Food for thought

Social entrepreneurship today

2007-03-31T04:58:00.000-07:00

Depending upon the way in which we choose to view it, the strengths or weaknesses of the concept of social entrepreneurship lie in the fact that most of its applications are in the form of a hybrid between private, non-profit and public sectors. As described, one such hybrid is found in non-profit organisations with an entrepreneurial offshoot that generates revenue for the organisation’s social objectives. With greater emphasis on the private, for-profit sector, a hybrid model is emerging whereby businesses lend money and expertise to non-profits. Increasingly, this latter model is linked to public pressure for businesses to demonstrate a measure of social responsibility.

The most realistic and desirable way for any business to be socially responsible is through what is called ‘‘strategic philanthropy’’ - selected giving in areas tied directly to the company’s interests and in arenas that the company can justly claim to have knowledge and a direct stake. The use of the term clearly suggests an indirect financial return on the philanthropic investment. Indeed, the exercise of traditional philanthropy does not make good business sense as it does not provide a tangible return. In a more refined consideration of types of philanthropy today, the notion of strategic philanthropy yet emphasises that highly motivated and visionary business leaders can bring together networks of organizations in new community ventures.

Like the term ‘‘strategic philanthropy’’, ‘‘social entrepreneurship’’ is an articulation, a combination of two concepts that do not naturally fit together and yet which seeks acceptance as common sense. It is the lack of a natural fit that renders the term open to resistance and challenge. Challenges, implicit or explicit, range from different interpretations of how the terms might justifiably be joined to denial that they should be used together at all.

Language is a key component in the shift towards rationalization of the concept of social entrepreneurship. This is because discourse acceptance precedes or runs in parallel with material acceptance. Thus we see the emergence of terms that were previously restricted to the business sector, such as ‘‘social venture capital’’, ‘‘social return on investment’’, ‘‘invest’’
rather than ‘‘donate’’, ‘‘revenue streams’’ and ‘‘client groups’’ applied to the social and public sectors.

If the colonisation of the social and public sectors by the language of business is accepted, the breakdown of barriers between the sectors becomes normalised. However, the terms cited are in contrast to the distinction between entrepreneurs who create social or artistic capital rather than financial capital, with social capital referring to that which is valuable to communities.

On the other hand, opposition could arise from the close association of the term ‘‘entrepreneur’’ with the creative and destructive aspects of capitalism. Those who are concerned about the negative aspects of business will be resistant to the blurring of the boundaries between public, private and civil society suggested by social entrepreneurship with the potential for increased influence of business beyond the private sector. The non-profit sector has long been associated with the creation and maintenance of a strong civil society. Marketing of that sector then calls that association into question with concerns for the viability of an independent civil society.

Furthermore, if business has the power to choose which non-profits are to benefit materially through socially entrepreneurial partnerships, what happens to those that are not chosen and therefore are marginalised?

A parallel can be drawn between the concept of social entrepreneurship and that of sustainability because sustainability is equally open to broad interpretation. Like social entrepreneurship, sustainability can favour either the social and environmental or the economic sectors, depending upon which model is adopted. Strong sustainability favours the social and environmental over economic development, upholding the social values of a truly civil society based social entrepreneurialism. Interpretations are derived from the beliefs and experiences of individuals. Social entrepreneurs and their work should ultimately be judged by the quality of the social outcomes, and that assessment should be made independently of the private interests of those entrepreneurs.

With concepts and movements such as social entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability, and social responsibility, it is crucial that we pay close attention to the persuasive uses of the terms as well as to their practical implication. All of them are contested, value-laden labels that can be used to reference a wide variety of interests, motives, activities and outcomes.

What triggers entrepreneurship?

2007-03-31T03:43:00.000-07:00

It is proposed that the process of entrepreneurship initiation has its foundations in person, intuition, society and culture. It is much more holistic than simply an economic function and represents a composite of material and immaterial, pragmatism and idealism. The essence is the application of creative processes and the acceptance of a risk-bearing function, directed at bringing about change of both economic and social nature. Ideally, but not necessarily, the outcomes would have positive consequences. The key to initiating the process of entrepreneurship lies within the individual members of society and the degree to which a spirit of enterprise exists or can be initiated.

Culture is important in any discussion of entrepreneurship because it determines the attitudes of individuals towards the initiation of entrepreneurship. Each era produces its own models of entrepreneurship according to its specific needs of the host society, however it has been described consistently using terms such as innovative, holistic, risk taking and co-ordinating ways of behaviour. Certain cultural institutions may facilitate, or hinder, entry into entrepreneurship. Thus, it is proposed that the culture of societies and the charateristics of people living in these socities, impacted by certain innate personality traits, will influence the degree to which entrepreneurship is initiated.

It appears that there is a significant relationship between entrepreneurship and cultural specificity, combined with an intuitive response by individual members of the society, albeit part innate and part cultural conditioning. Certainly, the cultural context in which persons are rooted and socially developed plays an influencing role in shaping and making entrepreneurs, and the degree to which they consider entrepreneurial behaviour to be desirable. Cultural dimensions that are significant to the extent to which entrepreneurial behaviour is supported by a society have been identified as: communal versus individual; conformist versus divergent; and equal versus elitist.

Furthermore, the role of the family, immediate and extended, is recognised as having the potential to make a positive contribution towards entrepreneurial behaviour through the provision of inter-generational role models. Finally, the profile of an entrepreneur which emerges through the study is one who is intelligent and analytical; is an effective risk manager and networker; possesses a strong set of moral, social and business ethics; exhibits a basic trader's instinct; and is dedicated life-long learning in its many forms.

Entrepreneurship with ethics

2007-03-31T03:03:00.000-07:00

Why is it important to establish the moral status of entrepreneurship? Unless it can be shown that the entrepreneur does what is morally worthwhile as an entrepreneur, that his role is ethically praiseworthy, not only his or her status in the market but the market itself becomes vulnerable to serious moral criticism. This is because it is well recognised that ethics are the free market's life line. Many economists are beginning to realise this. Indeed, it is entrepreneurial activity that makes the best sense of profit - another vital part of capitalism.

However, without also demonstrating that entrepreneurship is ethical, the market would at most be hospitable to morally indifferent kinds of behavior; at worst it would encourage moral callousness and discourage the pursuit of presumably morally more significant objectives, such as order, self-restraint, artistic excellence, family values.

When a system is vulnerable in one of its essential ingredients, competing systems that lack this weakness become very powerful if not immediately successful alternatives. Their images improve, even if their actual performance leaves a lot to be desired.

