide.
“However, each decision you make to be more effective at delivering the preferences of those you target will (inevitably, inescapably, unavoidably) make you less attractive to clients or market segments that look for different benefits.
“But consider the alternative,” I continued. “You could try to design your operations to meet a wide variety of preferences and needs, serving each client or customer group differently, according to their individual wishes.
“Your market appeal will then come down to ‘tell us what you want us to do for you and we’ll do that. We’ll do something different for other people tomorrow!’
“You may get by with this approach, but you will be unlikely to achieve a competitive differentiation or reputation, except as people who, as long as they are getting paid, will do anything for anyone. Which is not an image I think you want to have.”
Finally, someone said out loud what was on everybody’s mind: “But do we have the courage to turn away business? Do we really have the confidence to tell paying customers that we are not right for them?”
My answer? “Not only should you do that, but the only way you can achieve any strategic distinction is to do that. Strategy is deciding whose business you are going to turn away.”
The Focused Factory
One of the first lessons I was taught at Harvard Business School in the 1970s was Wickham Skinner’s principle of the “focused factory.” No operation, Professor Skinner pointed out, can be good at everything simultaneously.
An operation designed to provide the highest quality is unlikely to be the one that achieves the lowest cost, and one that can respond to a wide variety of customized requests will be unlikely to provide fast response and turnaround. Any business that tried to deliver all four virtues of quality, cost, variety and speed would be doomed to failure.
This is not just an operational point, but a marketing one. To be differentiated in the eyes of the marketplace, you have to be known for something in particular. It’s not enough just to be known. (That’s name awareness, which is not the same thing as being seen as differentiated.) And you can’t have a reputation for being something specific if you only do it occasionally.
The very essence of having a strategy is being selective about choosing the criteria on which a firm wishes to compete, and then being creative and disciplined in designing an operation that is finely tuned to deliver those particular virtues.
Consider McDonalds. For any customer that truly places a premium on low cost and speed, McDonalds is hard to beat, because it has been optimized around a clear market positioning.
However, if someone were to walk into a McDonald’s and say, “I feel like having a curry today,” the service provider would not reply “Sure. That will increase our revenues. Let me shut down the grill and make you one.”
Instead, the reply (except, perhaps, in India) would be, “I’m sorry, but we are not designed to meet every possible need. Perhaps I can help you find somewhere nearby that can give you what you want?”
As companies keep discovering to their cost, it is certain business decay if you try to please all possible market segments. The broader the group of clients to which you try to appeal, or the wider the range of services you try to provide, the less customized your operation can be to each segment within that group.
If you never say “no,” you will just be one more undifferentiated firm, trying to do a little bit of everything and, as Skinner pointed out, will almost certainly be superb at none of them.
Read More..
Sony Ericsson launches S001 cyber shot
Sony Ericsson launches S001 Cyber Shot 8.1 MP camera phone
Sony Ericsson has unveiled a new Cyber-Shot phone called S001 phone. The slider phone is all set to convince users to let go of their digital camera for this mobile phone.
It incorporates an 8.1 megapixel camera that comprises autofocus, smile-shutter control and flash enabling users to capture priceless moments. Images can be effectively viewed on the phone’s 3.3 inch large AMOLED screen.
The Sony Ericsson S001 is equipped with Bluetooth connectivity and internet features that provide users a unique internet experience. Watching videos is now an experience similar to watching it on an LCD screen. It can transform into a notebook thanks to its flexible design. Sony Ericsson S001 comes pre-installed with navigation applications, high speed internet and GPS support.
The new Cyber Shot S001 phone will first be available in Japan via KDDI network. It is available in three trendy colors pink, black and green with gold trim. The phone is expected to ship in March 2009.The price is not known. Sony Ericsson S001 can be an ideal companion for users who enjoy photography. Read More......
Diposkan oleh UNIVERSAL di 9:35 PM 0 komentar Link ke posting ini
Label: Handphone, S001 Cyber shot, Soner
Money crisis: Where's the bottom
The bear market that is ravaging investor portfolios is now one of the worst in modern U.S. history and has wiped out more than $7 trillion in shareholder value, with no bottom clearly in sight.
When it stops and how far it drops, no one can predict with any accuracy — a painful uncertainty underscored by Wall Street's giddy mood at the moment the steep descent began.
A year ago Thursday, Wall Street was celebrating the fifth anniversary of a bull market that had created $10 trillion in shareholder wealth since 2002. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index hit all-time highs on Oct. 9, 2007.
