tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38875713277513652992024-02-19T07:33:22.391-08:00Apprentice's LifeDivo on the MakingChris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-44144051977090911022011-03-27T02:12:00.000-07:002011-03-27T02:21:57.362-07:00Reaction: iRobot<div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK3SL7BjBAi0T07qhS-V7j1JvtB0CgK1B6kqC8IbSt69qx7qAhXRi0s-2R2T6uDvWxO4cQxuZrm3jAzJ56dkUXhg5hlgeqMFEAJqSznHpftNhgFY4cKWSWbL57DEtbgGhefPDzaT3JLst6/s1600/irobot.jpeg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK3SL7BjBAi0T07qhS-V7j1JvtB0CgK1B6kqC8IbSt69qx7qAhXRi0s-2R2T6uDvWxO4cQxuZrm3jAzJ56dkUXhg5hlgeqMFEAJqSznHpftNhgFY4cKWSWbL57DEtbgGhefPDzaT3JLst6/s200/irobot.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588687010863043138" border="0" /></a>In the year 2035, detective Del Spooner (Will Smith) is something of a misfit. He wears retro clothes (including vintage 2004 trainers), he likes to drive his futuristic car manually, and he has a profound distrust of robots – even though all robots are hardwired with a set of three laws preventing them from causing, or even allowing, humans to come to harm.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Just as the huge corporation US Robotics is launching a new model of robot onto the mass market, Del is summoned to investigate the apparent suicide of one of the company’s founding scientists, Dr Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), who had invented the three laws. Assisted by roboticist Dr Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), Del follows a trail of breadcrumbs leading to Sonny (Alan Tudyk), a unique and uniquely temperamental robot with an identity crisis, an unknown purpose, and a head full of dreams (and we are not talking dreams of electric sheep). As Del comes under increasing attack from robots that are supposed to protect him, it becomes clear that Sonny holds the key to the salvation – or destruction – of humankind.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Starting life as a script by Jeff Vintar entitled ‘Hardwired’, ‘I, Robot’ was then reworked by Akiva Goldsman (‘A Beautiful Mind’) who appropriated the film’s title, the principle of the three laws of robotics, and the characters of Alfred Lanning and (a younger) Susan Calvin, from Isaac Asimov’s ground-breaking collection of short stories. Like <a href="http://movie-gazette.com/56">Minority Report</a>, it features an unexpected yet logical flaw in an apparently perfect system of the future (and a bunch of flashbacks to do with a drowning); like ‘Blade Runner’, it explores the point at which distinctions between human and android start to break down; and like both those films, its science fiction is wrapped in a palatable detective plot full of fast-moving chases and die-hard action. Yet what makes ‘I, Robot’ stand out is its vision of a future that, for all its metaphorical darkness, is lit to look surprisingly bright – even though the film is directed by Alex Proyas, who previously brought us the sombre gothic landscapes of ‘The Crow’ and ‘Dark City’. Whether this lightness sets the right tone will depend on the tastes of the viewer – but it does make it easier to see the magnificent design work that has gone into Chicago’s treeless cityscape of the future.</span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">For a film that pits man against machine, ‘I, Robot’ strikes a fine balance between the amazingly expressive computer generated imagery used to create its legions of robots, and the all too human presence of Will Smith whose typical wise-ass delivery keeps things grounded. The plot makes good sense only so long as you do not think about it too hard, but as a summer crowd-pleaser with edge-of-your-seat pacing and spectacular stunts, ‘I, Robot’ would be hard to beat.</span></p>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-91614026225961798312011-03-27T01:43:00.000-07:002011-03-27T02:11:03.642-07:00Eagle Eye: Who's Eye Monitors You, Computer or GOD?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMyHWb_VVulU-D6S_Rkx-1SUqUzVFhJ4N9CketA-HuFspUj04IQJp_yGT0XZ4_ws_fiui2csfBrVTn84DPS-2-F3J8Q4cY9Ak7qSonoLoaio4gr7pa7PgmEoGsPyx4ic8SzqF6AxabHrU/s1600/eagle-eye-.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 141px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNMyHWb_VVulU-D6S_Rkx-1SUqUzVFhJ4N9CketA-HuFspUj04IQJp_yGT0XZ4_ws_fiui2csfBrVTn84DPS-2-F3J8Q4cY9Ak7qSonoLoaio4gr7pa7PgmEoGsPyx4ic8SzqF6AxabHrU/s200/eagle-eye-.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588680387598098834" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_cRFhHg10lvoWTIJ-Ze89RcKzXuueIvsMz3iOLPqxnE8xHpQBrf1EL89FSN2528hVr0pVl28JQXrqgO3HVaVnPi5R9ymr1X8YS5Glho3AFhnkRcT3ji76ZXU44WMn88INFD4PnG-u7GuU/s1600/eagle-eye2.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_cRFhHg10lvoWTIJ-Ze89RcKzXuueIvsMz3iOLPqxnE8xHpQBrf1EL89FSN2528hVr0pVl28JQXrqgO3HVaVnPi5R9ymr1X8YS5Glho3AFhnkRcT3ji76ZXU44WMn88INFD4PnG-u7GuU/s200/eagle-eye2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588683503174860050" border="0" /></a></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;">I just watched the Eagle Eye movie. Here is the synopsis I found on the internet:</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"><a href="http://www.fandango.com/shialabeouf/filmography/p350236"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Shia LeBeouf</span></a><span style=""> and </span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/michellemonaghan/filmography/p359743"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Michelle Monaghan</span></a><span style=""> star in </span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/disturbia_v349476/summary"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Disturbia</span></a><span style=""> director </span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/d.j.caruso/filmography/p166714"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">D.J. Caruso</span></a><span style="">'s race-against-time thriller concerning two strangers thrust together by a mysterious telephone call, and their frantic efforts to discover why they have inexplicably become the nation's most wanted fugitives. Jerry Shaw (<a href="http://www.fandango.com/shialabeouf/filmography/p350236"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">LaBeouf</span></a>) and Rachel Holloman (</span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/michellemonaghan/filmography/p359743"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Monaghan</span></a><span style="">) were complete strangers at the beginning of the day, but that changed the instant a strange woman called to threaten both their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Suddenly forced into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, Jerry and Rachel must now take orders from a woman who's using everyday technology to track and control their every move. As the situation intensifies and the hapless duo are deemed the country's most wanted fugitives, they must work together in order to discover who it was that turned their lives upside down, and what they can do to thwart the criminal mastermind's cunning yet diabolical plan.</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"><a href="http://www.fandango.com/billybobthornton/filmography/p70825"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Billy Bob Thornton</span></a><span style="">, </span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/rosariodawson/filmography/p199028"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Rosario Dawson</span></a><span style="">, </span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/michaelchiklis/filmography/p12826"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Michael Chiklis</span></a><span style="">, and </span><a href="http://www.fandango.com/anthonymackie/filmography/p347951"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Anthony Mackie</span></a><span style=""> co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide</span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;">The mastermind of the plot, turned out to be a top secret supercomputer system, called "Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst" referred to as Ariia tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world. Ariia can control virtually anything electronic. In short, nothing can escape her surveillance. At the beginning of the movie, Ariia recommended aborting a mission due to the difficulty to prove a terrorist’s identity, but the President of the USA ignored the warning and ordered the attack to be carried out anyway. It turned out that the order was a mistake and all killed were civilians. Ariia then acted on her own, decided that the executive branch was a threat to public good and must be eliminated. She called the operation: Guillotine. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;">Well, I am not going to tell the whole story. You have to watch it yourself. What intrigued me is the title, Eagle Eye. Yes, this supercomputer system did have an eagle’s eye. Nothing electronic can escape her surveillance. She became such great power that was hard to defeat. Yet, her decision was not always right. When she acted on her own, conducted the solution she thought the best for the nation, she only caused destruction and chaos. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;">I come to know another “Eagle Eye”. Fortunately, this Eagle Eye never fails, nor has false judgment. His decision is always for the best, even when what I see is the contrary. Often times, my little brain just can’t comprehend His wisdom and timing. Technology, how sophisticated it is, may fail, but His guidance and plan always, I really mean ALWAYS, bring goodness to those who really believe and rely on Him and His never ending love. So, whenever you face the storm in your life, always remember that there is an Eagle Eye who watches closely over you, not only watching, the owner of the eye is also providing comfort and peace, the strength you need to overcome the storm. Stay in Him, everyone… He loves you so much He gave His life for you all… Be blessed, have a nice Sunday.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;">“For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him”.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; color: black;"> (2 Chronicles 16:9)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-59454998698670564892011-03-27T01:16:00.000-07:002011-03-27T01:23:56.023-07:00Surrogates: New Set of World in the Future<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="font-family: arial;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJOD1H08_4ee_JB7qOgCZxU4Q6eJIlUpm6LlSI9ZG81wNCseS7uhYmqjh0fLYSc3HAmHnbBKQNtPKhguSvRPGepMfwmryxoERw4Di7p_XPFackcwvmII8C0hhYTKV0BB_dee89WL6281k/s1600/surrogates_ver4.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvJOD1H08_4ee_JB7qOgCZxU4Q6eJIlUpm6LlSI9ZG81wNCseS7uhYmqjh0fLYSc3HAmHnbBKQNtPKhguSvRPGepMfwmryxoERw4Di7p_XPFackcwvmII8C0hhYTKV0BB_dee89WL6281k/s200/surrogates_ver4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588672336808537058" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family: arial;">Set in a futuristic world where humans live in isolation and interact through surrogate robots, a cop is forced to leave his home for the first time in years in order to investigate the murders of others’ surrogates. In the future, use of remotely-controlled Androids called “surrogates” allows everyone to live in idealized forms in the safety of their own homes. A surrogate’s operator is protected from harm and does not feel any pain when their surrogate is damaged. FBI agent Tom Greer has a strained relationship with his wife due to the death of their son several years before. He never sees her outside of her surrogate and she criticizes his desire to interact via their real bodies. Bruce Willis plays a cop in a world without crime. The invention of the surrogates – androids controlled by the mind of their owners – has stopped all violent crime. But though such crime has been eliminated, there are some who think that the surrogates are an abomination. Led by the charismatic figure of The Prophet these isolationists have walled themselves off from the surrogate-using world. When humans using surrogates begin dying when their surrogates are destroyed, it is up to Willis and his partner Peters to solve the crime before they kill everyone who uses a surrogate.