The Oldest student in the world dreaming about his PhD.

The messiah of the company

Pillar of the company,

The manager directs
And guides the strategies of the company.

His purpose is not limited to providing incentives;

Because through his planning 
He allows employees to manage their emotions;

With relevant ideas can increase profit

Because he is desperate to avoid bankruptcy.

The manager by his skill

Faces competition

And therefore sets the company on the market.

The manager by expectations

Develop strategies for planning

Which are actions to achieve specific goals

Because according to Harold Geneen 
“Management manages by making decisions 
And by seeing that those decisions are implemented.”

The careerist: ‘Reognise what work provides and the needs it meets’

By Rhymer Rigby

Published: December 12 2010 17:02 | Last updated: December 12 2010 17:02

Managers are encouraged to keep staff engaged. But how do they stay engaged themselves? And can you turn round a job that has become boring to you?

Is my glass half full? “If you’re happy, you’re automatically engaged, so start by thinking about what makes you happy in what you do,” says Jessica Pryce-Jones, chief executive of iOpener, a workplace happiness consultancy.

Octavius Black, founder of Mind Gym, a performance consultancy, says part of the challenge in staying enthused is that work is where few people expect to find happiness: “However, studies show that many people are likelier to find happiness at work than not. You need to recognise what work provides and the needs it meets – it offers friendships, conversation and challenges.”

How do I boost my sense of engagement? An awareness of being part of something big is helpful, says Ms Pryce-Jones. But she adds: “A lot of what motivates you on a day-to-day basis is actually quite small.” Look for meaning in what you do: “It affects everyone from CEOs to janitors. You need to think about how you make a difference – who benefits from what you do.”

Mr Black says long-term personal objectives help: “Set yourself challenging goals. Just doing this may force you to reshape your role.”

Is there anything I can do outside my current role? Charles Woodruffe, managing director of business psychologists Human Assets says: “First ask [yourself] if you can expand your role or add to your professional development. Or you could look for engagement elsewhere in the company. Many organisations take social responsibility very seriously.”

Ms Pryce-Jones says improving engagement could even come from activities outside of the workplace that feed back into your job: “If you look at the volunteers who work on Linux, they put in enormous amounts of unpaid work and are very engaged in what they’re doing.”

Are there simple ways to jog myself out of a rut? “Do something, no matter how small,” says Ms Pryce-Jones. “One of the most important things for mental and physical well-being is a perception of control. It could be as simple as talking to someone you’ve never talked to before. You can also work on your confidence – as confidence is the precursor to action.”

Talk things over with others, says Mr Woodruffe, but: “If you’re in a group that’s stuck in a rut don’t join in with the grumbling groupthink.”

Should I cut my losses? “You need to ask if you can reframe your work as interesting and stimulating,” says Mr Black. “Are there obstacles you can remove? Work out what it is you dislike and if you can, change it. If you can’t, there’s no point and you need to move on.”

Or, as Mr Woodruffe puts it: “Don’t try to put a sticking plaster on a serious disease.”

A Frank Talk With You, Boss

LEADERSHIP January 19, 2010, 10:19AM EST

You're a bad manager who's driving us nuts, and here's what those of us who report to you want to tell you—whether you like it or not

By Jeff Schmitt

Welcome! I'm so glad you made it. Make yourself comfortable.

• View Slide Show

You're probably wondering why I invited you. You're in for a treat. You see, this is your annual review, the one your boss never gave you, the one that really matters.

Don't get up. This isn't going on your permanent record. It's just between us, one professional to another. In reality, I guess you could call this an intervention. As with any wake up call, I'm doing this because I like you. You have so many gifts. But you've lost your way. And frankly, you're doing more harm than good these days.

This is going to be hard to hear, but I'll say it anyway: People don't like working for you anymore. Go ahead, grumble, cross your arms, look away from me. But remember Tom—the guy who left for a promotion? He didn't want to burn any bridges. He really thinks you're a condescending _ _ _—well, I'll spare you the pejoratives. And then there's Kerry. It's no secret she's your pet. She has plenty to say, too, when she steps out of character. That's right, it's all an act, every day for years. Talk about commitment. She puts Robert DeNiro to shame.