A headline in USA Today captured the prevailing sentiment: "Market's run could keep going for a while."
In fact, the party was over. The subprime mortgage problem that was laid bare by a decline in home values developed into a much broader credit crisis that toppled giant banks and financial institutions.
Panicked investors have been fleeing from stocks. The S&P is down 37 percent from its peak of 1,565 a year ago, closing at 985 on Wednesday, and the Dow has tumbled 35 percent from 14,164 to 9,258.
Most experts don't see a recovery until there's greater stability in the housing market, banks are lending freely, and employment improves.
Unlike other periods that saw precipitous drops, this one is rooted in foundering credit markets. That makes predictions more difficult than if the plunge were based on company profits or stocks alone.
"When you have an environment like this where the crisis is so deeply rooted from the credit standpoint, it adds an extra layer of ambiguity and ultimately of uncertainty," said Mark Freeman, portfolio manager for Westwood Holdings Group Inc. "That is what the markets are struggling with."
No turnaround is seen before 2009 or later. And there is a wide divergence of opinion on the future of this bear market, which feels unlike any other because of the $700 billion federal bailout and the collapse of investment banks.
Even with the Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world slashing interest rates Wednesday, experts were hesitant to call a bottom.
"Technical indicators tell us that we're overdue for at least a short-term bounce," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist for San Francisco-based brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. "That doesn't tell us that the bear market is necessarily over."
This bear market — a term often defined as a prolonged drop in stock prices of 20 percent or more — already is harsher than most of the 10 bear markets since the 1930s. Those markets have lasted an average of about 16 months from peak to trough, with average stock losses of 31 percent, based on S&P data.
Since the record 83 percent plunge in 1929-32, the current market is exceeded only by the drops of 49 percent in 2000-02 during the tech stock implosion and 48 percent in 1973-74 during a recession and energy crisis.
The magnitude of this decline is close to that of the dot-com collapse earlier this decade, but this time, it's not just retirement accounts and stock portfolios that are being hurt. Increasingly, the availability of loans and credit is drying up, too.
Rob Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates LLC in Newport Beach, Calif., thinks the big difference this time is that Americans are feeling increasing pain apart from the stock market.
"People in 2000-02 saw their 401(k)s become 201(k)s, but the impact on their personal lives otherwise was minimal," he said. "This time, it is starting to be significant. People who have home equity lines and use them to pay for holidays or buy a car are finding that their loan facilities are getting pulled. That affects the way they look at their own spending."
He predicts another six to nine months for this bear market.
Some are far more pessimistic.
Jim Cramer, the normally bullish host of CNBC's "Mad Money" program, caused a stir Monday when he warned investors to take whatever money they need for the next five years out of the market now. On Tuesday, he called it "the most horrible market that I've ever seen."
Money manager Peter Schiff, who has long espoused the bleakest of market views, said the Dow has a good chance to sink to 7,500 or lower. He expects the bear market to last another five years or more. That would signal a possible loss of at least 20 percent more in shareholder value.
"Everybody wants to think there's a government solution to spare us the pain," said Schiff, who runs the investment firm Euro Pacific Capital Inc. in Darien, Conn. "There is no government solution. All there is is more pain."
One wild card is that a recession — unofficially defined as a decline in the gross domestic product for two or more consecutive quarters — could seriously crimp consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
Without that money flowing into the economy, a rally in stocks may be unlikely.
Once the bear market ends, investors could still have a long wait to recover their losses. After a stock market index falls 33 percent, it has to rise 50 percent just to get back to where it started.
It took 12 1/2 years for the S&P to recover its losses from the devastating three-year period ending in 1932, and four years for it to make up all of the decline from the 2000-02 market plunge.
Still, the tumbling price of stocks has also raised potential long-term buying opportunities.
Dan Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State University, said many stocks are now cheap by fundamental evaluation methods. Investor panic, he said, is a sign the bear market may be closer to the end than the beginning.
"The only time you get cheap stocks is when the world looks awful," he said. "Nobody's going to give you cheap stocks when everything looks good.
Read More..
Money crisis: Where's the bottom
The bear market that is ravaging investor portfolios is now one of the worst in modern U.S. history and has wiped out more than $7 trillion in shareholder value, with no bottom clearly in sight.
When it stops and how far it drops, no one can predict with any accuracy — a painful uncertainty underscored by Wall Street's giddy mood at the moment the steep descent began.
A year ago Thursday, Wall Street was celebrating the fifth anniversary of a bull market that had created $10 trillion in shareholder wealth since 2002. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index hit all-time highs on Oct. 9, 2007.