</span></span><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />The film highlights great advancement in technology. Surrogates were durable and can be controlled willfully.From a variety of androids, people can choose faces, body built, age etc. they like making everyone pleasing to the eye. The technology reduced the world’s crime rate to zero percent.. But this technology is not perfect. The father of surrogacy himself lost his only son. And in the end advocated a cause that is pro-human. He wanted to destroy his makings and turn the course of history back without surrogates. The use of surrogates is considered an addiction. They can manipulate it. But the person’s body is becoming weak due to activities ,supposedly done by a normal person , is made by surrogates. Those who have surrogates are psychologically and physically weak. Their privacy were easily breached by the government. A click could reveal your whole identity. Thus an individual’s surrogate could be hacked and use in a crime the true owner did not. Great it may be but great is trade-off also. Its near-future setting helps the viewer relate easily to the characters and the science of the surrogates plays to many viewer fantasies. While more ambitious than it has to be, the film descends into action scenes too quickly.Surrogates is entertaining and ingenious, but it settles too soon for formula.</span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-35369911562294182942011-03-27T01:07:00.000-07:002011-03-27T01:16:12.080-07:00Reaction: Pirates of Silicon Valley<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="font-family: arial;" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNba2sG-dIdBE5WgxDtX4iFG9fpcbw9E2sS_zbRkSIRFv0JW9UncqlO6dMhPeHMAJQRKuCj__cv4Mxd0jn7OMtFca8AQEy4mPn4Uek2eE8ywOfvaTjHhYm3p745JLu8WkTAx2EkT7bhca/s1600/pirates.jpeg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNba2sG-dIdBE5WgxDtX4iFG9fpcbw9E2sS_zbRkSIRFv0JW9UncqlO6dMhPeHMAJQRKuCj__cv4Mxd0jn7OMtFca8AQEy4mPn4Uek2eE8ywOfvaTjHhYm3p745JLu8WkTAx2EkT7bhca/s200/pirates.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5588670368687325554" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;">The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley is a film based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger. The film was narrated by Steve Wozniak, co-developer of the Apple computer. The movie took off with Steve Jobs talking in a melodramatic way to the audience, it seems but as the angle of the scene shifts, it was shown that he was actually talking to a director and that they were currently in the middle of shooting a commercial which is for the Apple Computer. The scene then changes showing Steve Jobs talking about some sort of alliance formed between Apple Computer and Microsoft with Bill Gates in the screen (details of this scene was showed later on in the film). Then the film featured a flashback on the younger days of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak where they are shown to be caught up in a riot between students and police officers and running in the opposite direction of the tide of people. The movie then proceeds to narrate the events that led to the development of the first Apple computer. The film also features the nerd character of Bill Gates who was then a nobody and even got ignored by Steve Jobs in a computer expo. The story then narrates how competition flared between the two leading companies and how they strived to outwit each other and finally, concluding in the scene where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates announced that they are good together.</span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />In my opinion the real protagonist of the story was Steve Jobs not only because he got featured more in the film but also I admire his determination to uplift the name of Apple. Sure, he got some attitude problem going on but he did become successful, right? He also had flair in talking people into something but you really would not want to cross him when he’s angry or everything will just come exploding. The character of Bill Gates was quite hard to understand and I just kept seeing him as that nerdy kid who is nuts about computers but the characters of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates..The movie is really interesting for it caters the audience not only the development of the two largest computer companies but also the curious students specially students studying computer-related courses. The character of Bill Gates was quite hard to understand and I just kept seeing him as that nerdy kid who is nuts about computers but the characters of Steve Jobs and Bill. </span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-2581625224164014942011-03-01T07:01:00.000-08:002011-03-01T07:54:57.435-08:00Wall-E: A Clear Reflection in the Future<div align="justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKRG48fSfLb4fjSxNTV6O8My6b1h3mMd1-gEro1yXA7UVn5BjFKRK1tr2L9tnIJZ7nkhDx-CH_Dc2aqUt_IVDtJUwFs93d0jkA_iqZEQ9tHIJUCPgWkLVIGyVedoONnbPdvRmtT2Ejg6Px/s1600/walle__oPt.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKRG48fSfLb4fjSxNTV6O8My6b1h3mMd1-gEro1yXA7UVn5BjFKRK1tr2L9tnIJZ7nkhDx-CH_Dc2aqUt_IVDtJUwFs93d0jkA_iqZEQ9tHIJUCPgWkLVIGyVedoONnbPdvRmtT2Ejg6Px/s200/walle__oPt.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579127416822117218" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">When my brother introduced this film by Disney-Pixar to me, I thought it was a boring animated film just like other because of the title itself. I am totally wrong. It was not. As we watched the film, I was moved on my seat about the reality. The reality of what we are doing on our planet. The reality on what is happening on our present-day situation here on earth.</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">WALL-E is a must seen film that needs to be watched by everybody else. The story of this film revolves about a WALL-E which stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth-Class. WALL-E is a robot that is shown to have a feeling like human because of the old movie scenes from VHS tapes that he watched repeatedly which shows dancing, singing and professing love to one another. When EVE, was sent from outer space from her mother ship to search any signs of life on earth, WALL-E was fall in love to her. When WALL-E tried to connect to her, he is drawn into her world and eventually makes his way onto the ship which is called the Axiom. As the film goes by,</span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> I noticed that all the people living in the ship were all obese. All day long, they were only sitting in their hover playing and entertaining their selves all the time. Even the babies were all obese. While watching, I kept asking on my self, "What shall I do if I live in the era having with that kind of sedentary lifestyle?" Pondering on that question I made on my mind, I felt a guilt deep inside in my self because I didn't make any contribution to save our planet earth. As a local citizen to our community, it is my obligation to make moves in such a way it may contribute to our planet. Yes, we are too busy preparing healthy meals for our family that is why we buy food packages from convenience store which the garbages from those packages were not disposed properly and we're throwing it anywhere and without knowing, these foods have little nutrition. Even by throwing garbages properly in their proper bins, by this we contributed a lot to our society. </span></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify" align="justify"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes"><span style="font-family:arial;">The mushrooming of high-end gadgets and gizmos made us people obsessed to have with that kind of techie stuffs and because of that we absorbed the lifestyle of being materialistic. We forgot why we are here on earth. Aside from creating us by God, we forgot our prime obligation of taking care of what we have right now for the next generation to come. I am afraid that if we are not making any step that may help us to save our mother earth, I'm pretty sure that the next generation to come will just live like in the film. <span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></span></span></p>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-14854283285897733822010-12-10T19:42:00.000-08:002010-12-10T20:47:18.987-08:00Why Do We Need To Study Technology?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Fo1HyUkGH36LWD71mQKM7ZomNmLP3Y9Wfs5vCdmCSOd5XL_llHGjEMDyaGlcGqR4QZwR83JW9IAo69aZwakkRiUGFr4MCghdCNpmKi9yAori0PzMzOUwHM5muKP5GIeT0pdi-SIOihgb/s1600/images.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Fo1HyUkGH36LWD71mQKM7ZomNmLP3Y9Wfs5vCdmCSOd5XL_llHGjEMDyaGlcGqR4QZwR83JW9IAo69aZwakkRiUGFr4MCghdCNpmKi9yAori0PzMzOUwHM5muKP5GIeT0pdi-SIOihgb/s320/images.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549281307269937090" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">For how many centuries, people were so desperate to make any inventions so that the chores and tasks will become more easy. From the people of the stone age era up to the present time, were and are very frantic on some stuffs. By scratching some stones to have fire up to what we have today in our stoves in our kitchens, the contribution done by the early homo erectus in Africa is more than appreciated. Even the technology that we use in riding in the air which was invented by the Wright brothers is more than appreciated also. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When somebody bound the question, 'Why do we need to study technology?', it came to pass on my mind some early inventions that were done by our great inventors. Inventions which was contributed a lot to our society. If we are going to say technology, this means more a lot of tangible and intangible things. Technology has a great impact in our society and even to our selves. Our life revolves around the latest technologies that we have today. Aside from increasing our knowledge, studying technology gives us the tracks on how we are going to make any advancement for our selves. By this, we will become more dynamic and not static. By technology, this will help people to build and make their idea of innovations into reality. Gaining your knowledge through studying technology will help you more advance.</span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-7544555980198466972010-04-29T19:07:00.000-07:002010-05-02T19:22:40.824-07:00Interview with the System Analyst<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:arial;">System Analyst is the problem solver of the organization. He is the one who is responsible in defining and solving of the of the problems so that it will meet the needs of the organization. He helps the organization to realize the maximum benefit from its investment in equipment, personnel, and business processes. System analyst may upgrade or made any updates also of any of the systems in the organization for the betterment of it. Most of the system analysts work any sytems such as accounting, scientific systems or other business systems that fits to the organization.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">A system analyst is responsible also in planning, coordinating and recommending software and system choices to meet an organization's business requirements. He plays a vital role in the organization. A successfu</span><span style="font-family:arial;">l s</span><span style="font-family:arial;">yste</span><span style="font-family:arial;">m analyst must possess some analytical, technical, managerial and interpersonal skills so that he can handle the team and the project well. These skills may help the system analyst so that he ca</span><span style="font-family:arial;">n easily understand the organization and its functions but also to know the limitations of the computers and to easily manage his people and to the end users of the systems. To sum up these, a system analyst may compare to a project manager but totally different from it for he is more responsible on the systems of the organization .<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Last April 29, 2010, my classmates and I went to the Rhine Marketing-Computer Division which is located at San Pedro St., Davao City, Philippines to interview the present system analyst which is Mr. Cris Abella. He em</span><span style="font-family:arial;">braced us with a warm</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> welcome to their family and in their function room we interviewed him.<br /><br />Mr. Florenzie Palma which is one of my co-int</span><span style="font-family:arial;">erviewers asked him if a system analyst can easily adopt to any changes. Without any doubts in mind, Sir Cris answered, “Of course, you have to be open to any possibilities of changes so that you can easily cope up what will happen next.” Sir Cris also shared on us that when you are going to design a program or system, you should get the manual procedure before you proceed and to transform it into automation. When Florenzie added a question if docume</span><span style="font-family:arial;">ntation is needed, Sir Cris said that documenting your system is important so that if there is a trouble or problem of your system, it easy for you as a system analyst to troubleshoot it.