Promise and Deliver

Promise and Deliver

In fact, you should always under-promise and over-deliver, as you and your enterprise will be ultimately evaluated on the quality of your work. Under-promise and over-deliver means keeping every promise you make, carefully understanding what is expected of you, and delivering more than is expected in order to exceed people’s expectations.

Making promises you cannot keep will mean that others will lose faith in you and ultimately stop communicating with you. Actually, people have antennae for manipulation and will notice any half-truth or lies you fell. Sincerity, on the other hand, is much more powerful and people will detect if you genuinely believe what you tell them.

There are no shortcuts in this process, and this involves professionalism and hard work to ensure you do every job to the best of your ability.

To develop and maintain relationship, under-promising and over-delivering will help you come across as trustworthy and sincere, and will provide true benefits, such is long-term relationship, enhanced trust, repeat business and more.

The ability to quickly assess the amount of work to be delivered is a great skill. Many people tend to over-promise to their boss because they make a mistake when assessing the amount of work to be completed. They lack to agree on one of two points (or on both of them) – the deliverables and the timeline.

To develop and maintain relationship, under-promising and over-delivering will help you come across as trustworthy and sincere, and will provide true benefits, such is long-term relationship, enhanced trust, repeat business and more. Illustration : Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

First at all, make sure that you agree on the deliverables. It may be clearly stated, for example – “I want a  twenty-slides PowerPoint presentation on the sales of the past month”. The deliverables are clear and you can start to assess the work to be done.

In other instances the deliverables may be vague or too general, for example – “I want an assessment of opportunities to expand our business into another country”. In this case, additional questions arise in order to understand what is expected: “Do you mean Africa or Asia?”. “What do you mean by expanding into a market?”, “Do you want a Word or a PowerPoint?” Once you agree on the deliverables, you will then need to assess the work to be done.

Assessing a workload

There exists a simple method of assessing the amount of work required. The key is to break down the deliverables into small and quantifiable actions so that you can build your project plan.

Start up by taking a look at the deliverables and decide how to best break them into “sub-deliverables”. Be careful and make sure you use MECE when breaking down your points.

East River Greenway - Part II

The East River Greenway - Part II

The East River Greenway is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It runs runs along the East Side, from Battery Park and past South Street Seaport to a dead end at 125th Street, East Harlem (a 1.3 miles gap exists from 34th to 60th streets in Midtown where pedestrians use busy First and Second Avenues to get around United Nations Headquarters between the Upper East Side and Kips Bay).

Cyclists going further north who do not wish to carry their bike up the long flight of stairs at 81st Street must skip the 60th Street access and continue in the on-street bike lanes another 1.1 miles to 83rd Street.

All the pictures have been taken by Elena.

The path occupies a narrow portion of the space below the viaduct; in most cases, the rest of the space is used as parking facilities and storage space.

The Charles Brown Sipyard housed a group of shipbuilders at Pier 42, adjacent to Charlotte Street, now Pike Street. They built many vessels, including some of those designed by Robert Fulton.

Franc T. Modica Way.

The Big Balance Dry Dock was situated between Pike and Rutgers Streets. Machinists and blacksmiths were also concentrated in this area of shoreline.

It was cited as “a bridge beautiful as well as useful” by Architects & Builders Magazine.

This elaborate arch was intended to be a grand entrance to the city. Cars passed through the arch while subways ran beneath.

Architects Carrere & Hastings were asked to improve the towers, anchorages and the road. Cable anchorages were exaggerated as saddles, and twin colonnades flanking an arch formed the Court of Honor at the Manhattan approach.

During the 19th century, this area of the East River featured docks and piers of shipping lines, linking New York with other eastern seaboard ports.

The Manhattan bridge you see now was designed by Leon Moisseff and opened in 1909.

The Czech immigrant engineer, Gustav Lindenthal, is often credited with the design of the Manhattan Bridge which dominates the skyline at this point; but in fact Lindenthal’s design was rejected due to its controversial structural innovations.

The total length of the Brooklyn Bridge is 6,855 feet with a span of 1,470 feet, 135 feet clear of the water.

Sportground under the FDR driveway.

Basketball City on the Greenway lane.

Chinese immigrants began arriving in 1870 and, since 1960, many more have come. 150,000 residents make it the largest Chinese community outside Asia.

The upper level of Manhattan bridge carries four lanes of traffic and a pedestrian walkway. The lower level carries three traffic lanes and four subway tracks.

Warren Buffet’s Approach

Warren Buffet’s Approach

Warren Edward Buffet is ranked as one of the wealthiest men and one of the world’s most influential people. He is one of the most successful stock market investors in history. He acquired his fortune through a unique investment savvy. This approach earned his the nickname the Oracle of Omaha.

What is his secret though? Actually, rather than trying to play the market, Buffet try to view the investment of a stock in the same way as investment in a business:

Investment is long term: Investor must aim for profits over the long term rather than for immediate gains. You should take a long-term approach by investing in sound business over a long period of time, instead of following everyday market.

Investment must be made at a good price: Investors generally try to negotiate the best price possible. Invest only when the market offers an attractive price following sharp falls in price, for example. But do it with the margin of safety.

Invest in sound business over a long period of time, don’t follow the schizophrenic trends of the market. Illustration: © Mega Jorgensen (Elena). An artwork at UQAM university in Montreal.

Your business must be well managed: With a business, investors consider the approach and experience of the managers. Adopt a similar approach when looking at investing in a stock. Examine the management’s approach to areas such as investing profits back into the business.