A headline in USA Today captured the prevailing sentiment: "Market's run could keep going for a while."
In fact, the party was over. The subprime mortgage problem that was laid bare by a decline in home values developed into a much broader credit crisis that toppled giant banks and financial institutions.
Panicked investors have been fleeing from stocks. The S&P is down 37 percent from its peak of 1,565 a year ago, closing at 985 on Wednesday, and the Dow has tumbled 35 percent from 14,164 to 9,258.
Most experts don't see a recovery until there's greater stability in the housing market, banks are lending freely, and employment improves.
Unlike other periods that saw precipitous drops, this one is rooted in foundering credit markets. That makes predictions more difficult than if the plunge were based on company profits or stocks alone.
"When you have an environment like this where the crisis is so deeply rooted from the credit standpoint, it adds an extra layer of ambiguity and ultimately of uncertainty," said Mark Freeman, portfolio manager for Westwood Holdings Group Inc. "That is what the markets are struggling with."
No turnaround is seen before 2009 or later. And there is a wide divergence of opinion on the future of this bear market, which feels unlike any other because of the $700 billion federal bailout and the collapse of investment banks.
Even with the Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world slashing interest rates Wednesday, experts were hesitant to call a bottom.
"Technical indicators tell us that we're overdue for at least a short-term bounce," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist for San Francisco-based brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. "That doesn't tell us that the bear market is necessarily over."
This bear market — a term often defined as a prolonged drop in stock prices of 20 percent or more — already is harsher than most of the 10 bear markets since the 1930s. Those markets have lasted an average of about 16 months from peak to trough, with average stock losses of 31 percent, based on S&P data.
Since the record 83 percent plunge in 1929-32, the current market is exceeded only by the drops of 49 percent in 2000-02 during the tech stock implosion and 48 percent in 1973-74 during a recession and energy crisis.
The magnitude of this decline is close to that of the dot-com collapse earlier this decade, but this time, it's not just retirement accounts and stock portfolios that are being hurt. Increasingly, the availability of loans and credit is drying up, too.
Rob Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates LLC in Newport Beach, Calif., thinks the big difference this time is that Americans are feeling increasing pain apart from the stock market.
"People in 2000-02 saw their 401(k)s become 201(k)s, but the impact on their personal lives otherwise was minimal," he said. "This time, it is starting to be significant. People who have home equity lines and use them to pay for holidays or buy a car are finding that their loan facilities are getting pulled. That affects the way they look at their own spending."
He predicts another six to nine months for this bear market.
Some are far more pessimistic.
Jim Cramer, the normally bullish host of CNBC's "Mad Money" program, caused a stir Monday when he warned investors to take whatever money they need for the next five years out of the market now. On Tuesday, he called it "the most horrible market that I've ever seen."
Money manager Peter Schiff, who has long espoused the bleakest of market views, said the Dow has a good chance to sink to 7,500 or lower. He expects the bear market to last another five years or more. That would signal a possible loss of at least 20 percent more in shareholder value.
"Everybody wants to think there's a government solution to spare us the pain," said Schiff, who runs the investment firm Euro Pacific Capital Inc. in Darien, Conn. "There is no government solution. All there is is more pain."
One wild card is that a recession — unofficially defined as a decline in the gross domestic product for two or more consecutive quarters — could seriously crimp consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
Without that money flowing into the economy, a rally in stocks may be unlikely.
Once the bear market ends, investors could still have a long wait to recover their losses. After a stock market index falls 33 percent, it has to rise 50 percent just to get back to where it started.
It took 12 1/2 years for the S&P to recover its losses from the devastating three-year period ending in 1932, and four years for it to make up all of the decline from the 2000-02 market plunge.
Still, the tumbling price of stocks has also raised potential long-term buying opportunities.
Dan Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State University, said many stocks are now cheap by fundamental evaluation methods. Investor panic, he said, is a sign the bear market may be closer to the end than the beginning.
"The only time you get cheap stocks is when the world looks awful," he said. "Nobody's going to give you cheap stocks when everything looks good.
Read More..
When it stops and how far it drops, no one can predict with any accuracy — a painful uncertainty underscored by Wall Street's giddy mood at the moment the steep descent began.
A year ago Thursday, Wall Street was celebrating the fifth anniversary of a bull market that had created $10 trillion in shareholder wealth since 2002. The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index hit all-time highs on Oct. 9, 2007.
A headline in USA Today captured the prevailing sentiment: "Market's run could keep going for a while."
