Manager’s perception of an employee is paramount to the success or failure of an employee.

Most of the time I ponder on the following questions - Who do we blame for an employee’s failure?, How do managers perceive their employees, Weak or Strong?, Does the perception of managers towards their employees affect the employee’s work and performance?.
How is the Manager responsible for an employee’s failure? Most mangers categorize their employee as either weak or strong, and react based on the category.  Managers sees weak employee less motivate, less energetic, less active in taking charge of projects, less aggressive about problems, less innovative, hoard information, poor leaders to their peers and tend to seek permission for all tasks as compared to the strong employee. Subsequently, the manager will create and reinforce a system/dynamics/environment that essentially sets the perceive weak or underperforming employee to fail by questioning the employee’s performance, paying little or no interest in the employee’s comments or suggestions, rarely asking for the employee’s opinion on subject matters, increasing his time and attention on the employee’s activities, impatient with the employee, and imposing ones views in disagreement.
The perceived weak employee notices these behaviors because he feels deprived of autonomy on the job, feels undervalued, senses low expectation, perceives disapproval and criticism. The employee handles the situation by shutting down emotionally and intellectually, disengaging from the boss by reducing contact, not contributing to subject matters even if they have ideas and becoming defensive.
Categorizing employees is highly expensive and it affects employee, manager and the organization. The manager becomes emotionally and physically drained by trying to put up with the employee. His reputation among other employees is tainted because they will see him as unfair towards the weaker employee. The manager overloads the perceived strong employee which leads to burn out. Team spirit and cooperation amongst employee will take a down turn because of alienation of the perceived weak employee. Mismanagement of some employees may reduce the success rate of a manager and the organization.
How can the situation be salvaged? The first recommendation is for the organization to organize a lecture on personality types for all employees. This will enable everyone to understand their personality and that of others better. The people with steadiness and conscientiousness personality are often categorized as weak. Managers should create the right context for discussion and also be cautious of their body language when communicating with their employees. The employees should itemize the causes of their weak performance in certain areas and then work on it to get better. Giving up is expensive, so it is not an option. Open communication is required for managers and employees. 
In conclusion, failure is expensive so it’s the duty of everyone to ensure that the failure rate of an organization is kept at the bare minimum. Labelling and/or categorizing people saves time by providing quick guides for interpreting events and interacting with people but it isn’t the most optimized method because of its numerous downsides. Thus, it take a cautious and continuous effort to reduce categorizing people and have an open mind about employees.

How to Make Your Business Plan Stand Out

One of the first steps to business planning is determining your target market and why they would want to buy from you.

The following tips can help you clarify what your business has to offer, identify the right target market for it and build a niche for yourself.

Be Clear About What You Have to Offer

Ask yourself: Beyond basic products or services, what are you really selling? Consider this example: Your town probably has several restaurants all selling one fundamental product—food. But each is targeted at a different need or clientele.

One might be a drive-thru fast food restaurant, perhaps another sells pizza in a rustic Italian kitchen, and maybe there’s a fine dining seafood restaurant that specializes in wood-grilled fare. All these restaurants sell meals, but they sell them to targeted clientele looking for the unique qualities each has to offer. What they are really selling is a combination of product, value, ambience and brand experience.

When starting a business, be sure to understand what makes your business unique. What needs does your product or service fulfill? What benefits and differentiators will help your business stand out from the crowd?

Don’t Become a Jack of All Trades-Learn to Strategize

It’s important to clearly define what you’re selling. You do not want to become a jack-of-all trades and master of none because this can have a negative impact on business growth. As a smaller business, it's often a better strategy to divide your products or services into manageable market niches. Small operations can then offer specialized goods and services that are attractive to a specific group of prospective buyers.

Identify Your Niche

Creating a niche for your business is essential to success. Often, business owners can identify a niche based on their own market knowledge, but it can also be helpful to conduct a market survey with potential customers to uncover untapped needs. During your research process, identify the following: 

• Which areas your competitors are already well-established
• Which areas are being ignored by your competitors
• Potential opportunities for your business

Assessing Your Company's Potential

For most of us, unfortunately, our desires about where we would like to go aren't as important as our businesses' ability to take us there. Put another way, if you choose the wrong business, you're going nowhere.

