~ LapjesKat: Similar...

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Similar...

[Method Man:] It was over your head all day every day
~ Limp Bizkit / N 2 Gether Now

49 comments:

Emerald. said...: (( Over grenzen heen kijken

Werken bij PwC is samenwerken en kennisdelen. Het is verrassend denken en openstaan voor nieuwe inzichten. Deze komen van zowel klanten als van een diversiteit aan collega's, wat betreft kennis en ervaring, zienswijzen, culturen, geslacht en leeftijd. Door over grenzen heen te kijken en buiten de gebaande paden te gaan. En de kennis en ervaring ook in te zetten voor maatschappelijke belangen. Alleen op die manier kunnen we verschil maken voor onze klanten en relaties.

Wat uw kennis- en ervaringsgebied ook is, we zoeken mensen die:

Er niet voor terugdeinzen tradities te doorbreken of ter discussie te stellen
Nieuwe inzichten en perspectieven meebrengen
Snappen welke verbindingen zorgen voor succesvolle oplossingen
Streven naar ultieme oplossingen voor klanten
Hun expertise kunnen inzetten in diverse marktsectoren
Graag hun talent en kennis over nieuwe gebieden willen ontwikkelen
Graag in een team werken van ambitieuze professionals met een verschillende achtergrond )); 5:08 AM
Emerald. said...: ((IT: ondersteunt, onderhoudt en beheert de IT-infrastructuur met diensten zoals consultancy, projectmanagement, netwerkbeheer, applicatie-ontwikkeling en –beheer, werkplekbeheer en gebruikersondersteuning

Business Development: ondersteunt bij het creëren van een winnende onderscheidende propositie, een efficiënt proposalproces met winnende teksten en een optimale prospectrelatie

Marketing en Communicatie: zoekt naar kansen en concrete oplossingen voor marketingvraagstukken en helpt bij het realiseren van businessdoelstellingen met marketing- en communicatiemiddelen

Online & Knowledge Management: biedt een zo breed mogeljke toegang tot alle informatie die nodig is voor productontwikkeling, het uitbrengen van proposals en het leveren van toegevoegde waarde aan klanten

HR en Recruitment: ondersteunt bij de ontwikkeling en uitvoering van alle facetten van het personeelsbeleid, het oplossen van HR-vraagstukken en het bedenken van recruitmentstrategieën

Secretariaat: beheert agenda’s van partners en managers, organiseert vergaderingen en onderhoudt (inter)nationale in- en externe contacten

Finance: verzorgt de interne financiële administratie, het betalingsverkeer en de facturering; interne controllers managen de budgetten en budgetbewaking

Facility Management: regelt de huisvesting, telecommunicatie, inkoop van facilitaire diensten en adviseert over het beleid wat betreft welzijn, veiligheid, gezondheid en bedrijfshulpverlening )); 5:09 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Openbaar vervoer
Vanaf Centraal Station Utrecht
neemt u bus 11 richting AZU /
Uithof. Uitstappen bij halte ‘AMEV’,
Pythagoraslaan. )); 5:13 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Ondernemen is het aangaan van uitdagingen. Dat geldt zeker ook voor de vastgoedsector. Steen en beton zijn weliswaar een solide investering, dat blijkt steeds weer opnieuw, maar hoe laat u die zo goed mogelijk renderen?

Actuele onderwerpen
Door de toenemende eisen is Financiële verslaggeving momenteel een belangrijk aandachtspunt voor vastgoed ondernemingen
Voor een succesvolle vastgoedinvestering is een optimale fiscale structuur cruciaal
Uw grip op risico's kunt u verstevigen door onzekerheden nauwkeurig te monitoren en te managen
Wellicht staat ook uw onderneming voor de keuze van een fusie of overname, of denkt u aan koop of verkoop in de toekomst
Als vastgoedontwikkelaar staat u steeds weer voor de uitdaging klinkende resultaten te realiseren
Hoog rendement
PricewaterhouseCoopers heeft alle beschikbare kennis en ervaring die de vastgoedsector raken gebundeld in vastgoedteams. Deze bolwerken van vastgoedspecialisten ondersteunen beleggers, beheerders en ontwikkelaars op tal van terreinen. Het uitgangspunt van onze dienstverlening is eigenlijk heel simpel. Wanneer u weinig tijd en geld kwijt bent met het efficiënt runnen van uw organisatie en bedrijfsprocessen, kunt u al uw aandacht en energie richten op de kernprocessen: het beheer en de ontwikkeling van vastgoed. Zodat het rendement van uw investering zo hoog mogelijk is, terwijl de kosten zo laag mogelijk blijven. En daar gaat het uiteindelijk allemaal om.
)); 7:07 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Vastgoed Update
Real Estate Advisory Services
Global Real Estate Now
RECM global pagina
Emerging Trends in Real Estate Europe 2006 )); 7:08 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Emerging Trends in Real Estate®, which is recognized as the real estate industry's most respected annual forecast, is now in its 27th year. This publication is published jointly by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and ULI - the Urban Land Insitute. Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2006..

If you are interested in purchasing Emerging Trends in Real Estate® 2006, call 1-800-321-5011and ask for item E23. ""; 7:08 AM
Emerald. said...: "" PricewaterhouseCoopers is the world's leading professional organization with more than 150,000 people in the 150 countries. The Real Estate Valuation/ Consulting Practice provides objective, unbiased, imaginative real estate counsel to institutional, corporate, government, and individual clients. The practice specializes in analysis of institutional-grade properties such as large mixed-use projects, office buildings, shopping centers, industrial properties, apartment buildings and complexes, hotels, resorts, and development land.

The professional staff is composed of highly qualified real estate experts whose background and experience include real estate valuation, acquisitions, investment analysis and counseling, urban economics, management, research, publishing, and systems development for various analyses.

Through its Global Strategic Real Estate Research Group, the practice applies a strong research-based approach, gathering and analyzing broad national and regional economic data in relation to the most current specific data germane to each assignment. Ongoing research into national and local market conditions and institutional investment criteria results in a constantly current understanding of the real estate market. Thus, the staff is aware of evolving trends before they are reflected in regional and national data.

In analytical work, the Valuation/Consulting Practice stresses market documentation and scrutinizes supply and demand factors, with special attention to the underlying demographic and economic variables that affect real estate. The practice draws upon detailed knowledge of major transactions nationwide and employs current investor-oriented techniques.

""; 7:10 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Onderwerpen Vastgoed Update, juni 2006

Redevco: ‘Performance gaat bij ons altijd boven groei’
IFRS voor de bouw: terug naar af?
Trends in de Europese vastgoedmarkt
Wat PricewaterhouseCoopers beweegt op de vastgoedmarkt
Externe verslaggevingwoningcorporaties
Uitleg uitspraak van het Hof Amsterdam inzake toepassing van de vervangingsreserve
Consultancy Week 2006
Goed risicomanagement: betere investeringen
)); 7:11 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Tax structuring
Voor een succesvolle vastgoedinvestering is een optimale fiscale structuur cruciaal. Een gebrekkige fiscale structuur kunnen het rendement uit een vastgoedinvestering voor een groot deel tenietdoen door onnodige belastingheffing. De investeerder in vastgoed heeft met vele belastingen te maken. Naast inkomstenbelasting en vennootschapsbelasting spelen voor vastgoedinvesteerders omzetbelasting, overdrachtsbelasting en lokale heffingen een belangrijke rol. De vastgoedfiscalisten van PricewaterhouseCoopers hebben kennis van alle voor vastgoed specifieke fiscaliteit. Op basis van hun ruime ervaring zijn zij in staat u te voorzien van een optimale fiscale structuur die rekening houdt met uw specifieke situatie en doelstellingen.

Multidisciplinair
De fiscalisten binnen de Real Estate Group van PricewaterhouseCoopers laten zich waarnodig ondersteunen door onze eigen waarderingsdeskundigen en financieel adviseurs. Deze unieke multidisciplinaire benadering zorgt voor een stevig fundament onder uw fiscale vastgoedstructuur.

Internationaal
Mocht u grensoverschrijdend investeren dan bent u bij de vastgoedfiscalisten van PricewaterhouseCoopers aan het juiste adres. Tezamen met de vastgoedfiscalisten in meer dan 80 landen vormen zij de Global Real Estate Tax Group van PricewaterhouseCoopers. Door de korte lijnen binnen dit internationale team van vastgoedfiscalisten worden complexe internationale fiscale vraagstukken op efficiënte wijze vertaald in een overzichtelijke en fiscaal vriendelijke structuur.

Tax compliance
Ook het onderhoud van uw bestaande fiscale structuur is bij PricewaterhouseCoopers in goede handen. Belastingaangiften worden voor u verzorgd en voorstellen worden gedaan voor noodzakelijke aanpassingen aan de structuur. Ook kunnen wij namens u de contacten met de fiscus onderhouden en zo nodig bezwaar en beroep instellen tegen belastingaanslagen.

Wat kunt u van PricewaterhouseCoopers verwachten?
Fiscale structurering van uw (internationale) vastgoedinvesteringen
Fiscale begeleiding bij aan- en verkoop
Fiscale begeleiding fusies en overnames
Structurering van (internationale) vastgoedfondsen
Belastingaangiften
Voeren van bezwaar- en beroepsprocedures
Tax Modelling Services

)); 7:17 AM
Emerald. said...: "" As competition in real estate markets heat up, investors negotiating multi-million investment deals need more than just "gut feeling". To reach optimal investment returns, a thorough understanding of tax effects is vital. This is, however, easier said than done. The complexity of real estate transactions, especially across jurisdictions, makes the combined impact of relevant tax factors on future returns extremely difficult to assess.

PricewaterhouseCoopers Real Estate Calculation Models provides detailed insight into after-tax returns of real estate investments and is a great tool to optimise investment performance. Real Estate Calculation Models are tailor-made financial models that simulate investment structures, tax factors and real estate data to project cash flows and calculate financial metrics such as after-tax returns and NPV. Investors can see at a glance how much, when and where taxes leak from the investment structure. If you would like to see a short introductory presentation please launch the short movie of the product below or for a demonstration of the Real Estate Calculation Models tool, please launch the attached pdf demonstration. ""; 7:20 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Op het gebied van financiële verslaggeving is PricewaterhouseCoopers één van de meest vooraanstaande accountancyfirma’s, in Nederland en wereldwijd. Als gevolg van de veranderende regelgeving zijn veel wijzigingen van belang voor vastgoed en vastgoedbeleggingsinstellingen. Een overzicht van de veranderingen die vastgoed raken.

