PAKKA PORTALS

How To Survive The Recession, Then Fail The Recovery - The British Airways Story

2009-06-24T10:07:00.002+05:30

"How To Survive The Recession, Then Fail The Recovery"
“The British Airways Story”.
Last year BA reported a sharp rise of operating profit to £883 million, which in view of the rising fuel price and their falling market share, seemed to be bucking the downward global trend.
This year they reported a loss of £401 million.
Somewhere between the two reality probably lies, but when has reality ever paid out a performance bonus? And when have the published numbers ever reflected what is actually happening to a business?

A spokesman for BA, Mr Willie Walsh, said last month: “The combination of unprecedented oil prices, economic slowdown and weaker consumer confidence has led to substantially lower first quarter profits." “But,” He said ”British Airways is well prepared and has adapted its plans in the event of further economic uncertainty.”

These reported performance figures for BA and their smooth denial of concern reminded me of the last time BA management hit the news.

It was several years ago and Rod Eddington, the then chairman of British Airways, was responding on TV to concerns about the profitability of British Airways.
He was having a moan about how the budget airlines were cutting into his market share, but he was still being quite bullish about it. He told the interviewer how, in the last three years, he had cut the operating costs of British Airways by 5% and that although the competition was tough they fully expected to maintain their market share.

What he didn’t say was that in the past three years, to make that 5% saving, he had made redundant 16,000 members of his workforce.

He must have had some idea of the consequences of those redundancies for the remaining workforce. How did he think they felt about it?

Did he think they still felt good about working for British Airways?
Did he think they still felt their jobs were secure?
Did he think they felt proud of what had happened.

At the time Rod Eddington seemed supremely unconcerned by any of the consequence of his actions other than the ability to boast about the financial savings he thought he had made.

The men and women who worked for BA had. in the main been in their dream jobs. Pilots, who as schoolboys had pictured themselves wearing Raybans while they lounged around in the cockpits of big jets.
Cabin crew who used to dream of all the exotic destinations they would go to.
Baggage handlers and support staff who at the time could use BA to nip over to Paris for the weekend for the price of a cup of strong coffee.

And then, by making 16,000 redundancies, Rod Eddington had at a stroke completely changed the way that the remaining BA employees felt about what they did.

He had changed their attitudes and behaviours from those of a proud group of motivated people, dedicated to the service of their customers, to a bunch of disillusioned job hunters.
By making these redundancies British Airways changed the behaviour of their whole workforce from a powerful group of people who were proud of what they did, to an apathetic, untrusting workforce who were only interested in where they could send their next CV.

In the latest twist in the saga of the failure of BA we read of the appeal from the current management for the workforce of BA to give the company one months work without pay to try to save the company.

Since the days of Rod Eddington, management at BA have completely lost the loyalty of their staff by the way that they have behaved towards them, creating a morally bankrupt organisation, Make no mistake, this moral bankruptcy was caused by BA management.
Now we see the current management attempting to cash a cheque against the BA account that they themselves have already emptied.

Is this BA management completely misreading the way that the workforce feel about the company they work for? Or is this a cynical manoeuvre by management to deflect the blame for the failure of the company?

It is possible that the company will fail without these individual contributions from the workforce.
The workforce must be aware that it is just as likely that the company will fail even after they have put themselves into personal debt to try to keep it afloat, the only difference being that when the company fails, even after the workforce have given their time for free, the workforce will be in an even worse position to support their families.
Either way, management have already broken the trust of the workforce and since none of the management team seem to have offered to work for nothing it seems even less likely that any of the workforce will be persuaded to stick their necks out.

Do BA management truly believe that the workforce, working for nothing, will save them or are they working a spin, which when the company goes to the wall will enable them to say
“It was not our fault, We were let down by the workforce who would not support us.”

In this ongoing crisis we have to be very careful about what we do to survive and how that changes the way that our remaining workforce feel about they are asked to do.

Ride roughshod over the workforce during the recession because you can, and like BA you will have a very hard time continuing to trade even when the rest of the world has resumed doing business, Or, take care of your people when they most need it and they will take care of you when you need it.

We can’t have it both ways.

What goes around comes around.

