Banking and forex trading

Educators integrate environmental action into lesson plans

2010-02-11T00:09:00.000-08:00

Head-Royce School, a small private academy for students in kindergarten through the 12th grade in Oakland, California, prides itself on strong academic performance as well as leadership skills.
As part of that leadership experience, senior Tyler Finney gets together with other students and school staff to talk about "greening" their school. "Every day we meet to discuss how to lower emissions," he says, adding that they also plan events to get other students excited about sustainability.Green Team member Mike Eidlin, also a senior, says they're drafting a letter to parents about why they should carpool and how to buy greener products for their kids. "If we can influence our parents, the generation before us," he says, "they could help out other people who aren't as informed."
"Many of the problems that we now face are because we didn't learn about sustainable living so why not start teaching young kids about it?"
Head-Royce School, a small private academy for students in kindergarten through the 12th grade in Oakland, California, prides itself on strong academic performance as well as leadership skills.
As part of that leadership experience, senior Tyler Finney gets together with other students and school staff to talk about "greening" their school. "Every day we meet to discuss how to lower emissions," he says, adding that they also plan events to get other students excited about sustainability.
Getting involved from the ground up
Green Team member Mike Eidlin, also a senior, says they're drafting a letter to parents about why they should carpool and how to buy greener products for their kids. "If we can influence our parents, the generation before us," he says, "they could help out other people who aren't as informed."

Head-Royce SchoolHead-Royce students formed the Green Team about three years ago and their school now gets much of its electric power from solar panels.
Head-Royce principal Paul Chapman says the Green Team has his full support. He believes sustainability is so important that when students first requested this project three years ago, he made sure they would have a major say in generating ideas and taking action.
"I told this group there was a reason for that, because it was about their future not our past," says Chapman. "And I wanted to make it apparent that the kids should have some power. The point was that we wanted them to get out and make change, which they did."Chapman encouraged them to think creatively, even if some of the projects they came up with seemed fanciful and some didn't work out. Thanks to the students' ingenuity, many of their ideas have paid off. The school now gets much of its electric power from solar panels and has a garden for healthy classroom snacks.
The Green Team's efforts have also reduced the amount of trash the school generates. Senior Lydia Glenn-Murray says the committee members are trying to reduce it even more through a trash audit. "Next week, we'll be sorting through all our trash and figuring out how much of our trash should be in compost that's not and is going into the landfill." She says that, in Oakland, 30 percent of the trash in the landfill is actually compostable.Green schools are sprouting up in all shapes and sizes across the United States, according to Lisa Bennett of the Center for Ecoliteracy, in Berkeley, California. "Some schools are doing it through gardens, some are doing it through healthy nutritious lunches, others are doing it through their classes."The Center for Ecoliteracy has worked with Head-Royce and other schools to integrate environmental action into lesson plans and offers workshops for educators around the world. A new book from the center, called Smart by Nature, profiles U.S. schools that are greening their curriculum.
Bennett says it's important for schools to teach sustainability. "Many of the problems that we now face are because we didn't learn about sustainable living so why not start teaching young kids about it?"
Some educators oppose adding environmental projects to the school day. They are concerned it will distract from basic academics like reading and math. But Bennett says the opposite is usually true. "What the research is now showing is that when kids are out in nature and they're met with a challenge, when they're given this kind of education that's designed around a project, where they then have to learn things for a reason in order to complete their project, they are willing to work a lot harder and we have seen scores go up."
Environmental challenges foster leadership, problem-solving skills
The environmental focus at Head-Royce has made a positive difference. One Green Team member says, "It's really cool for once, rather than just learning material, to be able to build material out of our passions and out of our creativity because that's something that's not always emphasized enough."Headmaster Chapman says that, in addition to supporting academic growth, the green mission at Head-Royce helps students build leadership skills. He points out the connection between that and real world problem solving. "When you pitch a problem to kids and let them understand that they could come up with a solution to a problem that has bedeviled other people, it's highly motivational."
You can see the motivation throughout the school, says Head-Royce Academic Dean Crystal Land. She explains that teachers incorporate the idea of sustainability into every subject at every grade level. "Our math classes have a great water-use project where they measure the amount of water that comes out of the shower in each of their homes and then compare to local water use and worldwide water use rates for other families. All through the lower school they study the ocean." Future goals at Head-Royce include reducing the school's carbon footprint down from 2,000 metric tons of C02 a year to zero, in hopes of becoming one of the first carbon-neutral schools in the nation. Headmaster Chapman says the students are figuring out how to make that happen. He says they've discussed ideas such as running educational or fund-raising campaigns as well as encouraging carpooling and other alternative transportation.
As for the future of the Green Team students, many plan to keep trying to make the world more sustainable. "There are a lot of colleges out there that have wind turbines and they have composting set up," one young woman points out. "But I'm definitely going to get involved in whatever college I go to, in helping further green their school."

Sri Lanka Government, Opposition Supporters Clash in Colombo

2010-02-10T23:58:00.000-08:00

Earlier this month, a prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, retracted a report that linked autism to a vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella. Autism is a complex disability that affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. There are many theories about what causes autism. The latest has to do with a mother's age. Many women know that having a baby after 40 carries some risk. Cherri Cary was 40 when she gave birth."One of the concerns was Down syndrome," said Cherri Cary. "Another concern was pregnancy loss." But Cary never thought her age could increase her child's risk for autism.Her son Ben has been diagnosed with the disorder.Researchers from the University of California looked at millions of parents. They found that women who gave birth after age 40 were nearly twice as likely to have a child with autism as a woman under 25.But the increased risk is small. Only five percent of the increased risk is attributed to maternal age. Researcher Janie Shelton was the lead author."We know that it is a risk factor but we can't attribute the rise in autism to the shifting trend towards having children later in life," said Janie Shelton.Older mothers are known to face increased risks for having children with genetic disorders, and genes are thought to play a role in the entire autism spectrum. This can include people with asperger's syndrome who are highly functioning."I have a third cousin who has asperger's, and a first cousin who has just PDD, autism," said Erica Romano.Erica Romano has three children with autism. The California researchers say a mother's age is not the only risk factor. The study also found that the age of the father can play a role, although it is not as significant as the age of the mother. From all accounts, autism seems to be on the rise throughout much of the world.The Centers for Disease Control shows that the number of children with autism in the U.S. more than doubled between 2002 and 2006. About one child in 100 has a form of autism.Some researchers dispute the steep rise in the numbers. Anthropologist Richard Grinker wrote a book about it."You can't really compare today's rates with the rates of 10 years ago, 20 years ago," said Richard Grinker. "Because they're apples and oranges. The concept of autism was very different in the past."Parents and doctors are more aware of autism now which leads to earlier diagnosis. And the definition of autism has broadened so people with wide ranges of functioning are now diagnosed on the autism spectrum.The latest study claims that parental age, by itself, does not cause autism, but it may be one risk factor and one more piece of the autism puzzle. Soldiers and local volunteers in northern Afghanistan have found more bodies and survivors from recent avalanches along a well-traveled mountain road.Afghan officials said Wednesday that at least 165 people died from the avalanches in the Salang Pass - a 3,400-meter-high mountain road that connects Kabul to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.Officials said rescue workers using helicopters and heavy machinery have rescued more than 2,500 people. Days of heavy snowfall triggered the avalanches, burying parts of the road and blocking a tunnel. Media reports say the force of the avalanches pushed two buses and several cars into a deep gorge.President Hamid Karzai has expressed condolences for the victims and ordered Afghan public works officials to assist the rescue effort.Sri Lankan government supporters clashed with opposition activists protesting the arrest of their defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka.Thousands of opposition demonstrators gathered in front of the Supreme Court in Colombo Wednesday, when they were confronted by ruling-party activists who pelted them with stones.Police stepped in to break up the clashes. Witnesses say several people were wounded.Opposition supporters are demanding the release of Fonseka, the former chief of the armed forces, who was arrested Monday on charges of conspiring against the government.Fonseka lost last month's election to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, but the retired general and his allies allege the polls were rigged. The Sri Lankan election commissioner said there is no evidence of any tampering.On Tuesday, Mr. Rajapaksa dissolved parliament to clear the way for parliamentary elections to be held in early April.

Joining as an ERP developer is not encouraged nor necessary; as it calls for a different acumen. It is sufficient to start with the industry knowledge

2010-02-10T23:53:00.000-08:00

Understanding ERPfirst, ensure that you understand fully what ERP is about ( enterprise Resource Planning ). it is a type of information system which is computerised. ( few information systems are manual in todays age!). because of this reliance on IT, you would need to have a sound base in IT to complement your business knowledge and experience, which are valuble. I would recommend you consider taking a formal IT qualification eg Masters, or even a diploma part time. NEXT, you then need to understand the work involving information systems solution provider. Basic IT knowledge, developer/IT solution consultant knowledge and experience are essential to complement your existing business and finance knowledge and experience. In short, IT and finance are 2 different worlds apart and you need dual knowledge to succeed in ERP.Understanding ERPfirst, ensure that you understand fully what ERP is about ( enterprise Resource Planning ). it is a type of information system which is computerised. ( few information systems are manual in todays age!). because of this reliance on IT, you would need to have a sound base in IT to complement your business knowledge and experience, which are valuble. I would recommend you consider taking a formal IT qualification eg Masters, or even a diploma part time. NEXT, you then need to understand the work involving information systems solution provider. Basic IT knowledge, developer/IT solution consultant knowledge and experience are essential to complement your existing business and finance knowledge and experience. In short, IT and finance are 2 different worlds apart and you need dual knowledge to succeed in ERP.

I am considering switching careers to that of an ERP consultant in finance/distribution. If I do so, I will need to join an ERP developer so as to gain the basic knowledge.
My concern is that I have experience only in Excel/Word/PowerPoint and Access. I also have a little knowledge of Oracle Developer and basic knowledge of SQL/PL SQL.
I wish to know the financial worth of becoming an ERP consultant, the number of years of experience required to get a good-paying job in this field, and how much technical knowledge is required to master the ERP profession.
Career advice from Tay Kok Choon, country manager of JobStreet Singapore: It is encouraging to see people who are prepared to venture beyond their current job scope and try to do something new; that itself is already highly commendable.
The role of a finance manager and the ERP consultant are somewhat different although some of the skills acquired in the current job are applicable to the new role. Very likely, the person will venture into the new role, focusing on the financial aspects and modules of the systems and gradually gathering an understanding on the workings of the entire system.
It is not easy for consultants to isolate themselves within one small area; very often they end up being a business, process and specialized-area consultant all in one.
On the career aspect, my feel is that you need to almost take the attitude of re-starting your career. It requires the energy of a newcomer attacking a new venture.
The role can either be a pre-sales or post-sales consultant. It will be a little easier joining as a post-sales consultant as the nature of the role allows for more preparation time rather than thinking on the feet.
Joining as an ERP developer is not encouraged nor necessary; as it calls for a different acumen. It is sufficient to start with the industry knowledge acquired from the previous roles.
A good ERP consultant is highly valued by the IT industry and it pays well; travelling opportunities are in abundance. In your case, it is good for you to build on your business and process knowledge rather than re-start your whole career from the technical angle

Asset Management Configuration of AP and AM modules Strong SQL skills You will have previous experience within a global firm and have exposure to work

2010-02-10T23:46:00.000-08:00

Experience: 3-6 yrs Relevant Job Description:- Experience in at least 2 end to end implementation in Peoplesoft finance Experience in the analysis, design, and development of business applications. Should have coding experience with Peopletools 8.48 and above Knowledge of Peopelsoft finance application modules AP, AR, PO, PC, GL Strong working knowledge of peopletools SQR, application designer, peoplecode, Application Engine, crystal reports, Nvision Strong knowledge of PL/SQL, Oracle Basic understanding of UNIX commands Peopelsoft certifications are a definite plus. Basic knowledge of shell scripting Knowledge of Java /JEE is preferable Should have good analytical and communication skills Job Location:- Mumbai/Pune Current CTC:- Expected CTC:- Notice Period:- Availability for the face to face weekend drive on 14 th Feb in Mumbai Y/ N Send your resume and details to [HIDDEN TEXT] OR Call on - 022-41598925Experience: 3-6 yrs Relevant Job Description:- Experience in at least 2 end to end implementation in Peoplesoft finance Experience in the analysis, design, and development of business applications. Should have coding experience with Peopletools 8.48 and above Knowledge of Peopelsoft finance application modules AP, AR, PO, PC, GL Strong working knowledge of peopletools SQR, application designer, peoplecode, Application Engine, crystal reports, Nvision Strong knowledge of PL/SQL, Oracle Basic understanding of UNIX commands Peopelsoft certifications are a definite plus. Basic knowledge of shell scripting Knowledge of Java /JEE is preferable Should have good analytical and communication skills Job Location:- Mumbai/Pune Current CTC:- Expected CTC:- Notice Period:- Availability for the face to face weekend drive on 14 th Feb in Mumbai Y/ N Send your resume and details to [HIDDEN TEXT] OR Call on - 022-41598925Would you like the opportunity to work with a Leading IT Services Provider? Our client is a service provider of information technology and communications solutions. They offer a rewarding and challenging work place for the right candidate. We are looking to appoint an experienced Peoplesoft Architect for a 3 month contract assignment. To be considered for this role you will have demonstrated and proven experience as a Peoplesoft Architect and have high level skills with Oracle Fusion. Description: Peoplesoft Architect Oracle Fusion Skills If this opportunity is off interest please forward your Resume to (see below) or call Tricia Spinks or Jane Saxby to discuss this role in more detail Please quote Job Reference PERCTS8956 when applying for this role. Name: Tricia Spinks Client Name: Recruiter Reference ID: JSPERCTS8956 Please click the 'Apply Now' button belowWould you like the opportunity to work with a Leading IT Services Provider? Our client is a service provider of information technology and communications solutions. They offer a rewarding and challenging work place for the right candidate. We are looking to appoint an experienced Peoplesoft Architect for a 3 month contract assignment. To be considered for this role you will have demonstrated and proven experience as a Peoplesoft Architect and have high level skills with Oracle Fusion. Description: Peoplesoft Architect Oracle Fusion Skills If this opportunity is off interest please forward your Resume to (see below) or call Tricia Spinks or Jane Saxby to discuss this role in more detail Please quote Job Reference PERCTS8956 when applying for this role. Name: Tricia Spinks Client Name: Recruiter Reference ID: JSPERCTS8956 Please click the 'Apply Now' button belowContract role Financial Services Immediate start As an ASX 20, globally renowned organisation and market leader, we require a highly experienced PeopleSoft Functional/Technical Analyst for a contract position for an immediate start. Due to current demands of ongoing growth you will be a key member implementing system enhancements, upgrades and continuous improvements. You will be a highly skilled and capable team member who is focussed on delivering quality service both here and abroad. Technically you will be focused across: PeopleSoft V8 in both AP and Asset Management Configuration of AP and AM modules Strong SQL skills You will have previous experience within a global firm and have exposure to working within tight timeframes and to a high level of customer service. You will be responsible for the development of system enhancements and fixes, functional configuration of AP and AM and also adhoc support of the procedure to pay applications. On offer is a contract opportunity that will. 5+ years experience in developing automated test scripts for PeopleSoft . 5+ years experience with PeopleSoft . 5+ years experience with regression testing . Ensures quality of representative production test data for interface testing to external applications . Responsible for defects management and driving to resolution and retesting the same . Identifies necessary test environment requirements to support the production support test phase and coordinates with infrastructure and functional teams . Bachelors Degree or equivalent work experience in Computer Science . Clear understanding of life cycle methodology Please send resume to

Are you an experienced PeopleSoft Consultant with solid Time & Labour module experience looking for a long term contract in the Melbourne CBD? This national Oracle partner has a six month contract available for industry savvy and commercially experienced PeopleSoft HR/Payroll Technical Consultant specialising in the PeopleSoft Time & Labour module. They are looking for consultants to extend their technical and functional expertise to provide analysis and develop and write custom rules. It is expected that you have a combination of the following skills: Thorough technical and some functional knowledge of PeopleSoft with proven experience with the Time & Labour module. Specialisation in the implementation and support of the PeopleSoft HR/Payroll suite from versions 7.0 through to 8.9 with some recent exposure to 9.0. Excellent communications skills and face to face client interaction If you are ready to get stuck into a juicy long term contract with a major blue chip company don't hesitateAre you an experienced PeopleSoft Consultant with solid Time & Labour module experience looking for a long term contract in the Melbourne CBD? This national Oracle partner has a six month contract available for industry savvy and commercially experienced PeopleSoft HR/Payroll Technical Consultant specialising in the PeopleSoft Time & Labour module. They are looking for consultants to extend their technical and functional expertise to provide analysis and develop and write custom rules. It is expected that you have a combination of the following skills: Thorough technical and some functional knowledge of PeopleSoft with proven experience with the Time & Labour module. Specialisation in the implementation and support of the PeopleSoft HR/Payroll suite from versions 7.0 through to 8.9 with some recent exposure to 9.0. Excellent communications skills and face to face client interaction If you are ready to get stuck into a juicy long term contract with a major blue chip company don't hesitate

Engelska är koncernspråk.Du är en person som tar initiativ och uppnår resultat.