In Nederland
Recent is Titel 9 Boek 2 BW gewijzigd en dit heeft onder meer gevolgen voor de vorming van een wettelijke herwaarderingsreserve. Ondernemingen moeten nu voor hun ongerealiseerde waardevermeerderingen een herwaarderingsreserve vormen. Deze herwaarderingsreserve wordt vanaf 2005 per actief gevormd en niet meer collectief, zoals in het verleden het geval was. Dit is niet alleen veel werk, ook wordt de samenstelling van het eigen vermogen hierdoor anders. Een gevolg van de vorming van de herwaarderingsreserve is dat de algemene/overige reserves negatief kunnen worden.

Daarnaast is voor vastgoedbeleggingsinstellingen de Wet toezicht beleggingsinstellingen per 1 september 2005 ingevoerd met een overgangstermijn tot 1 maart 2006 voor bestaande instellingen. Hierin zijn ook aanvullende toelichtingen vereist in de jaarrekening.

IFRS, één jaar verder
Het eerste jaar van verslaggeving volgens IFRS was intensief en complex. Dit heeft over 2005 fors dikkere jaarverslagen opgeleverd, omdat de conversie naar IFRS en de verschillen tussen Dutch GAAP en IFRS moeten worden toegelicht. Verslaggeving volgens IFRS is aan striktere regels gebonden. Het gaat veel minder om de interpretatie van regels, veel meer gaat het om de letter van de standaarden.

Latente belastingverplichtingen met betrekking tot onroerend goed mogen niet meer tegen de contante waarde worden berekend en worden opgenomen
Classificatie van operational versus financial lease. Bij operational lease komt het vastgoed niet op de balans, bij financial lease wel. Indien een gebruiksrecht in een onroerende zaak bij de lessee als operational lease classificeert en bij de lessee wordt verantwoord als een vastgoedbelegging, dient dit naar alle waarschijnlijkheid vanaf 1 januari 2007 als financial leasing te worden verantwoord
Rekening dient te worden gehouden met double counting van lease incentives wanneer deze als een afzonderlijke actiefpost worden opgenomen
Service-doorbelastingen en servicekosten moeten in het geval van een vastgoedbelegger optreedt als principaal bruto in de winst- en verliesrekening worden opgenomen (zowel onder de omzet als onder de kosten). Wordt daarentegen opgetreden als agent dan dienen de service-doorbelastingen en de servicekosten netto te worden verwerkt
Wat kunt u van PricewaterhouseCoopers verwachten?
De accountants van de Assurance-praktijk van PwC kunnen voor u de controle van uw jaarrekening verzorgen
Onze deskundigen helpen u met de interpretatie en implementatie van IFRS

)); 7:24 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Voordat je op gesprek gaat is het goed om nog eens goed de vacature te lezen. Wat wordt er precies van je verwacht en waarover kunnen ze misschien vragen gaan stellen. Kijk ook welke kwaliteiten van jezelf goed zouden aansluiten bij de functieomschrijving. Als het goed is heb je dat al gedaan toen je je CV en sollicitatiebrief schreef, maar het kan nooit kwaad om dit nog eens goed te bestuderen.

Verdiep je ook in het bedrijf waar je gaat werken. Je hoeft echt niet alle ‘ins & outs’ te weten, maar het wordt op prijs gesteld als je op de hoogte bent van enkele cijfers en recent nieuws over het bedrijf. Of over de visie van het bedrijf. Zulke informatie kun je vaak gemakkelijk vinden op de website van het bedrijf. Bijna elk zichzelf respecterend bedrijf heeft tegenwoordig wel een website. Ook vind je honderden bedrijfspresentaties op Monsterboard.nl. Bekijk deze eens aandachtig en lees wat het bedrijf over zichzelf zegt.

Bereid je ook voor op eventuele vragen die een recruiter jou kan stellen. Hulp hiervoor vind je in: Veelgestelde vragen bij een sollicitatiegesprek.""; 8:41 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Individueel gedrag - hoe besluitvaardig ben je, durf je risico’s te nemen, heb je zelfdiscipline, ben je flexibel, stressbestendig, vasthoudend, vastberaden, tolerant en dergelijke
Interpersoonlijk gedrag - ben je een teamworker, neem je gemakkelijk de leiding, ben je klantgericht, kun je goed luisteren, hoe verbaal ben je en hoe is je overtuigingskracht
Management gedrag - overzie je je taken, kun je vooruitdenken, plannen, delegeren, ben je ondernemend, kun je anderen goed stimuleren
Motivatie gedrag - wat voor eisen stel je aan je werk, hoe groot is je werklust en werktempo, neem je snel het initiatief
Intellectueel gedrag - kun je kritisch denken, hoe zit het met je leervermogen, analytisch denkvermogen, rekenvaardigheid en dergelijke ""; 8:42 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Postbak-methode
De postbak-methode is misschien wel het meest gebruikte instrument in een assessment center. Bijna iedereen die wel eens assessment heeft meegemaakt, zal bekend zijn met deze test. In de postbak-methode (ook wel ‘in-basket-test’ genoemd) worden de managementkwaliteiten van de kandidaten getest met behulp van een nagebootste postbak. In deze postbak ligt een hele stapel post, die kan variëren van korte memo’s en telefoonrekeningen tot vertrouwelijk brieven en zelfs hele rapporten. Het is nu de taak van de kandidaat om in een bepaalde tijd de voorgelegde post af te handelen. Het spreekt voor zich dat niet alle post in eerste instantie even belangrijk is en op deze manier wordt dan ook getest of je snel en adequaat hoofdzaken van bijzaken kunt onderscheiden en hoe je orde in de chaos aan kunt brengen.

Rollenspel
Leidinggeven zonder gespreksvoering is ondenkbaar. Vandaar dat veel assessments gebruik maken van een rollenspel om de verbale kwaliteiten van de kandidaat te testen. Maar niet alleen bij aanstaande managers kan een rollenspel van belang zijn. Ook voor commerciële functies kan het nabootsen van een verkoopgesprek inzicht verschaffen in de talenten van de kandidaat.

Fact-finding
Hier zul je aan een hogergeplaatste advies moeten uitbrengen over een bepaald probleem. De bedoeling is dat je eerst hierover de juiste informatie inwint en vervolgens op een logische manier je verhaal doet. Hoe laat je zien dat je achter een bepaalde oplossing staat? Blijf je bij je oplossing? Zit je verhaal logisch in elkaar?

Overige
Naast deze veelvoorkomende opdrachten kun je op een assessmentdag ook de nodige schriftelijke vragenlijsten voorgelegd krijgen. Afhankelijk van de functie die je nastreeft kan er ook getest worden op het geven van een presentatie, zul je slecht-nieuwsgesprekken moeten voeren of een vergadering moeten voorzitten. Soms wordt je ook gevraagd om een tekst (nota, brief) te produceren..
)); 8:43 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Men heeft het ook wel over het Engelse ORCE-principe: Observation, Registration, Classification en Evaluation. In het kort gaat het dan om:

Observatie - er wordt op alles gelet, wat je zegt en doet. Zowel je schriftelijke, verbale als non-verbale uitingen worden tegen het licht gehouden.
Registratie - alle observaties worden vervolgens opgeschreven en van commentaar voorzien
Classificatie - alle gedragingen worden nu van een label voorzien en ingedeeld in de gedragsdimensies die hiervoor zijn besproken
Evaluatie - aan het eind vormt de observator een oordeel over de observaties en toegekende classificaties. Aan de hand hiervan zal hij een rapport schrijven.
OAR
De score die behaald kan worden in een assessment wordt vaak aangeduid met ‘Overall Assessment Rating’ (OAR). Van tevoren wordt bepaald hoeveel punten een kandidaat minimaal moet halen en op grond daarvan kan dan eenvoudig geconcludeerd worden of hij/zij wel of niet geschikt is. Toch zal het in de praktijk best voorkomen dat kandidaten die een goede indruk achterlaten, maar net niet aan de norm voldoen, toch een positief advies krijgen. Cijfers zeggen ook in een assessment niet altijd alles!
)); 8:44 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Waar zie je jezelf over vijf jaar?
Deze vraag is niet bedoeld om te checken of je bereid bent om vijf jaar bij dit bedrijf te werken, maar meer om je ambitie te achterhalen en te kijken of je wel over je loopbaan hebt nagedacht. Zorg dus dat je een duidelijk verhaal hebt met een doel voor over vijf jaar. Benadruk wel de belangrijke rol van dit bedrijf in die loopbaanplanning. Geef aan dat je graag wilt groeien en als het kan binnen dit bedrijf. En zeg zeker niet dat dit bedrijf slechts een opstapje is, of alleen maar bedoeld om werkervaring op te doen.

Waarom heb je juist naar deze functie gesolliciteerd?
Zorg dat je van tevoren goed op een rijtje hebt waarom je juiste deze functie ambieert. Probeer het eens op papier te zetten, pas dan kom je erachter of je het wel goed onder woorden kunt brengen. Zorg dat je minimaal drie argumenten bedenkt!

Waarom hebben we juist iemand als jou nodig?
Benadruk waarom je deze functie interessant vindt en waarom jij denkt dat jouw kwaliteiten daar prima bij passen. Wees niet te bescheiden, maar zuig geen kwaliteiten uit je duim – een goede recruiter vraagt altijd door. Bereid ook deze vraag altijd voor. Ten eerste om een zo goed mogelijk antwoord te geven, maar ten tweede om er voor jezelf ook achter te komen of deze baan eigenlijk wel geschikt voor je is.

Wat zijn je positieve eigenschappen?
Verkoop jezelf, dik je positieve eigenschappen aan en geef duidelijke voorbeelden. Heb je wel eens een slagzinwedstrijd gewonnen en wil je benadrukken dat je creatief bent? Geef dan die prijsvraag als voorbeeld.

Wat vinden je vrienden een negatieve eigenschap van jou?
Zwakke kanten hoeven niet per definitie slecht te zijn. Het onderkennen van je zwakheden is ook een kwaliteit! Zolang je maar wel kunt aangeven dat je je er bewust van bent en dat het voor jou een uitdaging is deze zwakheden te verbeteren. Maar echte zwakheden (‘ik kom altijd te laat op mijn werk’) kun je beter helemaal niet noemen.

Heb je moeite om onder een baas te werken?
Bij de meeste functies werk je onder een baas en het is dus niet verstandig om hier negatief op te antwoorden. Zeg dat je er geen moeite mee hebt om orders aan te nemen, maar benadruk ook zeker dat je een zelfstandige werknemer bent die eigen initiatieven kan nemen.

Heb je bezwaren tegen onregelmatig werk?
Overwerken is niet leuk, maar je wilt ook niet overkomen als een strikte negen-tot-vijf-werknemer. Daarnaast is de moderne werkgever ook geïnteresseerd in breed ontwikkelde werknemers. Heb je interessante hobby’s en verplichtingen in de avonduren, benadruk dan dat je in principe geen problemen met onregelmatig werk hebt, maar dat die hobby’s ook belangrijk zijn.

