Managerial Skills

This class for me was particularly interesting because although I had already seen some of the theories of leadership and motivation in human resources and organizational behavior class’s, managerial skills was completely different. Why was it completely different? Because when teachers used to talk to me about this I didn’t buy it.  Why didn’t I buy it? Because the teachers didn’t act according to what they were talking about and didn’t transmitted it to the class. I was very impressed by the skills of our teacher to keep the class motivated and keep it interesting for everyone and getting us involved. We were getting the examples in every class. The negotiation topic I feel was really important. It was great that they gave us a structured methodology of how to approach this type of situations and how to make our strategy to obtain our interests. Definitely I believe this is one of the most important tools given to us in the course not only it applies in our professional life but is something to apply in other areas of our life.

Also the feedback given to us was of great value. The fact that in this course we were given the opportunity to present in a comfortable environment to practice is priceless.  In my case Chris pointed out some weaknesses that ill definitely work on throughout the master and for future presentations. I would like to end this entry giving thank to Chris for giving us a great course and encouraging us to improve in whatever we do. Like Chris said when he quoted Abraham Lincoln “Whatever you are, be the good one”.

 

Comments Off on Managerial Skills / 25 Nov 2011 por Javier Solano Palacios
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Do you manage your managerial skills? – A summary of the class

Some of us have more some of us have less managerial skills. This can change again with time (and practice). Because of our Managerial Skills class it will improve certainly during this year.  Most of us received already some kind of training in the topics: presentation, time management, negotiation or conflict management. But somehow – timing, environment, teacher, interest?  -, this time I got most out of it. I won’t keep everything in my mind, I know that for sure, but at least I will remember exactly where I can look it up. And I have a contact to ask always, as offered this by our teacher.

What I gained from this class is that I have been reminded very expressively to focus on the other party, should this be the audience of my presentation, the partner I do negotiation with, or my team members in case I am a leader. The most important is to bring them from point A to point B. If you reach this, both of you can benefit from it. It has something to do with sense for motivating and influencing, but requires much more: needs to be built up in a structured way while being aware of multiple factors.

I liked the idea of WIIFY (What’s in it for you?), which I believe we can use in in many parts of our professional or private life. You can bring people to change (Point B), or to accept and commit to something new only if they see what the benefit for them is. Let us take an example, put ourselves in the role of our audience, negotiation partner etc.: I can be convinced by something if I see clearly why this is good for me. This can also be a benefit not personally for me but for a cause I care about.

I think EOI, its teachers and students want to change things in our current world and for this we need the skills (including the instruments and practice) bringing the rest of the world to Point B, a sustainable future. That makes us even responsible for managing these managerial skills on a high level.

Thanks, Chris and EOI for helping and supporting us on this road.

Comments Off on Do you manage your managerial skills? – A summary of the class / 25 Nov 2011 por Ildiko Heim
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Managerial Skills – final considerations

This week we have had our last class of managerial skills and personally I’ve enjoyed it a lot. During the classes, basic concepts were presented in a very practical way and we have been provoked to think about the reasons that we behave properly or not in some of the most common situations we face in our professional career. The approach was not constrained by common sense or clichés and we have been able to create our own thoughts. I’d like to mention particularly the leadership topic because of even though we hear a lot about this at many places, it’s really hard to find good leaders and the discussions we had in class contributed a lot for us to try to be one in our basic activities and, moreover, to be a leader of our personal life and time. I have to thank Christopher, the teacher, for helping us whenever we needed, giving personal feed backs and also congratulate him for the way lessons were conducted.

To conclude, I’d like to say that having this subject in the beginning of the course has been essential, since its concepts are totally applicable to the other subjects and we have the opportunity work on it a lot before going back or debuting in the labor market.

 

Comments Off on Managerial Skills – final considerations / 25 Nov 2011 por Fabio Pinto Almeida
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Finance – Hypermarket analysis

The hypermarket sector is composed basically by huge store chains that sell a big range of products. Its large scale of operations enable then to be profitable through small financial margin over the total sales (less than 5%), favored by strong bargain power against suppliers. The large amount of purchases pushes down the prices in the supply chain, allowing them to offer low prices to the final consumer. Since they usually have a positive cash flow, that means they receive from their consumers at the moment of the sale and can pay their suppliers in more than 2 or 3 months terms, they can finance their operations mainly with money from third parts. For this reason, when you look at the financial statements of hypermarket companies, the current liabilities are much higher than the current assets. Taking a look at this out of the context could lead a person to believe that the company will have problems to face short term obligations, what is not the case at all. Besides being positive from the cash flow point of view, this situation requires a low level of equity (own capital) and don’t rely on banks cash flow loans to finance the operations, contributing to obtain higher return on investment rates. So, even though the operational margin is limited, the return in investment can be much higher.

Comments Off on Finance – Hypermarket analysis / 25 Nov 2011 por Fabio Pinto Almeida
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Extreme Thanksgiving

At the moment, many residents in the United States are tucking into their slices of turkey and sweet potato pie, and giving their special thanks on Thanksgiving day.