Luckily, one of the most valuable uses of a business plan is to help you decide whether the venture you have your heart set on is really likely to fulfill your dreams. Many, many business ideas never make it past the planning stage because their would-be founders, as part of a logical and coherent planning process, test their assumptions and find them wanting.

Test your idea against at least two variables. First, financial, to make sure this business makes economic sense. Second, lifestyle, because who wants a successful business that they hate?

Answer the following questions to help you outline your company's potential. There are no wrong answers. The objective is simply to help you decide how well your proposed venture is likely to match up with your goals and objectives.

Financial:

What initial investment will the business require?

How much control are you willing to relinquish to investors?

When will the business turn a profit?

When can investors, including you, expect a return on their money?

What are the projected profits of the business over time?

Will you be able to devote yourself full time to the business, financially?

What kind of salary or profit distribution can you expect to take home?

What are the chances the business will fail?

What will happen if it does?

Lifestyle:

Where are you going to live?

What kind of work are you going to be doing?

How many hours will you be working?

Will you be able to take vacations?

What happens if you get sick?

Will you earn enough to maintain your lifestyle?

Does your family understand and agree with the sacrifices you envision?

post written by: komolafe Oyindamola

How to write a business plan

A business plan is a written description of your business's future, a document that tells what you plan to do and how you plan to do it. If you jot down a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your business strategy, you've written a plan, or at least the germ of a plan.

Business plans are inherently strategic. You start here, today, with certain resources and abilities. You want to get to a there, a point in the future (usually three to five years out) at which time your business will have a different set of resources and abilities as well as greater profitability and increased assets. Your plan shows how you will get from here to there.

There are steps to consider when you want to write a business plan;

•          Executive Summary

Within the overall outline of the business plan, the executive summary will follow the title page. The summary should tell the reader what you want. This is very important, Clearly state what you're asking for in the summary.

•          Business Description

The business description usually begins with a short description of the industry. When describing the industry, discuss the present outlook as well as future possibilities. You should also provide information on all the various markets within the industry, including any new products or developments that will benefit or adversely affect your business

•          Market Strategies

Market strategies are the result of a meticulous market analysis. A market analysis forces the entrepreneur to become familiar with all aspects of the market so that the target market can be defined and the company can be positioned in order to garner its share of sales.

·         

• Competitive Analysis

The purpose of the competitive analysis is to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors within your market, strategies that will provide you with a distinct advantage, the barriers that can be developed in order to prevent competition from entering your market, and any weaknesses that can be exploited within the product development cycle.

•          Design & Development Plan

The purpose of the design and development plan section is to provide investors with a description of the product's design, chart its development within the context of production, marketing and the company itself, and create a development budget that will enable the company to reach its goals.

•          Operations & Management Plan

The operations and management plan is designed to describe just how the business functions on a continuing basis. The operations plan will highlight the logistics of the organization such as the various responsibilities of the management team, the tasks assigned to each division within the company, and capital and expense requirements related to the operations of the business.

•          Financial Factors

Financial data is always at the back of the business plan, but that doesn't mean it's any less important than up-front material such as the business concept and the management team.

While figuring the above procedures these should be at the back of your mind;

•          Determine Your Objectives

Close your eyes. Imagine that the date is five years from now. Where do you want to be? Will you be running a business that hasn't increased significantly in size? Will you command a rapidly growing empire? Will you have already cashed out and be relaxing on a beach somewhere, enjoying your hard-won gains?

Answering these questions is an important part of building a successful business plan. In fact, without knowing where you're going, it's not really possible to plan at all.

Goals and Objectives Checklist

If you're having trouble deciding what your goals and objectives are, here are some questions to ask yourself:

How determined am I to see this succeed?

Am I willing to invest my own money and work long hours for no pay, sacrificing personal time and lifestyle, maybe for years?