Some argue that all we need is the hospitable environment, but this is false. Even in the freest of societies many, many potential market agents can be lazy. Not that laziness is encouraged but that it is clearly not foreclosed. That is partly what freedom means. One has a genuine choice whether to be productive or not. It is not enough to show that under capitalism human beings are free, unless the kind of uses to which such a system puts human effort can themselves be
morally worthwhile. So the question needs to be addressed. Why should one be productive? Why should entrepreneurship be practiced? What is good about it?

It is not enough by a long shot to answer that entrepreneurship is the ticket to a decent chance for wealth. Certainly one can agree that between stealing and producing, the latter is more honorable. However what if quietism - the form of religious mysticism that involves complete extinction of the human will, drawing away from worldly things - is proposed as an alternative?

How about asceticism - the religious ideal that one can reach a higher spiritual state by self-discipline and self-denial? How will the system that is hospitable to entrepreneurship be defended in the light of such powerful challenges?

The most serious challenges to capitalism come from those who contend that by making entrepreneurial effort possible - by protecting the rights to private property and the pursuit of happiness here on earth - this system corrupts human life. It tends to permit the commercialisation of human relationships, making us self-interested economic agents instead of what we really ought be, altruistic members of our community.

It is insufficient to reply that the capitalist system makes it possible for people to attain a better life here on earth. That is just what is in need of defense. Why should we strive for such a life in the first place?

In a society of just human relationships, there must be a consistent and constant hospitality to entrepreneurship because without this, an important moral dimension of human life would be suppressed or at least seriously distorted. Without such a welcome, public policy and law would yield to more widely accepted but sadly misguided moral sentiments, for example, the call for greater and greater state power to regiment or re-engineer society instead of making it safe for natural human initiative.

Tips for an effective human resource management action plan

2007-03-30T08:40:00.000-07:00

What are some tips for having an effective human resource management plan? First of all, it has to address the facts that business fortunes rise and fall periodically, employees and talent needs change and evolve, workforces age and retire in perhaps unplanned ways that do not match business needs. Also the market value of talent changes over time, sometimes becoming more valuable or less valuable.

Business focus:
Be a best business place to work, not just a best place to work. Create a human resource management strategy to live with throughout the business cycle. Test some alternative solutions assuming growth and shrinkage of the number of customers and their profitability. Reward people who have helped the organisation to succeed.

Emphasise key skills:
Mentor staff with the crucial business skills so that they grow and learn. While everyone is important, some people have skills which a business needs than do others. This means investing in the talent that is closest to the business' core competencies - capabilities which are vital in making the business a winning one. Inform everyone what the talent priorities are and build a reward solution that fits. Invest on the area where most of business value comes from - people with expertise that add most to the business.

Communicate:
Educate employees about the rules of staffing growth and reduction early in their career. During the staffing build up over the last 5 years, companies implied that jobs were more secure than they really are. Thus, when the business tide turned, workforces recalled these implied promises and interpreted them as job guarantees. It is extremely important to have people understand the actual deal the company can provide. Be clear that staffing levels would change. However, also make employees comprehend what they can do to improve their value to make it less likely that they will be picked for lay offs and salary reductions.

Measure performance:
Build an accepted and valid way to judge performance before it is needed. It is important to have a credible and reliable performance management system in place when times are going well. In good times, it is easy to protect inadequate performers when staffing levels are high, but not when cutting is necessary. The best way to foster distrust, to say nothing about litigation, is to adopt a makeshift ranking system just before it is needed to reduce staff and try to use it to decide who goes and who remains.

Humanity counts:
Cut the workforce quickly and humanely. Spreading the pain around does not make much business sense. When there is a need to reduce staff, reduce it. Build a reputation for keeping people close to the meat of the business even when cutting is inevitable.

Get it over with:
Cut enough so that when it is over, it is really over. Do some staff planning and stick with it. Companies cannot continue to regain the trust of the workforce if they do not make the needed cuts and commence to regain business momentum. While it is very hard to predict the next possible economic fortunes of the business, the staff cutting must stop when management promises that it will.

Employee benefits for motivation and productivity of work

2007-03-30T08:21:00.000-07:00

Employee benefits are essential for the development of corporate industrial relations. According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory (motivation and hygiene), an employee benefit programme is a necessary and sufficient working condition. The hygiene factor will affect employees’ work motivation and thus productivity.

In the stimulus-response behaviour, employees’ work-motivation, seen as the response, can be analysed from absence rate, leave rate, quit rate, get-to-work speed and so on. Productivity can be analysed from quality and quantity of products. The quality indices include faults and returns. The quantity indices include completion time and the production hygiene factor. This depends on the individual properties of the employee, who is the medium essential for management, and stimulates employees to enhance their work and productivity.

In addition, everyone works in expectation of some rewards (both spiritual and material), and welfare is one of them. In other words, the degree of reward influences the quality and quantity of work, and in turn productivity. Hence it is important to explore how to give the stimulus (welfare) in order to promote work motivation and productivity.

To understand the impact of employee benefit on employees’ work motivation and productivity, questionnaires were sent to corporations which had undertaken employee benefit programmes. Results reflected on a variety of assumptions.

Implementation of employee benefit programmes affects employees’ performance. Employee benefit programmes have greater impact on work-motivation than on productivity. Monetary benefit programmes are most highly valued by both executives and workers. There is a cognitive gap between management and worker on the importance of employee benefit programmes. Private-corporation employees have greater employee benefit demands than their public corporation counterparts. Female and male employees have different benefit demands. Single employees perceive more employee benefit impact on job performance than married ones. Employees with different education levels perceive different employee benefit impact. Employees with different positions perceive different employee benefit impacts. Employee benefit programmes have greater influence on job performance of younger employees.

Infopreneurship

2007-03-29T07:54:00.000-07:00

The exciting term, infopreneur, is becoming a hit among today's entrepreneurs who want to capitilise on the sea of opportunities available on the internet. An infopreneur, apparently combined from the two words "information" and "entrepreneur", refers to an entrepreneur who makes money by selling/sharing information on the web.

Infopreneurs fall into two categories. One is where infopreneurs sell information which are created on their own. The other kind is whereby infopreneurs piggyback off information from certain sources, modify as their own and sell them. The selling part might not exactly refer to selling information to readers directly all the time. Instead, sometimes information will be made free to be read by anyone. In this case, revenues are earned through advertistments which are relevant to the information. Infopreneurship serves as an important purpose to the public especially when people are looking for information on a specific topic. Then again, the reliability of the source has to be checked for.

