Executive Post and Pay

Management can be defined as the art of analyzing, setting and meeting predetermined goals utilizing others’ skills and abilities. These goals can include; returns on investment of twenty (20%) percent per annum, increases in production efficiency of over three (3%) percent this year, a five 5% percent increases in market share within the next year, and once judged to be attainable becomes the driving focus of the organization. It is goals like these that the selected (President, Chief Executive Officer, General Manager, Managing Director, etc.) top leader is contracted to achieve and is the basis for remuneration.

Money (The Happiness Index)

Many in society see money as the solution to most if not all of its problems. This is quite understandable when we look at the levels of unemployed or unemployable in the society. It is still reasonable when we examine the amount of “working poor” (people who work but do not earn enough to meet their basic needs) in society. It becomes more difficult to accept when employed people with high salaries (twice or three time their basic needs) have low or no savings or net worth. It is impossible, to comprehend when there are people with high net worth who are simply not happy.

Information-based Planning

Planning, by countries or by sectors or by groups or by individuals, is the most essential activity that affects all aspects of life and has always been so. Countries must plan to improve the standard of living it offers its citizens. Sector planning delivers economic efficiency on goods and services internationally. Goal oriented Groups must constantly re-examine activities to produce the desired results. Individual planning is and always has been driven by decisions and actions taken by groups, by sectors, by countries. An independent statutory (established under law) well-funded well-staffed statistical organization, that compiles using tested methodologies and issues reports on a regular timely basis, is needed to drive strategic planning and decision-making.

Parenting your Business

Much in the same way parents would think about their child, entrepreneurs must be concerned about business. The love, the health, the development must all be considered in the context of external factors.

From birth your project needs you to provide its nutrients, shelter or location, security and attention. A gestation period is important for you to prepare or plan for every foreseeable and unforeseeable event. A good plan must include how to deal with intangibles when difficult situations arise, if for one reason or another you are unable to provide inputs on time or some tragedy affects your ability to function, the plan must address and point to solutions to give you the strength to carry on.

Guiding a Nations Youth

Many among us wonder why crime has become so wide spread and brutal. Some say that it was always so, it is just being more widely reported due to the technology now available to journalists. Others say that the education system lacks discipline and has excluded and failed many. Yet others say that the police are not doing their work. The most widely accepted explanation is based on the financial rewards of illegal drugs and the trafficking of said drugs leading to turf wars and the need for guns to protect such turfs. Whatever the reasons, the solution is to build a strong morally based, highly educated and tolerant society.

Teaching the Parents

Education is a corner stone of a great society and as such, must be adequately funded and accessible and available to the entire population. Failure to do so will lead to more money being spent on national security. Learning is a constant that happens in any circumstance, from birth to death and at any location, but teaching needs a formal setting and an equipped (classroom, laboratory, grounds, etc.) site to be effective. Curriculum or course design requires research and development and must be constantly updated and understood by the teachers who are to deliver it. A safe living (home and neighborhood) environment is essential to learning.

Efficiency drives Business

Along with Religious morals and Government regulations, Business activity is one of the corner stones of a great society, delivering essential goods and services directly or indirectly to consumers, creating and sustaining the desired economic activities that fuels growth and improving upon the existing standard of life. Business cannot achieve its core objective, provide jobs or offer a reasonable return on investment without being mindful of the actual and attainable levels of efficiency.

Efficiency; the ability to get things done without waste of energy or time, using processes to generate solutions, paying fairly for and encouraging productivity and innovation, making the best out of the least, none of which can be measured using a balance sheet or budget.

Agriculture Issues

Any plan to deal with Agriculture and Food Production has to be discussed in terms of financial feasibility and social responsibility. Agriculture must be seen as both a money making venture and as a health security issue. It is the profit-making aspect of the sector that encourages the risk-takers to invest; the capital component, the skilled personnel, the time and effort. The haunting reality that the human body must have proper forms of nutrients to be healthy and productive must drive Governments’ actions.

Buyer Beware, Seller Be Careful

People have always expected more from their leaders, even when they understand that expectations are similar to a quenchless thirst, the more you get the more you want. Today’s leaders fully recognize that an educated population is essential to improving lifestyles and will question each and every decision along the way, thus challenging the leadership. Many wanting to go slower, study and analyze the direction plotted and take stock of progress. Others want to go faster, build and expand upon the existing facilities and provide for the future now. This division is political and if the “many” outnumber the “others”, the election winners set the agenda, the pace and are responsible for the state of the economy. Hence, all public financial projections or budget statements are political in nature.

Information Power

The key to success in every aspect of life comes from setting measurable and attainable goals. Dreams may guide an objective but until practical plans are formulated all you have is the dream. Thoughts of winning a lot of money (lottery), inheriting a fortune or even just working hard are all just dreams that need to be transformed into more sensible statements. “I will work for a salary that allows me to invest ten percent of my disposable income in a lottery.”, “Because my family operates business I will work and educate myself to one day in the future lead that business.” or “I will work, continue to educate myself and invest fifty percent of disposable income in marketable securities (stocks, bonds and real estate).” These statements must be further expanded into detailed plans and strategies that define, firstly, what is meant by work, educate and invest, secondly, the time frame associated with particular tasks and most importantly, who will help or hinder specific actions.