)); 8:45 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Uiteraard ben je zelf ook benieuwd naar een aantal arbeidsvoorwaarden binnen het bedrijf. Hoe zit het met je salaris, met vakantiedagen en met eventuele secundaire arbeidsvoorwaarden? Wees daar echter bij een eerste gesprek terughoudend mee. Kom niet te inhalig over, want hiermee kun je de indruk wekken dat je de omstandigheden voor jezelf een stuk belangrijker vindt dan de uiteindelijke functie.

Deze vragen kun je altijd stellen bij een tweede of derde gesprek. En vaak stelt het bedrijf ze op den duur vanzelf wel aan de orde. Het is wel zo beleefd om daarop te wachten.

)); 8:46 AM
Emerald. said...: "" The world of work is changing. Outsourcing. International mobility. Talent shortages. New labour laws. Globalisation. Shifting demographics. An ageing workforce. Where, how, and for whom, people work is, in turn, transforming company structures and cultures. Over the next decade, the convergence of dominant business, demographic, and social trends will only accelerate the changes sweeping through today’s workplace.

The HR function is also changing — and HR leaders are under more pressure than ever to demonstrate results from their workforce practices and policies. Business leaders recognise the link between business performance and the people within their organisation. And they understand that people-related issues need to be at the heart of the boardroom agenda. As a consequence, HR managers are being encouraged to implement people strategies that support the organisation’s business objectives and increase accountability and transparency around people management and reporting. The bottomline: HR is increasingly seen as a strategic linchpin — one that needs to work closely with operations, finance, and other corporate departments to help drive business strategy and success.

PricewaterhouseCoopers research into the future of the workplace has helped shape innovative people strategies within many of the world's major organisations. Our HR services focus on three core issues: international mobility, reward, and HR management. These services are delivered by our global network of 6,000 dedicated HR professionals whose members have with deep functional skills in tax, benefits, retirement, compensation, financial planning, international assignment, equity, and compliance matters. Everyday, we work with organisations of every size and in many different industries to meet a wide range of HR challenges, including:

Attracting, motivating, and retaining employees
HR benchmarking and measurement
Employee benefits and compensation programs including pensions
Executive compensation and HR governance
Global work force mobility and expatriate planning
Transaction-related human resource issues
HR function effectiveness and service delivery""; 9:34 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Think globally, act locally. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, your ability to operate profitably in diverse geographic markets, and to shift operations flexibly between countries may be essential to the success of your business. But operating globally generates a wide variety of practical, legal, HR and finance issues. Multinational firms must comply with host countries’ laws on tax, pensions, business practices and human resources. One country’s entrepreneur may be another’s antitrust violator.
We can help. With member firm offices staffed by local experts in 769 cities in 144 countries, PwC offers a complete range of audit and assurance, transactions, crisis management, performance improvement, tax and human resource services, tailored to your specific industry, wherever you may need them. We help companies navigate the intricacies of statutory reporting and tax compliance, advise on the training and development of local staff, help forge cultural and political alliances in local communities, and create operational strategies to protect new market entrants from financial risk. It’s all part of our commitment to helping you address your company’s business challenges around the corner, or around the world. We can provide assistance in:

Expanding internationally
Assessing and investing in emerging markets opportunities
Offshoring and global supply chain management
Responding to the impact of China on world supply and demand
Managing commodity price and currency risks
Managing geopolitical risks
Managing cash repatriation
Global workforce and expatriate planning
Taxes and transfer pricing
""; 9:35 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Herding Cats: Human Change Management Print-friendly version
Email to a colleague

Download Herding Cats (622 kb)
by Mark J. Dawson and Mark L. Jones
Everyone knows the drill: Change is the only constant. Align the trinity of people, processes and technology to strategy. But everyone also knows human behaviour is complex. Organisations don't adapt to change; their people do. But this idiosyncratic human element is overlooked again and again in change projects.

So, how best to manage the process? In this article, authors Mark Dawson and Mark Jones explain "how to implement a change program successfully when dealing with the vagaries of human behaviour".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Organisations are feeling the heat of public criticism. Fuelled by a growing cynicism, many long-standing institutions have become targets for scrutiny and change. Regulators are cracking down on questionable industrywide business practices in troubled sectors. Many companies are restructuring their operations to cope with the new, lean economy. The imperative to change the way organisations do business has never been greater.
The imperative may be great, but the success rate of change programs is not so great. About 75% of all organisational change programs fail, largely because employees feel left out of the process and end up lacking the motivation, skills and knowledge to adopt new systems and procedures. Yet the recipe for successful change management is well known and deceptively simple: align the trinity of people, processes and technology with leadership and organisational strategy. The devil, as always, is in the details: how to implement a change program successfully when dealing with the vagaries of human behaviour.

Unsteady State

The traditional approach to change management relies on a conceptual model that is now obsolete: unfreeze-change-refreeze. An organisation "unfreezes" in order to adapt to change, makes the change, and then 'refreezes' again to resume its business course in steady-state mode. In this model, change is treated as an aberration, a discrete event that temporarily disturbs an organisation in a generally stable business environment. But it is evident in today's competitive and volatile economic context that change is the norm, while steady-state is fleeting and illusory.

The implication of the "change is the only constant" mantra is that the most successful organisations, in the long run, are those that learn to continuously adapt to change. Says Richard Foster, author of Creative Destruction: "We [found] that new companies coming into existing industries … could outperform their industries. But it never lasts. If you're trying to copy a company, don't. By the time you get there to copy it, you may be copying what accounts for its demise rather than its success."

Organisations don't adapt to change; their people do. Implementing the right technology infrastructure and streamlining the business processes that flow through it are essential ingredients for effective organisational change. These components are well studied, mechanized and reasonably standardized. Methodologies, measurements and best-practice guidelines are available to optimize their implementation.

But the human element that needs to make use of these systems in order to supply the leadership, judgment, flexibility and innovation needed to achieve business success is the most critical ingredient—and least understood..

The problems with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system implementations illustrate the consequences of underestimating the human element. Many companies implemented ERPs during the nineties, attracted by the promise of seamless integration of critical information flows. A successful ERP can be the backbone of business intelligence for an organisation, giving management the unified view needed to develop the best strategies in a volatile business environment.

But without proper training, incentives and leadership, a flexible, integrated system will not magically eradicate organisational silos to produce a flexible, integrated workforce. If employees don't understand how an ERP system affects workflow, they may unwittingly sabotage change efforts. Many ERP implementations are described as failures when the reality is that they are incomplete. Managers need to understand and address the behavioural changes needed to reap the benefits of new systems and business models.

Understanding behavioural risk is particularly important in the current economic context—the costs of ignoring it can be significant. Poorly managed change eats away productivity on many fronts. It increases costs: Job stress is estimated to cost U.S. industry more than $300 billion a year in absenteeism and medical costs. It increases potentially destructive office politics: In a survey by Roffey Park Management Institute, 49% of respondents reported an increase in political behaviour in the past three years, attributed to the pace of change and competition for limited opportunities.

Change creates feelings of resentment: In a survey by CareerBuilder, about half of layoff survivors say their responsibilities increased. If more pay or recognition doesn't accompany a new workload, employees may resort to absenteeism, negligence or even theft to "keep things fair." Recent shifts in corporate strategy have left many employees confused about the link between their jobs and company objectives, making recovery efforts more difficult for companies.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, people resist change only when it makes them feel out of control–when change is foisted on them without their consent. The belief that it is human nature to resist change is the wrong starting point, because it creates an adversarial climate.

People are willing to change if they understand and accept the reasons, and have a say in the way their jobs are restructured. Behavioural change is most likely to occur when organisations connect with human nature rather than oppose it. A growing body of evidence suggests that much of the mechanistic organisational model antagonizes human nature. At best, people comply reluctantly and, at worst, actively resist management initiatives, covertly and overtly. Either outcome amounts to wasted time and resources, because a management that is misaligned with human nature requires expensive controls to police its employees' behaviour.

Global Crackdown

The financial services industry offers some illustrative examples of wide-scale change initiatives where a culture change is crucial. The industry is under intense pressure to change the way it does business globally. In the United States, the stream of regulation to re-establish public trust and counter terrorism continues. In the European Union (EU), regulation now requires all EU-listed companies to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by 2005.

In Britain, a succession of pension and investment mis-selling scandals has resulted in strict consumer protection regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). These requirements are forcing financial services firms to restructure their international operations on multiple fronts, concurrently: corporate governance, separation of investment banking from research, sales practices, anti-money laundering, whistleblowing and document retention.

Regulatory watchdogs in most Western nations are adopting a tough new stance to ensure compliance with new regulations, promising to "rattle teeth fillings," as one regulator put it. According to management experts, most compliance program failures can be attributed to behavioural risk: failure by staff in the trenches to actually implement the policies and procedures mandated by management. Regulators are growing more knowledgeable than organisations themselves in defining the types of management mechanisms that need to be in place to change their employees' behaviour.

In statements of requirements, regulators now detail what training programs and staff competency levels are needed to ensure people are actually doing the right things on the job, in addition to the usual policies, procedures and systems that need to be in place. In the past, regulators were satisfied if policy manuals contained the appropriate information. Today, regulators ask probing questions and demand hard evidence that proves employees are really following the new rules.

For example, in Britain, the financial services industry has been reprimanded for misinforming investors about the true risks of savings products sold in the past to cover mortgages, appearing to guarantee returns that cannot now be delivered. The FSA is threatening to take salespeople off the road if they don't comply with new consumer protection rules. To ensure compliance, regulators are asking company management detailed, nuts-and-bolts questions: How do you make sure your new sales recruits understand why they must follow the new rules? How do you monitor their attendance at training sessions? How do you monitor their conduct to make sure they're actually following the rules during sales calls?

The right starting point is for management to ask some fundamental questions about the root causes of the problem: Why aren't our people doing what they're meant to be doing to manage risk properly? What incentives are needed to motivate them? What knowledge do they lack and how can we provide job-specific, meaningful information? Since good risk management requires judgment, what skills do our people need to develop to make the best decisions?

Once the answers to these questions are obtained, a focused training program with the right rewards and punishments can be deployed to change on-the-job behaviour with greater speed and accuracy. In the financial services sector and other highly regulated or troubled industries, companies don't have the luxury of time to tinker with the high-profile changes needed to transform their businesses.

Walk the Talk

Most companies say their most important assets are their people, but few behave as if this were true. Change projects typically devote the lion's share of their budgets to technology and processes, not staff issues. "There is still a whole notion…of focusing on tangible assets and their impact on the bottom line, rather than the intangible assets, which are people," says David Brown, a human resources consultant at Hewitt Associates. "One question we ask organisations is what they are spending on their human assets and what return are they getting, and it is not uncommon to get a blank look in return."