Surprised? There's more where that came from. I'm just speaking up for those who can't. We understand how companies work. You'll still get away with everything. Always have, always will, fair or not. And maybe you don't care. But I'd like to think you're here for the right reasons. I'd like to believe you see us as more than a means to an end.

So where do we go from here? Well, you walked in a door; you can easily walk back out. I understand it's awfully easy for me to judge. And I know some people just aren't ready to look in the mirror. So you have a choice. You can go back to doing things the same way, praying they don't catch up to you. Or you can stick around—and maybe take something away from it. It's your call. You're still here? Oh, good. Click here to see the following 28 ways managers fall short. And then figure out which one you're guilty of.

Jeff Schmitt works in publishing in Dubuque, Iowa. His monthly column, "The Personal Touch," is published by Sales & Marketing Management magazine at salesandmarketing.com. His e-mail isjschmittdbq@mchsi.com.

Link:http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jan2010/ca20100119_468226.htm?chan=careers_managing+your+team+page_top+stories

Communicating via Blog

You can evaluate something appropriately if you know it advantage and disadvantage. At the beginning of the semester, I was thinking that this blog is going to be difficult to manage. I was little bit worried about what I am going to post there and wondering about the importance of this blog. When I first posted my entire, I was happy to see my thought available to anyone who has my blog URL. It started getting interesting because the control that I have of posting and deleting any thing that I want. I can express myselself freely and communicate with people without difficulties.

 I think Professor Kurpis lunched here an interesting channel to learn more about the course material.  Having activities in class and then express yourself about what you learn from those activities increase the possibility to understand the material in depth. You can sometimes forget about the class lecture, but when you write something in your blog it is unforgettable because it is own thoughts. The blog effectively helped us to think about and share our ideas related to the different class activities. In addition to the class learning, you will be able to interact with people. When we posted our first entries I knew many students from their autobiographies and really benefited from the online interaction.

I think also it is interesting reading other people blog from time to time because they have some non assignments entries that are remarkable. From the prof’s blog, there are some management topics that give us some perspectives about management in the real world.  All those topics added to the class material provide us the tools to be a good manager in the future. 

Finally, it is a good opportunity for us to do well in this class because of controlling 20% of the final grade by just following the instructions, but it is up to us to make it worthy. In my opinion all business classes should require blog entries like this class to encourage students to express themselves. This is not a research profile, but a platform where you can be creative and simply express yourself. I guarantee that I will continue to post entries in my blog because I love it.        

                                                          

Hiring Employees, With Help or Without

Mark Sims, president of Fikes Products, was not sure if he was qualified to hire a new operations manager on his own.

By ADRIANA GARDELLA

Published: October 27, 2010

     FIKES PRODUCTS is a company of 30 employees that sells janitorial supplies and services to restaurants, retailers and other businesses. There are about 20 independently owned Fikes around the country. Mark Sims, 38, president and owner of the Kent, Wash.-based company, said last year’s combined sales for the two operations were slightly more than $4 million.

                    

THE CHALLENGE To make the high-quality hires that Mr. Sims needs to continue building his business — without the benefit of a human resources manager.

THE BACKGROUND Mr. Sims acquired the Puget Sound business from his parents after they retired in 2003. At the time, the company had just five employees. With his passion and talent for sales, Mr. Sims expanded, opening a branch in Portland in 2007.

Heading into 2010, he knew he needed help. He planned to hire an office administrator, two route drivers and a warehouse worker. Beginning in the third quarter of 2009, he toyed with the idea of hiring an operations manager who could handle some of the day-to-day tasks that were starting to drain him professionally and personally. “There was no one to take work off Mark’s plate,” said Dan Price, who is founder of Gravity Payments, a credit card processor, and has served as an informal adviser to Mr. Sims through their chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization. “A first senior hire is daunting for an entrepreneur,” Mr. Price said.

In fact, the prospect of carving out time to make hires was daunting to Mr. Sims. He recalled spending three days sorting through résumés when he could have been out getting business. With the unemployment rate high, the number of job applicants has surged, making screening all the more time-consuming. “I get résumés for driver positions from applicants who don’t even have a license,” he said.