Peter A Hunter
Author – Breaking the Mould
www.breakingthemould.co.uk

Financial Analysis

2008-07-09T17:46:00.004+05:30

All the financial analysts, gr8 news for u all. I have found a website which contains all the excel sheets reqd for valuation purposes. It not only contains the Damodaran sheets but by many others experts too.
So whenever you are stuck with M&A valuation, Synergy, FCFF, FCFE, DCF...or nething u can think of..
visit this portal...this will make ur fundas pakka...
http://www.exinfm.com/free_spreadsheets.html

Cambrian House "house of soft-ideas"

2007-09-25T22:17:00.000+05:30

Hey all Entrepreneurs and all those who want to be an Entrepreneur. Let’s gamble, ideate for new venture, be the one to uncork innovation, be there to accept challenge, create network, get & put views and get the feel of things that you do and you are supposed to do and on the top of this get money and points for what you do.

It’s amazing. It’s novel. It’s friendly and flexible. It’s a unique platform. It’s really good. Believe me.

It is only one, the Cambrian House. It’s the one which has built its image on “Crowd Sourcing”. Oh come on, now don’t stretch or shrink your eyebrows; it is the best way to create Virtual Community.

CH has given some detail about the crowd-sourcing.

What is Crowd-sourcing?

Crowdsourcing is when people gather via the Internet to create something and share in the profit – often without ever meeting each other in person. The products of these collaborations are referred to as crowdsourced.

Just read following,

Eric Schmidt, Google CEO talks about Crowdsourcing in Don Tapscott’s Wikinomics, 2007 saying. "Peer production is about more than sitting down and having a nice conversation... It's about harnessing a new mode of production to take innovation and wealth creation to new levels."

Cambrian House is a web based community, which specially works on crowd-sourcing and Peer production. They are totally focused on software related ideas; I usually call them “soft ideas”. Here you will find the peers and members outing in their ideas and getting paid for that.

Here anyone can submit his/her idea and crowd will rate your idea. I will say that these members will vote and also scrutinize on each and every aspect from the business point of view. The kind of remarks and feedback that you get on this website is inestimable.

CH selects the best ideas that can be marketed and on that basis if it becomes successful, then idea contributor gets profit share. This is amazing concept to enkindle the spirit of entrepreneurship in techno-centric businesses.

Individual contributors can also earn royalty points on the basis of particular or specific task they do.

Although this is a good portal, but there are certain challenges in front of this portal. Achieving these challenges can help them to achieve deserved potential.

Link for the same is http://www.cambrianhouse.com/

Is the real life enough???

2007-09-25T20:13:00.000+05:30

hello friends

the original post was posted by me at http://analyticsnewswire99.blogspot.com/2007/07/world-is-not-enough.html

What are we fighting for today? Or what do you think the WWIII will be all about? Is it about land? Is it about water? Is it about money? Is it about technology??

No, Its about second life. Second life is wat? Is it rebirth?????

No, its about virtual world!!! The time has come when the world is not enough space for our fellow planetarians to survive. Wat they need is virtual world. Am i talkging about Matrix!!!

Might Be!!! Check it out for yourself http://www.secondlife.com/

Is it all about feeling???

No, its all about money!! Honey!!!
The site statistics
Total Residents: 8,360,141

Logged In Last 60 Days: 1,682,527Online

Now: 35,222US$ Spent

Last 24h: $1,502,626

LindeX Activity Last 24h: $220,674

It has its own currency known as Linden Dollar. 1 US $=250 Linden Dollars
It has its own stock exchange Linden Exchange.

Is it all????

Big No.

The Business Opportunities available here are:
party and wedding planner
pet manufacturer
casino operator
tattooist
nightclub owner
automotive manufacturer
fashion designer
aerospace engineer
custom avatar designer
jewelry maker
architect
XML coder
freelance scripter
game developer
fine artist
machinima set designer
tour guide
party and wedding planner
dancer
musician
custom animation creator
lottery operator
theme park developer
real estate speculator
vacation resort owner
advertiser
bodyguard
magazine
publisher
private detective
writer
gamer
hug maker
And these are very few of the possibilities.

Am i saying it by reading some magazine????????

Big NO

I m saying this by actually going and living in the second life for more than 100 hours. I m saying this by marrying a french lady in second life. I m saying this after earning as private detective in second life.

Now its upto you whether You ignore it or embrace it. But one thing is for sure You can't avoid it.

eHOW

2007-09-23T21:16:00.000+05:30

When one stumbles and doesn’t get how to operate something; then don’t forget to surf through this portal.