I, on the other hand, am feeling nostalgic.

As I may (or may not) have mentioned previously, I spent a part of my life growing up in the U.S of A. I still remember the first time I tasted turkey – I was 4 years old and attending kindergarten in Pennsylvania, and it was during Thanksgiving day.

Later on, I spent 6 years growing up in New York, where I attended high school and college, and also grew accustomed to the feasts and festivities associated with Turkey Day. Everytime the seasonal pumpkin soups would begin to appear in local cafes and restaurants, I knew that Thanksgiving day was near and that my birthday was not far from it.

So…in my current state of reminiscence, I happened to come across this online article that related thanksgiving dinner to climate change. Since I had recently posted on how climate change affects our food and diet, in terms of the cocoa, coffee and wine industries, I thought I would also share with you the link to this article and the image below that was taken from the article (click on it to view the larger version), which I thought was interesting.

Happy Thanksgiving & que aproveche!

Comments Off on Extreme Thanksgiving / 24 Nov 2011 por Syafrina Sharif
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Managerial Skills- Final Thoughts

Managerial Skills was a great course to start my masters program. The underlining thesis seen in effective presentations, negotiations and leadership is the win-win idea. I think that I was beginning to let stress and others influence and affect my paradigm negatively. Instead of looking out, I want to try to see outside in. I hope that Stephen Covey’s book will change my life, if I work towards these 7 habits I will grow to the interdependent maturity level that I ultimately seek. To reach this idea of we, to see the world through the eyes of others will only make me a successful business woman whether I am giving a presentation, writing a report or leading. If I can stay positive, emotionally secure and emotionally mature I can effectively work with others.

I hope to be proactive. I want to stay grounded to the golden rule. I think this course pushed me to organize my goals and reestablish my commitment. I have to stay focused on the ultimate goal of obtaining as much information and knowledge from those around me in order to be successful in the future. I have to stay organized and use the time management matrix to not get overwhelmed, stressed and frustrated. If I can stay calm and collective, I will be an empathetic listener. I will seek to understand first and then to be understood. Essentially that is what school equips you to do. You are taught so you may in turn go and teach. I need to work on my maturity level so that I can think in terms of we and not who is right and who is wrong. Often my natural obdurate personality impedes my progress, I do not take the time to walk in my peers shoes and try and understand their views. Managerial Skills came at a perfect time. I was getting mad at the incessant America bashing. I was feeling stressed with the amount of work. I needed managerial skills to help me breathe and reformat. I needed to take a step back so I can take two steps forward.

 

Comments Off on Managerial Skills- Final Thoughts / 24 Nov 2011 por Lauren Musiello
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Reevalution is constantly needed for Developement Projects

“Every new idea is born drowning,” (Bob Woodruff) we must keep at it in order to bring a new idea afloat.

 

In development aid, there are a myriad number of players and sectors: governments to private sectors to NGO’s. There seems to be a run around game in improvements where we take one step forward and three steps backwards. We need to have more multilateral analysis when implementing a development project. When creating a development project we must construct a strong concrete foundation; a clear objective that is to be revisited through the implementation. It is most important to stop and reevaluate, adaptability will allow for the greatest strides in development.

First, we need strong government policies. We need policies that aim to establish humanitarian equality.  Unfortunately, in reality self interest reigns over policy and development. We must be constantly stopping and reevaluating the aim and objective, often development projects goals are lost in the matrix. That is why it is imperative to have constant auditing. Our world currently operates on the urgent instead of the important. We need to stop putting band-aids on big problems and start a new. As Leda stated in class, “Change must come from within,” and I think that change needs to happen on a global level first. However, it may not be peasible so therefore we must work within the existing frameworks to expand horizons. On the development path we must entertain different scenarios to help cope with uncertainties.

The development path is nothing but uncertainties whether its policy changes, bureaucratic, technical revision, or execution barricades can all modify the context and we need to foresee such impediments and entertain solutions that will realign a development project to the core objective. Projects need to be flexible; they need to adapt to change. We must constantly reevaluate a project and bring ourselves back to the main objective. Instead of continuing with a dull saw we must stop and sharpen our tools. Development projects will be most successful if they never loose sight of the objective and are metamorphic to new dynamics and barriers.

 

 

Comments Off on Reevalution is constantly needed for Developement Projects / 24 Nov 2011 por Lauren Musiello
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New development indices and their responsible use

In the Himalayan country of Bhutan a focus on Gross National Happiness (GNH) (as opposed to Gross National Product) has been promoted as a way of assessing the population’s well-being. This idea may sound unusual but the move away from development indicators that focus solely on economic growth has gained ground in recent years.

The UK-based New Economics Foundation has developed a Happy Planet Index (HPI) that combines three indicators – ecological footprint, life-satisfaction and life expectancy – to measure “the average years of happy life produced by a given society, nation or group of nations, per unit of planetary resources consumed.” The Genuine Progress Indicator and Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare are other examples of this trend which also includes “green” indices such as the Ecological Footprint (EF) and Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI). These new indices have built upon the pioneering work of the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) in giving consideration to human, social and environmental factors that might adjust or replace Gross National Product (GDP) as the main indicator of development progress.