As in any other business endeavour, strong leadership and good communications are essential. Recognizing change as a continuous process means change management is an ongoing feature of the leader's job. But a frequently overlooked component is human resources (HR) management. HR is typically regarded as an administrative area, rather than strategic, and is rarely involved in a change project's leadership. Yet offering the right incentives to link corporate goals to individual career objectives is a critical success factor.

What motivates people is an individual matter and needs to be addressed at this level. A recent survey by training specialists Discovery Learning shows that people react differently to change, and can be classified in four broad categories. Originators welcome dramatic change; conservers prefer gradual change; pragmatists are most enthusiastic about change that will address current problems—and resisters dislike all change. "Americans are attracted to innovation, so we think being an originator is best.

"But it takes all of these personality types to build a successful business," says Dr. Chris Musselwhite, the survey developer. "Conservers at Enron tried to warn of problems, but the leadership culture was apparently skewed so much toward originators charged with "reinventing business" that conservers were viewed as resisters and were either silenced or ignored." Similarly, the way people learn new things is also individualistic. Training programs that require speedy results need to be designed to accommodate the human need for context and relevance.

The usual approach to rapid training—taking employees off-site for intensive training—is in fact misguided. Such courses tend to work against human nature, since they are typically an attempt to impart all the knowledge needed to all staff in one fell swoop, with little attempt to tailor it to a specific individual's job or learning style.

Work-force flexibility—developing multifunctional workers who can adapt to a range of job requirements—is the centerpiece of many businesses that are trying to transform themselves to survive in the real economy. Few business leaders are daunted by the idea of changing their organisation's technology or processes, but many wring their hands in despair at the prospect of changing their people's behaviour. But changing human behaviour is in fact more science than art. An increasing body of evidence shows that the process of organisational change has defined parameters that suggest what works and what doesn't.

The overall process may be defined, but the elements needed to motivate a specific person are variable. A one-size-fits-all solution won't work when the fundamental issue to be addressed is that people have individual needs, wants and concerns. Human behaviour can be pushed and pulled in the right direction with an effective combination of incentives and disincentives—if the desire for change is created in the individual. Constant upheavals in the business environment mean that leaders must learn to master the process of implementing change, just as their employees must learn to accommodate change.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark Dawson has almost 20 years experience within PricewaterhouseCoopers working with clients throughout the UK, North and South America, across Europe, Russia and Africa Since 2002, he has led the firm's 400 people UK risk management and process improvement advisory business for the consumer, industrial products and service industries. In this role, he ensures that we integrate our process, technology and people specialisms at the point of delivery, and leads a number of our largest client accounts.

Prior to this role , Mark led the firm's "Transform" business, a 200 strong global team specialising in helping businesses change behaviour to deliver change in business performance. Change management and communications, training and knowledge management services formed the basis of the team's client consulting.

Mark is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Organisational Behaviour from London University. He has a First Class honours degree in History.

Mark Jones has worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) since 1984 in various countries throughout the world including Australia, the UK, the USA and Netherlands. He has been involved in managing change and learning for PwC and our clients since 1988 and has been running the Behavioural Transformation practice in the Netherlands since 2000.

His primary focus is enabling companies to plan and determine their readiness to change their organisation. Further he is actively involved in developing, designing, deploying and evaluating business driven learning solutions for (inter) national clients.

Mark is a graduate in Economics from the University of Sydney, a qualified Chartered Accountant and a member of the ASTD as well as the Dutch equivalent.
""; 9:37 AM
Emerald. said...: "" The legal structure of a partnership is very different to that of a company, and as such the global firm is in fact a collection of member firms, that are run autonomously in their respective jurisdictions. The senior partners of member firms sit on a global board of partners and there is also an 'umbrella' organisation called PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, a UK -based company which provides co-ordination. The current global CEO is Samuel DiPiazza, a 52 year old partner of the former Coopers & Lybrand.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has up to six service lines in major countries:

Audit and Assurance,
Tax, (planning and compliance with local tax laws, transfer pricing)
Advisory and Consulting which covers Performance Improvement, Transactions and M&A and Crisis Management in a range of specialist areas such as accountancy and actuarial advisory.
PwC's service lines face the market in each country by broad industry specializations such as:

Consumer and Industrial Products and Service (CIPS)
Financial Services (FS),
Energy, Utilities and Mining,
Technology, Information, Communications and Entertainment (TICE).
These sub-divisions may vary slightly in some territories.

The firm also has in-house human resource services, and a network of correspondent law firms known as Landwell Global (some of the member firms of which now use the PwC name).

""; 9:40 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Europe and North America account for about 82% of PwC's annual revenue, with Europe alone accounting for 45%. The firm's dominant practice is Audit & Assurance, which accounts for over 50% of PwC's revenue.

As of March 2005, PricewaterhouseCoopers' audit clients included four of the 10 largest public companies in the United States (ExxonMobil, Ford Motor Company, ChevronTexaco and IBM). PwC also audits four of the 10 largest companies in the United Kingdom (GlaxoSmithKline, Royal Dutch Shell, Barclays and Lloyds TSB).

PwC's other large clients include American International Group, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Tesco, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Unilever, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the last to tabulate votes for the annual Academy Awards.

PwC also has the unique distinction of having been (in various incarnations) the tabulator and certifier of votes for the Academy Awards since 1934.

PwC audits 37 per cent of companies in the FTSE 100 Index; 22 per cent of those in the FT Asia Pacific 100 and 43 per cent of the Fortune 1000.[citation needed

""; 9:41 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Because its major asset is the expertise of its personnel, the firm has a competitive recruiting program. PricewaterhouseCoopers is one of the top 10 companies for working mothers in 2004 according to Working Mother Media. PricewaterhouseCoopers was also recently included in Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list, coming it at number 71 in 2006. According to statistics compiled by the firm from third party sources, PwC ranks in as the number 1 employer of choice among the Big 4 in student recruiting surveys from 12 countries including China, Germany, United Kingdom and the United States [3].

Not all its staff can (nor want to) become partners in the firm, and so many leave after gaining experience. Consequently PwC is effectively a large training organisation for accountants and its alumni can be found all over the world.

[edit]
Consulting activities

Screenshot of the PwC Consulting webpage indicating the IBM mergerThough the firm's core business is audit, it had created a large professional consulting branch, as did other major accountancy firms, generating about 35% of its fees. Management Consulting Services (MCS) was the fastest growing and often most profitable area of the practice, though it was cyclical. The major cause for growth in the Nineties was the implementation of complex integrated ERP systems such as SAP R/3 for multi-national companies.

However PwC came under increasing pressure to avoid conflicts of interests by not providing consulting services to its audit clients. Since it audited a large proportion of the world's largest companies, this was beginning to limit its potential market. These conflicts were going to increase when additional services such as the outsourcing of ERP systems were offered. For these reasons, in 2000, Ernst & Young was the first of the Big Four to sell its consulting services, to Capgemini.

PwC therefore planned to capitalize on MCS's rapid growth through its sale to Hewlett Packard (for a reported $17 billion) but negotiations broke down in 2000. PwC announced in May 2002 that its consulting activities would be spun off as an independent entity. An outside consultancy, Wolf Olins, was hired to create a brand image for the new entity, called "Monday". The firm's CEO, Greg Brenneman described the unusual name as "a real word, concise, recognisable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results."[3] These plans were soon revised, however. In October 2002 PricewaterhouseCoopers sold the consultancy business to IBM for approximately $3.9 billion in cash and stock.

Today, PwC brands its remaining consulting activities as Advisory Services, directed globally by Alec Jones in PwC London. Advisory services are organized by country and by industry sector. PwC also has developed several broader consulting initiatives in the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework, including a global effort to assist corporations with outsourcing, as well as a global political risk assessment and risk management service with the political risk advisory firm Eurasia Group.

Advisory services offered by PwC also include two actuarial consultancy departments; "Actuarial and Insurance Management Solutions" (AIMS) and a sub branch of "Human Resource Services" (HRS). Actuarial covers mainly 4 areas: pensions, life insurance, non-life insurance and investments. AIMS deals with life and non-life insurance and investments while HRS deals mainly with pensions. The actuarial functions supplied by PwC include advice to the PwC accountants on insurance company financial reporting, advising buyers and targets on (mainly insurance ) M&A's and financial modelling.

PwC serves the U.S. federal government through their Washington Federal Practice (WFP). PwC has over 2000 professionals based in the Washington Metro Corridor. WFP’s mission is to become the U.S. Federal Government’s preferred provider of advisory and assurance services. PwC WFP helps government agencies solve complex business issues, manage risk and add value to performance through their comprehensive service offerings in financial management, program management, operations improvement, and security and data management
""; 9:42 AM
Emerald. said...: ""
'Fresh thinking...'

Audit firm PwC has said its consulting arm, earmarked for a demerger later this summer, is to be re-named 'Monday.'
The demerger and name change, overseen by branding consultants Wolf Olins, is expected to cost about $110m (£75m).

a real word, concise, recognisable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results

PwC chief executive

The company's new name is intended to denote fresh thinking and new beginnings, rather than the unwelcome start of the working week after two days of freedom.

"Sharpen your pencil, iron your crispy white shirts, set the alarm clock, relish the challenge, listen, be fulfilled, make an impact, take a risk," runs a PwC slogan designed to publicise the new name.

Corporate christening

Greg Brenneman, chief executive of PwC's consulting arm, described the new tag as "a real word, concise, recognisable, global and the right fit for a company that works hard to deliver results."

PwC is the latest in a long line of companies to launch an expensive re-branding exercise to mark a new phase in their development.

Rival audit firm Andersen's consulting arm renamed itself Accenture when it split from its parent company two years ago.

And in the UK, the Post Office adopted the new name Consignia to underline its re-birth as a semi-independent mail operator.

Consignia is now thought likely to ditch its new name in favour of the more recognisable 'Royal Mail'.

Enron fall-out

PwC decided to spin off its consulting arm, previously known simply as 'PwC Consulting,' earlier this year in order to protect its reputation in the wake of the Enron scandal.

The collapse of Enron has focused attention on whether auditors can be sufficiently independent of their clients if their in-house consultants were providing those same clients with costly advice.

Enron's auditor, Andersen, which also earned lucrative consultancy fees from the energy giant, failed to spot accounting irregularities in the company's books.

Its subsequent bankruptcy, the biggest in US corporate history, left investors nursing heavy losses and wiped out many employees' retirement savings.

US regulators have introduced new rules to force clearer disclosure of fees received by the consultancy arms of accounting firms.

Most of the other global accounting firms have also separated their consulting arms from their audit divisions in an attempt to restore confidence in audited financial statements.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What does "Monday" mean to you? A fresh start or Monday blues? And is it a good name for a company?