2010-02-10T23:37:00.000-08:00

Som Commodity Manager Electronics kommer du ansvara för den nordiska leverantörsbasen inom elektronikområdet och se till att målen inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader möts.Huvudsakliga arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden omfattar bland annat:- Bidra till att utveckla den globala elektronikstrategin för affärsområdet Vehicle Systems- Förhandla fram och implementera leverantörskontrakt i enlighet med mål inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader.- Utveckla en process för avtalshantering för elektronikleverantörer- Ansvara för och driva frågor kring kostnadsbesparingar samt leveransplaner- Driva och supporta interntbaserade omvända auktioner av material- Samverka med och stödja DHR Corporate Global Commodity team för att anpassa strategiska initiativ med Kollmorgans initiativ.- Hjälpa Supplier Quality med Supplier Revisioner och arbeta för att bibehålla godkänd leverantörsbas.Du är civilingenjör inom industriell ekonomi med inriktning på Logistik, Supply Chain eller Operations Management.Erfarenhet och kunskaperMinst 2-3 års erfarenhet inom inköp/logistikDokumenterad erfarenhet av att prestera bättre resultat än väntatErfarenhet från tillverkningsindustrinErfarenhet av projektledning och operativa inköpFörhandlingsvanaErfarenhet av att jobba med Lean ToolsKunskap om internationella handelsreglerFlytande i svenska och engelska i tal och skrift är ett krav. Engelska är koncernspråk.Du är en person som tar initiativ och uppnår resultat. Du tar ansvar för dina uppdrag och driver dina processer framåt. Du lyssnar och kommunicerar med andra på ett konstruktivt sätt och anpassar dig på ett bra sätt till förändringar. Du arbetar bra med komplexa frågor och har förmåga att lösa komplicerade problem.Start: I överenskommelse med KollmorgenOmfattning: Heltid, tillsvidareResor: Resor inom Norden, ca 1 vecka per 4-6 veckors periodPlacering: Tyresö, stockholmSista ansökningsdag: 2010-02-12Kontakt: Sara PetterssonKollmorgen är ett dynamiskt företag som arbetar med den senaste tekniken. För rätt kandidat finns det stora möjligheter att utvecklas och avancera i bolaget.Denna rekrytering genomförs av Academic Work rekrytering och du kommer att anställas av Kollmorgen.Som Commodity Manager Electronics kommer du ansvara för den nordiska leverantörsbasen inom elektronikområdet och se till att målen inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader möts.Huvudsakliga arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden omfattar bland annat:- Bidra till att utveckla den globala elektronikstrategin för affärsområdet Vehicle Systems- Förhandla fram och implementera leverantörskontrakt i enlighet med mål inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader.- Utveckla en process för avtalshantering för elektronikleverantörer- Ansvara för och driva frågor kring kostnadsbesparingar samt leveransplaner- Driva och supporta interntbaserade omvända auktioner av material- Samverka med och stödja DHR Corporate Global Commodity team för att anpassa strategiska initiativ med Kollmorgans initiativ.- Hjälpa Supplier Quality med Supplier Revisioner och arbeta för att bibehålla godkänd leverantörsbas.Du är civilingenjör inom industriell ekonomi med inriktning på Logistik, Supply Chain eller Operations Management.Erfarenhet och kunskaperMinst 2-3 års erfarenhet inom inköp/logistikDokumenterad erfarenhet av att prestera bättre resultat än väntatErfarenhet från tillverkningsindustrinErfarenhet av projektledning och operativa inköpFörhandlingsvanaErfarenhet av att jobba med Lean ToolsKunskap om internationella handelsreglerFlytande i svenska och engelska i tal och skrift är ett krav. Engelska är koncernspråk.Du är en person som tar initiativ och uppnår resultat. Du tar ansvar för dina uppdrag och driver dina processer framåt. Du lyssnar och kommunicerar med andra på ett konstruktivt sätt och anpassar dig på ett bra sätt till förändringar. Du arbetar bra med komplexa frågor och har förmåga att lösa komplicerade problem.Start: I överenskommelse med KollmorgenOmfattning: Heltid, tillsvidareResor: Resor inom Norden, ca 1 vecka per 4-6 veckors periodPlacering: Tyresö, stockholmSista ansökningsdag: 2010-02-12Kontakt: Sara PetterssonKollmorgen är ett dynamiskt företag som arbetar med den senaste tekniken. För rätt kandidat finns det stora möjligheter att utvecklas och avancera i bolaget.Denna rekrytering genomförs av Academic Work rekrytering och du kommer att anställas av Kollmorgen.Danaher Corporation (NYSE DHR) är ett Fortune 500 företag som har tillverkning över hela världen. Bolaget har visat på fortsatt global tillväxt och lönsamhet år efter år. Danaher Motion Stockholm AB är en del av Kollmorgen, som ingår i Danaher Corporation, och har ca 120 anställda. Danaher Motion Stockholm AB är en ledande tillverkare av kontroller och enheter som används i bland annat gaffeltruckar, robotar och hybridlösningar för fordon. Kollmorgen är en ledande leverantör av rörelsesystem och komponenter som förbättrar effektiviteten och produktivitetn i komplexa tillverkningsprocesser.
Posted by kalpana at 11:32 PM 0 comments

Commodity Manager Electronics till Danaher Corporation

2010-02-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

Som Commodity Manager Electronics kommer du ansvara för den nordiska leverantörsbasen inom elektronikområdet och se till att målen inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader möts.Huvudsakliga arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden omfattar bland annat:- Bidra till att utveckla den globala elektronikstrategin för affärsområdet Vehicle Systems- Förhandla fram och implementera leverantörskontrakt i enlighet med mål inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader.- Utveckla en process för avtalshantering för elektronikleverantörer- Ansvara för och driva frågor kring kostnadsbesparingar samt leveransplaner- Driva och supporta interntbaserade omvända auktioner av material- Samverka med och stödja DHR Corporate Global Commodity team för att anpassa strategiska initiativ med Kollmorgans initiativ.- Hjälpa Supplier Quality med Supplier Revisioner och arbeta för att bibehålla godkänd leverantörsbas.
Du är civilingenjör inom industriell ekonomi med inriktning på Logistik, Supply Chain eller Operations Management.Erfarenhet och kunskaperMinst 2-3 års erfarenhet inom inköp/logistikDokumenterad erfarenhet av att prestera bättre resultat än väntatErfarenhet från tillverkningsindustrinErfarenhet av projektledning och operativa inköpFörhandlingsvanaErfarenhet av att jobba med Lean ToolsKunskap om internationella handelsreglerFlytande i svenska och engelska i tal och skrift är ett krav. Engelska är koncernspråk.Du är en person som tar initiativ och uppnår resultat. Du tar ansvar för dina uppdrag och driver dina processer framåt. Du lyssnar och kommunicerar med andra på ett konstruktivt sätt och anpassar dig på ett bra sätt till förändringar. Du arbetar bra med komplexa frågor och har förmåga att lösa komplicerade problem.Start: I överenskommelse med KollmorgenOmfattning: Heltid, tillsvidareResor: Resor inom Norden, ca 1 vecka per 4-6 veckors periodPlacering: Tyresö, stockholmSista ansökningsdag: 2010-02-12Kontakt: Sara PetterssonKollmorgen är ett dynamiskt företag som arbetar med den senaste tekniken. För rätt kandidat finns det stora möjligheter att utvecklas och avancera i bolaget.Denna rekrytering genomförs av Academic Work rekrytering och du kommer att anställas av Kollmorgen.Som Commodity Manager Electronics kommer du ansvara för den nordiska leverantörsbasen inom elektronikområdet och se till att målen inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader möts.Huvudsakliga arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden omfattar bland annat:- Bidra till att utveckla den globala elektronikstrategin för affärsområdet Vehicle Systems- Förhandla fram och implementera leverantörskontrakt i enlighet med mål inom kvalitet, leveransplaner och kostnader.- Utveckla en process för avtalshantering för elektronikleverantörer- Ansvara för och driva frågor kring kostnadsbesparingar samt leveransplaner- Driva och supporta interntbaserade omvända auktioner av material- Samverka med och stödja DHR Corporate Global Commodity team för att anpassa strategiska initiativ med Kollmorgans initiativ.- Hjälpa Supplier Quality med Supplier Revisioner och arbeta för att bibehålla godkänd leverantörsbas.
Du är civilingenjör inom industriell ekonomi med inriktning på Logistik, Supply Chain eller Operations Management.Erfarenhet och kunskaperMinst 2-3 års erfarenhet inom inköp/logistikDokumenterad erfarenhet av att prestera bättre resultat än väntatErfarenhet från tillverkningsindustrinErfarenhet av projektledning och operativa inköpFörhandlingsvanaErfarenhet av att jobba med Lean ToolsKunskap om internationella handelsreglerFlytande i svenska och engelska i tal och skrift är ett krav. Engelska är koncernspråk.Du är en person som tar initiativ och uppnår resultat. Du tar ansvar för dina uppdrag och driver dina processer framåt. Du lyssnar och kommunicerar med andra på ett konstruktivt sätt och anpassar dig på ett bra sätt till förändringar. Du arbetar bra med komplexa frågor och har förmåga att lösa komplicerade problem.Start: I överenskommelse med KollmorgenOmfattning: Heltid, tillsvidareResor: Resor inom Norden, ca 1 vecka per 4-6 veckors periodPlacering: Tyresö, stockholmSista ansökningsdag: 2010-02-12Kontakt: Sara PetterssonKollmorgen är ett dynamiskt företag som arbetar med den senaste tekniken. För rätt kandidat finns det stora möjligheter att utvecklas och avancera i bolaget.Denna rekrytering genomförs av Academic Work rekrytering och du kommer att anställas av Kollmorgen.Danaher Corporation (NYSE DHR) är ett Fortune 500 företag som har tillverkning över hela världen. Bolaget har visat på fortsatt global tillväxt och lönsamhet år efter år. Danaher Motion Stockholm AB är en del av Kollmorgen, som ingår i Danaher Corporation, och har ca 120 anställda. Danaher Motion Stockholm AB är en ledande tillverkare av kontroller och enheter som används i bland annat gaffeltruckar, robotar och hybridlösningar för fordon. Kollmorgen är en ledande leverantör av rörelsesystem och komponenter som förbättrar effektiviteten och produktivitetn i komplexa tillverkningsprocesser.

System Architecture Expert for Server platform and Application in Core Network

2010-02-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

We are currently building a new R&D competence area within middleware server platforms and applications in Core Network. We are looking for a System Architecture Expert for Server platform and Application in Core Network - responsible for define, develop, communicate, defend and revise system architecture. The position will be in the R&D department Core Networks, based in Kista, Stockholm.
Responsibilities:
Foundation for system architecture such as basic principles, denomination, life cycle management.
Application and platform definition and separation
Application module concept and structure to limit complexity
Technology planning & roadmap for the next 3 to 5 years
Life cycle management (product and technology roadmap)
System Design work
Participate in future network scenario
Participate in telecom industry analyzing considering market trends, customer and competitor moves.
Qualifications:
More than 7 years direct experience with a proven track record within a well-known international telecommunication equipment vendor.
More than 6 years experience from system architecture within a well-known international telecommunication equipment vendor.
Understanding the customer's business and how to contribute to the customer's success
Other requirements:
Minimum of bachelor degree in telecommunications, computer science or electronics.
Excellent cooperation skills with a wide variety of people, including but not limited to, engineering, marketing, R&D and standardization.
Must welcome challenges.
Good oral and written communication, interpersonal skills and fluent in EnglishWe are currently building a new R&D competence area within middleware server platforms and applications in Core Network. We are looking for a System Architecture Expert for Server platform and Application in Core Network - responsible for define, develop, communicate, defend and revise system architecture. The position will be in the R&D department Core Networks, based in Kista, Stockholm.
Responsibilities:
Foundation for system architecture such as basic principles, denomination, life cycle management.
Application and platform definition and separation
Application module concept and structure to limit complexity
Technology planning & roadmap for the next 3 to 5 years
Life cycle management (product and technology roadmap)
System Design work
Participate in future network scenario
Participate in telecom industry analyzing considering market trends, customer and competitor moves.
Qualifications:
More than 7 years direct experience with a proven track record within a well-known international telecommunication equipment vendor.
More than 6 years experience from system architecture within a well-known international telecommunication equipment vendor.
Understanding the customer's business and how to contribute to the customer's success
Other requirements:
Minimum of bachelor degree in telecommunications, computer science or electronics.
Excellent cooperation skills with a wide variety of people, including but not limited to, engineering, marketing, R&D and standardization.
Must welcome challenges.
Good oral and written communication, interpersonal skills and fluent in English
Founded in 1988, Huawei Technologies is one of the fastest growing telecommunications and network solutions providers in the world. At Huawei Technologies, we look for people who share our vision: to enrich life with communication. We are a leading supplier of next generation telecom networks and currently serve 37 of the worlds top 50 operators. Our people are committed to providing innovative products, services and solutions and understand it as their mission to create long-term value and growth potential for our clients.

Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content,

2010-02-10T23:21:00.000-08:00

And here’s the fascinating thing: two of the top searches were to the dockers.com/freepants URL, which was was never mentioned in the ad (and doesn’t exist). Yet enough people typed that in to a search box that it had “volcanic” hotness. Fortunately, Dockers either saw this coming or watched it happening and set up a redirect from that URL to its home page. Although they would have done even better by redirecting to the free pants page: http://us.dockers.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=4003744. Or on second thought, maybe they could redirect THAT crazy URL to dockers.com/freepants. Sadly, as with Boost Mobile’s spiking searches, Dockers is nowhere to be found for what the commercial caused people to search for. The Dockers site doesn’t appear for any of the four searches listed in Google Trends, although lots of other sites are taking advantage of the surge.
Why? Probably a combination of reasons that begin with its poor URL structure that includes lots of duplication and makes the content difficult to access. Also, the URL for sharing the video? http://us.dockers.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=4003744&camp=h-giveaway. If I might make a suggestion? What about instead using dockers.com/freepants?And here’s the fascinating thing: two of the top searches were to the dockers.com/freepants URL, which was was never mentioned in the ad (and doesn’t exist). Yet enough people typed that in to a search box that it had “volcanic” hotness. Fortunately, Dockers either saw this coming or watched it happening and set up a redirect from that URL to its home page. Although they would have done even better by redirecting to the free pants page: http://us.dockers.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=4003744. Or on second thought, maybe they could redirect THAT crazy URL to dockers.com/freepants. Sadly, as with Boost Mobile’s spiking searches, Dockers is nowhere to be found for what the commercial caused people to search for. The Dockers site doesn’t appear for any of the four searches listed in Google Trends, although lots of other sites are taking advantage of the surge.
Why? Probably a combination of reasons that begin with its poor URL structure that includes lots of duplication and makes the content difficult to access. Also, the URL for sharing the video? http://us.dockers.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=4003744&camp=h-giveaway. If I might make a suggestion? What about instead using dockers.com/freepants?Hi Vanessa, I would kindly like to point out that on all Dockers searches that I personally performed during and after the Super Bowl for their free pants giveaway that they appeared in top positioning for those keywords that are listed on Google Trends, which makes this article rather confusing.
Being that the information in the article above, specifically “The Dockers site doesn’t appear for any of the four searches listed in Google Trends, although lots of other sites are taking advantage of the surge,” is inaccurate (perform the searches) it makes sense to revise the article to reflect the true accuracy.
I did all four searches after the Super Bowl and the Dockers web site didn’t appear for any of them, although it did rank #1 for a search for [dockers]. It’s true that everyone sees different results at this point, so it’s possible some searchers did see dockers.com in the results for these, but I did not.
I just performed the search again and the dockers site does appear on the first page (although not the first result) for three of the searchers (but not for [dockers super bowl ad]). Which makes sense as between the game and now, lots of links have likely accrued to the site with that anchor text. But my point in the article was that a brand wants that visibility immediately when the commercial airs. And when I searched that evening, Monday, and Tuesday morning, the brand didn’t show up on the first page for any of the four.Ah – In reading your comment, it appears that I mistakenly interpreted your article as a Super Bowl vs. Search (as in PAID Search, not Organic Search) recap.
My comments were solely based on the brand’s strong command/coverage specifically in the Paid Search/Adwords arena; not organic search. In knowing now that your article is geared directly re: organic, it makes sense.
I assume that I am not the only one who interpreted the article in this manner as the title stated “Scoring Super Bowl 2010 Advertising: How’s the Search Visibility?” which to me in my profession automatically means SEM, not SEO. Any way to adjust the title to make it more clear to the masses? ;)
Apologies for the confusion – my point being that Dockers did a great job at ensuring Paid Search coverage for their Super Bowl spot… and now I realize that your article is specifically regarding ORGANIC search visibility.

URL was hyundai.com. Anyone looking for “edit your own” couldn’t find it. The only improvement I would recommend to Honda would be to ditch the extra

2010-02-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

You’ll notice that the advertised URL isn’t the one that ranks. In this case, the advertised URL redirects correctly with a 301 and both URLs contain the same keywords (Honda and Crosstour), so searchers aren’t likely to get confused. You may remember that I took issue with Hyundai’s use of a redirected vanity URL last year, but that was in part because the advertised URL was edityourown.com and the “real” URL was hyundai.com. Anyone looking for “edit your own” couldn’t find it. The only improvement I would recommend to Honda would be to ditch the extra parameters. crosstour.honda.com currently redirects to http://automobiles.honda.com/accord-crosstour/?from=http://crosstour.honda.com/. Is the from parameter really needed in this case? Diving further into the site, it appears that primary navigation uses a folder URL structure and secondary navigation uses a parameter-based URL structure. This makes it difficult for the bots to know when parameters are required vs. optional. Which leads to URLs such as this being indexed:You’ll notice that the advertised URL isn’t the one that ranks. In this case, the advertised URL redirects correctly with a 301 and both URLs contain the same keywords (Honda and Crosstour), so searchers aren’t likely to get confused. You may remember that I took issue with Hyundai’s use of a redirected vanity URL last year, but that was in part because the advertised URL was edityourown.com and the “real” URL was hyundai.com. Anyone looking for “edit your own” couldn’t find it. The only improvement I would recommend to Honda would be to ditch the extra parameters. crosstour.honda.com currently redirects to http://automobiles.honda.com/accord-crosstour/?from=http://crosstour.honda.com/. Is the from parameter really needed in this case? Diving further into the site, it appears that primary navigation uses a folder URL structure and secondary navigation uses a parameter-based URL structure. This makes it difficult for the bots to know when parameters are required vs. optional. Which leads to URLs such as this being indexed:You’ll notice that the advertised URL isn’t the one that ranks. In this case, the advertised URL redirects correctly with a 301 and both URLs contain the same keywords (Honda and Crosstour), so searchers aren’t likely to get confused. You may remember that I took issue with Hyundai’s use of a redirected vanity URL last year, but that was in part because the advertised URL was edityourown.com and the “real” URL was hyundai.com. Anyone looking for “edit your own” couldn’t find it. The only improvement I would recommend to Honda would be to ditch the extra parameters. crosstour.honda.com currently redirects to http://automobiles.honda.com/accord-crosstour/?from=http://crosstour.honda.com/. Is the from parameter really needed in this case? Diving further into the site, it appears that primary navigation uses a folder URL structure and secondary navigation uses a parameter-based URL structure. This makes it difficult for the bots to know when parameters are required vs. optional. Which leads to URLs such as this being indexed:Using famous people in ads can be great for several reasons, but can be problematic from a search perspective. If the famous person already has a solid set of results, it may be difficult for the brand to rank for that person’s name. And viewers are just as likely to search for the person as for the brand. You can see this scenario with the Focus On The Family commercial, which featured football player Tim Tebow.This year? No microsite. No offline/online integration. No social, viral, online experience. The ads simply showed their domain name: hyundai.com. I’m sad this might mean they think their idea of engaging an audience with offline/online integration was a failure, when really it just could have used a better execution.
They do rank #1 for their brand, although they’re still advertising a domain that redirects elsewhere. But at least both domains have “Hyundai” in themClearly the commercial caused people to search for the Tebow family in much greater numbers than for Focus On The Family. Could Focus On the Family done anything to be found for those [tebow] searches? Well, sure. After all, the Huffington Post article about the commercial ranks number two, so it managed to break through all of the legacy content. But focusonthefamily.com site doesn’t seem to have a full article of content that shows it’s relevant for the query. It does feature a video and image, but very little that search engines can actually do anything with.
This is a cautionary tale of online reputation management as well. Lots of negative articles about the commercial are ranking for these queries and the brand’s positive spin is nowhere to be found.
Doritos – ranking despite themselves
Doritos. Their commercials caused search spikes for their brand, and they do indeed rank. I would call this success despite adversity, since snackstronproductions.com and doritos.com are duplicates, and they seem to love creating microsites for every campaign (crashthesuperbowl.com ranks second for their brand name). According to , the word “Doritos” isn’t even on the page and the text is:
“snack strong productions logo (8K) – no flash page Snack Strong Productions requires Macromedia Flash, version 8 or greater. Please click here to download. “
So go them for managing to show up anyway (likely through links).
Go Daddy – integrating media
You can’t fault Go Daddy. Their commercials get your attention and they drive people right to their web site. Last year, . Do people looking for video that’s “too hot for TV” really then buy domain names? As I found last year, apparently the answer is yes. This year, “We had a tremendous surge in Web traffic, sustained the spike, converted new customers and shot overall sales off the chart.”
Dockers – everyone wants free pants
Looking at Google Trends during and after the game, the dominating search was related to those free Dockers pants. Everyone loves pants. Especially if they’re free.

Scoring Super Bowl 2010 Advertising: How’s the Search Visibility

2010-02-10T23:05:00.000-08:00

After the 2009 Super Bowl, I and reported back on how well the brands did at ensuring visibility in organic search results. It didn’t go so well. The primary problems were:
Microsites – Microsites aren’t inherently a bad idea, but too many of them can cause brand confusion, external link dilution, and require that all search-related relevance and authority build from scratch with each new microsite.
Display issues – Many of the advertising brands last year ranked well, but due to technical issues had poor titles and descriptions in the search results.
Lack of consistency - In some cases, the brand bought AdWords for commercial taglines, but then didn’t display that tagline in the ad. Searchers likely skipped right past those ads as they were looking for a match to the phrase they typed in.
Have things gotten any better in 2010? Generally, yes they have. The use of microsites was greatly reduced this year, with most brands opting to simply display their primary domain name. This made ranking much more straightforward. However, overall there was less integration between the commercials and the web. GoDaddy was one of the few advertisers that encouraged viewers to visit their web site (which surely viewers did, to see the “too hot for TV” commercial sequels).
Why does this matter? 57 percent of us are sometimes , and that often translates into searches. A found that 32 percent of those surveyed planned to be online during the game — 14 percent to watch commercials and 13 percent to visit advertiser web sites. Not surprisingly, for several advertisers during and after the game.
So, could the estimated 13 million viewers (13 percent of looking for advertiser web sites find them? Let’s take a look.Normally, I recommend against hiding text like this because it’s and can get a site penalized, but in this case, I’d recommend against it because they’re not really even doing it right. They repeat the same text about all cars on every car page. It looks like they may have originally done it to get around AJAX issues (the ranking page 302 redirects to a a URL that includes a #), but this is a prime example of why showing things differently to search engines and visitors can cause problems with diagnosing what’s gone wrong with search visibility.As I noted last year, advertisers likely expect that if they display a URL in their ad, viewers will type that URL in their browser address bar. But often, viewers search for the URL (or portions of it or the brand name) instead, so it’s important to rank well for anything you’re advertising to maximize the ad’s effectiveness.Bridgestone ranks number one for both [bridgestone] and [bridgestone tire]. Unfortunately, the domain that ranks isn’t the one advertised. The advertised domain does a great job of engaging Super Bowl viewers. But how many of those viewers found it?You can see that Bridgestone did buy AdWords for the correct URL, but that domain appears nowhere in the organic top ten, as it’s crowded out by other Bridgestone properties. This situation can be difficult to fix, as the umbrella brand (Bridgestone) includes many sub-brands (including Bridgestone Tire), and each is likely managed separately. But even excluding SEO concerns, the current structure is likely causing consumer confusion. And it’s undoubtedly hindered the effectiveness of the Super Bowl ads. The domain that ranks first (bridgestone.com) could at the very least include a large call to action that leads visitors to the correct site. In the graphic below, you can see the site that ranks on the left and the site Bridgestone would like visitors to go to on the right (which includes Twitter and Facebook engagement, along with videos of the ads). As a sidenote, the twirly graphics that require you to chase them around with your mouse to go anywhere on the page on the left isn’t necessarily the more enjoyable experience for a bunch of people who may be a bit tipsy from Super Bowl refreshments.

Today, Henderson lives in a bright San Francisco loft on the same alley where Second Life publisher Linden Lab got its start

2010-02-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

It's always hard to know, of course, how a start-up will do. But Butterfield, the company's president, was joined from the get-go (see stop-motion video below of a Tiny Speck meeting) by three other veterans of the early Flickr days--Cal Henderson, Eric Costello, and Serguei Mourachov--and their combined resumes suggest that they have a pretty good idea how to build a Web-centric company.
Butterfield is without a doubt Web 2.0 royalty, having, along with his then-wife, Caterina Fake, helmed Flickr, one of the earliest and most popular services built around user-generated content. They sold the company to Yahoo in 2005 for a reported $35 million, and, like everyone else from the Flickr team who came over in the acquisition--and who stayed put--vested fully after three years.
He was born in 1973 in Lund, British Columbia, a former Norwegian fishing village that "became a hippie refuge in the '60s." The hamlet was popular, he recalled, with educated Americans dodging the Vietnam-era draft, such as his father.
Butterfield went to college at the University of Victoria and subsequently crossed the pond for a master's in philosophy from Cambridge University. His said he had hoped to take philosophy all the way and get a Ph.D. But a friend who'd already followed that path explained his likely future: terrible job security and low pay. "All my other friends were working in dot-coms and making three times as much," Butterfield said.
A little Web consulting later, he landed at the biggest Web development shop in Vancouver, B.C., Communicate.com, and eventually rose to a directorship. But he hated the job so much, he walked away from what he thought was $10 million worth of stock. That was in February 2000, just months before the dot-com bubble burst.
From there, he helped another friend found a small company called GradFinder--think Classmates.com for grad students--and they quickly sold it. Butterfield was not part of the team hired by the buyer. It's always hard to know, of course, how a start-up will do. But Butterfield, the company's president, was joined from the get-go (see stop-motion video below of a Tiny Speck meeting) by three other veterans of the early Flickr days--Cal Henderson, Eric Costello, and Serguei Mourachov--and their combined resumes suggest that they have a pretty good idea how to build a Web-centric company.
Butterfield is without a doubt Web 2.0 royalty, having, along with his then-wife, Caterina Fake, helmed Flickr, one of the earliest and most popular services built around user-generated content. They sold the company to Yahoo in 2005 for a reported $35 million, and, like everyone else from the Flickr team who came over in the acquisition--and who stayed put--vested fully after three years.
He was born in 1973 in Lund, British Columbia, a former Norwegian fishing village that "became a hippie refuge in the '60s." The hamlet was popular, he recalled, with educated Americans dodging the Vietnam-era draft, such as his father.
Butterfield went to college at the University of Victoria and subsequently crossed the pond for a master's in philosophy from Cambridge University. His said he had hoped to take philosophy all the way and get a Ph.D. But a friend who'd already followed that path explained his likely future: terrible job security and low pay. "All my other friends were working in dot-coms and making three times as much," Butterfield said.
A little Web consulting later, he landed at the biggest Web development shop in Vancouver, B.C., Communicate.com, and eventually rose to a directorship. But he hated the job so much, he walked away from what he thought was $10 million worth of stock. That was in February 2000, just months before the dot-com bubble burst.
From there, he helped another friend found a small company called GradFinder--think Classmates.com for grad students--and they quickly sold it. Butterfield was not part of the team hired by the buyer. Soon, though, he was the co-founder, along with Fake, of Ludicorp, a company centered on the development of an online social game called Game Neverending. In its short lifespan, the product gained a passionate following, and is still talked about reverently today.
Still, in order to make it a real business, Butterfield, Fake and his team needed cash, and this was 2002, when the aftermath of September 11, the dot-com bust and the collapse of Enron and Worldcom made most venture capitalists hide their wallets. So Ludicorp decided to put most of its energy into developing the social photo-sharing service they'd built into the game, called Flickr, thinking they could "sell it to someone for $1 million and use that to fund Game Neverending."
The rest is history, of course. Flickr became a phenomenon, and it was almost immediately clear that the team needed to put Game Neverending out to pasture.
But the game lives on, in some ways. For example, one of its most passionate players was an Englishman named Cal Henderson. Having impressed the folks at Ludicorp with that passion, he was hired, and when Flickr became the main project, he graduated to head of engineering there. Among his many accomplishments, he designed and wrote Flickr's APIs, which influenced a generation of developments on the Web, including OAuth.
Henderson, now 29, and responsible for everything front and back end at Tiny Speck, was born in Cambridge, the son of two teachers, and got a degree in software engineering, a crucial step towards fulfilling the dream he'd had since he was five years old of being a programmer. In addition to his off-the-charts geek cred for his Flickr accomplishments, he's also a regular conference speaker and literally on building scalable Web sites. He also co-created a popular clearinghouse for humorous content of all kindsThe third Tiny Speck partner, and the man who built the Glitch game client, is Eric Costello, a 39-year-old resident of Queens, New York, with an English literature degree and a long history on the Web. A very early blogger, he was also one of the very first people to develop in what became known as Ajax. He's also one of the world's leading authorities on cascading style sheets, and, like Henderson with scalable Web sites, wrote the book on the topic.
At Flickr, Costello was responsible for a wide variety of tasks, including building the photo-sharing site's Flash client.
Also an early Flickr team member, and now Tiny Speck's "Crazy Russian," as well as the one who built the Glitch game server, Serguei Mourachov grew up near Moscow and got a master's in physical-chemistry. He's currently in his early 40s and while he's spent years working on the Web, he once researched the manufacture of artificial diamonds.
In the '90s, he left Russia and ended up living in Brazil for five years. Eventually, he landed in Canada and in the late '90s, was one of the first people working on Java. "When we first started working on Game Neverending," recalled Butterfield, "I tried to hire him, but he was working on his own start-up which did some super esoteric tools for serializing Java process during execution. That's why Flickr was created."
Today, Tiny Speck is up to eight full-timers, including the four founders. Among the early hires was former Digg creative director Daniel Burka, who is now Tiny Speck's director of design. Also on the team, though as a contractor, is the illustrator Vicki Wong, known as Meomi, who designed the mascot for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
And over the next few months, Butterfield said, the company hopes to hire as many as five more staffers, including a vice president of operations and a community manager.