In fact, the party was over. The subprime mortgage problem that was laid bare by a decline in home values developed into a much broader credit crisis that toppled giant banks and financial institutions.
Panicked investors have been fleeing from stocks. The S&P is down 37 percent from its peak of 1,565 a year ago, closing at 985 on Wednesday, and the Dow has tumbled 35 percent from 14,164 to 9,258.
Most experts don't see a recovery until there's greater stability in the housing market, banks are lending freely, and employment improves.
Unlike other periods that saw precipitous drops, this one is rooted in foundering credit markets. That makes predictions more difficult than if the plunge were based on company profits or stocks alone.
"When you have an environment like this where the crisis is so deeply rooted from the credit standpoint, it adds an extra layer of ambiguity and ultimately of uncertainty," said Mark Freeman, portfolio manager for Westwood Holdings Group Inc. "That is what the markets are struggling with."
No turnaround is seen before 2009 or later. And there is a wide divergence of opinion on the future of this bear market, which feels unlike any other because of the $700 billion federal bailout and the collapse of investment banks.
Even with the Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world slashing interest rates Wednesday, experts were hesitant to call a bottom.
"Technical indicators tell us that we're overdue for at least a short-term bounce," said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist for San Francisco-based brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. "That doesn't tell us that the bear market is necessarily over."
This bear market — a term often defined as a prolonged drop in stock prices of 20 percent or more — already is harsher than most of the 10 bear markets since the 1930s. Those markets have lasted an average of about 16 months from peak to trough, with average stock losses of 31 percent, based on S&P data.
Since the record 83 percent plunge in 1929-32, the current market is exceeded only by the drops of 49 percent in 2000-02 during the tech stock implosion and 48 percent in 1973-74 during a recession and energy crisis.
The magnitude of this decline is close to that of the dot-com collapse earlier this decade, but this time, it's not just retirement accounts and stock portfolios that are being hurt. Increasingly, the availability of loans and credit is drying up, too.
Rob Arnott, chairman of Research Affiliates LLC in Newport Beach, Calif., thinks the big difference this time is that Americans are feeling increasing pain apart from the stock market.
"People in 2000-02 saw their 401(k)s become 201(k)s, but the impact on their personal lives otherwise was minimal," he said. "This time, it is starting to be significant. People who have home equity lines and use them to pay for holidays or buy a car are finding that their loan facilities are getting pulled. That affects the way they look at their own spending."
He predicts another six to nine months for this bear market.
Some are far more pessimistic.
Jim Cramer, the normally bullish host of CNBC's "Mad Money" program, caused a stir Monday when he warned investors to take whatever money they need for the next five years out of the market now. On Tuesday, he called it "the most horrible market that I've ever seen."
Money manager Peter Schiff, who has long espoused the bleakest of market views, said the Dow has a good chance to sink to 7,500 or lower. He expects the bear market to last another five years or more. That would signal a possible loss of at least 20 percent more in shareholder value.
"Everybody wants to think there's a government solution to spare us the pain," said Schiff, who runs the investment firm Euro Pacific Capital Inc. in Darien, Conn. "There is no government solution. All there is is more pain."
One wild card is that a recession — unofficially defined as a decline in the gross domestic product for two or more consecutive quarters — could seriously crimp consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.
Without that money flowing into the economy, a rally in stocks may be unlikely.
Once the bear market ends, investors could still have a long wait to recover their losses. After a stock market index falls 33 percent, it has to rise 50 percent just to get back to where it started.
It took 12 1/2 years for the S&P to recover its losses from the devastating three-year period ending in 1932, and four years for it to make up all of the decline from the 2000-02 market plunge.
Still, the tumbling price of stocks has also raised potential long-term buying opportunities.
Dan Seiver, a finance professor at San Diego State University, said many stocks are now cheap by fundamental evaluation methods. Investor panic, he said, is a sign the bear market may be closer to the end than the beginning.
"The only time you get cheap stocks is when the world looks awful," he said. "Nobody's going to give you cheap stocks when everything looks good.
Read More..
International strategy
1. Developing International Strategy David Elliott B.A.
(Lon), M.B.A. (Executive Management) Hull, MCIM
2. Agenda • What drives International performance? • A
suggested model. • Some thoughts. • Some experiences.
3. What drives International performance • Product
adaptation. • International experience. • Partnerships with
Distributors.
4. There are fewer models to support export marketing
than there are to give guidance for domestic ventures.