What's going to happen to me if this venture doesn't work out?

If it does succeed, how many employees will this company eventually have?

What will be its annual revenues in a year? Five years?

What will be its market share in that time frame?

Will it be a niche marketer, or will it sell a broad spectrum of good and services?

What are my plans for geographic expansion? Local? National? Global?

Am I going to be a hands-on manager, or will I delegate a large proportion of tasks to others?

Post written by: Komolafe Oyindamola

Peter Principle

"Occupational Incompetence is everywhere, Have you noticed it? Probably we all have noticed it" 

...Peter & Hull  (1969, p 20)

The Peter Principle is a management principle that was formulated by Lawrence J. Peter.  The concept was generalized after careful observation of humans. The principle states that

"Every Employee tends to rise to his/her level of incompetence"

Candidate promotion is based on performance on their current role, rather than on their abilities relevant to the intended role. Therefore employees promotion stops when they can no longer perform effectively i.e. Their level of incompetence. Promoting the people most competent at one job does not mean that they will be better at another in an hierarchical organization. 

In a organization with an hierarchy system, their employees promotion is based on competence until they are promoted to their level of incompetence and they will be unable to earn further promotions. Overtime, most of the positions are occupied by incompetent employees and work is accomplished by the employees who have not reached their level of incompetence.

Examples of Peter's Principle:
i. A good researcher who is not necessarily a good teacher
ii. A successful entrepreneur who is not necessarily a good governor.


The overview of Peter's hypothesis is that a candidates competence in a new level could be uncorrelated to their new one.


Reference
Peter, L. F., & Hull, R. (1969). The Peter principle – Why things always go wrong. New York, NY: William Morrow & Company, Inc.
Pluchino A, Rapisarda A and Garofalo(2010): "The Peter Prinicple Revisited: a Computational Study", PhysicaA 389(2010) 467

Post written by- Komolafe Oyindolapo

HOW TOURISM CAN CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIO-CULTURAL CONSERVATION IN NIGERIA

Impact arise when tourism brings changes in value behavior, in the society. Tourism can also generate positive impacts as it can serve as a means of creating both local and international jobs.

            Socio-cultural impact can be said as the change of resident’s everyday experiences such as values, ways of life and intellectual products. Tourism has the potential to promote social development through employment creation, income redistribution and poverty alleviation.

Let’s look at tourism in different ways;

·         Tourism as a force for peace: travelling/movement bring people into contact for either educational or non-educational purposes. It promotes understanding between people and cultures, which promotes cultural exchange between hosts and guests. This brings unity and understanding which can lead the reduction of tension in the society and bring peace.

·         Strengthening the society: the jobs created by tourism can act as a vital incentive to reduce emigration from rural areas. Local people can also increase their influence on tourism development through tourism-related professional training and development of business and organizational skills.

·         Facilities development: the benefits can include upgraded infrastructure, health and transport improvements, new sport and recreational facilities, restaurants and public spaces and better-quality commodities and food.

·         Revaluation of culture and traditions: it can contribute to the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources, the protection of local heritage and a renaissance of indigenous culture, cultural arts and crafts.

·         Encourages civic involvement and pride: it helps to create awareness of the financial value of natural and cultural sites and can stimulate a feeling of pride in local and national heritage and interest in its conservation.

Problems of socio-cultural understanding

·         Cultural shock which is the totality of reactions to new people and settings which in ineffective behaviors. It can be experienced by either visitors or their hosts.

·         Cultural arrogance refers to the continued practice of following.

Positive Impact of tourism

·         Jobs opportunity

·         Income for the local economy

·         Awareness and increase in demand for local food and craft

·         Tourists mainly come to see the scenery and wildlife, therefore there will be pressure to conserve habitats and wildlife.

References

www.unep,org

traveltips.usatoday.com

www.nationalparks.gov.uk

The Punch Newspaper page 10, benefits of tourism to communities, Ife Adedapo

Post written by Komolafe Oyindamola

INFORMATION SOCIETY; Information Rich and Information Poor or The Haves and the Haves not

What is information society? An information society is one in which quality of life and economic development depend largely on information and its exploitation, increasing use of computers, commoditization of information, convergence of computing and telecommunication, internet, use of information technology in management of public utilities.