This concept is one of the best concepts that online portals have. If you are having any operational problem with your laptop or any other software solution you need then don’t forget this portal.

What would you like to do? Marinate Meat? Get Rich? Get a Property Appraisal? How to get colored background to MS-Word document? Step-by-step solution for all this.

eHow is the world's most popular place to find step-by-step instructions on how to do just about everything.

I had some problem with my laptop and I got lot of information and step by step ways to resolve that.

Believe me this is indeed a Pakka portal.

The link is http://www.ehow.com/

MANAGERS-NET

2007-09-20T21:33:00.000+05:30

If you are looking for information on the management models and concept then stop your vague search. This is the portal that will provide you lots of things. Its a portal by managers for future managers.

Managers-Net is the initiative by few active managers who have decorated the management models with real life example. This portal also focuses on various business models

Broad topics that this portal covers are as follow.

General Management
Accounting and Finance
Monitoring and Control
Analysis and Improvement
Technology

Under these broad categories, they provide different terms and models that are widely used in corporates. They have also given examples at suitable and possible points.

There are two sections which are dedicated for biographies and reviews.
This portal is having great potential to explore itself.

This can be PAKKA portal.

Although you may not find all the information that you expect but you will come to know about lot of new things & fundamentals. Visit the link given below

www.managers-net.com

Time to Meet CFO's & CEO's

2007-09-01T01:36:00.000+05:30

Hi all,

just go through this site www.ceocfointerviews.com . It has interviews of many CEOs' and CFOs' of various US companies. these CFOs' / CEOs' are not big shots,but the best thing about them is they don't give any gas. just pure strategies on how to do your business. plain and simple... but effective. U will definately learn more from these ppl than from any other Managers.

thankx,

rohan.

BookMyShow

2007-08-31T12:56:00.000+05:30

URL: http://www.bookmyshow.com/

Utility value : 7/10!!!

Whats in it? Movie and PLay ticket booking online...

I was waiting for such a site to come up. If you can have a yatra.com for booking flights on a single platform, why not a single platform for booking Movie tickets throughout India? And viola, I present to you http://www.bookmyshow.com/ . Its a complete site. It has associations with all the major Multiplexes. I think only Fame is missing out at this point, but I am sure it will join in. It has its own picks of the week and the top ten movie suggestions. I think its a great site, a single point to see the lowest rates for movies in theaters you can go to. this was a gap which was waiting to be filled and I am happy it has been filled. Also, it gives much needed platform to PLAYS. as tickets for plays will also be available here soon. So I give them 2 thumbs up!

My dissapointment - a rather big one, is that the site has only signed up with Multiplexes who anyways have e-ticketing facility on their own sites. It would be much better if this site cud have Single theaters as their partners and sell their tickets online. I think the single theater owners are suffering enough and if they are given this platform , it would boost their sales. I belive the theater owners are also at fault, if they dont approach this site. As we know they dont have the capital to come up with their own site. Nor does the volume of sales warranty a site, but if this site is used, the cost would be shared between many single theater owners. I think BookMyShow can give this platform to small theaters at cheap rates.

About this site - Its started by Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. which was founded in 1999and is India's premiere comprehensive ticketing, information and analysis solutions provider.

sharing IT knowledge

2007-08-27T16:22:00.000+05:30

having joined my post graduate studies in operations, i had been in the look out of a portal which could not only provide me with a platform to understand the new IT domains emerging in the field of supply chain management but also a place which could help me to prepare myself to be competitive in these fields.
www.ittoolbox.com is a kind of a portal which only gives you a proper guidance for all these activities but also helps you a lot in knowing the upcoming trends in the field of SCM.
this portal has also been instrumental in peers sharing their IT knowledge in various domains through a combination of blogs, cyclopedia's, networking platforms and diverse knowledge bases.
this portal can also be of great help to get in touch with your peers in similar fields by simply registering on the site and meeting them online.
all in all, a portal which is worth mentioning to all the people who would like to be abreast with all the happenings in the field of IT, and wanting to share their IT knowledge with many more people who are in the need of the same.

World of Free Codes

2007-08-26T10:52:00.000+05:30

I was just looking for the HTML code to create pop-ups, at that time I came across this portal. I just startled as I saw this portal. This portal contains lots of programming codes and in different programming languages and on the top of this these all codes are free of cost.