The selling part comes in when an infopreneur offers information products in a variety of formats including books, e-books, special reports, audio formats, videos, workbooks, booklets, and virtually any method in which one can deliver information. This method is practised by entrepreneurs cum infopreneurs and successful results are obtained.

The reason for successful infopreneurship, be it selling information or sharing information for free, is that it is a great way to market an individual's ideas, products or services. Information sharing is like presenting a business card. It opens up doors to new business opportunities. With more media exposure, it can easily increase popularity to one's business. An article published on an article submission site, gets republished several times to various websites which increases visitor traffic in the twinkle of an eye. Most infopreneurs have their own website which is a centre for their business. By publishing information on the net, they leave a link behind for interested readers to follow through and land up on the infopreneurs' sites. For an example, an infopreneur may have written on a specific topic such as "the best ingredients to use in cooking a Bombay styled mutton biryani". An interested reader who finds the information useful would then click on the link left by the author to visit his website where there would be more related information on that particular topic.

Gone were the days where there existed an industry era peacefully before technology started exploding into the scene in exponential forms. Today we are living right in the heart of the information era and what more relevance could it be other than infopreneurship. Information is the underlying vitality in today's success to both an individual and a company. So if you feel the need to share loads of information, be it for profitable or non-profitable reasons, dive right into the limitless stream of information superhighway aka internet today.

8 ways to fire up your firm

2007-03-29T07:20:00.000-07:00

There are 8 carefully planned steps which are bound to boost an organisation. Develop a situation to act upon, form a dynamic guiding coalition, create a vision, communicate the vision, empower people to act on the vision, plan and create short-term wins, find improvements to change and finally, utilise the new approaches. These are the steps the management team should consider in elevating the company to the next level.

1) Develop a situation to act upon
Study the current market and the realities of the competition. Identify and discuss crises (including potential crises) and major opportunities which can be capitilised on.

2) Form a dynamic guiding coalition
Garner a group with sufficient expertise to bring about the change effort. Encourage the group to work as a team and synergise their efforts.

3) Create a vision
Create a vision to help lead the change effort in the right direction. Come up with strategies on how to go about achieving that vision.

4) Communicate the vision
Use every possible means to communicate the new vision and strategies. Teach new behaviours by using the example of the guiding coalition.

5) Empower people to act on the vision
Move obstacles out of the way in order to change. Change systems or structures that pose hinderance to the vision. Encourage risk taking and unconventional ideas, activities and actions. People must be taught to break away from the norms whenever and wherever appropriate and necessary.

6) Plan and create short-term wins
Plan for visible performance improvements. Create those improvements. Recognise and reward employees involved in the improvements.

7) Find improvements to change
Use increased credibility to change policies, structures and systems that do not fit the vision. Hire and train employees who can implement the vision. Breathe life into the process with new projects, themes and change agents.

8) Utilise the new approaches
Articulate the connections between the new behaviours and organisational success. Create the means to ensure leadership development and sustainable competitive advantage.

Do benefits provide advantage to organisational producitivity?

2007-03-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

Based on the Taiwan high-tech sector, there were some surveys carried out in different time periods. Examinations were done on the impact of employee benefits on firm productivity. Employee benefits in this research were treated as a moderator instead of independent variable. Several important control variables were also considered in analytical models. The examinations reveal that employee benefits have a significant moderating effect on firm productivity whether samples were analysed by industry or by firm size and that moderating effect of employee benefits on labor productivity in small enterprises was greater than that of large ones.

Two important implications for industry managers arose from the findings. Firstly, the investment in employee benefits at high-tech firms represents not only costs but also profits. A lot of studies suggest that employee benefits are a useful tool in attracting and retaining employees with critical skills. Skilled employees have been viewed as a strategic input for a firm to strengthen its core competency. Hence, firms can use employee benefits to enhance their competition through better quality of labor. Secondly, using employee benefits to achieve competitive advantage for small enterprises seems to be more important than large companies. However, attractiveness of a top-quality work force at small enterprises is low due to lower stability. Since benefit awareness moderates the effect of benefit attractiveness in recruiting and retaining qualified employees, managers at small enterprises should pay more attention to communicating information about benefit packages offered.

There were some major limitations to the research carried out. One limitation is that benefit programs consisted of different employee benefit types, such as health-care benefits, security benefits, employee services and premium pay but these types of employee benefits were treated as a package in this study. In essence, such treatment primarily came from a lack of data as the surveys did not distinguish categories of benefits. As a consequence, the study cannot provide individual effect of different benefit types on firm productivity. Next, except for the financial part, employee compensation also includes non-financials, such as work-place flexibility and flextime. Since this research confines the examination to financial compensation, the results cannot be generalised to non-financial compensation. Furthermore, although the analysis shows the moderating effects of employee benefits on relationships between labor input and value added, the estimations failed to reveal how such impacts were actually realised.

In summary, despite the growing cost of employee benefits, little is really known about effects of benefit level on firm performance. We can still say that, in a way, employee benefits offer advantage in terms of firm productivity through improvement of labour efficiency.

7 step process for staff remuneration

2007-03-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

In the effort to achieve total quality management in an industry, striving towards constant improvement is a must. A proper recognition and reward process of an organisation motivates the staff of an organisation to achieve its objectives.

Many companies are presently addressing the issue of reward and recognition for their as part of quality and continuous improvement programmes, but there remains no general guidelines or descriptions of such programmes which are readily available. These companies have made several attempts to create a process of employee reward and recognition for quality activities as part of its process of continuous improvement. All such attempts have had little success, resulting in the various systems losing their prestige among employees.

In Australia, a new process for employee reward and recognition was developed through a company’s quality committee. It consists of 7 steps which can be used generically for any firm wishing to implement a system for staff recognition and reward.

The steps are:

1) Categories for awards - The emphasis of the reward and recognition process is to stimulate employee involvement in the culture change towards continuous improvement and aims to recognise those individuals that provide an example of desirable behaviour towards the company goals. Successful nominees are expected to have not only performed their defined roles but also to have contributed additional dimensions beyond their defined roles in the area of culture improvement.

2) Nominations - Nominations for each of the categories are received on a quarterly basis. They
are received from any individual in the company. The only prerequisite for a nomination is that it must be handed to the quality systems manager by the due date and on a formal nomination
form, thus providing some degree of consistency.