From the beginning, it was clear that an artistic aesthetic was essential to Glitch's fortunes, and in that regard, at the very least, there's no doub

2010-02-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

they play, decide on which paths they want to pursue. In order to achieve those paths, they must acquire certain skills. Among those skills are animal kinship, green thumb, gardening, botany cooking, baking, making drinks and so on. "We just thought about the kind of world we wanted to make," Butterfield recalled, and came up with "skills that related to each other in a supply and demand sense."
As you play, you gain experience points, and use those to level up. When you get to a new level, you get to choose new skills from a sort of skill tree, and each tree path has five or six different sub-skills.
So, for example, someone who wants to become a grand farmer must, over the course of the game, learn skills like animal husbandry, as well as gardening. "You need a bunch of different kinds of skills to get there," Butterfield said, "but you might not get there until level 30 or level 40, which could take a few months."
Players will earn skills by completing various quests and other achievements throughout the game. But while there may eventually be 40, 50, 60, or even more levels, the alpha will launch with only about 10, Butterfield said.
Another goal is to ensure that there are no barriers to people of different levels playing together. "So if your friends started playing before you," Butterfield said, "it can still be fun and not be lame, because you're in a totally different world." In the early days of Glitch's creation, Tiny Speck was using a game system in which each player would initially choose from among five character classes, each of which had a primary and a secondary talent. But after many months of work on that game mechanic, the team ripped it out in OctoberFrom the beginning, it was clear that an artistic aesthetic was essential to Glitch's fortunes, and in that regard, at the very least, there's no doubt Tiny Speck has succeeded. Throughout the game, players will encounter a series of stunningly beautiful styles, from denim mountains to clouds hanging on strings to a cracked open sky. Each of the many illustrators on the team is responsible for a different style, and in most cases, each style represents a different giant's imagination.
Tiny Speck's founders, too, seem to have a notable imagination. For example, the game plays out in accelerated time, with a game hour advancing six times as fast as a real hour. That means a day takes just four real hours to complete. The game also has what some might consider a strange calendar. Its 11 months are: Primuary, with 29 days; Spork, with 3; Turkmenbashi, with 55; Candy, 17; Fever, 73; Junuary, 19; Augtober, 13; Remember, 37; Doom, 5, Wiidershins, 47; and Eleventy, 11 days.

2010-02-10T21:43:00.000-08:00

At its core, Glitch is a social game in which players must learn how to find and grow resources, identify and build community and, at the higher levels of the game, proselytize to those around them. For those expecting warfare of the orc versus mage kind, perhaps it might be best to reset your expectations. "Rather than you and me fighting each other with swords," Butterfield explained, "it could be you and me having rival religious factions battling each other for converts."
But that's only deep into the game. At first, players must get through Glitch's early levels by completing quests, gaining skills, growing, and making many different kinds of things with basic ingredients--from a cheese plate to a pickle to a fruit salad, for starters--and winding their way through an often Mario-esque world of various artistic styles, many of which can be thought of as being inside an individual giant's memories.
Still, despite what may seem like a simple game system, Glitch is by no means intended to be mastered in a few short hours. Rather, while players should be able to rise through the first few levels very quickly, getting into the upper reaches of the game could take weeks, or more. And, since Glitch has no specific goals or end-game, committed players could find themselves entertained for months or more.
Not for your average Farmville player Because Glitch is a thinking-person's social game, Tiny Speck is not aimed at the entire world, at least not at first, especially not teens eager for the next World of Warcraft. Instead, Butterfield admitted, "There's not a better way to say [who we're targeting] than people with above average intelligence and sophisticated tastes, in their 20s or early 30s...The intersection of NPR listeners and game players."
From the beginning, it was clear that an artistic aesthetic was essential to Glitch's fortunes, and in that regard, at the very least, there's no doubt Tiny Speck has succeeded. Throughout the game, players will encounter a series of stunningly beautiful styles, from denim mountains to clouds hanging on strings to a cracked open sky. Each of the many illustrators on the team is responsible for a different style, and in most cases, each style represents a different giant's imagination.
Tiny Speck's founders, too, seem to have a notable imagination. For example, the game plays out in accelerated time, with a game hour advancing six times as fast as a real hour. That means a day takes just four real hours to complete. The game also has what some might consider a strange calendar. Its 11 months are: Primuary, with 29 days; Spork, with 3; Turkmenbashi, with 55; Candy, 17; Fever, 73; Junuary, 19; Augtober, 13; Remember, 37; Doom, 5, Wiidershins, 47; and Eleventy, 11 days.

While Glitch shares some of the features of hard-core MMOs like World of Warcraft and EverQuest--principally quests, leveling up, an in-game economy and working socially with other players, as a 2D Flash game--it might at the same time feel mildly familiar to players of Facebook games like Farmville or Nintendo titles like the many iterations of the Mario franchise.

"The whole world was spun out of the imagination of 11 great giants," said Stewart Butterfield, the president of Glitch developer Tiny Speck, and better known as the co-founder of Flickr. "So you have to go back into the past, into the world of the giants' imaginations and grow...the number of things in the world, grow it in terms of physical dimensions, to make sure the future actually happens. So all the game play takes place in the past inside the world of the giants' imagination." "The whole world was spun out of the imagination of 11 great giants," said Stewart Butterfield, the president of Glitch developer Tiny Speck, and better known as the co-founder of Flickr. "So you have to go back into the past, into the world of the giants' imaginations and grow...the number of things in the world, grow it in terms of physical dimensions, to make sure the future actually happens. So all the game play takes place in the past inside the world of the giants' imagination."

This 'duck of vaucanson' was a clue that Tiny Speck left those who were trying to figuring out what it was working prior to announcing Glitch on Tuesd

2010-02-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

months since Butterfield, along Cal Henderson, Serguei Mourachov and Eric Costello started Tiny Speck, it took a great deal of work to focus on such a clear narrative.
And to be sure, since it is only now going into private alpha, Glitch still has months of testing before it is launched publicly. That means that the back story could change even more.
Since last May, CNET's Daniel Terdiman was behind-the-scenes with Tiny Speck, and one of the fruits of that reporting is a look at many of the original back stories the company considered, as well as the iterations of the final version they went through along the way.
Presented here, for the first time, is some of that work.
The first stab Early on in the creation of what came to be known as Glitch, Butterfield took a first stab at articulating his vision for the back story. And then later, Tiny Speck hired a professional writer to streamline it. Butterfield provided both texts to CNET. They went like this:
In the far distant past, or the far distant future--it hardly matters which, because the Great Curve of Time sends things 'round to us either way--there lived a group of Giants: dull, oafish, petty and slow Giants.
These Giants lived for a very long time, perhaps forever. None of them were really sure, since none of them had yet died. They certainly lived for a very long time though, at least billions of years.
And they lived in the same place, with the same other Giants, with nothing to do but eat plums and chew the gently hallucinogenic Yellow Crumb Flower. Their minds having been so long around each other, and so long addled in just the same Yellow Crumb Flowery-way, fuse together and together dream a Great Hallucination.
Over a few billion years one's imagination has a chance to fully mature, even if one is a small-brained Giant. It grows powerful, rich and fecund. And these Giants had some fertile imaginations indeed.
At the intersections of the Giants' minds, whole new lives spring forth, in miniature. Those born in these places go on to inhabit and develop in the Giants' shared dream space, freely moving from one Giant's brain to another. They grow and multiply, becoming as quick and clever as the Giants are sluggish and foolish.
Living their lives In the Minds of Giants, our heroes jump from landscapes of memory and fear to panoramas of hope and fancy. They evolve and adapt, learning as they go. Gradually their collective action throughout the mental multiverse comes to effect the actions of the Giants themselves.
And so a strange causal loop develops, where what the Giants do has an effect on our wee protagonists, while they in turn effect the choices of the Giants. //// Can't finish! Somehow need to add in that the Giants are also petty and always causing problems for one another and also need a name for 'our heroes' and say that you can play them. May need to change voice to do that. Help!
Using Butterfield's work as a basis, the writer applied a bit of polish:
Once upon a time, 11 giants got together to create everything past, present and future. Yellow crumb flowers, piggies, seahorses, punchlines, wistfulness, dust storms, green tinges at sunset, you--or rather, they--named it and it was so.
But one day the giants, in their creative fervor, reached into the shadowy recesses of their minds and accidentally created something so dark, so unbearably awful that it robbed them of the collective spring in their step.
This shadowy, nameless thing (for to name this blackness is to make it manifest) left the giants in a deep funk. They stopped bathing. They let their whiskers grow. They shuffled about in slippers and bathrobes. They turned their backs on one another and sunk into a collective . Not only did they stop creating things, they began to forget those things they had already created. And every time a thing slipped from a giant's mind, that thing ceased to exist. Suns eclipsed. Planets disintegrated. Bands broke up. The universe began to shrink, and a gloom crept across it.
Only one sunny, happy place remained--the giants' collective dream-space. A race of beings colonised this happy place and dubbed it Halcyon. And to the degree the giants wallowed in apathy, so these beings--known as Sparklings--became lively and vital. Sparklings see the universe not as a place of inevitable nothingness but as a place of boundless wonder and abundance. Butterflies flit between yellow crumb flowers. Celestial bodies rise and set. Piggies forage.
Sparklings love and venerate the giants, who created everything. Sparklings roam the minds of giants in search of ways to cheer up their beloved creators. Each Sparkling pitches his or her boundless optimism against the giants' gloom. They nibble piggies, massage butterflies and contemplate rocks. In short, they celebrate all that's fabulous. And by doing so, they increase their own fabulous sparklingness.
There's more. The Sparklings realized that collectively, they could actually influence the giants' actions. Admittedly not by much, since giants are, well, gigantic whereas a Sparkling is just a tiny dream figment. Still, by working together Sparklings can make a giant move, and with each lumbering step, the giants move closer to rediscovering what they've forgotten.
The incurably optimistic Sparkings have one fervent hope: that one day, the giants will have remembered enough for the universe to be once again filled with light. Oh, happy day.
Of course, clean, well-defined language like that doesn't happen by accident. During the many months of Tiny Speck's stealthy development of Glitch, the back story required a fair bit of seasoning, not least because there were several significant inspirations.
One genesis of the project, Butterfield recalled, was a paper cut-outs motif: an 11-year-old Japanese girl loved drawing in different styles. But she was never satisfied with her work and would crumple up her compositions and toss them out the window. There, said Butterfield, they would "get sucked up into this wind and each one comes to life (like) tiny specks on motes of dust."
At that point, Tiny Speck wanted to call the game Paper Moon, but another game company grabbed that name, complete the cut-out motif.
A second inspiration was the 18th century , with things like a mechanical digesting duck, and of course, the mechanical turk. In Tiny Speck's imagination, a man in the French part of Belgium begins making creatures in his basement, and eventually has to "dig out his basement further to accommodate even more elaborate machinery, gears and springs and cogs, and he works on it for decades and decades," Butterfield said, "and finally he gets the last bit finished, and he dies, and so the world keeps on evolving. And no one knows about it. He never told anyone about it...[But] the creatures achieved consciousness, and that's the game world. That's why when you walk around in [Glitch] the pigs are mechanical and the houses are from the 18th century

But Butterfield said that focusing strictly on such an aesthetic was too limiting for the game's visual design, so it was scrapped as the major back story.
Another idea was One Billion DaydDreams, based on the concept that at any time, about 4 billion people are awake. "We made up the fact that about a quarter of the people are daydreaming at any one time, and there's a whole universe that stands in relation to those daydreams the way our universe stands in relation to nine dimensional strings and neurons and gluons," Butterfield said. "That was developed to explain the universe. And the game world [took] place in these daydreams."
That was popular with the Tiny Speck team, but one day someone pointed out that the opening titles of the hit PlayStation 3 game, Little Big Planet had almost the exact same idea. So that, too, was discarded.
"But we liked...the idea of being inside different minds...because you could have all these conceptual game items, like figments and emotions and anxieties as bad guys you have to take care of."

This results in a time-traveling effort at saving the future, going back into the minds of eleven great giants walking sacred paths on a barren astero

2010-02-10T21:31:00.000-08:00

Eventually, Henderson suggested an innovative solution that the team decided to implement: instead of trying to map the entire thing, they would represent the grid as a small number of main streets with just four sign posts. And each sign would have essentially a drop-down menu of choices: A to G and 1 to 8. The idea was that then anyone would be able to find any location by simply picking coordinates, as they might on a normal map.
"We've been wrestling with it since we started," Butterfield told me in August.
"I just thought about how cities are organized," Henderson said of how he came upon the solution, "how you would address something in a city if you can't just say the name of the street."
Many platforms At its core, Glitch is a 2D Web-based Flash game like many other social online titles. But Tiny Speck's business model depends on getting the game's players to branch out beyond their browser and onto other devices.
That's because while Glitch will be free to play for anyone, Tiny Speck plans to eventually sell a series of Glitch mini-games that will be available for iPhone and Android and allow players to unlock new skills that they wouldn't otherwise be able to access. That would, in theory, give those players a leg up over those who play only the free game on the Web.
Either as part of the same purchasable mini-games, or possibly as free add-ons, Tiny Speck hopes to give players the ability to use their mobile devices to send commands to their characters.
Perhaps, he explained, players would be able to command their "robots to tend to the crops from [their] iPhone...or participate in the [game] auctions."
Eventually, Butterfield said, Tiny Speck would like to make Glitch available, in some form or another, on as many platforms as possible, up to and including Xbox Live or PlayStation Network. Eventually, Henderson suggested an innovative solution that the team decided to implement: instead of trying to map the entire thing, they would represent the grid as a small number of main streets with just four sign posts. And each sign would have essentially a drop-down menu of choices: A to G and 1 to 8. The idea was that then anyone would be able to find any location by simply picking coordinates, as they might on a normal map.
"We've been wrestling with it since we started," Butterfield told me in August.
"I just thought about how cities are organized," Henderson said of how he came upon the solution, "how you would address something in a city if you can't just say the name of the street."
Many platforms At its core, Glitch is a 2D Web-based Flash game like many other social online titles. But Tiny Speck's business model depends on getting the game's players to branch out beyond their browser and onto other devices.
That's because while Glitch will be free to play for anyone, Tiny Speck plans to eventually sell a series of Glitch mini-games that will be available for iPhone and Android and allow players to unlock new skills that they wouldn't otherwise be able to access. That would, in theory, give those players a leg up over those who play only the free game on the Web.
Either as part of the same purchasable mini-games, or possibly as free add-ons, Tiny Speck hopes to give players the ability to use their mobile devices to send commands to their characters.
Perhaps, he explained, players would be able to command their "robots to tend to the crops from [their] iPhone...or participate in the [game] auctions."
Eventually, Butterfield said, Tiny Speck would like to make Glitch available, in some form or another, on as many platforms as possible, up to and including Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.

On Tuesday, as , Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield's start-up Tiny Speck announced its new online social game, Glitch.
As described on , "It's called Glitch because in the far-distant and totally-perfect future, the world starts becoming less and less probable, things fall apart, the center cannot hold, and there occurs what comes to be called the 'glitch'--a grave danger of disemprobablization. This results in a time-traveling effort at saving the future, going back into the minds of eleven great giants walking sacred paths on a barren asteroid who sing and think and hum the world into existence."