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Sir Cris tackled also that when you are going to propose a system to your client, be assure that your client is innocent of that so that you cannot be easi</span><span style="font-family:arial;">ly paid in low cost by your client but be ethical also in pricing of it. He added also that many CASE tools you may use nowadays that may help you in making systems without too much hard coding but to drag and drop because of the graphical user interface or GUI. When one of co-interviewers asked if what are the possible abilities of being a systems analyst, he said, “First, you have to be well-educated in Information Technology. Second, you should have a good analyzation so that you can easily predict without being told by your client. Third, anticipation is really needed and fourth, you have to open in any changes in your environment.”</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />When Mr. Floren</span><span style="font-family:arial;">zie asked again if what are the skills of a system analyst, Sir Cris answered him, “You have to be good in any technical and programming skills. Also, interpersonal skills is needed.” After a long conversation with him, I learned something which you should stand to your profession and be loyal into it. He shared something to us which made me and to any other IT students and IT professionals to ponder. Sir Cris said, “In dealing to any customers or clients, you have to be transparent of what system you are going to make. Do not make any unethical to your program (unethical here means that you should not make some settings into your program that make your client fret such as time bomb). Lastly, prove to your self and to others that y</span><span style="font-family:arial;">ou can make your project be done on time and be assure that you have edge from others.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_dRVKoRUpQxRGqNwNstjRvJrgQKs-6n8JS4xfqvLhyWV2kaJkbtkVgJti1gjjQZa1mijH2N5iVNbNWBiZGNiTWfQY62c-4jGw3FBBoJegiz202g7EaTlVrZw1BlgexLrXcgNyF8ChujD/s1600/IMG_5224.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm_dRVKoRUpQxRGqNwNstjRvJrgQKs-6n8JS4xfqvLhyWV2kaJkbtkVgJti1gjjQZa1mijH2N5iVNbNWBiZGNiTWfQY62c-4jGw3FBBoJegiz202g7EaTlVrZw1BlgexLrXcgNyF8ChujD/s320/IMG_5224.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466861832853980354" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1IOYbcE9UqsM2J1AyP2EHg5waay8_VocbrxuZJ2iLScgRqxUtH6phsg07CaK3YFUgMuhqFNSug-af5JECR9xOggN9V_VP59kwRRwVCBvlCRbd57HOqtvHnRMt9ecE3IehT6VluD8mlkUm/s1600/IMG_5227.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1IOYbcE9UqsM2J1AyP2EHg5waay8_VocbrxuZJ2iLScgRqxUtH6phsg07CaK3YFUgMuhqFNSug-af5JECR9xOggN9V_VP59kwRRwVCBvlCRbd57HOqtvHnRMt9ecE3IehT6VluD8mlkUm/s320/IMG_5227.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5466862256141307282" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Me, wearing yellow t-s</span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">hirt, Florenzie who is in blue and the only girl in picture, Kyang-Kyang and Sir Cris A</span>.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-57149160730743219892010-04-25T21:50:00.000-07:002010-04-25T21:59:55.895-07:00Systems Analyst<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcb_zky2pke4crorihNYOQShL-2h5UeUUUVX_Hmo0Ft5nGAwrY-7pT1mL7aPDnA8Ib7Oc9_qBpOQh-b-3rG8DxahJ82g8976h8kzbg8tq704f5TbYkWo8i6yqqs8MQg8z2KVnT_DH7abY-/s1600/systems-analyst.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 201px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcb_zky2pke4crorihNYOQShL-2h5UeUUUVX_Hmo0Ft5nGAwrY-7pT1mL7aPDnA8Ib7Oc9_qBpOQh-b-3rG8DxahJ82g8976h8kzbg8tq704f5TbYkWo8i6yqqs8MQg8z2KVnT_DH7abY-/s320/systems-analyst.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5464304767505836370" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Being an information system analyst, it’s not an easy task for you have to be flexible, good communicator to your team, good thinker, good problem solver and good in any computer programming and technical skills. An information system analyst must also consider some factors in handling the system and his team so that he can solve some business problems in this kind of discipline. According on what I’d read over the internet, an information system analyst can be a perfect presentor, perfect system developer, has a good skills, has a better management, and there association must be better. Whew! What a really tough job. An information system analyst must also not rely on his own knowledge. He must be curious and dynamic so that he can be able to know the problems around him and solve it. In this kind of job or work, you are more a problem solver than a technical programmer.</span></span> <br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Modern businesses use information systems so that their products and services they rendered to their customers will be given gratifiable. That is why; some experts say that information systems are crucial in modern business organizations. These were developed to make business more competitive and give impact to profit and productivity to the organization. There are lots of information systems that were used by the companies and corporations all over the country and even outside the country in their business transactions such as course registration system, online order system, account management system, etc.. Being an information system analyst, you have to be keen observer in your environment. You have to understand how people think, learn, react to change, communicate and work so that you can be able to evaluate how people can interact to the system you are going to make.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Large companies and firms does have information system analysts so that it will be monitored those systems does the company or firm have. This system analyst by the companies required some skills such as skill in business, skill in technical and skill in handling people so that he can be able to foresee and predict some dilemmas that will be going to happen in the future when there is something wrong within the system whether it is hardware or software or within the organization. If you have the skill in business, you have the capacity to manage all the business works of the company. You don’t have to be static in your position but also to manage just like a certain manager that can face any waves of problems of the organization. Having also the skill in technical is important too. Information system analyst should have this kind of talent. If you have at least basic knowledge of technical, it is easier for you to cope up in troubleshooting and resolve of the problems of the system. Skill also in handling people of the organization is really important for human resource or manpower and it is considered as the heart of the organization. Without people or human resource of the organization especially in your team, it is difficult in the part of the system analyst to undergo a certain project and make it in his own. If you possess this kind of skill in handling your people, there is no doubt that your project and your organization will be successful. </span></span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />An information system analyst should have the interpersonal and communication skills. These skills are critical in obtaining information, motivating people, getting cooperation and understanding the complexity of an organization in order to provide necessary support. When my classmates discussed the first chapter of our lesson in our subject, System Analysis and Design 1 (SAD 1), they shared the terms, soft skills and hard skills before the class. These terms were bizarre on my dictionary. Soft skills are skills in nontechnical areas such as interviewing, team management and leadership while the hard skills are skills in technical areas such as database design, programming and telecommunication. Having the skill of soft skill, you can be able to administer well your project and your team because team management and leadership are important in the organization. The more difficult is the hard skills. These are more on hard coding. Those people who are innate in programming and designing database, they are considered hard skilled men of the organization. If one of these skills doesn’t possess in you, there is a possibility of failure of project.</span></span> <br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Last April 21, 2010, our classmates Charmaigne and Ida shared on us about the world of the information system analyst. They tackled some points on what are the roles of being an analyst. Based on what they presented before the class, they said that the primary role of the information system analyst is being a problem solver. If you think you are a problem solver, you may consider as a system analyst whether as a business system analyst, information system analyst, etc. or in other ways.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">If we are going to topic the University of Southeastern Philippines and ask who is the system analyst of the university, maybe you may answer that the system analyst of the institution are those people who made the enrollment system, administrative system, etc., but have you consider the president of the university as the system analyst? Yes, the president of the university may consider as system analyst because he is the problem solver of the institution. He solves some problems and makes decisions onto it. </span></span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br />Back to those days when the university is still on manual system of enrollment system, it is too much difficult for it is not yet automated. When the president oversaw it, he decided to have an enrollment system which is automated and made some contract to those companies that rendered some services and products in the automation of the enrollment. Billions of pesos were spent in the automation of the enrollment system. Another problem arouses because of the funds due to this automation. As the president and problem solver of the university, came up a solution so that the problem of the university will be solved. He tapped some faculties in the Institute of Computing of the university and requested to make an in-house enrollment system. The faculties, who were assigned to make this, were made and deployed it well. Billions of pesos were saved because of this solution. The idea of the president was considered as a brilliant idea.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">As a student who enrolled in this subject, System Analysis and Design, I am still innocent in the field of system designing but what I can brag to other is that I can do better management to the team. A better management of handling my time, team and the project that I may consider to have these skills I possess. At the end of the day, it is still in your own hands to have a successful team and project if you have good leadership and management to your people. </span></span></div><div> </div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-61377166286416052082009-11-21T01:51:00.000-08:002009-11-21T02:24:29.656-08:00Goodbye, The Oprah Winfrey Show......<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7sYXADqKk6FEILCk6h7gNmzkCJ_6SNZ6mB164s5JF1o_TEEOa2WpuGGqVeyT9qg_j_MxQZC1JJ-doU55tQIi4OGgXFwiIZD23Ag8RYB27qJIg4rmp4cXC0_FNdQ8yQRhBuAUmXwPVkfRa/s1600/shows_logo_pic.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7sYXADqKk6FEILCk6h7gNmzkCJ_6SNZ6mB164s5JF1o_TEEOa2WpuGGqVeyT9qg_j_MxQZC1JJ-doU55tQIi4OGgXFwiIZD23Ag8RYB27qJIg4rmp4cXC0_FNdQ8yQRhBuAUmXwPVkfRa/s320/shows_logo_pic.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5406499767325540146" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The most influential TV show in US will end its show in 2011. Yes, I'm referring to The Oprah Winfrey Show. The Oprah Winfrey show, hosted by herself, Oprah Winfrey was the most high-rated talk show in United States. This show was aired first on September 8, 1986 for more than 20 seasons. This show was famous especially to women simply because, of many topics that tackles to American pop-culture consciousness. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Since The Oprah Winfrey Show was the most high-rated talk show, Oprah Winfrey gained some awards and made her onto the top list to the most influential people to the Hollywood and to the world. That is why, you cannot easily beat Oprah Winfrey.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Last November 19, 2009, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Oprah Winfrey's production company announced the show will be ending on September 9, 2011. To find out why, click this link:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; "><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYQumZOrX2U"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYQumZOrX2U</span></span></a></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-38391420776188266792009-11-16T03:58:00.000-08:002009-11-16T04:40:50.349-08:00I Don't Know Why<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57ik_UMK8TLxndkdS5s-YTgbQ6xswd6zt_XcJ7jwMbGT0BQlulWo0RE71VmaS9OsAOM8d34eA0lwA1Fe4oTt8Kfv_HVQL1C_GVGkIVlZZhJuIIBUr8Rx7gF4Fc4zNoje_0Vx1aIrmZYW1/s1600/doubt.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 250px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh57ik_UMK8TLxndkdS5s-YTgbQ6xswd6zt_XcJ7jwMbGT0BQlulWo0RE71VmaS9OsAOM8d34eA0lwA1Fe4oTt8Kfv_HVQL1C_GVGkIVlZZhJuIIBUr8Rx7gF4Fc4zNoje_0Vx1aIrmZYW1/s320/doubt.