3) Review of nominations - Each nomination is accepted on the basis of the quality committee review at a meeting within the first week after the close of nominations for the quarter. The quality committee consists of eight representatives (not necessarily
senior managers) of each area of the business and includes the general manager as its chairperson, at least two executives and the quality systems manager. Each nomination is reviewed for acceptance on the basis of the criteria described above, whether there is any
disciplinary action pending for the nominee, together with an assessment of the most
suitable category for the nomination.

4) Recognition of successful nominations - Successful nominations are formally recognised at a company meeting, which all employees are invited to attend. The nominee, nature of the nomination and category to which the nomination has been assigned is also acknowledged. Each successful nominee receives a certificate from the quality committee, endorsed by the chairperson of the committee, congratulating and thanking them for
their contribution.

5) Review of successful nominations - Successful nominations are assigned to one of the members of the committee for follow-up review to decide the eventual quarterly award winner of the category. Committee members are not permitted to review applications for employees within their own department or area of business.

6) Awards - Each category winner is given an award consisting three components. One is that of a monetary component, consisting of either a getaway weekend package at a prestigious hotel or a money order to a leading retail store. Another is a framed certificate from the company and an accompanying certificate of endorsement from the Western Australian office of the Australian Quality Council. Also there will be an individual and group photograph photos used for publication in the company newsletter and are placed on a notice board in the company canteen. Each category winner also receives an individual copy of the photo. All winners are announced at a second company meeting which is attended by a representative of the Australian Quality Council who awards the successful nominees with their award of endorsement.

7) Annual quality award - Quarterly winners of each category also qualify for the Annual Quality Award. The categories used for quarterly award winners do not apply in the annual award; all 12 quarterly winners are compared with one another. Scores for the annual award represent an average of the sum of the quarterly review (performed during the year) and a repeat review (specifically for the annual award) utilizing different fellow workers and customers. Thus the annual award winner is decided on the highest score from six fellow workers, four customers and two separate assessments by the direct manager.

Any company wishing to implement a reward and recognition process can consider this 7 step process. This process can also be modified to individual company needs by varying the minimum score required for qualification (however, it is not recommended to remove a minimum score) and the rewards could also be changed accordingly.

Importance of cross-cultural training

2007-03-24T02:37:00.000-07:00

With globalisation on the rise, more international educational exchange and cross-cultural interacions are being encouraged. This has led to cross-cultural training to become a discipline in recent times. Traditionally, multinational corporations used to concentrate their training efforts solely on expatriate managers. This resulted in assumptions of how business should be carried out internationally.

For an instance, multinational corporations felt that replicating the exsiting staff in foreign lands, including the same perspectives and technical knowledge would keep the company going smoothly. That business culture had a typical top-down management structure whereby major decisions were made at headquarters level. Line-managers were supposed to manage the daily operations by abiding with the rules of the firm without involving in matters pertaining to cross-cultural issues.

That was then. Today, the international business environment is different. With aggressive competition going all around, multinational corporations around the globe has identified the increasing need for international managers to be equipped with skills on working hand in hand with people from various cultural backgrounds. It is also becoming of increasing importance to train all possible employees so that highly proficient staff are available upon demand.

Many industries fear that investing resources in training staff in cross-cultural training might go to waste if it ends up in expatriate failure. As it is such, there is more demand for specialised training programs to cut costs and also provide the relevant skills needed for employees. They believe that training can be a substitute for actual living experience in a foreign country. It is better that way rather then to be transferred into another culture and pose the risk of causing damage through cultural shock and misunderstanding. Furthermore, the cost of cross-cultural training is not much compared to the danger of sending inexperienced staff for international assignments.

An important aspect in cross-cultural training is the need to have ethics and to create policies to help employees make decisions that have moral consequences. Without them, expatriates may perform poorly in foreign lands and end up reflecting badly on the image of their companies.

Another aspect is that of alliances and partnerships for organisations. When firms of different nationalities work together on a joint enterprise, that would provide a form of training provided both firms recognise the need to be aware of each other's culture.

The ability to have effective communication with people of different cultural backgrounds has become a necessity in attempts to shrink the business world. Shrink in terms of unifying the business world through economical and social means. This unification is vital in order to make the most out of limited resources available in the world. For this to happen, cultural interdependence is needed. Hence, resulting in the importance of cross-cultural training.

Living for the moment is what we need

2007-03-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Over time, our body as a whole starts degenerating. Muscles start losing power and shape. Wrinkles start appearing on our face. The neurons in our brain start becoming less active. They are all beyond our control because that is nature. What remains in our control then? It is none other than our mind. What we think is well within our control. We feel positive or negative according to what happens around or to us. What we are today is a total sum of thought patterns which we have allowed throughout our life from the first day we started thinking. This is why it does not really matter what happens to us in life. What really matters is how we respond to each and every situation. Probably a perfect situation does not exist. We cannot get anything in full. That is why we have to make full use of what we have in hand. We have to learn to live fully each moment of our lives to the best of our abilities. Living for the moment is what we need.

The mind is so unpredictable. Our emotions and thoughts are unpredictable. This is why it is said that not even God can judge us till the last day. This is why He controls the entire universe but He does not control the human mind because He wants to give us the freedom to make our own choices. Such is the unlimited amount of freedom the human mind has. Such is the power of the human mind. Thus, it comes to no surprise as to why the human brain is scientifically proven to be the most complex matter in the universe. Living for the moment is what we need.

As pointed out above, God created everything and has total control over them. Nature is created for us too. For us to enjoy and immerse ourselves in appreciation of it. This oneness and sense of belonging comes from living for the moment. Living for the moment includes observing the blossoming of a flower while walking past our neighbour's house. Living for the moment includes taking time to watch the sunrise while going to school, work or the like. Living for the moment includes listening to the sound of crickets at night while relaxing. Living for the moment is what we need.

We know that yesterday has become history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is our story. That is why we get to write it the way we want it to be. Sometimes we are so preoccupied with thoughts on what happened yesterday and plans for what is going to happen tomorrow that we do not even realise that the present day has slipped by without our notice. We basically go through the day then to get something out from the day. More than often, we are judgmental of what we see or hear and do not see or hear things the way they are. We restrict ourselves of daily actions mostly out of fear and lack of belief. These fear and lack of belief derive from the past and our mind projects them to the future. We allow our mind to tell us that we will experience in future what we experienced in the past. Until we choose to live in the present moment, accept things as they come and respond appropriately, we cannot master the art of happiness. Living for the moment is what we need.

Creativity for home business

2007-03-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

Belief, knowledge and passion may be enough to do any business but not enough to sustain it. Creativity is the one that does the magic. Without it, we might still be able to run the business but will be unable to bring it to newer heights.