This philosophy was crucial, Henderson told me then, "because we want to have hundreds of thousands of locations and items. So any of us working on it

2010-02-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Last May, I began a series of behind-the-scenes meetings with Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield about Tiny Speck, the company he and three partners had just started and the game they were working on.
That game, which they announced on Tuesday is called Glitch, has been in the works since last March and much has changed about it in the interim--the artistic styles, the back story, the core game mechanic and the size of the team building it.
Glitch is a social online game that takes place in the imaginations of 11 ancient giants and tasks players with essentially growing an optimistic future from the ground up through complex questing, resource development, and interactions with others.
But one thing that hasn't changed is the Tiny Speck founders' determination that no matter what, they will be able to update and modify the contents of the live game--once it's live, that is--very quickly and not have to take it offline in order to do so, as is often the case with large-scale massively multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft.
On the official Glitch site, Butterfield and his partners, Cal Henderson, Eric Costello, and Serguei Mourachov, offer a brief peek at the technology behind that technological commitment.
"Glitch is built in an entirely new and different way for a game. The back end (java at the lowest level, with game logic scripted in Javascript)," they wrote, "is designed for maximum flexibility and ease of deployment. That means we'll be able to push new content--new items, new places, new characters--on a daily basis. It also means that we'll have lots of APIs with which the game can be expanded and extended."

One of the challenges that had bedeviled the Tiny Speck team from the get-go was how to render a visually understandable map that would meaningfully represent the countless number of main streets and "child streets" in the game that would be necessary in order to ensure that everyone who wanted an in-game house could have one.
The idea had been to have a geometrically branching map, Butterfield said, "so that one main street can have six child streets time six sign posts, and each [of those] could have six child streets and six sign posts. So each main street [could have] thousands of child streets."
But Tiny Speck was struggling to find a way to make that idea work on a map. "Rendering that as a map that you can visually understand...gets incredibly hard," said Butterfield. "It's more or less impossible...It's hyper spatial [and] not a space that can really exist."

From his office off the floor of Interamerican Wovens SA, a garment factory in earthquake- stricken Port-au-Prince, Hector Soto watches 540 workers st

2010-02-10T05:48:00.000-08:00

From his office off the floor of Interamerican Wovens SA, a garment factory in earthquake- stricken Port-au-Prince, Hector Soto watches 540 workers stitching pink and turquoise medical scrubs for the U.S. market.
On an output chart hanging in his office, Soto, 41, draws a red line slashing downward. It’s dated Jan. 12, the day a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing about 230,000 people. Then, with a green marker, he adds a rising line that starts Jan. 25.
Four weeks after the temblor collapsed the economy of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, Haiti is slowly stirring to life. Factories that produced garments, which accounted for about 8 percent of the economy, are running again, while new entrepreneurs seek opportunity amid the ruins by selling mobile- phone calls or recycling building materials from the rubble.
“Haitians are very resilient,” said Eduardo Almeida, the Inter-American Development Bank’s representative in Haiti. “They are used to suffering all types of shocks, political and environmental. They get right up and find ways to keep on going.”
The earthquake injured 300,000 people, according to a government estimate reported by the United Nations, and left 1 million of the county’s 9 million people homeless. It was the deadliest in the Western Hemisphere according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Informal Jobs
Before the quake, about two thirds of the population lacked a formal job and 9 percent worked in manufacturing, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Haiti had a per capita income of about $1,300 a year, the Hemisphere’s lowest, and a gross domestic product of $7.36 billion in 2008.
Pre-quake exports totaled about $500 million annually, $450 million of which were textiles, according to the IADB. Garments made from local components accounted for $150 million of exports. The rest were assembled from foreign materials.
Interamerican, owned by Haiti’s Apaid family, occupies one of 49 identical concrete block buildings arrayed in an industrial park off the road to downtown Port-au-Prince from the city’s Toussaint L’Ouverture airport.
About 90 percent of its production goes to the U.S., Soto said, and clothing used to be shipped by sea from Port-au- Prince. The city’s port collapsed in the quake and the U.S. Army said it won’t reopen for months.
New Seaports
Now, seaports in the Dominican Republic handle half its shipments and the other half leaves from Les Cayes, a Haitian port 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince.
Clients, including San Francisco-based The Gap Inc., New York-based Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., and Landau Uniforms Inc., an Olive Branch, Mississippi-based scrubs seller, have stuck with the factory, Soto said.
“We are way below zero,” Soto said. The two-week shutdown set the factory’s output back a month, he added. “I had a target to step up production to 45,000 pieces a week by March from 35,000. Now, maybe I can achieve that goal in May or June.”
After the “twelfth,” as many Haitians refer to the earthquake, roads were impassable to supply trucks and the generators had no fuel. In addition, most of the plant’s employees didn’t show up.
‘Lost Friends’
“Some of them were dead, we later learned,” said the Dominican-born Soto, who moved to Port-au-Prince in December 2008. “But most were dealing with the fact they were homeless and had lost friends and family.”
Worried they would drop out of work en masse, Soto said he hired a psychotherapist for the plant.
Haiti is a risky place so Haitians know how to manage risk, said the IADB’s Almeida.
“You will see small entrepreneurs starting a business or selling a service from one day to the next,” he said. “The economy is very informal, so it fosters that kind of entrepreneurial spirit.”
At a dusty Texaco service station on the Route de Tabarre, a major north-south road through the capital, Simon Esperance, 25, clutches a large beige cell phone, approaching drivers lined up for gas and people waiting for a bus amid street vendors pedaling food and toiletries.
He bought the phone after his cashier’s job disappeared with his employer’s food market. He sells calls on the instrument, which resembles a table top phone without a cord, for 5 gourdes (13 cents) a minute.
Cockfights
“A lot of people lost everything, so they can’t afford to replace their cell phones yet,” Esperance said. “So I bought this so I can make money too.”
Thirty kilometers north of Port-au-Prince, in Cabaret, a town known for its cockfights on Route Nationale 1, Haiti’s main highway, Michel Saint, 34, is dumping debris from his Toyota pickup truck onto his front yard.
Unlike the tens of thousands of Haitians paid as much as $5 a day by the UN to clear the capital, Saint has opened a business of his own turning debris into building materials. His brother-in-law, Joseph Duperroy, 31, helps him unload chunks of broken buildings, concrete and scrap metal.From his office off the floor of Interamerican Wovens SA, a garment factory in earthquake- stricken Port-au-Prince, Hector Soto watches 540 workers stitching pink and turquoise medical scrubs for the U.S. market.
On an output chart hanging in his office, Soto, 41, draws a red line slashing downward. It’s dated Jan. 12, the day a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, killing about 230,000 people. Then, with a green marker, he adds a rising line that starts Jan. 25.
Four weeks after the temblor collapsed the economy of the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country, Haiti is slowly stirring to life. Factories that produced garments, which accounted for about 8 percent of the economy, are running again, while new entrepreneurs seek opportunity amid the ruins by selling mobile- phone calls or recycling building materials from the rubble.
“Haitians are very resilient,” said Eduardo Almeida, the Inter-American Development Bank’s representative in Haiti. “They are used to suffering all types of shocks, political and environmental. They get right up and find ways to keep on going.”
The earthquake injured 300,000 people, according to a government estimate reported by the United Nations, and left 1 million of the county’s 9 million people homeless. It was the deadliest in the Western Hemisphere according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Informal Jobs
Before the quake, about two thirds of the population lacked a formal job and 9 percent worked in manufacturing, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Haiti had a per capita income of about $1,300 a year, the Hemisphere’s lowest, and a gross domestic product of $7.36 billion in 2008.
Pre-quake exports totaled about $500 million annually, $450 million of which were textiles, according to the IADB. Garments made from local components accounted for $150 million of exports. The rest were assembled from foreign materials.
Interamerican, owned by Haiti’s Apaid family, occupies one of 49 identical concrete block buildings arrayed in an industrial park off the road to downtown Port-au-Prince from the city’s Toussaint L’Ouverture airport.
About 90 percent of its production goes to the U.S., Soto said, and clothing used to be shipped by sea from Port-au- Prince. The city’s port collapsed in the quake and the U.S. Army said it won’t reopen for months.
New Seaports
Now, seaports in the Dominican Republic handle half its shipments and the other half leaves from Les Cayes, a Haitian port 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince.
Clients, including San Francisco-based The Gap Inc., New York-based Polo Ralph Lauren Corp., and Landau Uniforms Inc., an Olive Branch, Mississippi-based scrubs seller, have stuck with the factory, Soto said.
“We are way below zero,” Soto said. The two-week shutdown set the factory’s output back a month, he added. “I had a target to step up production to 45,000 pieces a week by March from 35,000. Now, maybe I can achieve that goal in May or June.”
After the “twelfth,” as many Haitians refer to the earthquake, roads were impassable to supply trucks and the generators had no fuel. In addition, most of the plant’s employees didn’t show up.
‘Lost Friends’
“Some of them were dead, we later learned,” said the Dominican-born Soto, who moved to Port-au-Prince in December 2008. “But most were dealing with the fact they were homeless and had lost friends and family.”
Worried they would drop out of work en masse, Soto said he hired a psychotherapist for the plant.
Haiti is a risky place so Haitians know how to manage risk, said the IADB’s Almeida.
“You will see small entrepreneurs starting a business or selling a service from one day to the next,” he said. “The economy is very informal, so it fosters that kind of entrepreneurial spirit.”
At a dusty Texaco service station on the Route de Tabarre, a major north-south road through the capital, Simon Esperance, 25, clutches a large beige cell phone, approaching drivers lined up for gas and people waiting for a bus amid street vendors pedaling food and toiletries.
He bought the phone after his cashier’s job disappeared with his employer’s food market. He sells calls on the instrument, which resembles a table top phone without a cord, for 5 gourdes (13 cents) a minute.
Cockfights
“A lot of people lost everything, so they can’t afford to replace their cell phones yet,” Esperance said. “So I bought this so I can make money too.”
Thirty kilometers north of Port-au-Prince, in Cabaret, a town known for its cockfights on Route Nationale 1, Haiti’s main highway, Michel Saint, 34, is dumping debris from his Toyota pickup truck onto his front yard.
Unlike the tens of thousands of Haitians paid as much as $5 a day by the UN to clear the capital, Saint has opened a business of his own turning debris into building materials. His brother-in-law, Joseph Duperroy, 31, helps him unload chunks of broken buildings, concrete and scrap metal.

Democratic lawmakers were still negotiating the measure’s provisions yesterday and it hadn’t been formally introduced.

2010-02-10T05:41:00.000-08:00

“My hope is that both in the House and the Senate we’ll see some packages moving over the next several weeks that can provide a jump-start to hiring and start lowering the unemployment rate,” the president said.
Reid said he was aiming for the Senate to start work on the measure tomorrow; the chamber took today off due to a snowstorm predicted to dump a foot of snow on a Washington area still digging out of a weekend blizzard. “I want to get it done; we may have to work into the weekend because of the weather,” Reid told reporters.
Early yesterday, Reid said he hoped the bill could be voted on by the end of the week. Later, he said he doubted that would happen because of the bad weather was preventing some senators from returning to Washington.
Republican Prediction
Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona predicted the chamber will eventually pass the measure, though he said “there is no way it can be acted on this week” because the plan is “not quite yet worked out.”
Kyl also said Democrats shouldn’t advertise the package as jobs legislation because it’s just “extending a bunch of tax policy and related items that we need to do.”
The bill includes provisions on lawmakers’ annual to-do list, such as preventing scheduled cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and extending a series of expiring tax cuts that are unlikely to produce many jobs. In addition, the measure would ease corporate pension-funding requirements, said Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
Lawmakers tentatively agreed to three-month extensions of unemployment insurance and aid to help jobless workers buy health insurance from their former employer, Kyl said. The duration of those extensions may change, he said.
Highway Money
California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer said the plan will include $20 billion for highway and other transportation construction by extending the highway trust fund, which is financed by a federal gasoline excise tax.
Under the Build America bonds program, the U.S. subsidizes infrastructure projects by paying 35 percent of the interest costs from taxable bonds issued by local governments. Obama has proposed making the program permanent while reducing the subsidy to 28 percent.
The nation’s jobless rate was 9.7 percent in January and the percentage of unemployed people out of work for at least six months reached 41 percent, the highest total since the government began keeping track in 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Grassley said lawmakers are awaiting official estimates on how many jobs the plan would create.
Tax Credit Questions
He also said Republicans have questions about the plan’s proposed centerpiece, the payroll tax credit for hiring. “What about some company that has struggled not to lay anybody off and kept them on the payroll? Shouldn’t they get some credit too?” Grassley asked.
That proposal is designed to reduce the cost of hiring new workers by excusing employers from paying a 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax this year for each employee they hire who has been jobless for at least 60 days. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last month it was among those policy changes most likely to reduce unemployment this year.
The House passed a $154 billion jobs package late last year, which would have to be reconciled with whatever legislation is produced by the Senate.
The effort would represent Congress’s fourth major attempt to stimulate the economy since the recession began in December 2007. Lawmakers have approved more than $1 trillion in stimulus- related initiatives, beginning in February 2008 with a $168 billion plan that sent tax-rebate checks to millions of people. A year ago, lawmakers approved Obama’s $862 billion stimulus package. In November, Congress extended several elements of that plan.“My hope is that both in the House and the Senate we’ll see some packages moving over the next several weeks that can provide a jump-start to hiring and start lowering the unemployment rate,” the president said.
Reid said he was aiming for the Senate to start work on the measure tomorrow; the chamber took today off due to a snowstorm predicted to dump a foot of snow on a Washington area still digging out of a weekend blizzard. “I want to get it done; we may have to work into the weekend because of the weather,” Reid told reporters.
Early yesterday, Reid said he hoped the bill could be voted on by the end of the week. Later, he said he doubted that would happen because of the bad weather was preventing some senators from returning to Washington.
Republican Prediction
Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl of Arizona predicted the chamber will eventually pass the measure, though he said “there is no way it can be acted on this week” because the plan is “not quite yet worked out.”
Kyl also said Democrats shouldn’t advertise the package as jobs legislation because it’s just “extending a bunch of tax policy and related items that we need to do.”
The bill includes provisions on lawmakers’ annual to-do list, such as preventing scheduled cuts in Medicare reimbursements to doctors and extending a series of expiring tax cuts that are unlikely to produce many jobs. In addition, the measure would ease corporate pension-funding requirements, said Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.
Lawmakers tentatively agreed to three-month extensions of unemployment insurance and aid to help jobless workers buy health insurance from their former employer, Kyl said. The duration of those extensions may change, he said.
Highway Money
California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer said the plan will include $20 billion for highway and other transportation construction by extending the highway trust fund, which is financed by a federal gasoline excise tax.
Under the Build America bonds program, the U.S. subsidizes infrastructure projects by paying 35 percent of the interest costs from taxable bonds issued by local governments. Obama has proposed making the program permanent while reducing the subsidy to 28 percent.
The nation’s jobless rate was 9.7 percent in January and the percentage of unemployed people out of work for at least six months reached 41 percent, the highest total since the government began keeping track in 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Grassley said lawmakers are awaiting official estimates on how many jobs the plan would create.
Tax Credit Questions
He also said Republicans have questions about the plan’s proposed centerpiece, the payroll tax credit for hiring. “What about some company that has struggled not to lay anybody off and kept them on the payroll? Shouldn’t they get some credit too?” Grassley asked.
That proposal is designed to reduce the cost of hiring new workers by excusing employers from paying a 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax this year for each employee they hire who has been jobless for at least 60 days. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said last month it was among those policy changes most likely to reduce unemployment this year.
The House passed a $154 billion jobs package late last year, which would have to be reconciled with whatever legislation is produced by the Senate.
The effort would represent Congress’s fourth major attempt to stimulate the economy since the recession began in December 2007. Lawmakers have approved more than $1 trillion in stimulus- related initiatives, beginning in February 2008 with a $168 billion plan that sent tax-rebate checks to millions of people. A year ago, lawmakers approved Obama’s $862 billion stimulus package. In November, Congress extended several elements of that plan.