Growth orientated domestic firms must clearly address the
opportunities which increasingly globalisation offer, and
therefore it is appropriate and sensible to suggest a
framework which might support export marketing, to the
extent that this is substantiated in the literature.
5. A suggested Model Cavusgil & Zou (1994 & 1996) have
defined three key areas -: 1) Export marketing strategy The
major consideration is \"to adapt or not to adapt\". The
Company must, prior to applying its scarce resources,
decide how much it is going to change its basic format. 2)
International Competence This is inextricably linked with
its decision whether to \"adapt or not\". An organisation
which is competent in an international context ( and this
is a very different story from being competent in a
domestic situation) is able to make the important decisions
which key into an appropriate export marketing
6. A suggested Model 3) Managerial Commitment Export
marketing is enhanced if senior management is committed to
the venture, allocates appropriate resources and creates an
international environment within the organisation for the
long
7. A suggested Model This indicates an interesting
virtuous cycle which can be illustrated as follows -:
Management commitment Product Adaptation International
Competence International
8. A suggested Model • This will require a long-term
approach to export marketing which will build an
organisation a growing appreciation of the specific demands
of international markets which in turn enhance strategy and
create products which are appropriately adapted to the
demands of the different market places. • This approach
will avoid the short-term opportunistic approach to
9. A suggested Model • Having defined an export
marketing model it is however important to put this
together with a management model which recognises that
managers operate not only in the external environment but
also in the internal environment of the various departments
in the Company. Fayol offers the basis for a simple
management model which can be incorporated as follows…
10. A suggested Model Export External Marketing strategy
A management model • Planning • Organizing • Staffing •
Leading • Controlling Internal International Management
competence commitment
11. Planning • This involves selecting missions and
objectives and the actions to achieve them. By selecting
future courses of action from among the many alternatives
which may be open to a Company it is able to choose where
it wants to be in the future and is able to encourage group
effort by allowing people to know what they are expected to
accomplish. • This is more likely to encourage success and
prevent a Company from drifting into situations which it
cannot control.
12. Organising • This involves that part of managing
which involves establishing an intentional structure of
roles for people to fill in an organisation. The objective
is to create a structure to ensure that all tasks which are
necessary to achieve goals are covered an given to those
who are best equipped to fulfil the various tasks in an
organisation. • The structure should also create a formal
system of roles that people can perform so that they can
work together to achieve the Company's objectives. Those
modern approaches also address the informal links which
make any organisation function well.
13. Staffing • This involves filling, and retaining
positions in an organisation. • This is achieved by
identifying work force requirements, reviewing the people
available, recruiting, selecting,, putting people into the
appropriate positions, planning careers, rewarding,
training or otherwise developing both current and potential
job holders to accomplish tasks effectively and
efficiently.
14. Leading • This has been described by Koontz &
Weihrich as that task which influences people so that they
will contribute to organisation and group goals, largely as
the result of the interpersonal aspects of management which
relate to motivation, leadership styles, and approaches and
communication.
15. Controlling • This relates to the measuring and
correcting of activities to ensure that events conform to
plan. Performance will logically be measured against goals
and plans, show where any deviations might exist, and then
put management into place corrective action to make certain
that plans are achieved.
16. At the heart of control activity is the measurement
of achievement and correction is achieved via activities
which are conducted by people. Unless it is known who is
responsible for results which are different from what has
been planned it will not be possible to take the necessary
steps to improve performance. By definition therefore
outcomes are controlled by controlling what people do.
17. Thoughts • No quick fix. • Do you mean what you say?
• Build trust.
18. Experiences • Be flexible. • Be patient. • Be strong.
Read More..
(Lon), M.B.A. (Executive Management) Hull, MCIM
2. Agenda • What drives International performance? • A
suggested model. • Some thoughts. • Some experiences.
3. What drives International performance • Product
adaptation. • International experience. • Partnerships with
Distributors.
4. There are fewer models to support export marketing
than there are to give guidance for domestic ventures.
Growth orientated domestic firms must clearly address the
opportunities which increasingly globalisation offer, and
therefore it is appropriate and sensible to suggest a
framework which might support export marketing, to the
extent that this is substantiated in the literature.