The business attempts to avoid debt: Investor must consider all the risks associated with large debts. An analogous approach must be taken to investing in stocks. Therefore, does not invest in companies with too much debt (leverage), as these situations can affect rates and reduce cash flow.

Competitive edge: Invest in competitive brands, such as Apple or Google, rather than “commodity” companies that are not distinguishable from competitors except on price. The well-known brands provide something unique and therefore have a competitive advantage.

High returns: Investors aim for reasonable return on investment. Look always at the rate of return on investments in stocks. A rate of return means that if you invest one hundred dollars, and your share prices increases to $110 a year later, you achieve a ten percent rate of return. Look for companies that have higher returns to invest in.

Creating a Plan of Action

Creating a Plan of Action

Create always a plan of action. Write down your challenges and analyze what can go wrong and how you can solve the situation.

To create a plan of action ask yourself:

•     What is your true core business?
•     What creates the cash?
•     Have you invested too much in growth?
•     Are you overextending yourself?
•     Have you been measuring performance effectively?
•     Have you been letting go of underachievers?
•     Have you been keeping true to your strategy?

Change what you do, not what you are about. The point is how you have been doing business, not change yourself as a person. Amir Hartman defines three key things to do:

Recalibrate your strategies: Think about what you should do. Rearrange your business interests, reassess how your resources have been relocated.

The difference between successful people and underachievers is the ability to bounce back and try again. Every setback is a learning opportunity, and once you have been through it, you can come back more experienced and with more prospects for success (Sir Richard Branson). Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Recalibrate your rules: After knowing what you are going to do, you need to establish new rules that focus on results.

Recalibrate your business: Develop the capabilities you need that will get you to where you want to go.

Success in business does not rest on simply avoiding problems. Rather, dealing with pitfalls and drawbacks is part of business. How you respond to challenging circumstances will be a key determinant of your success. In order to overcome setbacks, expect the unexpected, keep things in perspective, persevere.

Bibliography:

• Adam Riccoboni and Daniel Callaghan, The Art of Selling Yourself.

Music Industry

Music Industry

In addition to moving around capital worth billions of dollars yearly, the music industry is the livelihood of millions of people. At the border of millennia, before i-tunes and ringtones took over the world, there were big problems with sites such as Napster and Kazaa. Artists’ music careers are greatly hurt by piracy; record companies also end up footing the bills.

Florida & Jackson (2010) inform their readers that consistent with industry clustering and related business theories, economies of scope and of scale, there were unswerving trends in musical agglomerations throughout the US between the years 1970 and 2004. The main centres were New York, Los Angeles and Nashville.

Fascination with all kind of dancing performances can be seen on shows like Dancing With the Stars (DWTS), So You Think You Can Dance? and American Idol. Countless movies such as Dirty Dancing and Flashdance and Black Swan have as their focus the ancient art.

Russian ballet has a worldwide reputation, as evidenced by the Bolshoi Theatre. The Grands Ballets Canadiens also have scenic presentation. Ballet ensembles tour, so short of travelling the world, there is always the possibility to wait for your favourite troupe or band to come by your location, even very small cities sometimes get a visit.

Town musicians from Bremen, Toronto. Photo by Elena

There are countless music genres rock, hard rock, metal (heavy, death, punk), country, pop, R & B, hip hop, jazz, folkloric, dj (techno, house, trans, electronica, drum ‘n’ base)… Musical instruments… the piano, violoncello, violin, bass, tambourine, flute, saxophone, trumpet, triangle, drums, steelpan, guitar, balalaika, bagpipes… Dance styles: South American (tango, salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, rumba, bolero, calypso, reggae, regaeton, cha cha cha, lambada), waltz, ballroom, ballet, etc. Did you know that on top of international contests, there is a Universidad de la Salsa?

First boy band were the Beatles (Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison). Elvis Presley’s nickname the King says it all. Subsequent boy bands include N’ Sync (Justin Timberlake), Backstreet Boys and New Kids on the Block. The Jonas Brothers could be conceived of as a boys’ duo.

Popular rock bands such as the Rolling Stones with Mick Jagger (who came to Quebec in their 50s and literally rocked the place!) continue to make money with concerts. Another derivative is reality TV shows. Ozzy (initially Black Sabbath), Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne are the main characters on The Osbournes. Gene Simmons from famous rock formation Kiss also has his own show with Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Still, Williamson & Cloonan (2007) ascertain that the concept of ‘music industry’ is too broad, and that one should utilize the plural version, musical industries. The authors dislike the singular form because it is used synonymously with the recording industry (the present essay is indeed using ‘music industry’ as an umbrella term to encompass recording, producing, selling, actually making the music and singing, and so on), and because it misrepresents the real situation that is heterogeneity of directions. Still, without ignoring the variety, it seems that it takes the sum of the parts to make a whole. For a discussion of the Mobile Media and China (移动媒体和中国), a research project concerning the music industry in China (中国的音乐产业), see Montgomery (2007). The undertaking looks at the role played by social networks in moving music commercialization along.

References:

    Alleyne, M. (2009). Globalisation and commercialisation of Caribbean music. World Music: Roots and Routes. Studies across Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences 6. Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, 76-101.

    Florida, R. & Jackson, S. (2010). Sonic city: The evolving economic geography of the music industry. Journal of planning Education and Research, 29 (3); 310-321.

    Montgomery, L. (2007). Music, mobile, media and China: New technologies and social networks as drivers of innovation and growth in China’s music industry. In Proceedings of the Harmonious Society, Civil Society and the Media, Beijing.

    Williamson, J. & Cloonan, M. (2007). Rethinking the music industry. Popular Music, 26 (2): 305-322.