In addition, Mr. Sims conceded that he did not have the best track record when it came to hiring. Last year, for example, he brought on employees who seemed “fine” but did not last. A driver he found on Craigslist wrecked a new vehicle. A new office staff member spent up to 30 percent of her workday on personal social media use, distracting others.

“Despite the economy, we aren’t attracting the quality candidates we’d hoped for,” said Mr. Sims, who lamented a “deteriorating work ethic” and said many candidates did not seem committed to building a career. “I want to get people excited about working here — even if we do sell toilet paper and Dumpster deodorizers.”

THE OPTIONS To find his operations manager and to fill the lower-level positions, Mr. Sims considered running ads and browsing résumés posted on state employment agency Web sites. At first glance, this seemed the least expensive way to go (Fikes can post ads on Washington State’s career and employment site free of charge). But after factoring in the time for culling résumés, Mr. Sims was less convinced that this was the best way to find candidates, particularly a strong No. 2.

His other option was to hire a recruiter, at least to find the operations manager. But Mr. Sims was not enthusiastic about spending that kind of money — typically 20 to 30 percent of the hire’s six-figure salary. He had worked previously with a recruiter who had charged much less ($1,500 per placement), but offered little value.

THE DECISION In consultation with Mr. Price, who had taken his own company to 53 employees, from 10, in the previous four years, Mr. Sims decided to use a recruiter to find his operations manager, beginning the process last November.

The agency began by interviewing Mr. Sims, who said he was surprised to realize during the conversation just how much he disliked operations. Once the agency understood his needs, it sent him the résumés of 12 candidates. Of those, Mr. Sims selected six and spent a day interviewing them back-to-back. He then ranked them and scheduled second interviews with the top two — a former chief financial officer and a former tech entrepreneur who had built a business from three to 35 employees before selling it.

Mr. Sims, Mr. Price and a human resources employee from Gravity Payments conducted second interviews at the agency. The process took half a day. Mr. Sims interviewed one candidate, while Mr. Price and his colleague interviewed the other, and then they switched.

Mr. Sims said the most valuable part of the process came when he and Mr. Price sat down afterward. “I think I might have made the wrong choice if left to my own devices,” Mr. Sims said. While both applicants were highly qualified, Mr. Sims said he was inclined to hire the tech entrepreneur who possessed strengths similar to his own, a person more focused on vision than tasks.

“I felt strongly that Mark needed day-to-day help with the financial and operational aspects of the business and not with management and strategy,” Mr. Price said.

link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/business/smallbusiness/28sbiz.html?pagewanted=1&ref=management

CONSCIENTIOUS/Dominant

Last week, we had a class activity on personality test. It was about finding who you are between Leader and Manager. At the end of the test we all found the personality that described us. I found myself as a Cd person. I was really surprised because the characteristics of conscientiousness accurately match with my personality trait. As mentioned C is a kind of person that pays attention to key directives and standards, concentrate on key details. That is exactly true to me. I am interested to see things in details than in general. When I have an assignment or any kind of work that I do beside school, I spend a lot of time because I like to see them in details.  Other characteristics of being C are checking for accuracy and analyzing performance critically. This is also part of my personality. Sometimes I think that I have a bad habit about checking things to find it correctness. Whenever time I have to do a work in any situation I check it many times before I close it. Sometimes it is a good thing to check because I find some mistakes that I have to correct before any further action, but there is a kind of wasting time when you find that everything is correct.

I feel comfortable of being type C personality and I don’t want to be another type for now. May be in the future I would be D because I have some characteristics of it. But the only thing that I wouldn’t have in D is making quick decisions. I think you have to think and analyze before making decisions otherwise you might likely make the wrong decision.

This kind of activity is helpful to figure out about people especially if you have to deal with them in a management situation. You will know what is the best way to use when interacting with them without having any conflict.  The more you know the better you can handle it. When you are a leader or manager for example, if you know the personality type of people that you are working with, it could be easy to deal with them without contradiction. In addition, this kind of activity is helpful not only in a management situation but also in any kind of relationship. When your personality trait matches with your partner’s personality trait, you could understand each other more than if you have divergence personality.   