5. A suggested Model Cavusgil & Zou (1994 & 1996) have
defined three key areas -: 1) Export marketing strategy The
major consideration is \"to adapt or not to adapt\". The
Company must, prior to applying its scarce resources,
decide how much it is going to change its basic format. 2)
International Competence This is inextricably linked with
its decision whether to \"adapt or not\". An organisation
which is competent in an international context ( and this
is a very different story from being competent in a
domestic situation) is able to make the important decisions
which key into an appropriate export marketing
6. A suggested Model 3) Managerial Commitment Export
marketing is enhanced if senior management is committed to
the venture, allocates appropriate resources and creates an
international environment within the organisation for the
long
7. A suggested Model This indicates an interesting
virtuous cycle which can be illustrated as follows -:
Management commitment Product Adaptation International
Competence International
8. A suggested Model • This will require a long-term
approach to export marketing which will build an
organisation a growing appreciation of the specific demands
of international markets which in turn enhance strategy and
create products which are appropriately adapted to the
demands of the different market places. • This approach
will avoid the short-term opportunistic approach to
9. A suggested Model • Having defined an export
marketing model it is however important to put this
together with a management model which recognises that
managers operate not only in the external environment but
also in the internal environment of the various departments
in the Company. Fayol offers the basis for a simple
management model which can be incorporated as follows…
10. A suggested Model Export External Marketing strategy
A management model • Planning • Organizing • Staffing •
Leading • Controlling Internal International Management
competence commitment
11. Planning • This involves selecting missions and
objectives and the actions to achieve them. By selecting
future courses of action from among the many alternatives
which may be open to a Company it is able to choose where
it wants to be in the future and is able to encourage group
effort by allowing people to know what they are expected to
accomplish. • This is more likely to encourage success and
prevent a Company from drifting into situations which it
cannot control.
12. Organising • This involves that part of managing
which involves establishing an intentional structure of
roles for people to fill in an organisation. The objective
is to create a structure to ensure that all tasks which are
necessary to achieve goals are covered an given to those
who are best equipped to fulfil the various tasks in an
organisation. • The structure should also create a formal
system of roles that people can perform so that they can
work together to achieve the Company's objectives. Those
modern approaches also address the informal links which
make any organisation function well.
13. Staffing • This involves filling, and retaining
positions in an organisation. • This is achieved by
identifying work force requirements, reviewing the people
available, recruiting, selecting,, putting people into the
appropriate positions, planning careers, rewarding,
training or otherwise developing both current and potential
job holders to accomplish tasks effectively and
efficiently.
14. Leading • This has been described by Koontz &
Weihrich as that task which influences people so that they
will contribute to organisation and group goals, largely as
the result of the interpersonal aspects of management which
relate to motivation, leadership styles, and approaches and
communication.
15. Controlling • This relates to the measuring and
correcting of activities to ensure that events conform to
plan. Performance will logically be measured against goals
and plans, show where any deviations might exist, and then
put management into place corrective action to make certain
that plans are achieved.
16. At the heart of control activity is the measurement
of achievement and correction is achieved via activities
which are conducted by people. Unless it is known who is
responsible for results which are different from what has
been planned it will not be possible to take the necessary
steps to improve performance. By definition therefore
outcomes are controlled by controlling what people do.
17. Thoughts • No quick fix. • Do you mean what you say?
• Build trust.
18. Experiences • Be flexible. • Be patient. • Be strong.
Read More..
Friday, February 27, 2009
International strategy bisnis, Steep Bisnis tools help predict consumer
We all like to think we’re special — and that our personal tastes are unique. But a variety of companies are using prediction and recommendation techniques and technologies to try to figure out everything from what movies customers will want to rent next to what kinds of songs are likely to be popular.
Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris share their research on this topic in “What People Want (and How to Predict It)” in the Winter 2009 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. Their analysis focuses on “cultural products” industries like movies — and includes well-known examples such as Netflix’s recommendation system but also start-ups such as Epagogix, which predicts the success of movies through neural network analysis of their scripts — before production ever starts. (Davenport and Harris also wrote a guide to prediction and recommendation tools such as neural network analysis.)
What’s it all mean? “Creating successful cultural products will always be a mixture of art and science,” Davenport and Harris conclude. “It appears, however, that the amount of science in the mixture is increasing.”
Read More..
Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris share their research on this topic in “What People Want (and How to Predict It)” in the Winter 2009 issue of the MIT Sloan Management Review. Their analysis focuses on “cultural products” industries like movies — and includes well-known examples such as Netflix’s recommendation system but also start-ups such as Epagogix, which predicts the success of movies through neural network analysis of their scripts — before production ever starts. (Davenport and Harris also wrote a guide to prediction and recommendation tools such as neural network analysis.)
What’s it all mean? “Creating successful cultural products will always be a mixture of art and science,” Davenport and Harris conclude. “It appears, however, that the amount of science in the mixture is increasing.”
Read More..
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