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5404679031471796722" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >It's almost a week now, na hindi siya nagtatanong sa akin ng kahit ano. Naninibago lang. Maybe, gusto niya mapag-isa o di kaya'y galit siya sa akin. Hindi ko matandaan kung anong na gawa ko sa kanya na mali. Pero, I have conclusions why she mad at me. It's not an ordinary thing of being cold in almost a week.</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >I remember, one time she said, "I hate those persons na hindi nagsasalita kung ano ang mali." That's what I'm waiting from her mouth kung bakit ayaw niyang sabihin sa akin kung ano talaga ang problema. She's so friendly to my other classmates and boardmates but not to me. I'm wondering. Meron talagang mga taong sadyang ayaw sabihin kung ano talaga ang problema. Akala ko kaibigan siya. Di pala. but ayokong maging masama siya sa paningin ko. Hahay....... That is why, I'm not happy anymore in our boarding house. Unlike before, sabay kami kumakain. Breakfast, lunch at dinner, sabay kami pati na ang pagkain ng merienda namin. I miss those activities especially noong nag-a-attend kami ng Wednesday Prayer Meeting dun sa Chinese Baptist. Kaya, I regret na sana hindi na lang kami sabay na tumira sa isang boarding house (we're not sleeping in the same room ha, hehehe). Everytime na ako lang mag-isa sa kwarto, gusto ko maiyak because I think na wala akong kakampi. Kahit iba kong mga classmates ay parang ayaw nila sa aking. Ganito ba talaga ako? Always na naghahanap ng away? Siguro, ipinanganak lang talaga ako sa mundong ibabaw na ganito ako. Pero, I have to adjust because hindi na ito tulad ng dati. 'Yan siguro ang mali ko sapagkat hindi ako marunong mag-adjust sa ibang tao at I didn't consider their feelings also and I should what my limitations are.</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" >I do believe that hindi magtatagal ang cold relationship as a friend namin ngayon. Siguro, sa mga susunod na araw ay unti-unti babalik ang nakagisnan naming mga gawain.</span><br /><br /><br /></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-67591903116776520912009-11-13T23:24:00.000-08:002009-11-13T23:29:48.761-08:00IT Professional? Hmmpfff.....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFw2r7CjSb7RoCACPEPa0ols7saOIPO_zTWOGhx-XoPQzMMSTx8GfdCARDKyPtG3XXBOqSvtVCJd4PzngO9Nnomnr_MS_v7rkXk-5RbQrFAJ58wAG78bGVZnJY7Zc9ttT71U9KvkWseb5_/s1600-h/audit_manager.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 222px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFw2r7CjSb7RoCACPEPa0ols7saOIPO_zTWOGhx-XoPQzMMSTx8GfdCARDKyPtG3XXBOqSvtVCJd4PzngO9Nnomnr_MS_v7rkXk-5RbQrFAJ58wAG78bGVZnJY7Zc9ttT71U9KvkWseb5_/s320/audit_manager.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5403857842737564338" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Well, I can view myself 10 years from now as an IT professional, particularly as MIS manager working in a corporation or company wherein I can share my skills related in the discipline I choose. Being an MIS Manager is not an easy task, for; you will be the one to coordinate and centralize all the group demands, preparing the status reports, supervising your standards, procedures, policies, work instructions and methodologies adopted during the implementation phase in your organization.<br /><br />Now, let’s discuss again what Management Information System is. Management Information Systems consist of hardware and software that are used to process information automatically. Commonly, MIS systems are used within organizations to allow many individuals to access and modify information. In many organizations, the management information system mainly operates behind the scene, and the user community is rarely involved or even aware of the processes that are handled by the MIS. A computer system used to process orders for a business could be considered a management information system because it is assisting users of the system in automating processes related to orders. Other examples of modern management information systems are websites that process transactions for an organization or even those that serve support requests to users. A simple example of a management information system might be the support website for a product could be considered an MIS because it returns information to the end user after some initial input is provided.<br /><br />Online bill pay at a bank also qualifies as a management information system — when a bill is scheduled to be paid, the user has provided information for the system to act against. The management information system then processes the payment when the due date approaches. The automated action taken by the online system is to pay the bill as requested. Since the bills within an online bill pay system can be scheduled to be automatically paid month after month, the user is not required to provide further information. Many times the bill pay system will also produce an email for the user to let them know that the action has occurred and what the outcome of the action was.<br />Management Information Systems typically have their own staff whose function it is to maintain existing systems and implement new technologies within a company. These positions are often highly specialized, allowing a team of people to focus on different areas within the computer system.<br /><br />In recent years, colleges and universities have begun offering entire programs devoted to management information systems. In these programs, students learn how to manage large interconnected computer systems and troubleshoot the automation of these management information systems.<br /><br />Many people use management information systems every day without thinking about the actual system they are using. Sure the individual will see a website and enter information, expecting an action to happen, but these websites, just like the accounting systems used by large corporations, are in fact management information systems.<br />Being MIS Manager is responsible in supervising the safe use of the system by the various operators, with respect of the procedures of your company and per the accounting rules and principles. Not only that, but responsible also in editing and printing frequently the appropriate management reports while checking and inspecting the results; these reports must be programmed on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and distributed the concerned departments.<br /><br />MIS Managers have major duties so that his organization will be successful. To wit:<br />• Supervise activities of MIS staff.<br />• Identify critical business issues and develop workable solutions for customers as well as MIS associates. These solutions may include enhancements to existing core applications, new software packages, and/or customer programs.<br />• Define MIS standards and policies in compliance with external auditors.<br />• Identify, recommend, and manage deployment of "best of breed" hardware and software upgrades and purchases for Finance and Administration.<br />• Prepare and manage the Management Information Systems operating and capital budgets.<br />• In conjunction with users, prepare, test, and maintain a disaster recovery plan for administrative systems.<br />• In conjunction with users, develop and maintain documentation, procedures, security, and training of staff members and end users of administrative systems.<br />• Maintain professional expertise in administrative computing systems and technology.<br /><br />If you want to be MIS Manager or any kind of manager, here are some simple tips so that you need inorder for you to be successful in your work and career. To wit:<br /><br />1. Try to learn as much as possible about the people you are working with (needs, family lives, hobbies etc)<br /><i>You should be friendly to all of the people that surrounds you in your workplace. Try to have some times in bonding with them so that your relation to them will be closer. </i><br /><br />2. Keep smiling! Be positive (you can transfer your energy to the others)<br /><i>Having a smiley and bright face contributes more motivation to your employees.</i><br /><br />3. Have short informal conversation with your employees! (use their first names - it is very important).<br /><i> Be more humorous to your employees. Call them either in their nicknames or first names. </i><br /><br />4. Be patient and listen to them (encourage them to say more, keep eye-contact and focused attention).<br /><i>If one of your employees commit some mistakes, try to listen and understand them why they made that fault.<br /></i><br />5. Shape your speech according to their expectation and interests.<br /><i> Not all the times you can use a formal speech to them, try to become informal but not all the times.<br /></i><br />6. Give a good stroke! (say something nice when you meet them).<br /><i>Greet them if you meet them.<br /></i><br />7. Don't give orders! Ask questions!<br /><i>If you want to request some orders, say it nice. <br /></i><br />8. Praise people any time for their achievements (they will love it)<br /><i> If they made some achievement even it is simple, praise them for it will contribute motivation to them. </i><br /><br />9. Have the same behavior and attitude with everybody around you.<br /><i> Be more friendly to them. </i><br /><br />10. Identify the sources of conflicts and try to solve them in time.<br /><i>If there are conflicts in your organization, solve it and understand why it happened.</i><br /><br />11. Do not criticize, do not blame do not complain.<br /><i> Do not judge anyone in your organization. </i><br /><br />12. Show strong determination and try to motivate the others.<br /><i> Be more positive for everyone depends on you.</i><br /><br />13. Don't be moody! Be well-balanced and good-tempered all the time.<br /><i> Don’t nag for any no reason. </i><br /><br />14. Don't say "NO!" (replace it with "What if")<br /><i>Try to listen others opinion and be more optimistic</i><br /><br /><br />In addition, here is a link to be a SUCCESSFUL IT PROFESSIONAL. <a href="http://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CAsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnet.educause.edu%2Fir%2Flibrary%2Fpdf%2FERM0613.pdf&rct=j&q=how+to+be+successful+IT+professional&ei=6k_-SuyKEp3a6gPNxMjpCg&usg=AFQjCNF7Wq2nQ5bdgQ_Vo4zgFxMTxwGrvw" target="_blank">http://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=2&ved=0CAsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnet.educause.edu%2Fir%2Flibrary%2Fpdf%2FERM0613.pdf&rct=j&q=how+to+be+successful+IT+professional&ei=6k_-SuyKEp3a6gPNxMjpCg&usg=AFQjCNF7Wq2nQ5bdgQ_Vo4zgFxMTxwGrvw</a><br /><br />Lastly, without an ambition, you cannot achieve what you want to be. As what the elders said , "Hindi masama ang mangarap." That is why, while it is early try to have some dreams you want to be in the near future and don't forget some tips on how to become successful in your career.<br /><br /></span> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">References:</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.whoi.edu/services/HR/jobdescp/administrative/mismgr.htm" target="_blank">http://www.whoi.edu/services/HR/jobdescp/administrative/mismgr.htm</a></span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.sd-lb.com/WhitePapers/WP_MISProfile.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.sd-lb.com/WhitePapers/WP_MISProfile.pdf</a></span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-management-information-systems.htm" target="_blank">http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-management-information-systems.htm</a></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-79093245054450462712009-10-05T22:45:00.000-07:002009-10-05T22:46:28.779-07:00Whew!<span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hay! Unsa na man ni uie....tamad au ko...hu5</span><br /> </span>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-12830841339740681402009-10-03T05:38:00.001-07:002009-10-03T05:42:20.571-07:00Gggrrrr....<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I hate having a barkada as your groupmate in your work. That is why, I prefer to have a groupmate/s that is not your friend but approachable. Hahayzzzzzzzz......</span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold;">Tips: </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you want to choose a groupmate to your group, choose a person that is not your friend but approachable.</span></span><br /> </div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-42608542752705422902009-10-03T05:22:00.000-07:002009-10-03T05:24:38.124-07:00HR Practices of LGU Davao<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">In this tasked, my chosen organization is the HRM (Human Resource Management) Office in Davao City Hall. This organization is well-known because of their HR best practices and was hailed by some other organizations both in Local Government Units and Non-Local Government Units. This organization also was hailed because of its HRIS that the other LGUs in the country wants to be imitated. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Davao City is a wide city that has more than thousands of employees working in government service. According to a commmon online encyclopedia, HRM is more flexible than Personnel Management which is rigid. PM sees its workers as a cost rather than an investment. PM is guided by policies and guidelines unlike HRM is proactive while PM is reactive and so, most organizations and companies has its Human Resource Management. That is why, there are also illegitimate employees and these were the ghost employees. Due to the best HR practices done by the city government, there are more than thousands of ghost employees were expunged. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">As I surf over the internet, I found these informations about the HR practices of LGU Davao;</span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>HR benefits of 911</strong> </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Mendoza (Executive Director of the Career Executive Service Board (CESB)) mentioned as worth duplicating the establishment of the city’s Central Communication and Emergency Response Center or Central 911 which has employed 133 Davaoeños after it was launched in 2003. Central 911 is only the third emergency response helpline in the world of its kind, next to the United States and Canada. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong></strong></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>HRMO as a department </strong></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Participants also lauded the creation of HRMO as a department, up from a section, in the city government’s present structure. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">“Davao City shows that HR offices can also be given equal importance with other departments, unlike most LGUs in the country,” said Eddie Maslog, chief of the Human Resource Management and Development Office (HRMDO) of the Provincial Government of Bohol. Unlike the case of Davao City, Maslog’s office has yet to secure an approval from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in creating its department head position. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Escalada (former HRMO Chief of LGU Davao) attributed the department status of the HRMO to the joint support of the City Mayor and the City Council, giving the office more clout to implement HRM policies. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">In the workshop, participants further listed down as best HRM model Davao City’s high regard for “merit and fitness principle,” with the city mayor hiring only from the top five applicants as recommended by the personnel selection board. Escalada said this was to discourage political accommodation in the recruitment process. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Escalada also reported the termination of around 730 “ghost” employees in the city hall since his assumption as HRMO acting head in 2002. <strong></strong></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong></strong></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>More HR models</strong> </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Other initiatives of the city government that the participants wanted to replicate were the setting up of a child-minding facility at City Hall which offers free custodial services to employees who need to take their children to work; the microcomputer-based Human Resource Information System (HRIS) which updates records of all plantilla and coterminous personnel; the character advocacy program which identifies good character traits to be exhibited by employees on a monthly basis; the 5-S program which promotes good housekeeping and systematic approach to work, and the attachment of the Public Employment Service Office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) which focuses on job generation, facilitation, enhancement, job preservation. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">“We take pride in being able to give total human development to our personnel through our HR programs,” Escalada said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">In a separate interview, Nora Fe Alajar, president of the Davao City Hall Employees Association (DACHEA) said rank-and-file employees have a bigger role in the city government today than ever. She said this started when a Collective Negotiation Agreement (CNA) was forged in 2000, providing for the representation of the employees union in the many influential committees of City Hall. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">“City Hall management and the workers’ union have a very good partnership because of the many programs that are sensitive to the needs of the employees,” Alajar said. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Davao City shared similar complements with other panelists from the Municipality of Malalag in Davao del Sur and the provincial governmet of Sultan Kudarat. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">In the same workshop, the Malalag municipal government, represented by Municipal Mayor Givel Mamaril, was commended for the participation of the LGU personnel in the reorganization and restructuring of the municipal government and for various local government initiatives such as revenue generation schemes and economic enterprises. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Sultan Kudarat, whose HR practices were presented by Provincial Human Resource Management Officer Ben Zamora, was hailed for giving higher incentives to its personnel (14th month pay) and a CNA where retirees can recommend replacements in lower positions, among others. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">The symposium was conducted to bring together human resource managers from previous AusAID-assisted institutions nationwide and to provide a venue for discussing how to address the effects of the national government restructuring measures using human resource management principles. </span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span><br /> <span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Source: <strong><u>http://www.pia.gov.ph/?m=12&sec=reader&rp=1&fi=p050113.htm&no=6&date=01/13/2005</u></strong></span></span><br /><span class="postbody"><strong></strong></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-85032943643341843222009-09-30T21:37:00.000-07:002009-09-30T21:40:38.692-07:00Let's Define!!!!<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>Personnel Management:</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Within organizations that employ people, this is the function with policy responsibility for the selection and recruitment of staff, training, performance assessment, career development, disciplinary proceedings, pre-retirement advisory work, equal opportunities policies, pay bargaining, and industrial relations. In small organizations these functions may be combined with other management responsibilities; in large organizations a substantial separate department may be involved in setting policy, its implementation, and in keeping up to date with developments in labour law. In recent years the newer alternative term 'human resource management' has come into use, reflecting the increased importance of this function in labour-intensive service-sector industries.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><i>In this statement, personnel management is the one who is responsible in recruiting and selecting staff. Its obligation also is to train, assess, and make any such development in careers and so on. That is why, personnel management is important to an organization.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">----------------------------------------------------------------</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Administrative discipline of hiring and developing employees so that they become more valuable to the organization. It includes (1) conducting job analyses, (2) planning personnel needs, and recruitment, (3) selecting the right people for the job, (4) orienting and training, (5) determining and managing wages and salaries, (6) providing benefits and incentives, (7) appraising performance, ( resolving disputes, (9) communicating with all employees at all levels.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><i>In this definition, personnel management is responsible for hiring and developing employees to be more productive in an organization. </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">-----------------------------------------------------------------</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">The function of a personnel manager usually begins with the staffing process. The manager may be focused on screening and interviewing applicants, with an eye to placing individuals with the right skill sets in the right position within the company. Along with placement, the HR manager may also oversee, or at least be involved in, the creation of entry level training programs, as well as continuing education opportunities for existing employees.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Determining company policies and procedures as they relate to personnel is another important aspect of the personnel management process. HR functions often include drafting vacation, sick leave, and bereavement policies that apply to all employees. The personnel management team is also often responsible for managing any healthcare program provided to the employees as well.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">One aspect of company organization that needs the input of effective personnel management is the drafting of a company handbook. Establishing operation policies and procedures, requirements for employment, commendation and disciplinary procedures, and even something as simple as a dress code has to be compared with state and federal guidelines before the handbook is ready for release to the company at large. Personnel managers and the HR staff are ideal for drafting and reviewing the company handbook.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Sometimes overlooked in the course of personnel management is the emotional welfare of the employees. Increasingly, more personnel managers understand that a well-adjusted employee is an asset to the company. To this end, many people in charge of personnel management try to provide opportunities for employees who are in need of counseling to receive support from the company.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">This support often involves scheduling time during working hours for the counseling sessions, and perhaps picking up the cost if insurance does not cover counseling. As with continuing educational programs, counseling is seen as another way that the company invests in the future relationship between the employee and the employer. A good HR manager understands this and will strive to make sure this sort of support is available.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Depending on the size of the organization, it may be possible for one person to handle all personnel management functions. As a company grows, it may be necessary to expand from a single personnel manager to a full-fledged personnel management, or Human Resources team. By understanding the needs of the company at each point in its growth, management can readily see to the addition to the Human Resources team over time. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><i>Personnel Management is related to personnel manager. Personnel Manager is the one who oversees of the emotional welfare of the employees. That is why, personnel managers understand that employees are the main ingredient of an organization. </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>Human Resource Management:</strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><i>Human Resource Management is kinda related to personnel management. They are both in line with hiring, performance management, employee motivation, and other activities related to the employees.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">----------------------------------------------------------------------</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise" (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5). There are seven management functions of a human resources (HR) department that will be specifically addressed: staffing, performance appraisals, compensation and benefits, training and development, employee and labor relations, safety and health, and human resource research.