Extra Credit Assignment

Alpha Oumar Diallo

Prof: Kurpis           

MGT 3120

Fall 2010

Baruch College

11/12/2010

On Thursday November 4^th around 9 pm I went to a MacDonald located in 215 W. 125^th Street in Manhattan to complete an extra credit assignment.  It was raining and chilly. When I arrived at the location, there were a lot of people there and I had to wait to make my order. There were three different situations that I experienced: it is the situation before the order, during the order and after the order.    

            The line was long and employees were not enough to serve the number of customers who were there as fast as possible. You have to wait for several minutes to place your order. There were only two registers opened and one was moving better than the order.  Unfortunately, I was in the slowest line. I saw someone who seems to be the manager because she was telling employees what to do. In addition, most of the employees seemed to me Spanish descendent due to their accent and physical appearance. After five minutes of waiting, it was my turn to make my special order. It was a Spanish young girl who was at the register. As I stepped in front of her, she said, “How can I help you?” I said, “Can I have a special order of one hamburger with exactly five pickles, and one small French fries well done with a side of big Mac sauce, and I need the receipt please.” She smiled and asked me to repeat again my order. I repeated it and she started looking on her register, as it was her first day to use the machine. It took her two minutes to register the entries. Finally she said $3.12 and asked me to pay. Once she gave me the receipt, there were not five pickles and extra Mac sauce on the receipt.  I retuned the receipt to her and said, “This is not what I want. I need to see the five pickles on the receipt. She told me directly it is impossible. The manager saw us talking. She came and asked what’s going on. The employee explained the problem to the manager and the manger also confirmed that order was impossible. I kept repeating the order is possible. At the time we were arguing about the possibilities of the order, people started screaming at the back due to the long waiting line. The manager asked me to wait on the side and she is going to open a new register and try to find a way to fix my order.  

             Once she opened the new register, she started by voiding the first order because it doesn’t satisfy my requirement and I want to have everything that I ordered to show up on the receipt. She asked me to repeat slowly my order. But she did the same mistake as the employee did it before. And, I told her again that the five pickles should be on the receipt. An employee who was working at the cooking area came and explained to her to press the pickle button five times. Finally she was able to enter the order correctly. I assumed that she was a manger for some reasons, but not her competences. If competences really matter, the man who was at the cooking area was more qualify than her.     

            After the order was placed, it was the time preparation of the order. I heard the manager telling the employee who was in charge of my order to make sure that there are exactly five pickles. The employee took his time and did exactly what the manager said. They gave me the order after few minutes and I opened it in front of them to count the number of pickle. Fortunately, I had exactly five pickles in the hamburger with French fries well done and a side of big Mac sauce. At the end, the manager told me that she was sorry about the misunderstanding.  And all the employees were looking at me when I was leaving the place. I assumed that they were thinking that I was crazy.  

            As a consultant to that MacDonald’s, I would say there was great organization pattern. There was one manager who gave orders and solved problems, and each employee performed his or her task. Some employees were at the cooking area and others were in the front to take customers’ orders. The preparation time was on the average time for that kind of order. The only problem was adding not the pickles on the hamburger, but on the receipt. I think it was very difficult to know about that kind of special order because it is unusual. But, the manger didn’t give up even though she told me it was impossible. I saw a kind of uncertainty when she was telling me that the order was impossible. I think also opening a new register to figure out how she could fix my order was an important decision that she made. Some people could be served while fixing my order without delaying the service. 

              In addition, the communication was effective. I think places like restaurant or other kind of business services area tend to have effective commutation because the chance of the customer to come back depends on the first service rendered. Mangers mostly hire people who have good communication skills to increase the customer service performance. The communication between management and employees were also acceptable. When the manger finished registering my order, she insisted to put exactly five pickles, no more or less and the employee did it as he was told to do. The only thing that they have to do is to think about what customers ask before reacting. They shouldn’t tell customers that some orders like mine were impossible. In contrary, they should ask customers some questions to find a way to place them.   

            When it comes to the training, I can say employees were well trained to take usual orders. Some of them don’t even look at the screen when placing orders because it becomes a routine for them. But, for special order like mine, they need more training. I recall when I asked the cahier to have five pickles on the receipt she gave me a crazy look that I can assume she doesn’t know what to do. I think MacDonald’s’ owners should invest in training for special order.