As it is that change is the law of life, having a business will require it to constantly change to suit its customers' needs. Creativity is needed to keep this change constant. To have the creativity flowing, having a freedom of thought patterns might not be enough. Instead, having freedom to do the business in the first place will maximise our potential of creative energy. For this to happen, having a home business will be ideal.

Successful home businesses are said to be owned by largely creative people. With the never-seem-to-be-ending outbursts of new technologies and methods of doing home business, more opportunities have been created. It may not be necessary to make use of new technologies, however we can get ideas from them to better our home business. For an instance, when the act of article submissions was known to be the most effective way to market online, tons of software on automated article submissions were developed. We may not need to use them but who knows what ideas we can come up with from them.

Since two heads are better than one, we can tap creativity our from friends and relatives. Gathering constructive feedback from them proves to be very useful. Even if their ideas may not be the best ones, at least we can use them to improve or spark off new exciting ideas of our own.

A good way to start our creativity energy going will be to follow the following steps. They can aid us in focusing on problems that need to be solved and opportunities that need to be grabbed. Of course, there is no hard and fast way to get our creative thought flow because if there is, then it would defeat the purpose of wanting creativity in the first place wouldn't it?

1) Think of the current situation and what it takes to achieve the desired situation.
2) Identify the problems and ensure that they are genuine ones.
3) Analyse the problems.
4) Decide on what can be changed or improved to achieve what is desired.
5) Try making these changes or improvements and see how they work.
6) Use ideas and skills to make them work even better.
7) Review the solutions and see if they are feasible to implement.
8) Put them into action and see if the desired situation is achieved.

If this does not work, try repeating steps 2 to 8 again.

A good tip will be to think of paradoxical possibilities since we are living in a world filled with paradoxes.

Some thoughts on services marketing

2007-03-08T07:42:00.000-08:00

Most firms realise the importance of service quality and customer satisfaction. However, it is often unclear on how to achieve these goals.

During the service encounters, when disagreements arise from problems and solutions, customer satisfaction is compromised. This highlights the importance of understanding behaviours and the types of events leading to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Hence, it is vital to comprehend service encounters from various perspectives to assist firms in better educating both employees and customers. 100% service quality can then be better achieved.

Keeping this in mind, it is important to note that from the employee’s viewpoint, customer satisfaction largely depends on moments of truth (the interaction between customer and the employee).

The acknowledgement of existence of wrong customers and move away from the philosophy that “customer is king”. The reason is because organisations have been going on with the philosophy that customers are right all the time and as a result they had to suit their services in order to satisfy their customers. Organisations could have been right with their services initially but had to change for their customers without realising that the customer could have been wrong. For an instance, a guest in a hotel was informed of the policy that if they want a change of any facility, they should call before a certain time in order to have it changed. If the guest finds something not satisfactory and complains about it after the required time and the organisation accommodates to the guest even though he/she is in the wrong, that organisation is going by the policy of “customer is king”. Organisations should be more aware of the customers’ attribution theory when dealing with customers.

Attribution theory refers to situations whereby people point fingers at others when faced with a disagreement rather than realising that the fault could have been theirs possibly.

Creative thinking about customer roles and management of customer expectations can be done. By having this, service personnel would be more prepared to respond in various situations. They can be more sensitive to different cultural backgrounds of customers. For an instance, sales persons in a retail store must attend to different customers accordingly since different customers have different personalities. Creative thinking should be successful to the extent that there should be role congruence for both customers and employees.

These are some critical issues for organisations to consider in order to better their services in satisfying their customers.

Getting through life

2007-03-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

We encounter problems in our lives on a daily basis. Most of the time we face them or just run away from them but do we ever ask ourselves whether they are really problems? Are they really problems or do we just perceive them to be. We have to ask ourselves whether problems really exist. More than often, we choose to believe that they are and that is where the problem starts, in believing that they are really problems (No puns intended). Sometimes they can be genuine problems but we do have an option in believing that they do not exist. Of course, that does not mean that we should take them to be invisible because that is not going to solve the problems since the problems really exist. We can simply take them as they come and not take them too seriously. Don't take life seriously because you can't come out of it alive. ~ Warren Miller If we see a problem as our own, we start feeling negative energy. We would not be able to think straight. We start worrying and worrying takes way too much energy. A lot of unnecessary energy goes to waste. On the other hand, it helps to take a step back and look at the problem from an external perspective. It will help even more if we do not treat the problem as our own. It works because when we imagine that the problem is not ours, we do not feel the pressure of it. Hence, we are able to find solutions with a clear mind. Speaking of imagination, there is an Italian movie which goes by the title of "Life is beautiful". It conveys a wonderful message on how a man makes use of his imagination to help his young son get through life as prisoners of war (POW) in a Nazi camp. By making him believe that everything happening around them is a huge interactive point-based game, the man succeeds in ensuring that his boy is comfortable with the place and the situation. Such is the power of imagination. It does not help us to avoid the problem, it instead guides us through the problem without letting its pain take effect. Life is not really life without problems. Being human beings, problems happen to us all the time. We should learn to accept them as part of life. It's just that we should not give them a chair to sit on.

The truth about habits

2007-03-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

Habits are very dynamic tools. Our daily habits have the power to control the direction of our lives. It is in them that decide what we deserve.

Habits thrive well in a condition known as comfort zone. This is probably the main, if not the only, reason why people become slaves to old habits and refuse to change for the better. This is why old habits die hard. The simplest of habits are embedded in our minds subconciously. They are so much a part of our lives that we do not stop to think whether it is right or not. Yet, changing it would make us feel awkward and strange. We basically perform our daily actions the same way every single day. It starts from the time we wake up. The way we squeeze the toothpaste onto our toothbrush, the way we brush our teeth, the way we take our shower, every trivial action is done the same way subconciously that we do not even have to remember. The lack of need to remember; that is the reason for habits to exist in the first place.

The same goes for our emotional and thought patterns. By changing habits, we change our lifestyle and possibly perceptions. This will lead to success if carried out in the proper way. Most people are only willing to change temporarily but not permanently. So how do we make it a permanent change in order to better ourselves? Of course we need discipline but before discipline we need to have a clear objective. We need to keep in mind on what are we going to achieve. Without a clear objective, having discipline will seem like a tasteless military regime.