As a PwC employee in London, I can only say that we've had hysterics in our office this (Monday) morning. This is out of the blue to us as well!
Nick, UK

The word on the street is that the PwC board called their creatives last Friday. "Have you come up with a name yet?" they asked. "Probably Monday" said their contact.
Stampini, UK

This rebranding was supposed to produce a globally meaningful identity. Obviously PwC's view of global only extends as far as the western, English speaking world. "Monday" is global in neither a linguistical, nor cultural sense - apologies to the Middle East, where we would be better off being called Saturday.

At least this renaming has prompted hilarity, and maybe it will also mean we only have to work on one day a week from now on!
Sarah, PwC Employee, UK

The name reminds me a bit of 'marchfirst' a similar rebranding of a consulting company. marchfirst is no more, so the omens of naming yourself after part of the calendar is not good. Funny how new names come in cycles, I guess this is the new fashion after meaningless but boring latin derived names which end in 'a' 'ia' or 'ure'.
Dylan Hayes, UK

£75 mil down the drain on a silly stupid name when they will be sacking a third of the workforce this Friday in redundancies and have announced there will be no pay rises this year. It all makes total sense and it great for staff morale. Another example of how 'out of touch' our leaders are. And I dont like coffee and doughnuts anyway. ..It's just another MANIC MONDAY...whoooaaa
UK PwC Consultant, UK

At first I thought it was a joke, but I now realise that I will actually have to say "I work for Monday" when asked. I would love to have been at the presentation when Wolf Olins unveiled their radical "new" name. How can senior management be so out of touch?
PwC Employee, UK

MONDAY is bad enough! But wait till you see who has web presence on www.tuesday.com, www.wednesday.com etc!

Looks like PWC weren't alone in this branding exercise
Paul, UK

I think it's brave, different and arresting. At the very least people are 'talking' about it - how many rebrands go totally unnoticed these days?
Matt, UK

Will there be 2 divisions - one called Monday AM and the other Monday PM ?
Sankar, USA

...and they haven't checked monday.fr; monday.de; monday.it all of which are in use. And has no-one in the UK told them about the right-wing connotations of The Monday Club?
Another employee, UK

Thank heavens I'm not in the consulting arm - even so, this is humiliating. Senior management are so upbeat about this nonsensical name, and are so out of touch with every member of 50 or so PwC staff I've talked to so far today.
DM, UK

I might work for Monday, but I live for Friday!
Garry, UK

A quick straw poll in the office reveals that most peoples' opinion is not 'a fresh start, a positive attitude', but "I hate Monday". But that fits with their opinion of management consultants too.
gordon, UK

Its great, we won't have to ridicule our competitors for free any longer - they're paying others to do it for them.
Competitor without a silly name, UK

From an internal communication:
We set out to identify a distinctive, memorable name, one that would stand out from the consulting "crowd". We wanted it short, global, a real word (not a contrived, made-up moniker), and we believe we've succeeded.

Finally, as we mentioned earlier, getting used to our new name and infusing it with new associations and attributes will be a process. It will be up to all of us to make our new name stand out from the crowd; to make it a name we can all be proud of. And you'll know when we've achieved this by the look of recognition and respect you get when you say: "I work at Monday."

Need we say more?
Another PwC employee, Docklands

Will this start a trend of naming companies after days of the week, or even months of the year? When will Mckinseys become Saturday, or Accenture July?
John, Spain

I would have thought a more recognisable derivative of PriceWaterhouseCoopers would have been more apt......like 'Poopers'! It can't be any worse than Monday
Geoff, UK

... and we thought Consignia was daft! "Monday" is so appallingly, awe-inspiringly dreadful, that PwC'll probably never be heard of again (except in joke asides referring to Consignia's own goal). Give me strength!
John Fox, Salford, England

Let's see if the Chief Executive of PwC has got the guts to admit he's got this one wrong before he wastes a lot more money on it. Monday is synonymous in most people's minds with the depressing thought of having to go back to work after the weekend.
Brad, UK

I think that Wolf Olins have done PwC consulting a big favour. They've given them a name that is, let's face it, nuetral (despite the rhetoric raised by the antis and the pros), but memorable. It's also miles apart from either mock latin or a 'legacy' name. To have found such a simple, recognisable name that's usable across the world, and available in multiple markets, is quite impressive. I'm surprised that the PwC employees that have replied have been so against the name - they should know that no-one likes organisational change, at least at first. They knew that change was inevitable. I'm sure that once the dust settles, that PwC people will grow to like the name, and already people outside the business will be aware of who Monday are.
Chris, UK

I read all your comments, the humor, the dismay and so on. But, without being offensive, a name has been created that you are all talking about and you know where "Monday" came from and what they represent - The connection is easy. I think Andersen Consulting is now called Accenture but I am not sure - and I work in the financial/business sector!
Andy, United Kingdom

I wonder if this means I should change my name to PwC Consulting, or just stick with my name as now have a supply personalised mouse mats.
Simon Monday, UK

Quite stunning in it's brilliant incompetance. What on earth are they thinking of - hot doughnuts and coffee ? Not only is the name poor, the associated brand image they are trying to conjour is nothing short of bad. I am so glad I am staying with the non-consulting arm of the firm.
Derek Grebe, England

I've got Friday on my mind.....
Colin, UK

And when the pressure is on one of their consultants, it will be 'just another manic monday'
Andy, UK

Does this mean that we can take out a class action suit for flagrant disrespect for the calendar?
nick, uk

Monday, Monday, can't trust that day Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way Oh Monday mornin' you gave me no warnin' of what was to be Oh Monday, Monday, how could you leave and not take me
GMG, UK

If this is the result of the sum of the creative minds at PwC, would you really want to trust them with your business?
Paul Reed, U.S.

Just think how difficult this will make it to find references for them on the Internet. There must be billions of Mondays on web pages - and PwC claim to be experts in IT consulting!
Ken, UK

There are around 18,300,000 results for Monday from Google including Monday Magazine, etc, etc I think someone got there first!
Ian, London

Good effort. It's better than the current crop of boring monikers such as Consignia, Novartis and Accenture. Any brand name/advertising/logo that's either loved or hated passionately can only garner more publicity. I bet the narrow-minded luddites who are knocking it once hated Orange, Goldfish, Chicken Tonight, PowWow and other fine, memorable names.
Steve, UK

And the receptionist on a Friday morning... "Hello, its Monday, how may I help you?"
Tim, Finland

I don't think that this name will be around too long. How can you take a company called "Monday" seriously? To say it is a stupid name would be a major understatement.
Paul C, N Ireland

Well it's a lot easier to say and write than PricewaterhouseCoopers!
Dawn, England

Imagine how I feel, having to work for the company. I used to be proud to work for PricewaterhouseCoopers and quite frankly I am now rather embarrassed. "Good Morning Monday, how can I help you" - doesn't really work does it?
Jo, UK

Biggest laugh I've had for ages. It really cheered up my Monday morning. Another nail in the coffin of the 'big boys'and brand 'makeovers'. Weren't Olins responsible for British Airways too?

Did they do ANY focus group testing before letting this one out?
Jane Harrad-Roberts, Marketing Projects, UK

Good to see all the PWC employees contributing - I hope their clients aren't picking up the cost of their time here.
Martin, uk

If Monday cost this much, how much is the rest of the week!!!

I am going to change the name of our company to Tuesday as we always go in to fix the mess created by Monday.
Keefer Evans, England

Nice use of money, considering that they are sacking a substantial proportion of the workforce on Friday
June, UK

They could have called it "Monkey" instead and picked up some of the brand equity from ITV Digital!
William, UK

This is too embarrasing - What will our clients say! - "Oh, Monday is coming next Monday", or "Linda, Please cancel my meeting Monday, with Monday". This can not be true. I am really looking forward to using my business cards...
PwC employee, Denmark

Well, it seems to be doing quite well - look how much free publicity it's got already!
Charlotte, England

Once the jokes have worn off there is little substance in this brand name. "I need this done by Monday" does not have the same ring to it as "This must be done by Friday". "I can absolutely guarantee that the job will be finished by Monday". "It's the groundhog day effect - these projects never get past day one". Monday is about starting, not finishing.
Richard, UK

I think it is an awful name, lacks creation and does not give PWC that something extra that it should be looking for. I think its a name that will be laughed at!
Serju Shah, England

Wow! That must have been a long branding meeting. Hopefully, they will stick a TradeMark (TM) sign at the end and 'MONDAY' will disappear from timesheets all around the world.
Jason Le, UK

After a PW office sweepstake of 30 people agreed on Coopers Price Waterhouse as the name (See PW), and a marketing guru was paid for PwC, this is hardly a surprise. Lack of cultural considerations also clear based on failure to consider immediate link to Sir Bob.
PwC escapee

How many PWC consultants does it take to tell you the first day of the week!!!
Ben, UK

This is truly the most ridiculous thing I have heard of this year. And what's worse some marketing guru has been paid millions for this creation.

Just how many clients look forward to Monday when they are invoiced for another week of astronomical consultants fees, and how many PwC Consultants look forward to Monday and the 60+ hours at work they face before they make it to the weekend?! Truly Amazing.
Helen Simpson, New Zealand

Bob Geldoff will be happy
mike, UK

We have PWC consultants in our workplace - Shall we start calling them the "Happy Mondays ?"

Another example of senior management making a silly decision - remember the story of the Emperor's new clothes ? Why didn't someone say something ?
Tom, London

Tell me why I don't like Mondays...
PWC employee,

Ever heard the one about the definition of a consultant? Someone who borrows your watch in order to sell you the time? Not satisfied with that, PwC have now gone one step further and will also sell you the days of the week as well.
Chris, Essex, England
""; 9:44 AM
Emerald. said...: "" Administrative departments and services are grouped together in Divisions.

Academic Planning and Support Division
Campus Services Division
Corporate Communications Division
Development and Alumni Office
Estates Division
Finance Office
Human Resources Division
IT Services Division
Learning and Teaching Division
Library and Collections Division
Other University Services
Research and Enterprise ""; 10:14 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Dissertation Government and the Economy
Economic Analysis Housing Economics
Economics of Business International Trade and Finance
Economics of Industry Introduction to Econometrics
Economics of Natural Resources
and the Environment The Age and Ideas of Adam Smith
Economic Problems of Developing Countries Topics in Macroeconomics
Financial Economics and Financial Institutions Welfare Economics and Public Policy

)); 10:18 AM
Emerald. said...: <<< >>> >>>

>>>

...

"..."