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><i>In this statement, human resource management is responsible in making employees feel at home even they are in their workplace. HRM is also responsible in making people to be more productive so that they can easily solve problems in their organization. </i></span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-44994126615030585062009-09-30T21:26:00.000-07:002009-09-30T21:33:24.684-07:00Information Environment<div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" ><span style="color:black;">The information environment is a construct based upon the idea that the existence and proliferation of information and information systems creates a distinct operating dimension or environment. As a combination of tangible (physical information systems and networks) and intangible elements (information and decision-making), the information environment is both a resource for military operations and a medium in which armed forces operate. In addition, </span>an information environment incorporates all the factors affecting how an organization deals with information. It addresses all of a company's values and beliefs about information, how people actually use information and what they do with it, the pitfalls that can interfere with information sharing and use, and the technology and information systems that are in place. A broad perspective is necessary to understand the impact of intangibles because addressing intangible assets and capabilities will require changes in and adaptations to regulation, governance, attitudes and behaviors—in addition to systems and technologies.</span><span style="font-size:85%;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="Default" style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">That is why; the most intangible element of the information environment – information – is of supreme importance. This is because, in spite of its lack of physical existence, the content and flow of information within a specific geographic area produces real, tangible effects in the physical world. For these reasons, our understanding of the information environment must ultimately include how information content and flow affect the execution of military operations.<o:p></o:p> <br /></span></p><p class="Default" style="text-indent: 0.5in; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;">To rationally analyze the information environment and the relationship between its constituent elements, a framework </span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">is needed to organize our view of the environment. For this purpose, a model – the three domains of conflict – </span><span style=";font-size:85%;" > </span><span style="font-size:85%;">physical, information, and cognitive – that, in sum, explain the importance of information to military operations and, for the purposes of analysis, the character of the information environment. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Pa23" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size:85%;color:black;"> The physical domain is the real world environments of land, sea, air, and space. It is where maneuver and conventional combat operations occur. As part of the information environment, it is where individuals, organizations, information systems, and the physical networks that support them reside.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p class="Pa23" style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size:85%;color:black;">The cognitive domain is where individual and organizational collective consciousness exists. It is where information is used to form perceptions and attitudes and make decisions. The information domain is formed by the intersection of the physical and cognitive domains, and is the abstract space where information exists. The domain consists of information and is where the functions of information systems (i.e., information collection, processing, and dissemination) create information content and flow. The information domain is the link between the reality of the physical domain and human perceptions and decision-making in cognitive domain.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p> Since people like us are also important to an information environment, we may consider us the peopleware that may belong to the intangible environment.<span style=""> </span>If companies are going to begin to manage intangibles-oriented information successfully as part of their journey to become high-performance businesses, they will need to change many aspects of their information environments.</span> <span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" > A new information strategy can set the tone for the overall changes. It should specify what new information entities the organization plans to collect and report on, and perhaps what information the organization will de-emphasize. The organization's intent relative to external reporting of the information should also be stated in its information strategy.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> New information processes will be needed to generate and validate new information about intangible assets and capabilities. It's unlikely that all the information will already exist within the organization. For example, if the organization decides to regularly collect and manage information on its brand equity, it may need to initiate external surveys of customers to produce the information. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> Organizations will need to develop a new performance anatomy, comprising a new information culture and set of behaviors. Perhaps the most important cultural and behavioral change will involve executives, who must begin to manage their businesses based on intangibles information. There is little use in having better information about human capital, for example, if managers don't try to act on it more effectively over time in a way that improves performance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> A new set of information entities will certainly lead to change in a company's information architecture, including its business applications. New metrics for growing intangible value will necessitate changes to business performance measurement systems. Enhancing management's decision-making capabilities to monitor and analyze intangible value will require improved business applications and analytic tools. These technologies, in turn, depend upon consistent, accurate information about intangible resources. This information will either need to be derived from existing databases, or new databases, and data warehouses must be constructed. Some of the intangibles information may be found externally and would need to be integrated with internal information before it can be useful. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> Futhermore, we believe that changes in information governance may be necessary with an entirely new class of information. Governance issues around information appear naturally with any change in the balance of information power. Those who have their power wrapped up in financial information, for example, may well resist the new focus on intangibles. As evidence of the importance of information governance, at one firm that developed a balanced scorecard, a certain company had the new scorecard shut down while its developer (the director of quality) was on vacation! Whether this was a good idea or not, it certainly points out the need for attention to resolving political disputes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"> In efforts to drive high performance, this overall model can be used to plan and assess an organization's movement toward intangible asset and capability management in relation to the information environment. We believe that pioneering companies that master all aspects of the management of intangible assets will be able to attain higher levels of business performance. In subsequent research, we'll describe how several aspects of this change may play out in detail, and provide examples of high-performance businesses and other leading organizations that have begun to manage information about intangible assets. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size:85%;"> Finally, there is a need to ensure that quality information isn’t lost amongst the masses of digital data created everyday. If we can continue to improve the management, interrogation and serving of ‘quality’ information there is huge potential to enhance knowledge creation across learning and research communities. The aim of the Information Environment is to help provide convenient access to resources for research and learning through the use of resource discovery and resource management tools and the development of better services and practice. The Information Environment aims to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" ><o:p><br /></o:p></span></p><p style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" ><o:p> Sources:</o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" >http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/themes/informationenvironment.aspx<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="font-family: arial; text-align: justify;font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 115%;font-size:85%;" >http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Institute_For_High_Performance_Business/By_Subject/Strategy/TheAssetManagement.htm<o:p></o:p></span></p>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-77758096375699752222009-09-07T00:23:00.000-07:002009-09-30T21:49:56.905-07:00What A Lonely Story<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GI2lu9M1OyntNaDXOz5eGve6gD1ial4huzoTgmfUw9qDyeuXJbQNGU-NXdouMwKve7se9vqvpLR_bPuRjcKt1vNCFkXxjw4RjWZbXMK6fGrW7jV86rVkqLQB2ZsgkqXMpElhVjZv0V1V/s1600-h/paint-heart.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 279px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GI2lu9M1OyntNaDXOz5eGve6gD1ial4huzoTgmfUw9qDyeuXJbQNGU-NXdouMwKve7se9vqvpLR_bPuRjcKt1vNCFkXxjw4RjWZbXMK6fGrW7jV86rVkqLQB2ZsgkqXMpElhVjZv0V1V/s320/paint-heart.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387488953024296978" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Recently, I just met a person named Zed. Well, I'm not really sure if that was his name. We met in an online third sex site wherein both of us member of that site. At first, I am so curious about him it was because he has no profile pic. I immediately sent him a private messages expecting that he would make a reply too. Alas, my message buzz in the size buzzed. Well, i really not expect who will be the one to reply, it was because he was not the only one I gave a private message. Zed replied, "ASL"? I replied him, "18/m/dvo(tagum)". After a minute, he replied, "20/m/tagum". It was not new anymore to me of having a chatmate in a same place. It was 12:00AM when I went to a nearby net cafe to rent a unit so that I can surf over the net. After an hour, we decided to meet at the square. ************</span><br /><br />Duhhh............huhuhu......i don't want to talk it anymore.......I just want to move on...I want to end it there since my heart is still in pain... Hope you understand it. Thanks. ~cHrIs~<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-75968572383691528842009-08-30T03:14:00.000-07:002009-08-30T03:17:25.891-07:00Making Paper Doll Face<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0icNhl8qZTtVINyDZ1CnBisVolOvAk-tns2KnqYktOlFIfM3vFAwlJOBvZhOIdoRFeQ2DpgVPKxC2Jz-PAfcRmaLEqp83uKijSajwcpuydXboMMrVeClhm73XJk8ADCigTZVCJCXeRfPP/s1600-h/IMG0044A.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 176px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0icNhl8qZTtVINyDZ1CnBisVolOvAk-tns2KnqYktOlFIfM3vFAwlJOBvZhOIdoRFeQ2DpgVPKxC2Jz-PAfcRmaLEqp83uKijSajwcpuydXboMMrVeClhm73XJk8ADCigTZVCJCXeRfPP/s320/IMG0044A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375698749765819842" border="0"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9aCYo0xbbW26TeEuCB3peg-Ium7KEYvZXMC8fLucX4eAbbz7-IzSRmZIThgpVS2FUBrFGkMTldvSTfnuvsh1PLkE5rMBVnEuBvKk_xwI-Gxnf5sUXxiDoQr57xDx3Ew79X7hq_LCdbhdI/s1600-h/IMG0046A.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 176px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9aCYo0xbbW26TeEuCB3peg-Ium7KEYvZXMC8fLucX4eAbbz7-IzSRmZIThgpVS2FUBrFGkMTldvSTfnuvsh1PLkE5rMBVnEuBvKk_xwI-Gxnf5sUXxiDoQr57xDx3Ew79X7hq_LCdbhdI/s320/IMG0046A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375698603717802770" border="0"></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhobUUguq-pQ95l9SIz8yM4-Tth5xp6R_swifnFACQCy_F36AjTr0tPXL2XlYzGmItNcGw_8u1ce1WXGltw_IRV2fVnZ_Mg7xx-MovB-1rh3bCNgFRU2OF99tSYY4-IoMnn4P91-m7oxRXq/s1600-h/IMG0045A.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 176px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhobUUguq-pQ95l9SIz8yM4-Tth5xp6R_swifnFACQCy_F36AjTr0tPXL2XlYzGmItNcGw_8u1ce1WXGltw_IRV2fVnZ_Mg7xx-MovB-1rh3bCNgFRU2OF99tSYY4-IoMnn4P91-m7oxRXq/s320/IMG0045A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375698464949399378" border="0"></a><br /><br />Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-83568941033931436942009-08-30T03:10:00.000-07:002009-10-03T05:47:18.970-07:00Kawaii<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAcKaxL03VJ9cF2cbcEOac2HgYezHKPdi5pZMHyOAHuR1ZxWRyN0aj0HZdIn1H4tGjGja-XjFLgasKH5tJSAxA004H0a6o4OjHhT9sqnECwBIxoOiUSBAbDvHPPfKJClG81Xde43hRGe3H/s1600-h/IMG0038A.