            Finally, I can say that the man who came from the cooking area displays a kind of leadership. Even though he was just a regular employee in my opinion, but he expressed himself to help the manager resolve the problem. I think that place need a good leadership for it performance and increase the customer service qualities. The manager and the employee who helped to fix the order showed more actions of leadership that anyone else even though many people got involve in my transaction.           

Visions of A Better Future

    When you have an ambition and have the courage to take action, your dream becomes reality. Since I started college education, I think about my life after getting my bachelor. Sometimes I spend a lot of time making plans. With all the visions that I have, there are some that required to be reached in my life no matter how difficult they are. I know after two years I will be in the business world to start my career. My first goal is to have a good job that is related to my major in order to have some experiences before starting my master degree. To get the job that I want, I need to prepare myself now. I have to work really hard in my major. I need to motivate myself to excel from one class to another. My target is to reach the highest level of education. Having just the PhD is not enough, I want be a loyal expert. I need to do lot of researches and extra-curricula study to attain my goal. Because experience is very important in today's world, I'll start working once I get my bachelor. I need to be in the job learning to show what I know from the book learning.  As soon as I get one year experience, I'll go back to school for my master at the same time continuing my job. At the time I finish my master I will get married and start raising my family. I know it will be a long way to go, but once you know the ending point it will be easy. The first job that I want to get after receiving my master is an overseas job. It could be in any county in the world where there is peace and economic stability and I want to work there and live with my family for two to three years. This overseas job will be a good opportunity for me to visit new cities and learn from other people around world. I have passion of traveling and learning new culture. Once I get some experiences outside the US for two to three years with my family, I will return to school to pursuit my PhD. At the time I finish my PhD, I am going to return back home where I will join my father's company to bring the expertise that I have. And I will also open my own  foundation where I will engage myself in fighting against child labor and sexism at the same time helping orphans and people with disabilities. At the time I am close to the retirement period, I want to go to Mecca in Saoudi Arabia to perform the fifth pillars of Islam. It is a long way to go, but "Visions coupled with action can make things happen"!

Decision Making

       Last week, the professor gave us an opportunity to act as a decision maker based on the first exam that we took. There were many students who didn't do well on the exam and our job was to decide what to do in order to have everyone on the track. Once the problem was on the table, the professor stepped back and it was our job to decide what to do. At the beginning, most of us were thinking about curving the grade. As we went along the discussion, we identified many options that made the decision making more easier to handle. In addition, two student were acting as a mediator to make it more organized than it was at the beginning. I voted for the 10 points extra credit with the curve and drop the lowest grade and finally we agreed on that proposal. The format of the exam was good, but the only thing that I didn't like was the multiple multiple choices questions because my ideology is to have full point or nothing. In that case, I acted as a collaborator with other student to replace multiple multiple by just multiple choices until I realized that multiple multiple choices have more advantages based on mathematical reasoning. At the end, I supported for keeping the same format because any change might be catastrophic for certain students. Some students were competing to win and others were just accepting any proposal that came out. The decision making took us more time than it should be because we didn't know how far we could go and there were disagreement between students until five minutes before the end of the class. I think based on all proposals that we agreed on, it is enough to have a good grade in this class and it is up to us to make it right. There was an important argument that one student brought out which was to learn from our mistakes and find out how to do well in the next exam for those students who failed. I think that was an important question that we should spend little bit of time because it might help us in the future. But, the problem of having agreement took us more time that we couldn't take into consideration anything other that reaching the highest level of grade. This activity was not only good for our grade, but a good way to learn how to handle decision making in a difficult situation with time limited.

We did everything, but we failed!

    After the Professor explained the activity that we have to do, we started following the different steps in the planning process. First we defined our goal and objectives for the innovation. We spent few minutes thinking about how we were going to use 8 straws with little bit of tape to protect an egg without breaking when dropped . Our major concern was to build the contraption with the margin of  having at least 50% of the egg's face outside. We came up with ideas, but the best one was to leave a little bit of space between the egg and the straws while we have the tape connecting them. We were monitoring our time between processes to be sure that we don't fall behind. As far as we went in the creation process, we checked the status of our progress and compare to our objectives. 
     Unfortunately, we didn't determine any alternative strategy because we were 100% optimistic that we were going to succeed at once. We had seen ourselves having only strengths in our building process. In the next step, we started analyzing and making tactical plan. We assigned to everyone a task to save time when we have all the necessaries materials to do the creation. 
       When we got the materials, each member started doing his work in order to finish the job on time. It was very easy to put words into action because we had already determined how the process is going to be. At the end of the creation, we checked the result and found out that we didn't leave enough space for the egg that was protected by the straws and we were unable to find alternative way because we were running out of time.  
     We followed all the steps, but almost skipped step number 3 and that could be the reason of our failure. In addition, the team did a great performance in the work process and it was more effective due to the participation of each member. I was really amazing and I think we know now how to make a plan for that kind of activity. 