"..."; 10:19 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Dissertation Government and the Economy
Economic Analysis Housing Economics
Economics of Business International Trade and Finance
Economics of Industry Introduction to Econometrics
Economics of Natural Resources
and the Environment The Age and Ideas of Adam Smith
Economic Problems of Developing Countries Topics in Macroeconomics
Financial Economics and Financial Institutions Welfare Economics and Public Policy

)); 10:19 AM
Emerald. said...: (( Ingetogen... Bevlogen...; 10:19 AM
Emerald. said...: "" January 15, 2006
January 22, 2006
January 29, 2006
February 05, 2006
February 12, 2006
February 19, 2006
February 26, 2006
March 05, 2006
March 12, 2006
March 19, 2006
March 26, 2006
April 02, 2006
April 09, 2006
April 16, 2006
April 23, 2006
April 30, 2006
May 07, 2006
May 14, 2006
May 21, 2006
May 28, 2006
June 04, 2006
June 11, 2006
June 18, 2006
June 25, 2006
July 02, 2006
July 09, 2006
July 16, 2006
July 23, 2006
July 30, 2006
August 06, 2006
August 13, 2006
August 20, 2006
August 27, 2006
September 03, 2006
September 10, 2006
September 17, 2006
September 24, 2006
October 01, 2006
October 08, 2006
Current Posts ""; 10:26 AM
Emerald. said...: (( << 1...86878889; 10:31 AM
Emerald. said...: << 1...15161718 >>; 10:33 AM
Emerald. said...: << 12345 >>; 10:33 AM
Emerald. said...: << 1 2 3 4 5 6 ... 24 >> 24; 10:57 AM
Emerald. said...: <<< >>> >>>

...; 11:38 AM
Emerald. said...: "" A language family is a group of genetically related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. Most languages are known to belong to language families. An accurately identified family is a phylogenetic unit; that is, all its members derive from a common ancestor. The concept of language families thus entails the concept of a historical genetic ancestor of a language, implying a gradual evolution over time of one language into another language (as opposed to sudden replacement of a language). The concept of linguistic ancestry is less clear-cut than the concept of biological ancestry, as in cases of extreme historical language contact, in particular the formation of creole languages and other types of mixed languages; it may be unclear which language should be considered the ancestor of a given language. However, these types of cases are relatively rare and most languages can be unambiguously classified into families.

The common ancestor of a language family is seldom known directly, since most languages have a relatively short recorded history. However, it is possible to recover many of features of the proto-language by applying the comparative method — a reconstructive procedure worked out by 19th century linguist August Schleicher. This can demonstrate the validity of many of the proposed families listed below.

Language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family, because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. However, the term family is not restricted to any one level of this "tree"; the Germanic family, for example, is a branch of the Indo-European family. Some taxonomists restrict the term family to a certain level, but there is little consensus in how to do so. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, and groups into complexes. The terms superfamily, phylum, and stock are applied to proposed groupings of language families whose status as phylogenetic units is generally considered to be unsubstantiated by accepted historical linguistic methods.

The common ancestor of the languages belonging to a language family is known as its proto-language. For example, the reconstructible proto-language of the Indo-European language family is called Proto-Indo-European. Proto-Indo-European is not attested by written records, since it was spoken before the invention of writing, but sometimes a proto-language can be identified with a historically known language. Thus, provincial dialects of Latin ("Vulgar Latin") gave rise to the modern Romance languages, so the Proto-Romance language is more or less identical with Latin (if not exactly with the literary Latin of the Classical writers), and dialects of Old Norse are the proto-language of Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Faroese and Icelandic.

Languages that cannot be reliably classified into any family are known as language isolates. A language isolated in its own branch within a family, such as Greek within Indo-European, is often also called an isolate, but such cases are usually clarified. For instance, Greek might be referred to as an Indo-European isolate. This modern isolate however is not reflected in its own history, because Greek results from the evolution from within the larger Indo-European language. On the opposite, the Basque language is a living modern language and a near perfect isolate, whose history and lexical/phonetic/syntaxic structure and history is not known and not easily associated to other languages (even if it has been influenced by Romance languages in the nearby region, like Castillan Spanish, Catalan, Occitan, and French).""; 11:46 AM
Emerald. said...: ""
Writing systems: abjads | alphabets | syllabic alphabets | syllabaries | complex scripts
undeciphered scripts | alternative scripts | your con-scripts | A-Z index | Direction index
What is writing?
There are a number of different ways to describe writing and writing systems.

In The World's Writing Systems, Peter T. Daniels defines writing as:

a system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer.
In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writings Systems, Florian Coulmas defines a writing system as:

a set of visible or tactile signs used to represent units of language in a systematic way, with the purpose of recording messages which can be retrieved by everyone who knows the language in question and the rules by virtue of which its units are encoded in the writing system.
All writing systems use visible signs with the exception of the raised notation systems used by blind and visually impaired people, such as Braille and Moon. Hence the need to include tactile signs in the above definition.

In A History of Writing, Steven Roger Fischer argues that no one definition of writing can cover all the writing systems that exist and have ever existed. Instead he states that a 'complete writing' system should fullfill all the following criteria:

Complete writing must have as its purpose communication;
Complete writing must consist of artificial graphic marks on a durable or electronic surface;
Complete writing must use marks that relate conventionally to articulate speech (the systematic arrangement of significant vocal sounds) or electronic programing in such a way that communication is achieved.
Writing systems are both functional, providing a visual way to represent language, and also symbolic, in that they represent cultures and peoples. In The writing systems of the world, Florian Coulmas describes them as follows:

As the most visible items of a language, scripts and orthographies are 'emotionally loaded', indicating as they do group loyalties and identities. Rather than being mere instruments of a practical nature, they are symbolic systems of great social significance which may, moreover, have profound effect on the social structure of a speech community. ""; 12:00 PM
Emerald. said...: (( Levelled...

Facts and figures
You can download the annual report 2004 of Utrecht University (pdf-reader required, 202 kB) or the annual report 2003 of Utrecht University (pdf-reader required, 267 kb). The annual report 2005 is only available in Dutch.

Key figures

28,000 students, of which 2,000 international students
222 academic programmes: 47 Bachelor’s programmes,* 175 Master’s programmes,* and 18
teacher-training programmes
6,500 members of staff (Medicine excluded)
640 professors and 275 professors by special appointment
400 PhDs granted
7,500 Academic publications
€650m budget
57 research schools in which UU participates
26 research schools of which UU is the coordinating university
8 faculties

(*) including medicine and veterinary medicine; 12:15 PM
Emerald. said...: (( M... is voor... Motivatie...; 12:15 PM
Emerald. said...: ""Waterrr... bij de Wijn...

(( Prof. Dr. René Hoksbergen, emeritus hoogleraar adoptie, heeft een cursus ontwikkeld die handelt over de bijzondere taken van adoptieouders. De cursus is bestemd voor (toekomstige) adoptieouders, volwassen geadopteerden, hulpverleners en kaderleden van adoptie- en jeugdhulpverleners instanties, alsmede voor onderwijsgevenden.

Tijdens de zes bijeenkomsten wordt ingegaan op de aard en aanpak van mogelijke psychosociale problemen van adoptiekinderen in de verschillende fasen van hun leven. Aan de orde komen onderwerpen als: aanpassingsproblemen, hechtingsstoornissen, autisme, ADHD, Post Traumatische Stress Reactie, identiteitsproblemen, de worsteling met de loyaliteit tijdens de adolescentie, de effecten van deprivatie en verwaarlozing en de belasting die hieruit voortvloeit voor de ouders, schoolproblemen, speurtocht naar de roots. Tevens is er aandacht voor de kansen die adoptie aan kinderen biedt.

Werkwijze: informatieverstrekking met behulp van literatuur, video’s, overhead projector, discussie en aanbevelingen. Mogelijk komt ook een ervaringsdeskundige (volwassen geadopteerde) over de rootsproblematiek aan het woord. De eigen ervaringen, zowel van ouders als hulpverleners, kunnen in de discussies ruimschoots aan bod komen.

De gebruikte tekst op overhead sheets wordt elke avond ter beschikking gesteld.; 12:21 PM
Emerald. said...: "" Oblomov (first published: 1858) is the best known novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov. Oblomov is also the central character of the novel, often seen as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a stereotypical character in 19th-century Russian literature. Oblomov was compared to Shakespeare's Hamlet as answering 'No!' to the question "To be or not to be?". Oblomov is a young, generous nobleman who seems incapable of making important decisions or undertaking any significant actions. Throughout the novel he rarely leaves his room or bed and famously fails to leave his bed for the first 150 pages of the novel. The book was considered a satire of Russian nobility whose social and economic function was increasingly in question in mid-nineteenth century Russia.

The novel was wildly popular when it came out in Russia and a number of its characters and devices have had an imprint on Russian culture and language. Oblomov has become a Russian word used to describe someone who exhibits the personality traits of sloth or inertia similar to the novel's main character.

Oblomovka is a word that appears in the English translation of the novel. It seems to refer to an imaginary place in which people like Oblomov might live.

Contents [hide]
1 The Novel
2 Plot summary
3 Influence
4 Screen adaptations
5 External links

[edit]
The Novel

Cover drawing from the 1858 Russian edition[edit]
Plot summary
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
The novel focuses on a midlife crisis for the main character, an upper middle class son of a member of Russia's nineteenth century merchant class. Oblomov's most distinguishing characteristic is his slothful attitude towards life. While a common negative characteristic, Oblomov raises this trait to an art form, conducting his little daily business apathetically from his bed. While clearly comedic, the novel also seriously examines many critical issues that faced Russian society in the nineteenth century. Some of these problems included the uselessness of landowners and gentry in a feudal society that did not encourage innovation or reform, the complex relations between members of different classes of society such as Oblomov's relationship with his servant Zakhar, and courtship and matrimony by the elite.

An excerpt from Oblomov's morning (from the beginning of the novel):

Therefore he did as he had decided; and when the tea had been consumed he raised himself upon his elbow and arrived within an ace of getting out of bed. In fact, glancing at his slippers, he even began to extend a foot in their direction, but presently withdrew it.
Half-past ten struck, and Oblomov gave himself a shake. "What is the matter?," he said vexedly. "In all conscience 'tis time that I were doing something! Would I could make up my mind to--to--" He broke off with a shout of "Zakhar!" whereupon there entered an elderly man in a grey suit and brass buttons--a man who sported beneath a perfectly bald pate a pair of long, bushy, grizzled whiskers that would have sufficed to fit out three ordinary men with beards. His clothes, it is true, were cut according to a country pattern, but he cherished them as a faint reminder of his former livery, as the one surviving token of the dignity of the house of Oblomov. The house of Oblomov was one which had once been wealthy and distinguished, but which, of late years, had undergone impoverishment and diminution, until finally it had become lost among a crowd of noble houses of more recent creation.
For a few moments Oblomov remained too plunged in thought to notice Zakhar's presence; but at length the valet coughed.
"What do you want?" Oblomov inquired.
"You called me just now, barin?"
"I called you, you say? Well, I cannot remember why I did so. Return to your room until I have remembered."
Oblomov spends the first part of the book in bed or lying on his sofa. He receives a letter from the manager of his country estate explaining that the financial situation is deteriorating and that he must visit the estate to make some major decisions, but Oblomov can barely leave his bedroom, much less journey a thousand miles into the country.