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 220px; height: 176px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAcKaxL03VJ9cF2cbcEOac2HgYezHKPdi5pZMHyOAHuR1ZxWRyN0aj0HZdIn1H4tGjGja-XjFLgasKH5tJSAxA004H0a6o4OjHhT9sqnECwBIxoOiUSBAbDvHPPfKJClG81Xde43hRGe3H/s320/IMG0038A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375698239930927698" border="0" /> </a></div> <p style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;" class="MsoNormal">Kawaii is a Japanese term which means “cute”. These collectible kawaii items of my brother are so cute. These are <i>tamagochis</i> that have built in infrared which connects to the <i>tamagochis</i> that has infrared. How I wish to have these kind of items but I’m out of budget for this. Lolz! </p> <div style="text-align: justify; font-family: arial;"> <br /></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-62158695393476426612009-08-30T03:09:00.000-07:002009-08-30T03:39:51.655-07:00My Cousin<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWLt6jaW2Ukqd7_W9XTQQaF47efNUU4WfBh4ZQmmEbsVNW5-JkjThtHFVcnIeEIAucroRWe8bNCKVQlTDg3eYOLE4sOTqM-w5Ut1YKpF2pvWV0k88DPDEWq5Ekttq80YfQ8gvrsaqA7PjX/s1600-h/IMG0032A.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWLt6jaW2Ukqd7_W9XTQQaF47efNUU4WfBh4ZQmmEbsVNW5-JkjThtHFVcnIeEIAucroRWe8bNCKVQlTDg3eYOLE4sOTqM-w5Ut1YKpF2pvWV0k88DPDEWq5Ekttq80YfQ8gvrsaqA7PjX/s320/IMG0032A.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375699541668279026" border="0" /></a><span style=";font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" >"Childhood is a journey, not a race.", a quote that I will cherish forever. When I always see kids running, playing, laughing, it made me remember back to my younger years. Before, I usually played with my playmates especially my classmates and friends. I cannot forget those times playing <span style="font-style: italic;">tigso, takyan, tagu-anay, jolenay,</span> and a lot of local games which made me happy.</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" >This is Janrex. You may call him Jan-Jan. He is my cousin and he is in Grade 2. He is so cute and super smart. When I'm going to visit them at their house, we usually played <span style="font-style: italic;">tagu-anay</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">dampa</span>. Jan-Jan loves to borrow my phone because he wants to play some mobile games. That is why, I will keep my phone so that he won't play it.</span><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" >Now, I cannot imagine that he is a big boy <span style="font-style: italic;">na. </span>Hehehe. Last time, i saw him, he is toddler. Now, a lad who is studying in the primary level. Whew! Time is so fast. Maybe, <span style="font-style: italic;">di ko lang mamalayan, meron na pa pala itong sariling pamilya.</span> HEHEHE. Anyways, my <span style="font-style: italic;">payo</span> to him<span style="font-style: italic;"> na lang</span>, enjoy being a kid. Being a kid is like a thing which is temporal and not eternal.</span><br /></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-18473977303523031042009-08-30T02:47:00.000-07:002009-08-30T02:50:21.393-07:00Areas Related to HRM on the 9th SONA of the President<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">During the 9th SONA of the President at the Batasang Pambansa, there are lots of achievements she shared. She discussed some achievements in banking and finance, education, and a lot more and one of the achievements she shared related in the Human Resource Management are; for small entrepreneurs they should be well funded, teacher's training to provide more quality education to their students and lastly, effective protections for our OFWs.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">To discuss these three areas related to Human Resource Management further, let's go back what Human Resource Management is. According to our brother online dictionary, Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. The terms "human resource management" and "human resources" (HR) have largely replaced the term "personnel management" as a description of the processes involved in managing people in organizations. In simple sense, HRM means employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">For the last works done by our dynamic President, she made some efforts in order those employees both in private and government sectors will work in motivation. That is why, many of our organizations, corporations and companies here in the Philippines doesn't experience recession well.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">These were the three areas related to HRM in which the President shared. To wit:</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">1. <i>Nakinabang ang pitong milyong entrepreneurs sa P165 billion in microfinance loans. Nakinabang ang sandaan libo sa emergency employment ng ating economic resiliency plan. Kasama natin ngayon ang isa sa kanila, si Gigi Gabiola. Dating household service worker sa Dubai, ngayon siya ay nagtatrabaho sa DOLE. Good luck, Gigi.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Here, loaning is one of the easiest way in which our small entrepreneurs can sustain to their businesses. They have to borrow some money from the lender whether how much is it. That is why, the Arroyo administration imposed this kind of loaning system which is called microfinance loan. Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. This Microfinancing loans are small loans granted to the basic sectors, on the basis of the borrower’s cash flow and other loans granted to the poor and low-income households for their microenterprises and small businesses to enable them to raise their income levels and improve their living standards. These loans are typically unsecured but may also be secured in some cases. That is why, this microfinance loan is such a great help to our so-called <i>mamamayan</i>. For them, this is not a burden but as long as they can sustain their businesses in their own, it is better not to borrow in order for them not to sink in the quicksand of debts.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">2. <i>Pardon my partiality for the teaching profession. I was a teacher. Kaya namuhunan tayo ng malaki sa education at skills training. Ang magandang edukasyon ay susi sa mas magandang buhay, the great equalizer that allows every young Filipino a chance to realize their dreams. Nagtayo tayo ng 95,000 na silid-aralan, nagdagdag ng 60,000 na guro, naglaan ng P1.5 billion para sa teacher training, especially for 100,000 English teachers. </i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">In this second issue, education is important to everyone especially to the young minds. Education is central to development and a key to attaining the millennium development goals of our government and our society. It is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality and lays a foundation for sustained economic growth. That is why, most developed countries invest more in their education system and produce more competitive which our country envy. When Pres. Gloria Arroyo first stepped in the Malacañang Palace as our second woman president, she planned and studied well about the poor education system of our country. After for a long time, Madam President has a solution in which students can benefit but the teachers also. This solution in which our president made, is such a great help in order that the teachers and instructors of different schools in our country will be more competitive. It is good to know that the government invest funds worth of billion pesos for the training for our teachers. This training will help and motivate our teachers especially those English teachers to work hard so that they can serve well our country and so that they will know what are the new trends in teaching in using new technologies nowadays. And because of that, good to hear that and well done Madam President!</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">3. <i>Sa hirap at ginhawa, pinapatatag ang ating bansa ng ating Overseas Filipinos. Iyong padala nilang $16 billion noong isang taon ay record. Itong taon, mas mataas pa.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>I know that this is not a sacrifice joyfully borne. This is work where it can be found -- in faraway places, among strangers with different cultures. It is lonely work, it is hard work.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Kaya nagsisikap tayong lumikha dito sa atin ng mga trabahong maganda ang sahod, so that overseas work will just be a career choice, not the only option for a hard-working Filipino.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Meanwhile, we should make their sacrifices worthwhile. Dapat gumawa tayo ng mas epektibong proteksyon at pagpapalawak ng halaga ng kanilang pinagsikapang sweldo. That means stronger consumer protection for OFWs investing in property and products back home. Para sa kanila, pinapakilos natin ang Investors Protection Task Force.</i></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">In this last area related to HRM, the President focused it to the OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers. According to them, OFWs are the modernized heroes of our country. The money in which the OFWs remittedevery year is such a great help so that we can earn billion of pesos. Because of the blood and sweat offered by the OFWs to work outside the country, most of us admired them. That is why, the government established a task force in which it is beneficial to the OFWs so that they will be overseen by the government whether they were paid well by their employers or not. Good to hear also that the government implemented well to have jobs inside the country with a nice wages so that working outside the country is a choice now and because of that, no more BRAIN DRAIN anymore.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Now, because of these few achievements done by our President , we may not call her <i>tamad na Presidente</i> but instead a WORKING PRESIDENT. These achievements done by her is a proof that our country Philippines is a developing country and soon to be a Tiger Economy . </span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-61126802773038954082009-08-30T02:46:00.000-07:002009-08-30T04:04:50.304-07:00Human Power<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><span class="postbody"><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="postbody">"Human beings are the most important, potent and critical, resource of any organization, and yet the least understood and the worst managed of its resources"</span><br /><span class="postbody"></span></div><span class="postbody"><br /></span>In this statement, my own notion for this is, the employee is the most important ingredient in an organization or company. Without an employee, you cannot say that it is an organization (most of us referred this as company) because they are the one which contributed more in order that this kind of organization can survive. </div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Leaders within our industry have consistently stated that employees are very important. According to the American Public Transportation Association, they defined two main strategic goals on the development of our industry's workforce. The managers and supervisors have stated that training and development is the core requirement to long range success. Ask yourself, "Why is training and development, attracting and retaining transit workers such a problem? Why doesn't the transit industry create a market of certified transit professionals? Why aren't we teaching our employees how vision, mission and values link to our every day business?". Organizations still ponder with the need to invest current dollars in training and certification processes, in place of short-term fixes that tend to add only little value to the industry's success. Anyone managing a multi-million dollar public transit operation today realizes that this industry employs over 450, 000 people in North America and moves over four billion people annually. Ensuring our employees have the tools needed to be successful, improving their skills through training and managerial dedication that will pay dividends. Many leaders underestimate the importance of designing an organization's future with this in mind. However, I challenge our leaders to take the steps to have the goals of training, development, and recognition as part of our industry's way of operating. Having these goals that invests in our employees, will sustain long needed success for our customers and the growth of our industry into the 21st century. </div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Employees are potent and critical because they are human beings which have rational thinking and logic. According to philosophical view of man, when he realises that he is the highest of all creation, then he becomes a human. When he develops his intellect, then he becomes a human. When he becomes an example for others, then he becomes a human. When he transcends the common limitations through his wisdom, then he becomes best of humans.