The plan announced yesterday by Senate Majority Leader Leader Harry Reid would will give small businesses more power to write off investment costs, extend the Build America Bonds program that subsidizes interest payments on local government bonds and continue the federal highway construction program through year’s end.
“We have to let the American people know we’re really trying hard to get something done that will create jobs immediately,” Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor. He told reporters the plan had “some good” bipartisan support.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said his members still needed details of the proposal to spend at least $80 billion so they can “understand what they’re being called on to support.”
Democratic lawmakers were still negotiating the measure’s provisions yesterday and it hadn’t been formally introduced.
Democratic and Republican congressional leaders met with President Barack Obama at the White House yesterday to discuss ways to move forward on a jobs bill and reducing the federal budget deficit. Lawmakers are under pressure to boost the economy before this year’s midterm elections, with new emphasis on bipartisanship since the Jan. 19 election Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts ended Democrats’ 60-vote Senate majority that had let them halt delaying tactics in the chamber.

"There's certainly a decent amount of headroom in there," Sideco says. "If they had to reduce the retail price, they certainly could."

2010-02-10T05:35:00.000-08:00

The chip running the iPad is called the A4, the fruit of Apple's 2008 acquisition of PA Semi for $278 million.
Samsung has supplied the main applications chip used in the iPhone 3GS and two previous iPhone models. In the case of the iPad, Samsung is playing a role akin to a chip foundry, building the chip under contract based on Apple's design, Sideco says.
Chip foundry companies including Taiwan Semiconductor and United Microelectronics both of Taiwan, similarly manufacture chips for so-called fabless chip companies that don't have the means to build their own semiconductor factories. Sideco estimates the A4 will cost Apple about $17, only about $2 more than the Samsung chip used in the iPhone 3GS, which cost $14.46.
Of the six iPad models Apple plans to release in March and April, three will have access to 3G wireless data networks and three will work only with Wi-Fi, each with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of memory. The memory chips are the key variable cost across all six models, Sideco says. The price of 16 gigabytes of flash memory is $29.50 while 32 gigabytes cost $59 and 64 gigabytes cost $118.
The most profitable of the six iPads is the 32-gigabyte version with 3G network access, Sideco says. Its combined materials and manufacturing cost of $287.15 amount to 39.4% of the retail price. The least profitable is the 16-gigabyte non-3G version, which sells for $499. Its combined costs amount to $229.35 or 46% of the retail price, leaving the slimmest potential profit margin of the six.The chip running the iPad is called the A4, the fruit of Apple's 2008 acquisition of PA Semi for $278 million.
has supplied the main applications chip used in the iPhone 3GS and two previous iPhone models. In the case of the iPad, Samsung is playing a role akin to a chip foundry, building the chip under contract based on Apple's design, Sideco says.
Chip foundry companies including Taiwan Semiconductor and United both of Taiwan, similarly manufacture chips for so-called fabless chip companies that don't have the means to build their own semiconductor factories. Sideco estimates the A4 will cost Apple about $17, only about $2 more than the Samsung chip used in the iPhone 3GS, which cost $14.46.
Of the six iPad models Apple plans to release in March and April, three will have access to 3G wireless data networks and three will work only with Wi-Fi, each with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of memory. The memory chips are the key variable cost across all six models, Sideco says. The price of 16 gigabytes of flash memory is $29.50 while 32 gigabytes cost $59 and 64 gigabytes cost $118.
The most profitable of the six iPads is the 32-gigabyte version with 3G network access, Sideco says. Its combined materials and manufacturing cost of $287.15 amount to 39.4% of the retail price. The least profitable is the 16-gigabyte non-3G version, which sells for $499. Its combined costs amount to $229.35 or 46% of the retail price, leaving the slimmest potential profit margin of the six.

Materials for the iPad, due to go on sale in March and April, include a multitouch-screen display that may cost about $80 and a $17 processor designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung, according to El Segundo (Calif.)-based iSuppli.
Even the lowest-priced iPad, with 16 gigabytes of memory and a retail price of $499, may be beyond the reach of some budget-conscious consumers, analysts have said. The relatively low price of the iPad's materials gives Apple scope to reduce the retail price over time, iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco says.
"There's certainly a decent amount of headroom in there," Sideco says. "If they had to reduce the retail price, they certainly could."
Price Cut Speculation
Credit analyst Bill Shope fueled speculation over price cuts when he released a research note Feb. 8 saying Apple may be flexible on pricing if the iPad doesn't attract as many buyers as hoped. "While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble," Shope wrote in the note, citing recent meetings with Apple executives.
Colin Smith, a spokesman for Cupertino (Calif.)-based Apple, declined to comment on iSuppli's research as well as the prospect of price cuts for the iPad.
Research firms including iSuppli conduct so-called teardown analysis of consumer electronics to determine component prices and makers and estimate margins. Researchers at iSuppli didn't have an actual iPad and instead relied on Apple's public statements on its features.
The iPad's most expensive component will be its 9.7-inch multitouch display, similar to the one found on the iPhone but more than twice its size. At $80, the display will cost Apple about five times the cost of the display . South Korea-based LG Electronics is the most likely supplier of the display, Sideco says. Apple hasn't disclosed the identity of the maker, and LG spokesman John Taylor didn't immediately return a call seeking comment. Materials for the iPad, due to go on sale in March and April, include a multitouch-screen display that may cost about $80 and a $17 processor designed by Apple and manufactured by Samsung, according to El Segundo (Calif.)-based iSuppli.
Even the lowest-priced iPad, with 16 gigabytes of memory and a retail price of $499, may be beyond the reach of some budget-conscious consumers, analysts have said. The relatively low price of the iPad's materials gives Apple scope to reduce the retail price over time, iSuppli analyst Francis Sideco says.
"There's certainly a decent amount of headroom in there," Sideco says. "If they had to reduce the retail price, they certainly could."
Price Cut Speculation
Credit Suisse analyst Bill Shope fueled speculation over price cuts when he released a research note Feb. 8 saying Apple may be flexible on pricing if the iPad doesn't attract as many buyers as hoped. "While it remains to be seen how much traction the iPad gets initially, management noted that it will remain nimble," Shope wrote in the note, citing recent meetings with Apple executives.
Colin Smith, a spokesman for Cupertino (Calif.)-based Apple, declined to comment on iSuppli's research as well as the prospect of price cuts for the iPad.
Research firms including iSuppli conduct so-called teardown analysis of consumer electronics to determine component prices and makers and estimate margins. Researchers at iSuppli didn't have an actual iPad and instead relied on Apple's public statements on its features.
The iPad's most expensive component will be its 9.7-inch multitouch display, similar to the one found on the iPhone but more than twice its size. At $80, the display will cost Apple about five times the cost of the display South Korea-based LG Electronics is the most likely supplier of the display, Sideco says. Apple hasn't disclosed the identity of the maker, and LG spokesman John Taylor didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

Failure to follow all the principles of the Toyota Way led to this crisis. The automaker should follow its quality precepts to find a way out

2010-02-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

When I there had been two recalls that covered nearly 5 million vehicles, but it seemed to me that the actual defects were small.Don't get me wrong: People had died and others were claiming to be injured, which is as serious as it gets.In my mind, however, those specific problems—and even the subsequent discovery of brake problems in the hybrid Prius—were far from an indictment of Toyota's engineering and manufacturing processes.Journalists were wildly speculating about blaming too-rapid growth, cost-cutting, and weaknesses in the philosophy of the Toyota Way. "This is nuts, " I thought.
The week unfolded with new revelations, including complaints by government safety agencies that Toyota (TM) is secretive and criticism that the company had dragged its heels after safety problems were indicated. On reflection (the Japanese call this hansei), I realized that I never studied how Toyota reacts to safety concerns. I had just been guessing, based on experience that I have had with the high integrity of Toyota executives. The question I have since shaped is not what I know or do not know, but how Toyota should respond to what's become a crisis in customer trust.
Any crisis starts with containment, and that is what Toyota is working on now. Once the crisis is contained, though, Toyota should go back to its tried-and-true management principles, which I spelled out in my 2004 book, The Toyota Way, to investigate the root causes and come up with solutions.
What do we now know about the problem? Over 8 million vehicles have been recalled for three problems—an aftermarket floor mat that, if not clipped down properly, can interfere with the gas pedal; a pedal from one supplier that can get "sticky " because a composite material interacts with moisture over time as it wears; and a software glitch on the 2010 Prius that can cause less-than-a-second's hesitation in braking when the antilock braking system is applied.
letting problems accumulate slowly
For each of these problems a specific cause has to be determined—when it occurred, where, and how. There is no evidence that floor mats were assembled incorrectly because they are put on by dealers. There is no evidence that the sticky pedals were assembled wrongly; that issue rather concerns the specific composite material selected for one part. And in the Prius case, the issue lies in the software code, not in how the module was assembled at the plant. So revamping production does not appear to be in order. It seems remarkable that all the recalls occurred within a six-month period. But in fact the cause was at least six months old in each case—five or more years in the case of the pedal design.
Thus, the real principle violated here is to uncover problems immediately and then solve them, one by one. The issues should not have been allowed to accumulate, so in my view the response to the problems (or lack of response) is more serious than the problems themselves. We have all read that this slow response has been characteristic of Toyota for many years. This is a serious allegation. Some say the unintended-acceleration problem is electronic and has yet to be fully solved—which, if true, is a broader problem for all automakers who use so-called drive-by-wire systems.
The point is that I do not know which of these problems is real, or where and why they occurred. (I would venture that journalists do not, either.) Toyota needs to use its own Toyota Business Practices, or TBP, to identify and solve its real problems.When I there had been two recalls that covered nearly 5 million vehicles, but it seemed to me that the actual defects were small.Don't get me wrong: People had died and others were claiming to be injured, which is as serious as it gets.In my mind, however, those specific problems—and even the subsequent discovery of brake problems in the hybrid Prius—were far from an indictment of Toyota's engineering and manufacturing processes.Journalists were wildly speculating about blaming too-rapid growth, cost-cutting, and weaknesses in the philosophy of the Toyota Way. "This is nuts, " I thought.
The week unfolded with new revelations, including complaints by government safety agencies that Toyota (TM) is secretive and criticism that the company had dragged its heels after safety problems were indicated. On reflection (the Japanese call this hansei), I realized that I never studied how Toyota reacts to safety concerns. I had just been guessing, based on experience that I have had with the high integrity of Toyota executives. The question I have since shaped is not what I know or do not know, but how Toyota should respond to what's become a crisis in customer trust.
Any crisis starts with containment, and that is what Toyota is working on now. Once the crisis is contained, though, Toyota should go back to its tried-and-true management principles, which I spelled out in my 2004 book, The Toyota Way, to investigate the root causes and come up with solutions.
What do we now know about the problem? Over 8 million vehicles have been recalled for three problems—an aftermarket floor mat that, if not clipped down properly, can interfere with the gas pedal; a pedal from one supplier that can get "sticky " because a composite material interacts with moisture over time as it wears; and a software glitch on the 2010 Prius that can cause less-than-a-second's hesitation in braking when the antilock braking system is applied.
letting problems accumulate slowly
For each of these problems a specific cause has to be determined—when it occurred, where, and how. There is no evidence that floor mats were assembled incorrectly because they are put on by dealers. There is no evidence that the sticky pedals were assembled wrongly; that issue rather concerns the specific composite material selected for one part. And in the Prius case, the issue lies in the software code, not in how the module was assembled at the plant. So revamping production does not appear to be in order. It seems remarkable that all the recalls occurred within a six-month period. But in fact the cause was at least six months old in each case—five or more years in the case of the pedal design.
Thus, the real principle violated here is to uncover problems immediately and then solve them, one by one. The issues should not have been allowed to accumulate, so in my view the response to the problems (or lack of response) is more serious than the problems themselves. We have all read that this slow response has been characteristic of Toyota for many years. This is a serious allegation. Some say the unintended-acceleration problem is electronic and has yet to be fully solved—which, if true, is a broader problem for all automakers who use so-called drive-by-wire systems.
The point is that I do not know which of these problems is real, or where and why they occurred. (I would venture that journalists do not, either.) Toyota needs to use its own Toyota Business Practices, or TBP, to identify and solve its real problems.

Deficit Worries Weigh Before EU Summit

2010-02-10T05:17:00.000-08:00

The country's finance minister, Elena Salgado, together with her deputy, Jose Manuel Campa, flew to London to meet bondholders and outline recently announced austerity measures.
Repeating promises to cut its budget deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2013 from 11.4 per cent last year, Mr Campa insisted the government would "make the adjustment that's necessary."
But their disclosure that the Spanish treasury intends to raise €76.8 billion through debt issuance this year lead to renewed market doubts, sending the country's bond yields higher.
Writing last week in the New York Times, Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman said Spain's difficulties were an "an object lesson in the problems of having monetary union without fiscal and labour market integration."
After a decade-long boom, the 2008 implosion of Spain's housing bubble has left the country with excessive labour costs, spiraling unemployment and a large budget deficit. "If Spain had its own currency, this would be a good time to devalue; but it doesn't," said Mr Krugman.
Single currency
The eurozone deficit crisis has also taken its toll on the area's common currency. Last Friday the euro plunged to an eight-month low of $1.3583, recovering slightly on Monday.
Markets are also increasingly gambling against the single currency. Driven by fears of a eurozone debt crisis, traders and hedge funds have bet nearly $8bn (€5.9bn) on a falling euro, reports the Financial Times.
Credit ratings agency Fitch insisted on Monday however that other eurozone countries face no risk of "contagion" from the debt and deficit crises afflicting Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The agency's chairman, Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, told French radio that France and Germany still enjoy sufficient "credibility" with investors "who are the deciders and the masters of the game."
Some analysts argue that fiscal problems in the euro area peripheral states are affecting core members such as France, however. In Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party, calls are increasing to adopt a German-style medium-term budgetary balance law. "We can no longer spend as we did in the past," Xavier Bertrand, UMP leader, said over the weekend.
And as EU leaders prepare to meet for an informal summit in Brussels this week to discuss ways to increase the bloc's competitiveness, the issue of deficits is slowly edging its way onto the agenda.
With a new long-term economic strategy still the main topic for discussion, EU president Herman Van Rompuy conceded in a recent letter to leaders that "some aspects of the present economic situation" will also need to be looked at. The country's finance minister, Elena Salgado, together with her deputy, Jose Manuel Campa, flew to London to meet bondholders and outline recently announced austerity measures.
Repeating promises to cut its budget deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product by 2013 from 11.4 per cent last year, Mr Campa insisted the government would "make the adjustment that's necessary."
But their disclosure that the Spanish treasury intends to raise €76.8 billion through debt issuance this year lead to renewed market doubts, sending the country's bond yields higher.
Writing last week in the New York Times, Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman said Spain's difficulties were an "an object lesson in the problems of having monetary union without fiscal and labour market integration."
After a decade-long boom, the 2008 implosion of Spain's housing bubble has left the country with excessive labour costs, spiraling unemployment and a large budget deficit. "If Spain had its own currency, this would be a good time to devalue; but it doesn't," said Mr Krugman.
Single currency
The eurozone deficit crisis has also taken its toll on the area's common currency. Last Friday the euro plunged to an eight-month low of $1.3583, recovering slightly on Monday.
Markets are also increasingly gambling against the single currency. Driven by fears of a eurozone debt crisis, traders and hedge funds have bet nearly $8bn (€5.9bn) on a falling euro, reports the Financial Times.
Credit ratings agency Fitch insisted on Monday however that other eurozone countries face no risk of "contagion" from the debt and deficit crises afflicting Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The agency's chairman, Marc Ladreit de Lacharriere, told French radio that France and Germany still enjoy sufficient "credibility" with investors "who are the deciders and the masters of the game."
Some analysts argue that fiscal problems in the euro area peripheral states are affecting core members such as France, however. In Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right UMP party, calls are increasing to adopt a German-style medium-term budgetary balance law. "We can no longer spend as we did in the past," Xavier Bertrand, UMP leader, said over the weekend.
And as EU leaders prepare to meet for an informal summit in Brussels this week to discuss ways to increase the bloc's competitiveness, the issue of deficits is slowly edging its way onto the agenda.
With a new long-term economic strategy still the main topic for discussion, EU president Herman Van Rompuy conceded in a recent letter to leaders that "some aspects of the present economic situation" will also need to be looked at.