Belief goes hand in hand with habits. For an example if we want to become a millionaire, we should first believe that we are one. We should be like one but that does not mean we can start spending like one because that is not going to help much. Be like one means to do what it takes to become a millionaire because once we start believing in ourselves, we start thinking positively. We think of ways to become a millionaire and with the right mindset, we will find ways to become a millionaire. Then with our belief, as a form of support, we start taking actions. Actions start with the right habits. Going back to our above-mentioned point that in order for us to have discipline to keep performing our new habits, I had mentioned that we need to have a clear objective. In our millionaire example, when we have a clear objective aiding our new habits, we will become a millionaire eventually. Its as simple as that and there is no rocket science being explained here. That means anyone can become a millionaire, seriously.

It all starts with the right thought, supported by a positive attitude, followed by actions, which influences our habits and the clear objective which provides the discipline to sustain our new habits. Also, we should remember that it is not a question of "can we do it?" but it is actually "will we do it?"

To be a leader

2007-02-27T06:16:00.000-08:00

I have some thoughts on what it takes to be a leader in general. No puns intended for general as in an army general but it was meant generically. Anyway, being a leader fully involves paradoxes as you will get to see in this article.

A leader should know the art of being a good follower as well. Same concept as a good conversationalist. A good conversationalist has to be a good listener too, paradoxically. In fact, what would probably be challenging for a leader to do would be to know when to follow and when not to. Following does not mean giving up or giving in but leading from behind. Leaders should be willing to give others a chance to lead. Speaking of which, they should be learnable as well. Do good teachers make good leaders? Probably yes because they need to possess leadership qualities in order to be an effective teacher. For an instance, we would have come across teachers who allow their students to teach their peers sometimes, since some students learn better when being taught by someone of the same age.

The society demands leaders to be ones who are beyond the natural negative emotions like anger, hatred, jealousy, revenge, selfishness etc. Yet, they still need to be forgiving, jovial, kind and understanding. Leaders should not just lead but also lead by example.

Creativity is an essential charateristic too. Mahatma Gandhi, one of the best examples of a leader in history, was creative with his general approach. He thought of non-violence when every soul could only react violently. In other words, he responded while others reacted.

"Don't react. Respond" - Zig Zigler

Moving on, I think a leader should know the team members individually. When managing the team, poor leaders play the game of checkers while successful leaders play the game of chess. In the game of checkers, every piece is the same. They move the same way and get slaughtered the same way. Bad leaders treat all their members the same way with self-same expectations. Chess on the other hand, is a game with unique pieces. They move differently. Prior to this concept, good leaders would be able to identify each and every individual members' working styles to a certain extent and be able to utilise them in the right manner. It makes it easy for the team as well to explain things to the leader, knowing that he will know what they are into. The team members would be more willing to open up to the leader if they are facing any difficulty. Also the leader has to make them feel special and important by involving them whenever necessary. Needless to say, giving credit for a good job done would boost their morale tremendously. The leader gains respect this way.

Having people skills are of paramount importance and technical knowledge alone can never be complete for a leader. Having said this, it was no wonder that Andrew Carnegie was the "king of steel" once upon a time not because he knew a great deal about steel but because he knew how to deal with people who were working for him. In fact, his employees knew about steel more than him.

These are just some of the tips to be a successful and well respected leader. Before wrapping up, I shall translate a few lines from an old tamil song.

"Generosity makes a philanthropist; dutiful makes a warrior; patience makes a saint; whilst these three make up a leader".

Helping the self before helping others

2007-02-18T00:17:00.000-08:00

As a huge observer of paradoxes and that too of life's parodies, I have strongly believed in this paradox since young. That of helping oneself is of paramount importance before helping others. We cannot effectively help others if we are in need of help ourselves. Perhaps it will be better if I relate this to an organisational context which I experienced when I was in the Army.

Back in those days, actually just more than a year ago lest I sound too old, I was working in this department of the highest division of the largest formation in the Army. I have to mention that the department is of high level so as to highlight the importance of having good internal resources for workers to work with. Being at the Head Quarters level, where the administration gets extremely busy, we needed relatively fast and reliable computers to work with. We had a buggy version of windows 95 and there was a total lack of basic hardware which made it all the more difficult to transfer information on a daily basis. I had failed to make my supervisor see the importance of having good resources to work with. So this is the scenario in the organisation. In fact this is congruent to how most companies function today.

Most companies, in the quest for satisfying customers, keep cutting down on costs. The problem is that they do not know how to differentiate necessary and unnecessary costs/liabilities. By having less than adequate resources for employees to work with, they easily lose pride and satisfaction in doing their jobs. This affects their performance and in turn brings down the overall quality of an organisation's products and services. Being customer-oriented is not enough to succeed, keeping the employees is equally vital. By keeping them happy, they would feel appreciated and see themselves as an integral part of the company's strength.

Relating back to our initial paradox statement, companies have to help themselves to be well equipped before providing value to their customers. They have to serve themselves internally before serving externally.

This is the same concept when people, being people, invest so much effort, money and time on unnecessities and invest none for their health and well-being of their emotional state. It boils down to their obliviousness of the fact that we need to help ourslves before helping others.

Ignorance is bliss - A different perspective

2007-02-12T05:27:00.000-08:00

We are familiar with the saying "ignorance is bliss". We are also familiar with the surface meaning (note "surface meaning") that not having knowledge of something is a good thing due to its lack of disturbance to the mind. I have thought of a meaning of this phrase from a different perspective. Probably this is the actual inner meaning to the phrase. All right here goes Thana's perspective on this. Let me inject a saying upon this saying. We know the phrase "the more we know, the more we realise that we don't know". Based on this phrase, we know that the more we learn new things, the more we realise that we don't know some things. This is simply because whenever we learn something new, we come to know that that there is much more to learn about it. This is very much akin to an iceberg. By looking at the tip of an iceberg, we realise that there is so much more to be seen of the iceberg. Coming back to our original phrase, by knowing something new, we come to know how ignorant we are of the depth of that subject. Hence, "ignorance is bliss" may not refer to our lack of knowledge. It ironically refers to our awareness of ignorance resulting from the knowledge of something. By having this awareness, we achieve the good feeling of bliss. Henceforth we have the meaningful phrase "ignorance is bliss". I hope the knowledge of this phrase from my perspective has brought bliss, if you know what I mean. Haha, just kidding!

Check out this post...