A flashback reveals a good deal of why Oblomov is so slothful; the reader sees Oblomov's upbringing in the country village of Oblomovka. He is spoiled rotten and never required to work or perform household duties, and he is constantly pulled from school for vacations and trips or for trivial reasons. In contrast, his friend Andrey Stoltz, born to a German father and a Russian mother, is raised in a strict, disciplined environment, reflecting Goncharov's own view of the European mentality as dedicated and hard-working.

As the story develops, Stoltz introduces Oblomov to a young woman, Olga, and the two fall in love. However, his apathy and fear of moving forward are too great, and she calls off their engagement when it is clear that he will keep delaying their wedding to avoid having to take basic steps like putting his affairs in order.

"Shall I tell you what you would have done had we married?" at length she said. "Day by day you would have relapsed farther and farther into your slough. And I? You see what I am--that I am not yet grown old, and that I shall never cease to live. But you would have taken to waiting for Christmas, and then for Shrovetide, and to attending evening parties, and to dancing, and to thinking of nothing at all. You would have retired to rest each night with a sigh of thankfulness that the day had passed so quickly; and each morning you would have awakened with a prayer that to-day might be exactly as yesterday. That would have been our future. Is it not so? Meanwhile I should have been fading away. Do you really think that in such a life you would have been happy?"
He tried to rise and leave the room, but his feet refused their office. He tried to say something, but his throat seemed dry, and no sound would come. All he could do was to stretch out his hand.
"Forgive me!" he murmured.
She too tried to speak, but could not. She too tried to extend her hand, but it fell back. Finally, her face contracted painfully, and, sinking forward upon his shoulder, she burst into a storm of sobbing. It was as though all her weapons had slipped from her grasp, and once more she was just a woman--a woman defenceless in her fight with sorrow.
"Good-bye, good-bye!" she said amid her spasms of weeping. He sat listening painfully to her sobs, but felt as though he could say nothing to check them. Sinking into a chair, and burying her face in her handkerchief, she wept bitter, burning tears, with her head bowed upon the table.
"Olga," at length he said, "why torture yourself in this way? You love me, and could never survive a parting. Take me, therefore, as I am, and love in me just so much as may be worthy of it."
Without raising her head, she made a gesture of refusal.
During this period, Oblomov is swindled repeatedly by his "friend" Taranteyev and his landlord, and Stoltz has to undo the damage each time. The last time, Oblomov ends up living in penury because Taranteyev and the landlord are blackmailing him out of all of his income from the country estate, which lasts for over a year before Stoltz discovers the situation and reports the landlord to his supervisor.

Olga leaves Russia and visits Paris, where she bumps into Stoltz on the street. The two strike up a romance and end up marrying.

It must be noted, however, that not even Oblomov could go through life without at least one moment of self-possession and purpose. When Taranteyev's behavior at last reaches insufferable lows, Oblomov confronts him, slaps him around a bit and finally kicks him out of the house, in a scene in which all the noble traits that his social class was supposed to symbolize shine through his then worn out being. Oblomov ends up marrying Agafia Pshenitsina, a widow and the sister of Oblomov's crooked landlord. They have a son named Andrey, and when Oblomov dies, his friend Stoltz adopts the boy. Oblomov spends the rest of his life in a second Oblomovka, being taken care of by Agafia Pshenitsina like he used to be as a kid. She can prepare many a succulent meal, and makes sure that Oblomov don't have a single worrisome thought. Sometime before his death he had been visited by Stoltz, who had promised to his wife a last attempt at bringing Oblomov back to the world, but without success. By then Oblomov had already accepted his fate, and during the conversation he mentions "Oblomovitis" as the real cause of his demise. Oblomov's final days are not without melancholy, but then again nobody's final days are supposed to be light affairs. In the end he just slows down as a body and dies sleeping, his old servant then becoming a beggar.

[edit]
Influence
Goncharov's work added new words to the Russian lexicon, including "Oblomovism," a sort of fatalistic laziness that was said to be part of the Russian character. The novel also uses the term "Oblomovitis" to describe the disease that kills Oblomov.

The term Oblomovism appeared in a speech given by V.I. Lenin in 1922, where he says that

Russia has made three revolutions, and still the Oblomovs have remained ... and he must be washed, cleaned, pulled about, and flogged for a long time before any kind of sense will emerge.
[edit]
Screen adaptations

A 1979 film poster for Nikita Mikhalkov's screen version of Oblomov, with Oleg Tabakov in the title role.Oblomov was adapted to the cinema screen in the Soviet Union by Nikita Mikhalkov in 1981 (145 minutes). The Cast and Crew: Actors -- Oleg Tabakov as Oblomov, Andrei Popov as Zakhar, Elena Solovei as Olga and Yuri Bogatyrev as Andrei; cinematography by Pavel Lebechev; screenplay by Mikhailkov and Aleksander Adabashyan; music by Eduard Artemyev; produced by Mosfilm Studio (Moscow).

In 1989 BBC TV made an English language dramatisation of the novel, starring Cheers actor George Wendt in the title role.

In 2005 BBC Radio 4 made a two-part English language dramatisation, heralding the lead character as a tragic-comic hero for a couch potato generation. It was adapted by Stephen Wyatt, produced and directed by Claire Grove and starred Toby Jones as the lead, supported by Trevor Peacock, Claire Skinner, Clive Swift, Gerard McDermott, Nicholas Boulton, and Richenda Carey. Olga's singing voice was provided by Olivia Robinson, with Helen Crayford on piano.

[edit]
External links
Oblomov Public Domain translation from 1915
Oblomov The original Russian text
Full text of Oblomov in the original Russian at Alexei Komarov's Internet Library
Oblomov: A Man of his Time An Essay by Hugh R. Whinfrey, 1991 ""; 12:30 PM
Emerald. said...: << >> 11-10-2006 16:42:41 "Ina" Sicco contemplatief en...
11-10-2006 16:42:43 "Ina" Sicco toch dronken...; 12:37 PM
Emerald. said...: << >>
nou nou ( smelt maar raak!!!
11-10-2006 16:36:08 "Ina" Sicco haha
11-10-2006 16:36:21 Sicco "Ina" melting pot
11-10-2006 16:36:26 Sicco "Ina" tuna melt
11-10-2006 16:36:34 "Ina" Sicco ja...
11-10-2006 16:36:39 Sicco "Ina" associeren
11-10-2006 16:36:40 "Ina" Sicco smelt...
11-10-2006 16:36:42 "Ina" Sicco ja eh
11-10-2006 16:36:47 "Ina" Sicco gek is dat...
11-10-2006 16:36:53 Sicco "Ina" yep
11-10-2006 16:36:55 Sicco "Ina" ja
11-10-2006 16:36:55 "Ina" Sicco op verschillende niveau's denken...
11-10-2006 16:37:01 Sicco "Ina" heel gek
11-10-2006 16:37:08 "Ina" Sicco en dan emoties erbij...
11-10-2006 16:37:23 Sicco "Ina" GEK
11-10-2006 16:37:27 "Ina" Sicco heb ik misschien te lang gedaan... verschillende niveau's tegelijk...
11-10-2006 16:37:33 "Ina" Sicco afleren...
11-10-2006 16:37:42 Sicco "Ina" ja doe s normaal INA
11-10-2006 16:38:22 "Ina" Sicco (R)
11-10-2006 16:38:42 "Ina" Sicco ach ja... normaal...
11-10-2006 16:38:43 Sicco "Ina" 8-|
11-10-2006 16:38:46 Sicco "Ina" nerdo
11-10-2006 16:38:46 "Ina" Sicco normen en waarden...
11-10-2006 16:38:50 "Ina" Sicco LOL
11-10-2006 16:38:54 Sicco "Ina" LOL
11-10-2006 16:39:00 "Ina" Sicco nou ja... anders val ik dus in slaap eh; 12:39 PM
Emerald. said...: (( Social and cultural
Loyalty, one can surmise, began with fellow-feeling for one's family, gene-group and friends. Loyalty comes most naturally amongst small groups or tribes where the prospect of the whole casting out the individual seems like the ultimate, unthinkable rejection.

In a feudal society, centered on personal bonds of mutual obligation, accounting for precise degrees of protection and fellowship can prove difficult. Loyalty in these circumstances can become a matter of extremes: alternative groups may exist, but lack of mobility will foster a personal sense of loyalty.

The rise of states (and later nation states) meant the harnessing of the "loyalty" concept to foster allegiance to the sovereign or established government of one’s country, also personal devotion and reverence to the sovereign and royal family.

Wars of religion and their interminglings with wars of states have seen loyalty used in religious senses too, involving faithful support of a chosen or traditional set of beliefs or of sports representatives. And in modern times marketing has postulated loyalties to abstract concepts such as the brand. Customer churn has become the opposite of loyalty, just as high treason once stood as the opposite of the same idea. Compare loyalty card.

Loyalty is also seen in business in a variety of ways. As governments have grown in size and scope, some people are more loyal to a company rather than to a country. As corporation complexity has grown, people have shifted their loyalties to individuals rather than companies. As those individuals move between companies, they often take other people with them. Stock options are one method devised to keep people loyal to a company.

Donald Trump feels that loyalty is one of the most important characteristics he looks for in an employee.

[edit]
Etymology and semantics
The English word "loyalty" came into use in the early part of the 15th century in the sense of fidelity to one’s oath, or in service, love, etc; the later state-oriented sense appears in the 16th century. The Old French word loialté (modern French loyauté), derives from OFr loial (loyal) and is cognate with Scots leal and Latin legalis (legal, from lex (law)). The word functioned in the special feudal sense of one who has full legal rights, a legalis homo being opposed to the "outlaw". Thence in the sense of "faithful", it meant one who kept faithful allegiance to his feudal lord, and so loyal to the ultimate temporal power.

[edit]
Loyalty and ethics
Plato said that only a man who is just can be loyal, and that loyalty is a condition of genuine philosophy. The philosopher Josiah Royce said it was the supreme moral good, and that one's devotion to an object mattered more than the merits of the object itself.

Lao Tzu's take on loyalty: "When people lost sight of the way to live
Came codes of love and honesty,
Learning came, charity came,
Hypocrisy took charge;
When differences weakened family ties
Came benevolent fathers and dutiful sons;
And when lands were disrupted and misgoverned
Came ministers commended as loyal." from the Witter Bynner translation.

There were many intents to replace loyalty with support of the ruling party, president, king or dictator.

The quotation below allows to avoid the confusion:

"...all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority and instituted for their benefit; and that they have _at all times_ an undeniable and indefeasible right to _alter their form of government_ in such a manner as they may think expedient." Under that gospel, the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth's political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new suit, is disloyal; he is a traitor."