Ford, Behind in China, Looks to India

2010-02-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

Officials from Ford and Geely had hoped to announce the sale of Ford’s Volvo subsidiary to the Chinese automaker before Chinese New Year. With the Year of the Tiger roaring in this Sunday, it’s now unlikely they’re going to meet that deadline. According to this report by my colleague Keith Naughton, talks between the two sides have hit a snag over finances and other details such as the extent of Ford’s relationship as a supplier to Volvo after a deal. “They’re not only negotiating a sale, they’re negotiating a complete, intertwined relationship that will last for several years,” auto analyst tells Bloomberg.
The U.S. automaker could use a lift in China, the world’s biggest auto market. Although Ford is by far the healthiest of America’s Big Three, it’s an also ran in the Chinese market, where GM and Volkswagen are the strongest of the foreign players. The company has enjoyed a good run of late, with Changan Ford, a joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile, reporting a big increase in sales in January. As the reported on Sunday, that’s 12 months in a row of growing sales. Nice, but Ford still has just 2.6% of the market in China.
The company no doubt is hoping it stands a better chance in the other giant Asian market, India. On Feb. 5, Ford of a new compact car, the Figo, its first small car for India, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. When Ford announced its investment , the company had just 2.7% of the market. So the company has a lot of ground to make up in India, too, and there are plenty of other But since the market is at an earlier stage of development than China, the American automaker probably stands a better chance of making some gains in India. Officials from Ford and Geely had hoped to announce the sale of Ford’s Volvo subsidiary to the Chinese automaker before Chinese New Year. With the Year of the Tiger roaring in this Sunday, it’s now unlikely they’re going to meet that deadline. According to this report by my colleague Keith Naughton, talks between the two sides have hit a snag over finances and other details such as the extent of Ford’s relationship as a supplier to Volvo after a deal. “They’re not only negotiating a sale, they’re negotiating a complete, intertwined relationship that will last for several years,” auto analyst tells Bloomberg.
The U.S. automaker could use a lift in China, the world’s biggest auto market. Although Ford is by far the healthiest of America’s Big Three, it’s an also ran in the Chinese market, where GM and Volkswagen are the strongest of the foreign players. The company has enjoyed a good run of late, with Changan Ford, a joint venture with Chongqing Changan Automobile, reporting a big increase in sales in January. As the reported on Sunday, that’s 12 months in a row of growing sales. Nice, but Ford still has just 2.6% of the market in China.
The company no doubt is hoping it stands a better chance in the other giant Asian market, India. On Feb. 5, Ford of a new compact car, the Figo, its first small car for India, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. When Ford announced its investment plans , the company had just 2.7% of the market. So the company has a lot of ground to make up in India, too, and there are plenty of other . But since the market is at an earlier stage of development than China, the American automaker probably stands a better chance of making some gains in India.

CEOs need to grow their businesses again," he said.

2010-02-10T04:57:00.000-08:00

"There had been an erosion in trust" with customers, says Paul Hamerman, an analyst at Forrester Research (SAP alienated them by raising prices for technical support while aggressively selling data-analysis software it acquired when it bought Business Objects in 2007, Hamerman says. The sales tactics came as information technology departments were trying to cut back. SAP was "trying to extract as much money as they could from customers," Hamerman says. "If you try to do that too aggressively, you pay a price. SAP paid the price in customer loyalty."
McDermott and Snabe will need to wage a multifront battle. Software license sales fell 28% last year as companies pared spending on computer systems during the recession. Customers balked at price hikes and forced SAP in January to back off an even-more-expensive plan to raise support fees. And SAP is perceived as lagging in inventive products. "They haven't been able to keep pace with the innovation that's gone on in the industry," says Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at who rates SAP shares "sector perform."
Moreover, the job cuts and organizational restructuring that Apotheker enacted sank morale among SAP's remaining 47,000 workers. An employee survey fielded last year indicated unrest in the ranks, SAP said. During a conference call with analysts on Feb. 8, SAP supervisory board chairman and co-founder said management needs to make SAP "a happy company again."
SAP American Depositary Receipts fell 2.67, or 5.8%, to close at 43.29 on Feb. 8. The shares have underperformed the market in the past year, gaining 13.2%, vs. a nearly 22% increase in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index and a 29% gain in Oracle's stock price.

Late in January, just hours after SAP reported its fourth-consecutive quarterly drop in sales, executive board said that he'd heard the customers' complaints about price increases imposed during a recession and that the world's largest supplier of business software was responding. "I'm not deaf," McDermott said in an interview. He also pointed to signs of a stronger 2010: After two years of belt-tightening, customers were starting to buy software. "CEOs need to grow their businesses again," he said.
McDermott's remarks may now serve as a prescription for SAP itself, which on Feb. , along with executive board member . Longtime executive who was named CEO less than nine months ago, resigned his post after a flow of brutal financial results, customer complaints about higher prices, and the elimination of 3,000 workers, the largest in the German company's history.
In order to fix SAP, former North American sales boss McDermott and Snabe, head of product development, need to stock its pipeline with products that companies are more interested in buying, calm restive customers, and counter competition from Oracle which has outmaneuvered SAP through canny acquisitions. High on the co-CEOs' priority list will be shifting SAP's focus from cost-cutting to innovation. SAP must develop versions of its complicated software that can be delivered over the Internet and run on new classes of mobile computing devices.

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King said it’s “far too soon”

2010-02-10T04:51:00.000-08:00

Bond yields fell after the remarks, which came less than a week after the Bank of England paused its 200 billion pound ($314 billion) asset-purchase program. The bank today also cut its forecast for economic growth. Inflation will peak at about 3.3 percent before slowing as low as 0.9 percent and staying below the goal of 2 percent, the forecasts showed.
“It is far too soon to conclude that no more purchases will be needed,” King told reporters in London at the Bank of England’s quarterly press conference. “The Committee will keep its options open, and further purchases will be made if they prove necessary to keep inflation on track to meet the target in the medium term.”
Policy makers are weighing the risk of an economic relapse against the danger that too much money in the economy will fuel inflation. While the U.K. emerged from the worst recession since World War II in the fourth quarter, growing 0.1 percent, former policy maker Charles Goodhart said in an interview today there’s a “great fear” that it contracted again at the start of 2010.
The Bank of England’s forecasts show annual gross domestic product growth will reach about 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2011, compared with about 4 percent previously.
“Spare capacity will press down on inflation in the medium term,” King said. “It is more likely than not that inflation will be below the target for much of the forecast period, but the risks are broadly balanced by the end.”
Bond Yields
The yield on the benchmark two-year government bond fell 14 basis points to 1.112 percent after King’s comments. The pound slipped as much as 0.5 percent to $1.5677.
Pre-election uncertainty on the prospects for the budget deficit clouds the Bank of England’s forecasts at a time when investor concern on European sovereign debt is gripping financial markets.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the biggest mistake Britain could make would be to withdraw economic stimulus measures too early. The recession, which lasted for six consecutive quarters, shaved 6 percent off gross domestic product. The economy shrank 4.8 percent in 2009, the biggest annual drop since records began in 1949.Bond yields fell after the remarks, which came less than a week after the Bank of England paused its 200 billion pound ($314 billion) asset-purchase program. The bank today also cut its forecast for economic growth. Inflation will peak at about 3.3 percent before slowing as low as 0.9 percent and staying below the goal of 2 percent, the forecasts showed.
“It is far too soon to conclude that no more purchases will be needed,” King told reporters in London at the Bank of England’s quarterly press conference. “The Committee will keep its options open, and further purchases will be made if they prove necessary to keep inflation on track to meet the target in the medium term.”
Policy makers are weighing the risk of an economic relapse against the danger that too much money in the economy will fuel inflation. While the U.K. emerged from the worst recession since World War II in the fourth quarter, growing 0.1 percent, former policy maker Charles Goodhart said in an interview today there’s a “great fear” that it contracted again at the start of 2010.
The Bank of England’s forecasts show annual gross domestic product growth will reach about 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2011, compared with about 4 percent previously.
“Spare capacity will press down on inflation in the medium term,” King said. “It is more likely than not that inflation will be below the target for much of the forecast period, but the risks are broadly balanced by the end.”
Bond Yields
The yield on the benchmark two-year government bond fell 14 basis points to 1.112 percent after King’s comments. The pound slipped as much as 0.5 percent to $1.5677.
Pre-election uncertainty on the prospects for the budget deficit clouds the Bank of England’s forecasts at a time when investor concern on European sovereign debt is gripping financial markets.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the biggest mistake Britain could make would be to withdraw economic stimulus measures too early. The recession, which lasted for six consecutive quarters, shaved 6 percent off gross domestic product. The economy shrank 4.8 percent in 2009, the biggest annual drop since records began in 1949.

The bigger the deal becomes, the more the company gets bogged down in integrating.”

2010-02-10T04:45:00.000-08:00

Flu vaccine sales totaled 564 million euros in the quarter, including 362 million euros of shots for pandemic influenza. The flu pandemic that broke out in Mexico last year has been milder than some health officials predicted, crimping demand for vaccine. France’s health ministry on Jan. 4 cut its order for swine flu shots from 28 million doses to 17 million doses. Sales of pandemic flu vaccine will be about the same this year as in 2009, Viehbacher said.
Pharmaceutical sales climbed 2.7 percent to 6.26 billion euros in the fourth quarter, led by 17 percent growth in the diabetes medicine Lantus. Sales of Plavix declined 12 percent and Eloxatin plunged 81 percent.
The company’s growth forecast for this year doesn’t include potential generic competition to Lovenox, an anti-clotting drug, or the effect of potential acquisitions, Viehbacher said.
“Guidance of 2 percent to 5 percent is good, particularly with some clear headwinds for 2010,” Craig Maxwell, an analyst in London for ICAP Plc, said by e-mail. He has a “hold” recommendation on Sanofi shares.
The company still needs to prove that its acquisitions will pay off, Maxwell said.
‘Inflated’ Prices
“We must wait and see if the cash spent on acquisitions provides sufficient return,” he said. “We are concerned that competition for assets is so strong that prices are becoming very inflated.”
Sanofi’s reported profit excludes acquisition-related costs, as well as selected items such as restructuring expenses and writedowns of plants and equipment. On a net income basis, the company earned 1.21 billion euros, or 93 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, up from 182 million euros, or 14 cents, a year earlier, when the company booked a loss tied to a discontinued drug.Flu vaccine sales totaled 564 million euros in the quarter, including 362 million euros of shots for pandemic influenza. The flu pandemic that broke out in Mexico last year has been milder than some health officials predicted, crimping demand for vaccine. France’s health ministry on Jan. 4 cut its order for swine flu shots from 28 million doses to 17 million doses. Sales of pandemic flu vaccine will be about the same this year as in 2009, Viehbacher said.
Pharmaceutical sales climbed 2.7 percent to 6.26 billion euros in the fourth quarter, led by 17 percent growth in the diabetes medicine Lantus. Sales of Plavix declined 12 percent and Eloxatin plunged 81 percent.
The company’s growth forecast for this year doesn’t include potential generic competition to Lovenox, an anti-clotting drug, or the effect of potential acquisitions, Viehbacher said.
“Guidance of 2 percent to 5 percent is good, particularly with some clear headwinds for 2010,” Craig Maxwell, an analyst in London for ICAP Plc, said by e-mail. He has a “hold” recommendation on Sanofi shares.
The company still needs to prove that its acquisitions will pay off, Maxwell said.
‘Inflated’ Prices
“We must wait and see if the cash spent on acquisitions provides sufficient return,” he said. “We are concerned that competition for assets is so strong that prices are becoming very inflated.”
Sanofi’s reported profit excludes acquisition-related costs, as well as selected items such as restructuring expenses and writedowns of plants and equipment. On a net income basis, the company earned 1.21 billion euros, or 93 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, up from 182 million euros, or 14 cents, a year earlier, when the company booked a loss tied to a discontinued drug.

Fourth-quarter adjusted profit excluding some items rose 10 percent to 1.8 billion euros ($2.48 billion), or 1.37 euros a share, from 1.63 billion euros, or 1.25 euros a share, a year earlier. That compares with the 1.75 billion-euro average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg in the past month. Profit this year will rise 2 percent to 5 percent at constant exchange rates, the company forecast.
Sanofi shares rose 14 cents, or 0.3 percent, to 52.80 euros at 9:05 a.m. in Paris trading. Before today, the stock had increased 20 percent in the past year, beating the 13 percent gain in the Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index.

Sanofi is focused on buying generic-drug makers in emerging markets and consumer-health companies, Chief Executive Officer Chris Viehbacher, 49, said today in Paris. While spurning mega- mergers, Sanofi did two to three acquisitions a month last year, and probably will do the same in 2010, he said. Fourth-quarter profit beat estimates after flu vaccine sales helped overcome the effect of generic competition, the company said.
“If you ask me what 2010 will look like in terms of M&A activity, I will probably point to 2009,” Viehbacher told reporters. “The bigger the deal becomes, the more the company gets bogged down in integrating.”
Viehbacher has spent $9 billion on more than a dozen acquisitions since joining the company in 2008, looking outside the company’s labs for new products as generic versions of cancer treatment Eloxatin and blood-thinner Plavix hurt sales. Drugs accounting for more than 20 percent of revenue face competition by 2013. Sanofi yesterday finished a $1.9 billion offer to buy Chattem Inc., the U.S. maker of Gold Bond medicated powder.
Viehbacher has pledged to trim 2 billion euros in expenses to help ensure earnings in 2013 are at least equal to 2008 profit. The company is ahead of schedule on cost reductions, he said today.

China Indicts 4 Rio Tinto Employees for Bribery, Xinhua Says

2010-02-10T04:39:00.000-08:00

China has indicted four employees of Rio Tinto Plc, including Australian citizen Stern Hu, for alleged bribery, the official Xinhua news agency said in a Chinese-language report today.
The four were indicted by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate, the news agency said today. They were formally arrested by the Shanghai Municipality Public Security Bureau on Aug. 11. The case will be heard as a criminal case by the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court, the report said, without giving a date for the hearing.
The four were accused of bribery and violation of commercial secrets, Xinhua said. They took advantage of their positions and sought to obtain benefit from others, asked and received a “huge amount” of bribes from several Chinese steel companies, the report said.
The four obtained commercial secrets from Chinese companies, with serious consequences for those companies, the report said.China has indicted four employees of Rio Tinto Plc, including Australian citizen Stern Hu, for alleged bribery, the official Xinhua news agency said in a Chinese-language report today.
The four were indicted by the Shanghai Municipal People’s Procuratorate, the news agency said today. They were formally arrested by the Shanghai Municipality Public Security Bureau on Aug. 11. The case will be heard as a criminal case by the Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People’s Court, the report said, without giving a date for the hearing.
The four were accused of bribery and violation of commercial secrets, Xinhua said. They took advantage of their positions and sought to obtain benefit from others, asked and received a “huge amount” of bribes from several Chinese steel companies, the report said.
The four obtained commercial secrets from Chinese companies, with serious consequences for those companies, the report said.

Lawmakers from the Free Democratic Party, her junior coalition partner, have already spoken out against helping Greece.