It can also be said as a society in which the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is becoming a significant economic and cultural activity.

We need to understand what actually information rich and information poor is in relation to information society. We need to analyze what the political dilemma is; is it only a political dimension related issue within the information society? Is it a choice? And if there is, which way should be chosen and consider as politically correct? And finally we need to find what other real opportunities or options are given to us.

Before we start ask yourself this question; Are “Haves” and “Have-nots” always “information-rich” and “information poor”?

Looking at the given definitions it would almost imply that people having a computer and Internet access would automatically be seen as haves, but sometimes in developing countries and certainly in developed countries were consumers widely have access to these technologies we meet situations where they are not considered as information rich. We should look at a different approach and formalize the differentiation within our daily reality.

The Information poor are consumers who use traditional mass media information such as television, DVDs, radios and magazines. They possess a wide range of electronic devices, MP3 players, PDAs, game consoles and other computing machines. They are considered as passive consumers of information and nowadays as passive users of new technologies, downloading digital e-book's, listening to their favorite music, playing computer games, reading the last international news. But they do not interact nor create any of this provided Information and are certainly not involved in decision taking.

On the opposite “information rich” stands for a new elite within the information society. They are involved into acquiring and processing information, producing personalized journals on community platforms, elaborating group discussions in forums with a certain level of knowledgeable competence. They are acting at manager levels thanks to their acquired knowledge and overall literacy. They are the protagonists of this ever-growing information and technology society who possesses the knowhow of Selective processing, generating and distributing information. This selective process of evaluating provided information is determined by the consumers rather than the producers. Consumers pull out the information that fits their needs to increase the value of the already acquired information.

 The gap between the information rich and the information poor is often called the digital divide. It is not a gap between those with lots of money and those without.

The gap can exist between many groups in society such as:

·         old and young

·         English speaking and non-English speaking

·         third world and developed world society

·         different cultural groups

·         rural and urban locations

Information Rich and Information Poor

The information rich have access to information and information technology equipment such as many TV and radio channels, books, newspapers and journals, and of course computers and the World Wide Web. The information rich also have the knowledge to use the technology to obtain information to help them make informed decisions.    

The information poor tend to not have access to the Web or any means of gaining information such as books, newspapers, journals and probably find it difficult to access relevant books and journals. Even in general conversations a discussion about a TV programmer shown on satellite TV will be lost on people who only have 4 or 5 terrestrial channels. The information poor may lack the skills or knowledge to access information.

The phrases “information rich and “information poor” need to be more precisely defined if this point is to be developed.

“Information rich” is taken to mean a country, an organization or an individual with information which is needed to carry out the task at hand.

“Information poor” can then be defined in opposite and negative terms to describe those who lack information.

Coca cola is another good example of a company which is information rich because they are able to get useful information and use the information to effectively produce enough drinks for their customers. They also use the information they receive to create competition for their competitive companies by marketing and advertising in different ways which they use to pull closer their customers. They can also be recognized and “information rich” because they information they receive also helps them in good decision making e.g. where to build or run manufacturing houses and places for distribution. Also it helps them in deciding what amount or quantity required to put in their drinks.

Important note

There is a real problem. We must never fall into the error of assuming that information can be provided only if we have access to computer-based information systems.

Nevertheless, such systems do play a key role in making information available in the industrialized and countries, and the endurance that is economically significant is overwhelming.

In conclusion

This suggests the depressing conclusion that the gap between information rich (wealth) and information poverty (poor) is widening rather than narrowing as the digital divide in the industrialized countries leaps even ahead of that elsewhere.

References 

Tony Benn, information rich information poor http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-inf4.html ,

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/information-society.html http://www.ukessays.com/essays/information-systems/relationship-between-information-rich-in-information-poor

post written by Komolafe Oyindamola