2007-01-29T08:35:00.000-08:00

Just a note to my faithful readers and wandering surfers, who happened to stumble upon this informative blog. My martial arts blog (http://www.resourcesonmartialarts.blogspot.com) has finally been brought to life. To all martial arts enthusiasts, just to let you know that I am a martial arts enthusiast as well. I have been researching on all sources available to my eyes and hands on various forms of martial arts since the age of 9. Not claiming to be Mr Know-All but I will try my best to provide information to anyone who is interested to know something specific about a particular martial arts. I have started off that blog with 2 articles. One is on the oldest martial arts in the world and the other on origins of Shaolin Kung Fu. Enjoy.

Everyone is marketable

2007-01-15T20:55:00.000-08:00

I realise that everyone is marketable. Marketable in the sense that everyone is unique. Everyone is talented at something. Everyone is good at at least one thing. We can therefore make money out of what we are good at. Of course, being good at something is not enough and we have to be marketable but since we are different in our own ways, we are all marketable. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Hence the bottom line is that everyone has the ability to acquire success and wealth owing to the fact that he/she is skilled in something and is unique in his/her own ways.

Did you know that if you write a story of your life, regardless of how eventless it may be, and publish it, it will still be salable enough to make a fortune? It works because people, by nature, are interested in knowing others' affairs. I am planning to do so later on in life, in that way I will have more to write. Not that I don't have much to write now, in fact if I do now I will be over pouring with information but I prefer to do it later. So if you want to have a healthy weight in your pocket, write a story of your life in your own style. Try it, after all there is nothing to lose because even if our life is filled with memories which we don't want to keep, we will feel better after sharing the information. In fact, we can even choose to omit certain events if we don't wish to keep them in the story.

Creativity at its best

2007-01-11T03:32:00.000-08:00

What is the best way to achieve creativity? We know that the mind has to be open first of all. Much like how the saying goes "the mind works the same way as the parachute, it can only function if its open." To achieve the full potential of creativity, one ought not to be creative with the intention of creating something creative. Nice paradox, isn't it? The person should explore at their own leisure and discover things along the way. That is how most inventions are born. Some people call it "by accident". Irregardless, inventions are usually done unintentionally. They could not have happened if the inventors were concerned about the end result.

"We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the fact that many inventions had their birth as toys." - Eric Hoffer

Competition vs Collaboration

2007-01-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

There is this tidbit from my favourite blogger. She compares which is better between competition and collaboration. Collaboration obviously seems more beneficial in almost any kind of situation. She ended off with a funny thought as to what would happen if both the mother and the father of a family have a competition to serve the family members. Haha, that will be a disaster...

Speaking of which, we might have noticed that people who are very highly successful in their particular field has become so not due to competition but because they love what they are doing. If I give an example of a Kollywood superstar, Kamal Hassan, who is an epitome of acting (has won 171 awards, more than any actor in film history) is best at what he does because he loves it so much and not because he wants to compete with other actors. Think about food as an example. Home cooked food is better prepared than commercial food simply because the former is done out of love and commercial food is done out of competition.

Infinite with finite paradox

2006-12-23T22:17:00.000-08:00

Hinduism is factually the world's oldest religion and thus, there is a number of misconceptions on it.

Probably one of the most famous misconceptions, even within Hindus, is that they are required to worship idols. The truth is Hindus are asked not to worship idols, but worship God in the form of idols. With so many idols and faces of the Almighty, people tend to easily get confused between God and idols. The purpose of worhsipping God through idols is to facilitate contemplation of the infinite with our finite capabilities. Reaching the infinite with finite capabilities is one of the paradoxes in Hinduism.

To digress slightly, most paradoxes make us think and the simple reason is that they contain the universal truth in them. Note "simple reason" and "universal truth", even that is a paradox I just thought of!

I read this online article (Hinduism, the world's oldest religion - a simple introduction to a complex religion) on misconceptions of Hinduism and noticed a quote of a great intellectual, Swami Vivekananda, "if a person wants to drink milk, he uses a cup as he cannot drink it directly. For the quivering and unsteady mind, there should be a visible form or a symbol, the idol, so that it becomes a foundation for his adoration. The idol form of God is akin to a vessel which enables a man to drink the milk. Through the instrumentality of an idol, a devotee comprehends divinity."

More interesting facts can be found through this website http://www.geocities.com/Athens/forum/9410/hindu1.html

Ancient evolution theory in Hinduism

2006-12-16T21:20:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting insight on how evolutionary is being depicted through the ten incarnations of the Hindu Lord Maha Vishnu. This is what it is believed to be.

Matsya(fish) to Kurma(tortoise-amphibian) to Varaha(boar) to Narasimha(half-man/half lion) to Vamana(dwarfed man-with stunted growth) to Parasurama(axe wielding primitive man) to Rama(justly king-epitome of goodness) to Krishna(worldly wise-machiavellian) to Buddha(enlightened one) to ?

The last incarnation is believed to be Kalki Avatar. The incarnation He takes to destroy the world which is equivalent to that of what other religions believe to be "judgement day".

There is another belief of how Lord Surya's (Sun) had seven chariots which correspond to the seven colours of the spectrum.

It is fascinating that our forefathers knew well about science which we know of today. In the Golden and Silver Ages, some civilisations were known to have used technology more advanced than ours. Just imagine, people in those days used technology greater than that of computer's.

Lord Krishna - Best example of a leader

2006-12-12T21:03:00.000-08:00

Economic Times, December 2004, provided a case study on leadership portraying Lord Krishna as the best example of a leader.

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are two great masterpieces of ancient Indian literature presenting two philosophies of life. Valmiki’s Rama represents idealism and Ved Vyas’ Krishna, realism.

Ram is a character. Krishna is an actor; he involves himself without being involved. He is a catalyst energising others into action. He refuses to circumscribe his life with ideas and ideals. For him life is larger than all ideas and ideals put together. They are for life; life is not for them. It’s the same mind that gives rise to both good and evil, virtue and vice. Both aspects are different transformations of one and the same energy. Krishna doesn’t deny these dualities. A mirror reflects everything that appears before it, but unlike a camera, it doesn’t retain impressions. A man of mirror-like consciousness will relate with people and things, but he won’t enter into relationships involving attachment. Rama is a doer; he acts for his ideals and is therefore called marayada purshottam. Krishna on the other hand, is an incomparable actor; he turns the whole world into his stage. He plays a friend and a foe without being involved in friendship and enmity. Krishna is called leela-purshottam. He accepts all contradictions and ambiguities of life. He isn’t afraid of them. That is why he’s called complete or purnavatar. Krishna’s mission of life was to uphold dharma. His whole life is like an open book. He wears no mask. Whatever he is, he is. He doesn’t deny anything; he is transparent. It’s true that life is full of contradictions and absurdities. To Krishna all that doesn’t justify escapism. He does what is situationally appropriate. Since it’s not possible to remain a mere witness, it’s better to act with complete self-knowledge and moral courage.