2010-02-10T04:35:00.000-08:00

Germany is examining means of helping Greece regain market confidence as Merkel prepares for a summit of EU leaders in Brussels tomorrow. EU law bars the European Central Bank or national central banks from bailing out EU countries through buying their debt or offering loans, the German parliament’s research unit said in a report published yesterday.
Merkel, facing rising unemployment and plummeting support for her three-party coalition, may face domestic over any attempt to bail out Greece. Lawmakers from the Free Democratic Party, her junior coalition partner, have already spoken out against helping Greece.
“The example of Greece shows where debt policy eventually leads: It leads in the end to bailouts, even at state level, now being in the realm of the possible,” Frank Schaeffler, deputy FDP finance spokesman, said in a speech to lawmakers in Berlin today. “There have to be structural changes to budget policy” in Greece and other EU states. “We don’t help the alcoholic by giving him another bottle of schnapps.”Germany is examining means of helping Greece regain market confidence as Merkel prepares for a summit of EU leaders in Brussels tomorrow. EU law bars the European Central Bank or national central banks from bailing out EU countries through buying their debt or offering loans, the German parliament’s research unit said in a report published yesterday.
Merkel, facing rising unemployment and plummeting support for her three-party coalition, may face domestic over any attempt to bail out Greece. Lawmakers from the Free Democratic Party, her junior coalition partner, have already spoken out against helping Greece.
“The example of Greece shows where debt policy eventually leads: It leads in the end to bailouts, even at state level, now being in the realm of the possible,” Frank Schaeffler, deputy FDP finance spokesman, said in a speech to lawmakers in Berlin today. “There have to be structural changes to budget policy” in Greece and other EU states. “We don’t help the alcoholic by giving him another bottle of schnapps.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition is studying a range of options because European Union rules on aid are more flexible than the government originally thought, according to the lawmaker who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the discussions were confidential.
Senior coalition members were briefed on the legal aspects of an EU member state providing financial help for another and were told to digest the information quickly, the lawmaker said. The German parliament must back any move to help Greece, he said.

The U.K. economy resumed growth, expanding by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter.

2010-02-10T04:29:00.000-08:00

Annual gross domestic product growth will reach about 3.2 percent in the second quarter of 2011, compared with about 4 percent previously, the central bank's predictions show. Inflation will peak at about 3.3 percent before slowing as low as 0.9 percent and staying below the goal of 2 percent.
``The committee judges that while the most likely path for growth is somewhat weaker, some of the downside risks are smaller than in November,'' the bank said in its quarterly report today in London. ``It is more likely than not that inflation will be below the target for much of the forecast period, but the risks are broadly balanced by the end.''
Bank of England policy makers are weighing the threat of accelerating inflation against the risk of a relapse in growth after the economy barely expanded in the fourth quarter. Pre- election uncertainty on the prospects for the budget deficit also clouds their forecasts at a time when investor concern on European sovereign debt is gripping financial markets.
The central bank's forecasts are published as fan charts. They are based on the outcome for the economy if the benchmark interest rate, currently at 0.5 percent, rises to meet market expectations of an average of 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010 and 2.5 percent in the same period in 2011.
Constant Rates
On the basis of constant interest rates, the forecast also show inflation will undershoot the target.
The inflation rate jumped by 1 percentage point in December, the most since records began in 1997, to 2.9 percent after oil prices surged and 2008 cuts in sales tax and retail prices weren't repeated.
``The risks around the most likely path for inflation are judged to lie on the upside, reflecting the possibility of further increases in commodity prices and the risk that a sustained period of above-target inflation might cause inflation expectations to rise,'' the bank said.
The U.K. economy resumed growth, expanding by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter. The weakness of the recovery poses a challenge to officials as they consider whether the economy is strong enough to start withdrawing emergency stimulus measures.
The bank reiterated that its forecasts point to a ``gradual recovery'' for the economy.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said the biggest mistake Britain could make would

GAO revises yellow book - Update - United States General Accounting Office's government auditing standards

2010-02-09T22:13:00.000-08:00

THE U.S. GENERAL Accounting Office (GAO) recently released a new edition of its Government Auditing Standards, also known as the Yellow Book, the fourth since the standards' inception in 1972. Before being finalized, revisions were put through a rigorous review process that included public comments and input from the Comptroller General's Advisory Council on Government Auditing Standards, which includes 20 experts in financial and performance auditing.
After all comments were received and reviewed, changes were made to three areas of the 1994 revision, including amendments 1 through 3. The new version:
* Redefines the types of audits and services covered by the standards, including an expansion of the definition of performance auditing to incorporate prospective analyses and other studies and the addition of attestation as a separate type of audit.
* Provides consistency in the fieldwork and reporting requirements among all types of audits defined under the standards.
* Strengthens the standards and clarifies the language in areas that, by themselves, do not warrant a separate amendment to the standards.
Upon release of the new edition, David M. Walker, U.S. comptroller general and head of the GAO, emphasized that the Yellow Book represents only a starting point for government audit professionals. "Auditors will face many situations in which they could best serve the public by doing work exceeding the standards' minimum requirements," he said. "As performance and accountability professionals, we should not strive just to comply with minimum standards, which represent the floor of acceptable behavior, but we need to do the right thing according to the facts and circumstances of each audit situation." Walker called on auditors to seek opportunities to do additional work when and where it is appropriate, particularly in connection with testing and reporting on internal controls.
The new standards are applicable for financial audits and attestation engagements ending on or after Jan. 1, 2004, and for performance audits beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2004. The Yellow Book--along with the major changes from the 1994 edition--is available on the GAO Web site at www.gao.gov/govaud/ ybko1.htm.

GAO revises yellow book - Update - United States General Accounting Office's government auditing standards

2010-02-09T07:39:00.000-08:00

"Banana Standards and Indicators,"

2010-02-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

INCREASINGLY, CORPORATE GOVERNANCE STAKEholders--including shareholders, employees, analysts, regulators, activists, and labor unions--are expressing their concern about the extent to which global enterprises practice their social responsibilities. The Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), a global nonprofit organization that provides businesses with information and training on corporate social responsibility (CSR), defines CSR as "achieving commercial success in ways that honor ethical values and respect people, communities, and the natural environment." Failure to acknowledge the importance of CSR can create high reputation risk. In the past, several multinationals that have been accused of being socially irresponsible--for example, Shell International Ltd. for polluting the environment, The Coca-Cola Co. for food contamination, and Nike Inc. for unacceptable working conditions--have paid the price and have since established CSR plans.
Chief audit executives (CAEs) need to ensure that social responsibility is on the board's agenda of corporate governance issues. They should be aware of existing standards and global initiatives as they relate to CSR and use them as yardsticks against which to measure their organization's performance. Additionally, auditors should advise the board on identified best practices and determine whether the organization's core values and code of conduct still reflect the desired position of the enterprise in today's and tomorrow's world.
Over the last decade, the field of CSR has grown significantly. Numerous governmental, non-governmental, and advocacy groups have entered the arena and have issued standards and reports to address CSR concerns. For example, in July 2002 the European Commission issued a white paper that calls for a new social and environmental role for businesses in the global economy. And on March 25, the Institute of Social and Ethical Accountability, an international, not-for-profit, professional institute, launched the AA1000 Assurance Standard to address the credibility and quality of reporting on social, environmental, and economic performance.
Three areas of CSR in which global organizations have achieved significant improvements are the environment, human rights, and the safety of food.
In September 2002, the United Nations (U.N.) held a World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. Governments, businesses, and civil society from all over the world agreed on an action plan that, according to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, "will put us on a path that reduces poverty while protecting the environment, a path that works for all peoples, rich and poor, today and tomorrow."
Some targets set at the summit included:
* Cutting the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation in half by 2015.
* Using and producing chemicals by 2020 in ways that do not lead to significant adverse effects on human health and the environment.
* Achieving a significant reduction in the rate of loss of biological diversity by 2010.
On May 9, the leaders reconvened for a two-week meeting in New York where they established a program and work plan for the next 15 years. For the first two-year cycle (2004-2005), the U.N.'s Commission on Sustainable Development will focus on water, sanitation, and human settlements, followed by energy, climate change, atmosphere, and industrial development issues in the 2006-2007 cycle. Numerous issues will be addressed throughout the program, including poverty eradication, changing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption, health, and education.
One company that has emerged as a leader in the areas of sustainable development and social performance is Chiquita Brands International, an international marketer and distributor of fresh and processed food products. In 2001, the Rainforest Alliance, an international conservation organization based in New York, presented Chiquita with the first Sustainable Standard-setter Green Award. Companies, cooperatives, and landowners that participate in the Alliance's programs meet rigorous standards for protecting the environment, wildlife, workers, and local communities.
In 2001, the Rainforest Alliance recertified 119 Chiquita farms in Latin America for compliance with the standards set by the alliance's ECO-O.K./Better Banana Project. The Better Banana Project is managed by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) and a network of independent, non-profit conservation organizations, with the Rainforest Alliance acting as the secretariat. Their mission is to transform social and environmental conditions in tropical agriculture through conservation certification. Standards are available for the farming of bananas, coffee, and citrus fruit.
In 1998, Chiquita was looking for objective, concrete, and measurable performance standards. The company compared the Better Banana Project standards to a variety of other environmental standards and management systems around the world. Chiquita concluded that the nine principles and audit criteria of the Better Banana Project offered the most rigorous, objective, measurable, and best internal bench-marking standards for performance (see "Banana Standards and Indicators," opposite page).

The political and social wave against corruption in the society as a whole led to a culture of public accountability and transparency in decision-maki

2010-02-09T07:23:00.000-08:00

WHEN PAKISTAN gained independence in 1947, the state-owned Pakistan Railways had a formal internal audit function. Other government and semi-government organizations at the time featured an inspection department, whose role resembled that of internal auditing.
After the promulgation of Pakistan's 1973 constitution, the Office of the Auditor General of Pakistan was formed. The auditor general had the authority to audit receipts, expenditures, and the use of any public funds at the federal and provincial level. Before long, an internal audit function was added to other mature public-sector organizations.
The political and social wave against corruption in the society as a whole led to a culture of public accountability and transparency in decision-making--an environment for which internal auditing was well-suited.
AUDITING LEGISLATION
During the past several years, internal auditing has been introduced gradually in the public sector. In 2001, a local-government ordinance was promulgated that requires all district-level bodies to have an internal audit function led by a chief audit executive.
Also in 2001, the federal government hired foreign and local consultants to help draft the Public Sector Internal Audit Act of 2003, which will make having an internal audit function mandatory for all local, provincial, and federal government institutions. When finalized, the act will be applicable to all institutions to which the government provides funds.
Pakistan's private sector is also subject to audit legislation. In March 2002, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued a code that required all companies listed on any of Pakistan's three stock exchanges to have an internal audit function.

They require the speaker to convey more information

2010-02-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

6. LISTEN (AND OBSERVE) FOR FEELINGS. When listening, do you concentrate just on the words that are being said, or do you also concentrate on the way they are being said? The way a speaker is standing, the tone of voice and inflection he or she is using, and what the speaker is doing with his or her hands are all part of the message that is being sent. A person who raises his or her voice is probably either angry or frustrated. A person looking down while speaking is probably either embarrassed or shy. Interruptions may suggest fear or lack of confidence. Persons who make eye contact and lean forward are likely exhibiting confidence. Arguments may reflect worry. Inappropriate silence may be a sign of aggression and be intended as punishment.
7. ASK QUESTIONS. Do you usually ask questions when listening to a message? Do you try to clarify what a person has said to you? Effective listeners make certain they have correctly heard the message that is being sent. Ask questions to clarify points or to obtain additional information. Open-ended questions are the best. They require the speaker to convey more information. Form your questions in a way that makes it clear you have not yet drawn any conclusions. This will assure the message sender that you are only interested in obtaining more and better information. And the more information that you as a listener have, the better you can respond to the sender's communication.
LISTEN ACTIVELY
Not everyone has to possess the same style of listening, but internal auditors who use "active" listening will likely become much better listeners. Active listening demands that the receiver of a message put aside the belief that listening is easy and that it happens naturally and realize that effective listening is hard work. The result of active listening is more efficient and effective communication.
The Listening Quiz
Are you an effective listener? Ask a peer that you communicate with regularly and who you know will answer honestly to respond "yes" or "no" to these 10 questions. Do not answer the questions yourself. We often view ourselves as great listeners when, in fact, others know that we are not.

7 tips for effective listening: productive listening does not occur naturally. It requires hard work and practice - Back To Basics - effective listeni

2010-02-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT THEIR job, internal auditors must be able to write, speak, and listen effectively. Of these three skills, effective listening may be the most crucial because auditors are required to do it so often. Unfortunately, listening also may be the most difficult skill to master.
Effective listening is challenging, in part, because people often are more focused on what they're saying than on what they're hearing in return. According to a recent study by the Harvard Business Review, people think the voice mail they send is more important than the voice mail they receive. Generally, senders think that their message is more helpful and urgent than do the people who receive it.
Additionally, listening is difficult because people don't work as hard at it as they should. Listening seems to occur so naturally that putting a lot of effort into it doesn't seem necessary. However, hard work and effort is exactly what effective listening requires.
Internal auditors must listen to explanations, rationales, and defenses of financial practices and procedures. They are constantly communicating with fellow employees whose backgrounds range from accounting to finance to marketing to information systems. In addition, explanations by fellow employees of any "unusual" practices often pose a significant challenge to an internal auditor's listening skills. Auditors can use the following techniques to improve these skills.

1. CONCENTRATE ON WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING. When listening to someone, do you often find yourself thinking about a job or task that is nearing deadline or an important family matter? In the middle of a conversation, do you sometimes realize that you haven't heard a word the other person has said? Most individuals speak at the rate of 175 to 200 words per minute. However, research suggests that we are very capable of listening and processing words at the rate of 600 to 1,000 words per minute. An internal auditor's job today is very fast and complex, and because the brain does not use all of its capacity when listening, an auditor's mind may drift to thinking of further questions or explanations rather than listening to the message at hand. This unused brainpower can be a barrier to effective listening, causing the auditor to miss or misinterpret what others are saying. It is important for internal auditors to actively concentrate on what others are saying so that effective communication can occur.
2. SEND THE NONVERBAL MESSAGE THAT YOU ARE LISTENING. When someone is talking to you, do you maintain eye contact with that person? Do you show the speaker you are listening by nodding your head? Does your body language transmit the message that you are listening? Are you leaning forward and not using your hands to play with things? Most communication experts agree that nonverbal messages can be three times as powerful as verbal messages. Effective communication becomes difficult anytime you send a nonverbal message that you're not really listening.
3. AVOID EARLY EVALUATIONS. When listening, do you often make immediate judgments about what the speaker is saying? Do you assume or guess what the speaker is going to say next? Do you sometimes discover later that you failed to interpret correctly what the speaker was telling you? Because a listener can listen at a faster rate than most speakers talk, there is a tendency to evaluate too quickly. That tendency is perhaps the greatest barrier to effective listening. It is especially important to avoid early evaluations when listening to a person with whom you disagree. When listeners begin to disagree with a sender's message, they tend to misinterpret the remaining information and distort its intended meaning so that it is consistent with their own beliefs.
4. AVOID GETTING DEFENSIVE. Do you ever take what another person says personally when what her or she is saying is not meant to be personal? Do you ever become angry at what another person says? Careful listening does not mean that you will always agree with the other party's point of view, but it does mean that you will try to listen to what the other person is saying without becoming overly defensive. Too much time spent explaining, elaborating, and defending your decision or position is a sure sign that you are not listening. This is because your role has changed from one of listening to a role of convincing others they are wrong. After listening to a position or suggestion with which you disagree, simply respond with something like, "I understand your point. We just disagree on this one." Effective listeners can listen calmly to another person even when that person is offering unjust criticism.
5. PRACTICE PARAPHRASING. Paraphrasing is the art of putting into your own words what you thought you heard and saying it back to the sender. For example, a subordinate might say: "You have been unfair to rate me so low on my performance appraisal. You have rated me lower than Jim. I can do the job better than him, and I've been here longer." A paraphrased response might be: "I can see that you are upset about your rating. You think it was unfair for me to rate you as I did." Paraphrasing is a great technique for improving your listening and problem-solving skills. First, you have to listen very carefully if you are going to accurately paraphrase what you heard. Second, the paraphrasing response will clarify for the sender that his or her message was correctly received and encourage the sender to expand on what he or she is trying to communicate.