Challenging the dominance of economic development indicators, most specifically GDP, is not easy. In a recent article in Consilience – The Journal of Sustainable Development, Simon Bell and Stephen Morse note that, “GDP is a cultural artefact and a symptom of our mindset, not its creator.” As well as observing that “development” is conditioned by individual perceptions and values which may make it immeasurable, Bell and Morse also highlight concerns about indices and indicators that compress complexity into a single value or quantitative score. Such information, often presented in country league tables, may assist us in more easily making sense of the world, but numbers and rankings do not offer us a full picture of the variances and complexities of the world we live in. We should therefore exercise caution when using these forms of measurement and see them as tools for further exploration.

This point of view is reinforced by Amartya Sen who, in an interview celebrating the 20th anniversary of the first Human Development Report, stresses, “… that some of the things that we try to measure will not be measurable in numbers.” Sen recommends wider reading, writing and learning from one another in order to inform ourselves more profoundly about what cannot be captured numerically. As well as deepening our knowledge, learning from our peers and critically questioning, responding to, and reflecting on the information we receive can also encourage an appreciation of the many important nuances that development indices and indicators are unable to convey.

Enviar comentario / 23 Nov 2011 por ledastott
IMSD /

DP #2: International Aid

Today we talked about International Aid in our Development Perspective class. It is incredible how it works and how the western countries create dependencies and enforce their politics to developing countries. If we talk about International Aid we talk about a huge machinery which pays the pay check of many people in the western countries. It is possible to declare many projects as “Official Development Assistance” (ODA) but nobody can say where the money really goes. Does it really reach the people it should reach? And if it reaches them, is the aid the help they wanted? I just know that the countries spending a lot of money for ODAs attract public attention but it is not evaluated how valuable the aid for the developing country actually was. On the website of the Commitment to Development Index you can see how much countries invest into International Aid.

In my last blog DP #1 I was already stating, that the target of International Aid should be to make itself redundant. The target is to develop countries in a sustainable way so that they have a stable economy and political system and are on the best way to close the gap between rich and poor. But is there an end to see in International Aid? Are the western countries really interested in this? International Aid runs a whole industry and silence the conscience of the western world. I asked if there is an end in International Aid in our videoconference with Julian Parr, who is a Development Consultant at Oxfam and currently working in New Delhi. He stated that there is a movement towards capacity building, but it really depends on the country. In India for example there are capable people who can do the job now, he did before. It still remains difficult because aid is highly decentralized and NGOs are competing with each other. He believes that International Aid will still be needed in countries where it is difficult to find local staff.

The challenges are huge and extremely complex but there are solutions on a social, physical, economic and political level. One of the main points is to look at the country/the region and ask the locals what is really needed to grow and stimulate local markets. It is important to consider the culture and customs. Another point is the work of the NGOs where projects still compete or even worse, work against each other. Since they are addressing the same problems they should coordinate their work and keep the target they are working for in mind.

You can watch an interview with Julian Parr about International Aid, challenges due to cultures and poverty here: http://www.eugad.eu/wiki/index.php?title=India_-_NGO_-_Julian_Parr_%28video%29

2 comentarios / 22 Nov 2011 por Marie Glueck
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Development Perspectives Part 2

I concluded the first part calling for an overall reflection on the systematic errors of societal design which curb truly development. My purpose was decoupling such wide and complex concept with the one of economic growth. I am not saying that economic growth has been a misfortune for society, eventually it can be also beneficial in term of development but I am saying that it doesn’t imply necessarily human development. Now, taking advantage of the discussion held in class today about the role of economic AID, I feel the opportunity to further advance my assumptions.

Analyzing last century historical evolution, it is clear that the western aptitude of pursuing economic growth regardless of social and environmental consequences has been part of the problems we face today: in order to incrementing over time materials and capital flows, markets size and finally economic development, certain countries came to exploit other parts of the world undermining social fabric and natural resources of the populations living in such territories. Now that awareness of the damages arises, debates, policies and measures are trying to compensate (at least apparently) or restore certain conditions because it is evident that those strategies toward economic growth turned out to even undermine the development of the promoters: I am not claiming anything new, just consider recent economic crisis, geopolitical instability, resources depletion, increasing inequalities worldwide, and increasing unemployment, to mention some.

What is the solution that is being implemented? Promoting economic growth, again. The achievement of free markets, globalization, economic aid, international institutions on so on; still everything has embedded the same overall purpose.

So recalling my point in today’s class, my question is: if the solution is part of the problem, how can it solve it?

To start answering such a dilemma, I would like to cite two quotations, which reflect exactly my thoughts on the described current aptitude(1), and another possible point of view(2):

1. “A fisherman does not need to know how the sea evolve”. Pareto (adapted).

2. “We cannot substitute declining fish stocks with larger and more expensive fishing boats”. Herman Daly.

 

1 comentario / 22 Nov 2011 por Francesco Mazzeo
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