The best part about this portal is providing different kind of IT projects and example. These people also take care of the order of language application; here you will find all the codes in chronological sequence. Believe me, being a computer engineer I believe this is the best way to learn coding and learning different languages.

There is one section wherein you can put your queries and get them solved, a kind of forum.
Free tutorials section for different coding language is one more colored feather in this portal cap. In coding part people also put the logic that they have used to develop the code, this gives overall idea about the implementation part of the coding theories.

All guys who are interested in IT coding part can make the best use of this portal and you can also apply for different IT companies through this portal.

Link is http://www.sourcecodesworld.com/

Final Destination of FMCG Marketing Guys

2007-08-24T17:23:00.000+05:30

Hello friends

I recently came across this website http://fmcgmarketers.com/ It seems to be focussed on Marketing Guys operating in FMCG sector. The design of site is traditional, but the content is modern. The architecture of the site focuses on all the critical and vital elements of the field of art. It talks about Jobs, Contests, and platform for amateurs. According to me the best feature is amateurs. For experts net is flooded with sites, but there are actually very few platforms where amateurs can work their hands on.

But, the content of the sites focuses on India. So, I think the site is focused on Indian Scenario. But, at the same time it carries links to Harvard & Mckinsey News. So, I think the initial guys are from India and trying to rope in global personalities.

I will recommend this site to all the MBA Grads of Marketing in India and also to Indian FMCG Marketing professionals.

And I will suggest to the team of the site that kindly involve more people from different regions of the world, to give better content to the target audience.

And nice work, and keep updating for Marketers benefits.

A knowledge Professional's community

2007-08-21T23:57:00.000+05:30

Welcome to kprofessionals!

Kprofessionals is an online community designed exclusively for the knowledge professionals so that they can interact and network with each other. Kprofessionals or knowledge professionals are the individuals working in the new age knowledge based economy. Specifically, professionals rendering high end services in Information Technology, Financial Services and Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) are defined as the kprofessionals.

Forums
This is a place for you to discuss your topics of interest with thousands of other knowledge professionals. Whether you want to gauge the right salary for your position or need suggestions for the interview or want to know the latest industry trends, just post it on the forums and get opinion from various experienced kprofessionals. You can also view the topics posted by others and actively participate in the discussion.

www.kprofessionals.com

www.IMDB.com - The Baap of Movie Info Sites!

2007-08-20T01:45:00.000+05:30

The INternet Movie Data Base! Thats IMDB for you. Open the page and it boasts of being visited by 50 Million Movie and TV lover each month. Its purported to be the Biggest, best, most award-winning movie and TV site on the planet and belive me its one hell of a site. Think of an amazing film and its listed there. It not only gives you the cast of the film, but also the story line , pics, user comments and user reviews but also gives you in detail information on each actor in the movie. This applies to TV series as well. You can find Filmography of any director, actor, producer etc you want. It gives you the complete listing of the TOP movies in UK and US weekly. But the most important feature is that it has a voting system by its members. the members rate the film on a rating of 0-10. The scores consolidate with the number of votes and total is taken to rank the various movies in each genre. You can get the BEST films of any genre according to people and critic perceptions. I have personally seen around 30 classics just through their ratings.

It has other features like GameBase - for online games, u can find out showtimes and tickets for various new films (only for the US), you have movie tv news, recommendations on DVDs to watch, interviews with famous personalities. Infact its got everything that a Movie Site should have. Its the BAAP of all movie sites. So do visit it and enjoy the plethora of movie information on display.

World of Free e-Books

2007-08-20T01:04:00.001+05:30

I always looked for source which can provide books for free; whether it is hard copy or soft, it is immaterial. The source should be one which will give you something great and very useful.

Here is the link that can provide you over thousands of e-Books and all of these are just free of cost.

Worlds largest free eBook directory!!!

Bestebooksworld.com

It is the world's largest free ebooks directory. From business to pleasure you will find a large selection of ebooks in its directories. Free ebooks directory features categories such as business, marketing, publishing, computers, literature, personal development, health and many more.

There are lots of books available on spirituality, IT, SAP and list goes on and on.

There is one tab, on the home page which shows "whats hot"
It is very good to have some free eBooks.