When you move, you learn!

    People go from one place to another for different reasons. It can be for immigration to find a better life, for job, for education or just for visit. Any move that we make gives us an additional experience. For some people, they might have a lot of difficulties during the adjustment of the new life. All difficulties other than financing can be cultural because the ideas, customs and social behavior that they are facing are not the same. The United States is a country known as its diversity of culture. If you have a chance, you can meet people from all over the world and that is why it is not difficult to adjust in the US. You can sometimes find some people that might be in some cases quiet similar to you, especially in The Empire State.            

    I came in the US years ago and my first step was in Atlanta-Gerogia. Everything was all right during the begging because I was with my sister all the time until I attended school. When I started going to school and sometimes hanging out with new people, I started experiencing new life. The first day of my class, I had an english professor named Norman. He asked us to call him just Norman. I was surprise and I asked my self why he just like to be called by his name without any title added on it. In my country which is Guinea west Africa, especially in my culture, people are concerned about title. you can not just call someone by his first name or last name when he is older than you. You need to add a title such as "Mr", "Professor" or something alike. When someone helps you learn something, he becomes automatically your professor because he is giving you something that you can use in your entire life. In my society, you have to respect him. Respect doesn't mean just the title, but it starts from there. After your parents, the most important person that you have to respect is your professor because he is the one who shapes the way that your future is going to be. When you call someone by just his first name, it is considered that you have the same age; otherwise one has to give a title to the other; who ever is older. In my case, it was little bit difficult for me to call my professor Norman. Even if I have a question, I wouldn't ask him sometimes because I felt that just calling him by his name is a kind of rude action. After while, I got accustomed to it and I called him the way he asked us to do. But it is not in all cases, I know that some people like to have title added to their names mostly authorities. One day I met a south korean girl. We were talking about school and she told me that "in Korea, whatever your professor says is true whether it is or not". When I asked her why, she told me that "they had a lot of respects for their professors so that it is not easy to disapprove them". I don't know if it is true or false, but I imagined that they have something related to their culture.
      In addition, there is something that I don't really understand even though I have been here for long time. It is about food in the classroom. There are some professors who care and others don't. In my society, you don't eat in the class because you have to consider not only your professor, but students who are around you. I think class time is just to study and break time is to eat and do whatever you want. I am not trying to be offensive to those students who bring food in the class, but I am just sharing my experience.    
      Last summer, I went to Paris for two weeks visit. Many things were different compare to US. What I experienced at Charle de gaulle airport, is that people don't have time to speak to a stranger. When you ask them for help, they say in french word "je suis desole" which means "I am sorry". They don't even give you a little bit of time to listen to you. Even if the american can not help you, but he gives you time. There are many differences between US and Europe. The food that they eat is very small. When you cross the street, you have to wait until the light is green otherwise you get a ticket especially in Germany, but that is the law. During summer, only few offices open; even the president takes long vacation during summer and we know in America how many weeks someone takes vacation and it doesn't matter if it is summer or winter. 

     It is difficult to adjust in a new life. Everyone has his own culture. The problem that you encounter  when you move from one area to another depends of the place where you go. In US, I didn't experience many difficulties because it is a place where you can see all kind of people from all over the world especially in The BIG APPLE.       

     

        

Hello

My name is Alpha Oumar, you can call me Alpha. I am a transfer student from Borough of Manhattan Community College majoring in Finance and my minor is math.   I like to meet people and exchange ideas. This is my first semester at Baruch and I hope this semester will be a good beginning. I like basketball even tough i am not really a good play but I can sometimes try my best. I wish to everyone the best during this semester. Hi!