-- by Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [1]; 12:42 PM
Emerald. said...: (( In Geology, volcanos, earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis are all results of similar sudden releases of stored energy, in the crust of earth. The source of this energy is energy transformations in the Earth as a whole. Recent studies suggest that the Earth transforms about 6.18 x 10-12 watts per kilogram. Given the Earth's mass of about 5.97 x 1024 kilograms, this means that the rate of energy transformations inside the Earth is about 37 x 1012 watts per year. From the study of neutrinos radiated from the Earth (see KamLAND), scientists have recently estimated that about 24 terawatts of this energy comes from radioactive decay (principally of potassium 40, thorium 232 and uranium 238), with the remaining 12.9 terawatts coming from energies produced by the continuing gravitational sorting of the core and mantle of the earth, energies left over from the formation of the Earth, about 4.57 billion years ago.

The magnitude of both these forms of energy decline over time, and based on half-life alone, it has been estimated that the current radioactive energy of the planet represents less than 1% of that which was available at the time the planet formed. As a result, geological forces of continental accretion, subduction and sea floor spreading, which release up to 90% of this available energy, were more active in the Archaean and Proterozoic periods than they are today. The remaining 10% of geological tectonic energy comes through hotspots produced by mantle plumes, resulting in shield volcanoes like Hawaii, geyser activity like Yellowstone or flood basalts like Iceland.

Tectonic process, driven by heat from the Earth's interior, metamorphose weathered rocks, and during orogeny periods, lift them up into mountain ranges. The potential energy represented by the mountain range's weight and height thus represents heat from the core of the Earth which has been partly transformed into gravitational potential energy. This potential energy may be suddenly released in landslides or tsunamis. Similarly, the energy release which drives an earthquake represents stresses in rocks that are mechanical potential energy which has been similarly stored from tectonic processes.

The remaining energy which is responsible for the geological processes of erosion and deposition is a result of the interaction of solar energy and gravity. An estimated 23% of the total insolation is used to drive the water cycle. When water vapour condenses to fall as rain, it dissolves small amounts of carbon dioxide, making a weak acid. This acid acting upon the metallic silicates that form most rocks produces chemical weathering, removing the metals, and leading to the production of rocks and sand, carried by wind and water downslope through gravity to be deposited at the edge of continents in the sea. Physical weathering of rocks is produced by the expansion of ice crystals, left by water in the joint planes of rocks. A geologic cycle is continued when these eroded rocks are later uplifted into mountains.; 12:47 PM
Emerald. said...: (( TRADITIONAL LOGIC VERSUS FUZZY THINKING

Julia L. Keefer, Ph.D. Copywright, 1997

Traditional logic was first systematized by Aristotle in Classical Athens, B.C. and has been renewed and developed by Westerners such as Rene Descartes in the French Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and subsequently by British and American logical empiricists. It is still the basis of our judicial system and most academic disciplines. While it is important to have a thorough understanding of traditional logic and be able to detect the logical fallacies of ambiguity, relevance and presumption in your writing and political and media rhetoric, it is now becoming equally valid to study the "fuzzy thinking" which is the basis of much of our global culture.

Bart Kosko, the leading proponent of fuzzy thinking, has degrees in philosophy, economics, mathematics and electrical engineering but even in his book there is a clear-cut thesis that ties all this complex thinking together: to explore the paradigm shift from black and white to gray, from bivalence and binary (either/or) thinking to multivalence, a less simplistic but more accurate way of thinking that responds to life in matters of degree, integrating probability and ambiguity in all modes of operation. (Kosko, Bart. Fuzzy Thinking. New York: Hyperion Press, 1993.) Instead of the Aristotelian A or not-A mode of thinking, fuzzy logic is defined mathematically as including statements that are true to some degree between 0 and 1. What a switch from judges who keep demanding us to answer the question, yes or no, or scientists who say that if a hypothesis cannot produce an experiment with quantifiable results that can be repeated, then it is not true and valid! The history of western thinking shows that most of are scientific "truths" have been proven false or at best, incomplete. For thousands of years, Oriental thinking has embraced the unity of opposites in philosophies such as Buddhism, Taoism and the various Yogas of India. Marx and Mao-Tse-Tung based their dogmas on the law of materialist dialectics in political change. But it was not until Einstein, the quantum mechanics theorists and the physicist Stephen Hawking developed the new physics, that the old Grecian deductive formulas were seriously questioned. Nonlinear physics has had repercussions in hypertext and especially adaptive fuzzy systems in our modern technology such as air conditioners, copy machines, auto parts, televisions, refrigerators, etc.

For some reason the fields of law, religion and classical scientific research are still avoiding or denying this type of thinking. Perhaps the word "fuzzy" is misleading for undergraduates. Gratuitous ambiguity due to laziness is not the goal, but rather an inclusion of degree, probability and ambiguity in the formulation of structures that respond to phenomena. In other words it is harder and more intellectually demanding to engage in fuzzy thinking. Kosko has a thorough understanding of traditional logic and its fallacies as well as all the specific scientific applications of fuzzy thinking. Traditional logic, with all its artificiality, is based on language, but the irony is that the flesh of language is our bodily experience, the cries and sighs and gurgles of needs and wants that slowly grow into more complex sounds that usually connote more than they denote. Nature constantly speaks a language that is homospatial and homotemporal, layered and nonlinear in space and time, and this language still resides in our subconscious world of dreams. While expository writing necessitates so-called logical, grammatically correct sentences that grow into coherent, well-developed paragraphs integrated by a thesis, this type of writing should not exclude the multivalent nature of experience, of our bodies, our dreams and our environments. Clarity in expository writing is important so you must redefine words in the context in which you are using them but it's okay to struggle with solutions, to end with answers and to obfuscate a cause-effect relationship with a provocative "what if?" Centralized television and radio programming still opt for binary, simplistic thinking but the internet confuses and enlightens us with its multivalent nature. The secret of uniting traditional logic and fuzzy thinking, so that we too are not guilty of that either/or fallacy, is in seeing the thread that connects all things. Start to do this by integrating themes in your creative writing with your expository project. How can a dramatic scene help identify some of the central conflicts in your work? What does poetry say about the aesthetics, ambiguity, totality of your experience? How does personal writing help you develop your point of view on an issue? How can fiction create a world that might be a partial solution to a problem?

Another word for uniting opposites is Janusian thinking, the ancient idea that the door opens both ways. If you feel strongly about an issue, find someone who disagrees violently with you, try to see it from that point of view, and then explore some weird and wonderful way of uniting the opposing theories. Fuzzy thinking demands that you increase your options. What are all the possible things or events or conditions that could occur as you explore something? You must use your imagination much more actively than usual. Fuzzy thinking comes from fuzzy math sets in which endless possibilites have been explored. So to unite fuzzy thinking with traditional logic, you need to know more, feel more and think more exhaustively. While random and chance operations are popular in music and poetry, expository writing should not be random and episodic, but rather grow organically like nature with an inclusive logic that makes its own sense of all the wildness.

Fuzzy is also the name of my cat whose curiosity and imaginative antics know no limits as he responds unpredictably to every stimulus in our changing environment.; 12:57 PM
Emerald. said...: (( Fuzzy Engineering
Fuzzy Thinking is not just a philosophical approach to concepts, leading to abstract ideas of fuzzy sets (fuzzy properties, fuzzy membership functions) and fuzzy logic (degrees of truth). It also has important practical applications in the design of devices that function well in their interactions with the environment and with us. There are various ways that fuzzy design can be carried out. Here is one way to do it, giving the steps in the fuzzy design of an air conditioner:
Step 1.
Write down the fuzzy rules governing the way the air conditioner works:

If it is COLD, the air conditioner motor speed is OFF.

If it is COOL, the air conditioner motor speed is SLOW.

If it is WARM, the air conditioner motor speed is FAST.

If it is HOT, the air conditioner motor speed is MAXIMUM.
Step 2.
Define the fuzzy properties COLD, COOL, WARM, and HOT. This is done by drawing the fuzzy membership function for each of the fuzzy properties: mCOLD(x), mCOOL(x), mWARM(x), and mHOT(x). For each temperature x, the sum of all the membership functions should be 1:
mCOLD(x)+mCOOL(x)+mWARM(x)+mHOT(x)=1

Step 3.
Decide on particular motor speeds to represent OFF, SLOW, FAST, MAXIMUM, where 0=sOFF < sSLOW < sFAST < sMAX=M, and M is the maximum speed of the motor.
Step 4.
For any temperature x, the speed of the motor is given by the formula
s=sOFF×mCOLD(x)+sSLOW×mCOOL(x)+sFAST×mWARM(x)+sMAX×mHOT(x)

Hence
s=sSLOW×mCOOL(x)+sFAST×mWARM(x)+M×mHOT(x)

A computer chip would then be designed which controls the motor speed according to this formula. A thermometer would input the temperature and the chip would output the motor speed.

References
[1]
Evening Standard (London, 17 December 2003)
[2]
Bart Kosko, Fuzzy Thinking (Flamingo, 1994)
[3]
Petr Hájek, Metamathematics of Fuzzy Logic (Kluwer, 1998); 12:59 PM
Emerald. said...: "" (( Copy... Paste...; 1:02 PM
Emerald. said...: (( In the practice of psychology, geeks and nerds can be said to be Myers-Briggs Type Indicator INTP, ENTP or INTJ, and, in various cases, ENTJ. However, due to speculation over the difference of nerds and geeks, the types cannot be sorted into their subsequent classifications. Also, all types have the ability to be nerds, whereas the INTJ, INTP, ENTP, and ENTJ are near definites for being nerds. The INTP is the classic programmer type, INTJ the classic scientist type. However, due to the sterotypical shyness and social ineptitude associated with nerds, the INTP and INTJ are more likely to be classified into that group than their Extroverted counterparts. These two types are the Introverted iNtuitive Thinkers. As Introverts they are stimulated by thoughts and ideas, rather than people and things. They are often quite happy spending hours absorbed in solitary activities. As iNtuitives, they are more inclined toward abstract concepts and subtle connections than in concrete examples or direct experience. As Thinkers, they are more adept in logic and reason than feelings or emotions. This combination makes INT's masters of mathematics, logic, and science, but rather oblivious to social graces. Both INTJs and INTPs tend to be outwardly nerdy and actively rebel against social rules they view as irrational and meaningless. For example long hair is, not surprisingly, common on men of both types.

In the works of Riso and Hudson, specifically Understanding the Enneagram revised edition, page 180, point 10, the term "nerd" is used as a primary reference to (and indication of being) Enneagram type 5.

EEK...; 1:07 PM

~ LapjesKat

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Similar...

49 comments:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=63125&id=531889690

Linked =)

>>.<

Contributors ;p

Followers