Create your own library.
Visit http://www.bestebooksworld.com

Professional Networking

2007-07-29T22:39:00.000+05:30

Hello Friends

I hope everybody of us are aware about http://www.orkut.com/ Its pure revolution and addiction. It has helped me to meet my friends after 20 years. According to me, Mr. Orkut, the person behind this portal should be given Nobel Prize.

But, am i writing my views on orkut.

The answer is No.

Orkut is social networking and i m writing about Professional Networking. It is counterpart of orkut on professional front.

This is the site, which I was forced to join around year back.But, now I can see the underlying raw power of it. It has helped me in connecting with Professionals in various fields like Change Management, Publishing Industry, Defence Industry, Operations Management, Marketing and wat not....

It has given me the platform to start my business globally. Yes, i must say its one of the instrumental input to my businesses.

Now, you must be wondering after so much of global gyan, which is this site???

http://www.linkedin.com/

Try it, its pure magic.

To connect to me you can insert my id in expand your network prabalaggarwal@yahoo.com

Hope to see you in my networks

Prabal Aggarwal

Management is all about War

2007-07-23T23:37:00.000+05:30

hello friends
I m sharing with you one of my favorites portal http://www.sonshi.com/ The site is based on methodologies of war. These methodologies are primarily based on the master work of Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War'.

The Art of War was created by Sun Tzu around 3000 years back in China. Till date many have tried to understand it literally, but can't endorse that actually anybody does or not. Today this philosophy of The Art Of War is being followed not only by military but by Managment also. Because, according to The Art of War- The art is not an art if its approach can't be applied to any other art.

About the site

The site carries full text versions of The Art of War and alike books. Then there is very good and lively discussion forum. Also there is temple, where one can get daily guidance about the application of The Art Of War in the present life.

I find this site one of the most enlightening one from the managment learning point of view. I hope you guys will find it interesting and enlightening too. If you tried the site after reading this brief and liked it then do comment on this post

Your Gateway to Indian Primary Capital Market

2007-07-23T07:56:00.000+05:30

Hi guys
to get any information about Indian primary market please log on to:
http://www.primedatabase.com/default.asp

India's first and still the only database dedicated to the primary capital market. Started in 1989 by Prithvi Haldea, PRIME continues to be the single source of comprehensive information on all capital market offerings including

PS: This site is having paid and free services. To access free services you just have to create one user name and you will come across all latest to historical data about primary market.

gtNEWS

2007-07-22T15:36:00.000+05:30

Hey all,

Those who want to go through finance related articles, visit this portal.

Thoughtfully, graded as a "PAKKA" portal under the finance category. You will get lot of information about the happening in financial sector, across world.

Most important is the library of over 2000 articles, interviews, guides, special reports, directories. Rating changes is updated with about 10 new features weekly.

Highlight of some of the topics covered by this portal.

Risk Management

Payments

WorkingCapital

Cash Management

Financial Technology

Treasury Systems

Banking Credit

Capital Markets

Asset management and.....

Link for this portal is http://www.gtnews.com/

Fortune..

2007-07-16T23:36:00.000+05:30

This is one of the best and informative portals on WWW. Indeed a 'PAKKA' portal.
This portal is extensively used by corporate brains to update themselves with the happenings across world.

Content is of great use for business and GK. Best part is list of fortune 500 companies with their rankings, global 500 companies and hell lot of other links.

‘Analysis from Fortune’ is worth reading, real management stuff.

Check it out http://www.fortune.com/

GAMES..

2007-07-15T22:51:00.000+05:30

If u are crazy bout games..do visit this site for free downloads...
http://allgamesdownload.blogspot.com/
its worth to find 2 mins to glance through the list...

Find Articles

2007-07-15T16:38:00.000+05:30

Hey guys, you should know this portal...what say?

This is indeed a 'PAKKA' portal, it contains number of articles and you can access these articles freely.

Range of the topics is very hot. They claim "Where to look for what you need"

URL for the same is http://findarticles.com/

How Stuff Works

2007-07-15T16:21:00.000+05:30

Guys, this is one of the best portals under this category.

They claim that "it's good to know" how stuff works.

Here stuff ranges from your automobile parts, mobile, i-phone, computers, electronics, ........

You will get vital & relevant information about the working of stuff and science behind it; through this 'PAKKA' portal. So invest couple of minutes to go through this and......

Web link for the same is http://www.howstuffworks.com/