Creative destruction - There’s one event in Mahabharata, which generally doesn’t catch popular attention: the burning of the Khandava forest. After the plan to kill Pandavas failed, Dhritarashtra was forced to give them a share of the kingdom. Keeping Hastinapur to himself and his sons, he gave a little-known town Khandavaprastha to the Pandavas. On a hot summer day, younger members of the Pandava family with Krishna’s family went for a picnic to the nearby Khandava forest. There they drank, sang and danced. Suddenly everyone saw that the forest caught fire and Krishna and Arjuna together guarded all sides so tightly that no creature fleeing from the blaze could escape. Furiously driving their chariots, the two slaughtered everything in sight. Fire consumed almost all vegetation and life. It’s not known how the fire really started. But, the question remains: why Krishna and Arjuna acted so ruthlessly and so mercilessly? Of course, the Pandavas were planning to build Indraprastha, a city bigger than Hastinapur, which they did. And, they may also be trying to fulfil the duty of a ruling king to provide more land for cultivation. Forests had to be cleared for human settlement and entire region made rich and fertile.

Swadharma as ordained by swabhava Krishna makes a distinction between ends and means. Ends can be idealistic but if means are absolutely pure, they will soon become ends and the distinction between ends and means will disappear. Is a pure end ever fully achieved? It’s always there as an ideal. Often at times the problem is to choose between greater evil and lesser evil. If it’s found necessary Krishna breaks his own vows. Violating the kshatriya code, he once even ran away from the battlefield because discretion could sometimes be a better part of valour. His elder brother, Balarama, decided to remain neutral in the battle at Kurukshetra. Krishna knew great issues were at stake. He was also aware that both sides looked at him as a friend. Neither side was totally right nor totally wrong. The way he divided himself is extraordinary. He told them they had two options: he or his army. It’s obvious if one is anxious for victory he wouldn’t choose Krishna without his army and, more so when he says, he wouldn’t fight. The Pandavas chose him because they knew he was a great strategist, at one moment a sober statesman, but very often also the shrewd manipulator bent upon achieving his purpose irrespective of means employed. He manipulated killings of all outstanding warriors of the Kauravas’ army. They knew his presence was more important than his participation.

Krishna is perhaps the best example of a leader as a catalyst available in world literature. He has no interests, no position and no power. Yet on almost all important occasions when great events occur in Mahabharata He is present. He does nothing, his presence makes things happen. The word Krishna means centre. He is the centre of attraction. He stands for certain values of life and wants to destroy all those who make others suffer. Unlike Rama he doesn’t try to walk on a straight line. He deviates when it is situationally appropriate.

Equations for success and wisdom

2006-12-09T00:59:00.000-08:00

As stated by Nirmala, the equations for success and wisdom can be:

Innocence + Faith (catalyst) = Success

If we are not innocent, it is difficult to have faith (we know the truth, we know what works and what doesn't, we know how bad the world really is, we understand where others are coming from and don't trust people). If we don't have faith in anything, it's difficult to succeed. So, success will have to start (and continue) with innocence. It should be possible to retain one's innocence even with increasing success. To give an example of this explanation, suppose if we want to do a business with someone but are afraid to trust the person (lack of innocence) and don't really believe in ourselves (lack of faith), we won't know the sweet taste of success.

Ignorance + Learning (catalyst) = Wisdom

If we believe that we are not ignorant and know just about everything there is to know, then we don't want to learn or rather we don't think there is anything to be learned. If we don't learn, we are not gaining any wisdom. Hence, we need to start with ignorance to gain wisdom. It should be possible to be ignorant and wise at the same time. The term ignorance, in this context, means to have the attitude to learn; to be learnable.

Pebble story

2006-12-06T07:38:00.000-08:00

I rarely get impressed by intellectual bloggers because most of them are knowledgeable but do not portray much wisdom. Wisdom is something I do get impressed by because it depicts the degree of an individual's ability to think. One noteworthy blogger, a fellow Google-lover and Leo, who had caught my attention over a year ago is Nirmala from Karnataka. There are so many ways to describe her. To put it simply, she is a true learner who not only knows how to learn but is able to inspire others to follow suit. She is creative, witty, zestful and the list goes on. I plan to have some of my postings of "tasty tidbits for thought" with references to her blog. Here we go.

Many years ago in a small Indian village, a farmer had the misfortune of owing a large sum of money to a village moneylender. The moneylender, who was old and ugly, fancied the farmer's beautiful daughter. So he proposed a bargain. He said he would forgo the farmer's debt if he could marry his daughter. Both the farmer and his daughter were horrified by the proposal. So the cunning money-lender suggested that they let providence decide the matter. He told them that he would put a black pebble and a white pebble into an empty money bag. Then the girl would have to pick one pebble from the bag. If she picked the black pebble, she would become his wife and her father's debt would be forgiven. If she picked the white pebble she need not marry him and her father's debt would still be forgiven. But if she refused to pick a pebble, her father would be thrown into jail. All the villagers were standing on a pebble strewn path in the farmer's field. As they talked, the moneylender bent over to pick up two pebbles. As he picked them up, the sharp-eyed girl noticed that he had picked up two black pebbles and put them into the bag. He then asked the girl to pick a pebble from the bag. Now, imagine you were standing in the field. What would you have done if you were the girl? If you had to advise her, what would you have told her?

Careful analysis would produce three possibilities:
1. The girl should refuse to take a pebble.
2. The girl should show that there were two black pebbles in the bag and expose the money-lender as a cheat.
3. The girl should pick a black pebble and sacrifice herself in order to save her father from his debt and imprisonment.

Take a moment to ponder over the story. The above story is used with the hope that it will make us appreciate the difference between lateral and logical thinking. The girl's dilemma can not be solved with traditional logical thinking. Think of the consequences if she chooses the above logical answers. What would you recommend to the Girl to do? Well, what happened was that the girl put her hand into the moneybag and drew out a pebble. Without looking at it, she fumbled and let it fall onto the pebble-strewn path where it immediately became lost among all the other pebbles. "Oh, how clumsy of me," she said. "But never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked. "Since the remaining pebble is black, it must be assumed that she had picked the white one. And since the money-lender dared not admit his dishonesty, the girl changed what seemed an impossible situation into an extremely advantageous one.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Most complex problems do have a solution. It is only that we don't attempt to think.

Story taken from http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2004/11/nice-story.html#links