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Not all humans have the same kind of intellect. Some men have the ability of being a leader and some are not. Do not be confused why there are people in the highest positions in a company and there are people in the lowest positions in a company. That is why there are managers, supervisors, CEOs which are gifted in this kind of disciplines.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">In order that the managers, supervisors and other high ranking officials of a certain organization can have a better product, managers or any other high ranking officials of a certain organization may made some motivators to the employees so that these motivators will help to them in order that their products or contributions may be acceptable to the institution. As I surf over the internet, I found this motivators so that employees may be happy at work. </div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>1. What People Want From Work </strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Some people work for personal fulfillment; others work for love of what they do. Others work to accomplish goals and to feel as if they are contributing to something larger than themselves. The bottom line is that we all work for money and for reasons too individual to assign similarities to all workers.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>2. How To Demonstrate Respect at Work</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Ask anyone in your workplace what treatment they most want at work. They will likely top their list with the desire to be treated with dignity and respect. You can demonstrate respect with simple, yet powerful actions. These ideas will help you avoid needless, insensitive, unmeant disrespect, too.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>3. Provide Feedback That Has an Impact</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Make your feedback have the impact it deserves by the manner and approach you use to deliver feedback. Your feedback can make a difference to people if you can avoid a defensive response.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>4. Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">You can tell your colleagues, coworkers and staff how much you value them and their contribution any day of the year. Trust me. No occasion is necessary. In fact, small surprises and tokens of your appreciation spread throughout the year help the people in your work life feel valued all year long.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>5. Trust Rules: The Most Important Secret</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Without it, you have nothing. Trust forms the foundation for effective communication, employee retention, and employee motivation and contribution of discretionary energy, the extra effort that people voluntarily invest in work. When trust is present, everything else is easier.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>6. Provide Motivational Employee Recognition</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">You can avoid the employee recognition traps that: single out one or a few employees who are mysteriously selected for the recognition; sap the morale of the many who failed to win, place, or even show; confuse people who meet the criteria yet were not selected; or sought votes or other personalized, subjective criteria to determine winners.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>7. Employee Recognition Rocks</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Employee recognition is limited in most organizations. Employees complain about the lack of recognition regularly. Managers ask, “Why should I recognize or thank him? He’s just doing his job.” And, life at work is busy, busy, busy. These factors combine to create work places that fail to provide recognition for employees. Managers who prioritize employee recognition understand the power of recognition.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>8</strong><strong>. Top Ten Ways to Retain Your Great Employees</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of your business. Managers readily agree that their role is key in retaining your best employees to ensure business success. If managers can cite this fact so well, why do many behave in ways that so frequently encourage great employees to quit their job?</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>9. Team Building and Delegation: How and When to Empower People</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">Employee involvement is creating an environment in which people have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Team building occurs when the manager knows when to tell, sell, consult, join, or delegate to staff. For employee involvement and empowerment, both team building and delegation rule.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><strong>10. Build a Mentoring Culture</strong></div></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">What does it take to develop people? More than writing “equal opportunity” into your organization’s mission statement. More than sending someone to a training class. More than hard work on the part of employees. What development does take is people who are willing to listen and help their colleagues. Development takes coaches, guides and advocates. People development needs mentors.</div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify"><i>To read more about this, you may click this link:</i> <a href="http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/tp/recognition.htm" target="_blank">http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/tp/recognition.htm</a></div></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><div align="justify">We may say also that the human beings in an organization are the least understood and worst to manage it is because, these human beings are able enough to make some critical decisions and justifications. You cannot easily control your employee because they are capable to do so some things which you can do unless you do have some robotic employees which are irrational and cannot perform logical thinking. That is why, God gave the dominion to the man to rule over the fluvial, terrestrial and aerial domains but not above to him. </div></span></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Source: </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:V1edGbz1MIoJ:www.aptrex.com/StumpoPaperCalgary.pdf+why+employees+are+important&cd=1&hl=tl&ct=clnk&gl=ph" target="_blank">http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:V1edGbz1MIoJ:www.aptrex.com/StumpoPaperCalgary.pdf+why+employees+are+important&cd=1&hl=tl&ct=clnk&gl=ph</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/tp/recognition.htm" target="_blank">http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/tp/recognition.htm</a></span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-8474994307704879652009-08-30T02:43:00.000-07:002009-08-30T02:50:21.394-07:0021st Corporations<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">150 years ago, the business corporations was relatively insignificant institution. Today, it is all pervasive like the church, the monarchy,and the communist party and other times and places. The corporations today is a dominate institution.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Corporation is like a jigsaw in the society as a whole. If you remove it, the pictures incomplete but equally, if it's the only path, its not gonna work. The corporation is just like a family unit. People in the corporation work together just for common in. Like the telephone system, yet it reaches almost everywhere its extraordinarily powerful its pretty hard to avoid and its transforms the lives of the people. It balance for the betterment of the people. The eagle, soar, clear-eye, competitive, prepared to strike but not a vulture. Noble, avisionary majestic but the people can believe in and be inspired by that creates such a lift that is source. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Corporations are artifical creations. You might say there are monsters trying to devour as much as profit as possible at anyone's expense. Like a whale, big fish which can swallow you in an instant. The word <i>corporate</i> gets attached in almost a sense of agenda and one hears a lot about the corporate agenda as though it is an agenda which is trying to take over the world. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">What is a <strong>Corporation</strong>? It is a group of invdividuals working together to serve a variety of objectives. The principle one of it is earning large, growing, sustain and legal returns for the people who own the business. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>Birth of Corporation</strong>: The history of corporations goes back at least to the sixteenth century, and since then their essential nature has not greatly changed. Before corporations, debts were transgenerational, passed on to descendents, some of whom were placed in debtors' prisons to repay the monies. The early state-chartered corporations of Europe and England were established to sponsor exploration of the New World. Those who sailed forth from England to trade for spices in the East Indies took grave risks in the journey, and even graver ones should they lose their precious cargoes. If they did not sail under the charter of a state corporation, they and their families could be ruined for life if bad weather or piracy struck en route. By establishing the corporate form, limiting shareholders to liabilities no greater than their investment, Europeans were able to create a form of commerce that could absorb the hard knocks of trading and exploring, encouraging both risk-taking and speculative investment at the same time. Those early corporations negotiated their charters with the state, which outlined the terms of their rights as well as the monies that were to be repaid to the crown. As a social technology, this was a brilliant invention, releasing the vigor of enterprise in the world. The charter of limited liability distinguished a corporation from all other forms of enterprise, because it was (and is) actually a gift of the state„a grant, a covenant, a form of permission that citizens, through their government, delegate to the corporation and its shareholders. In the early years of the republic, the citizens of the United States were keen to prevent any institution, foreign or domestic, commercial or religious, from dominating or suppressing their newly won rights. Early corporation charters were carefully drafted by states to ensure this subordination. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, there were only a few hundred corporations in the United States, and many of these were chartered expressly to build canals, turnpikes, or other public infrastructure. Even then, citizens openly and persistently expressed concern that corporations with specific rights granted under charters would nevertheless become so powerful that they could take over newspapers, public opinion, elections and the judiciary. Workers had similar fears about their own status within these new corporations. Thus early state charters were detailed and restrictive. They specified limits on profits, the amounts of indebtedness allowed, the overall capitalization, and how much land a corporation could own. The power of large shareholders was limited by scaled voting, so that large and small investors had equal voting rights. Interlocking directorates were not allowed, and in the case of public works projects, corporations were allowed to retain their original investments with predetermined percentages of profit. When profit projections were reached, the project was turned over to the state. It was the commonly held opinion at that time that corporations were a "creature of the law and may be molded to any shape or for any purpose that the Legislature may deem most conducive for the general good." In many states, clauses of incorporation gave legislatures the right to annul or revoke a charter whenever they chose to, or after a certain period of time (often several decades). Some states even required public votes to continue certain charters.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Despite these efforts, legislatures inevitably began to lose their control over big business, state by state. Government corruption became particularly rampant after the Civil War, and with it came a loosening of laws regulating interlocking trusts, factory towns and sequestered private fortunes. Child labor flourished, along with Pinkerton and other private armies that kept protests in check, workers in line. The Civil War had transferred great amounts of wealth to corporations, and with this concentration of power they began to clamor for "equal rights" and new simplified chartering laws that would treat every corporation equally (This is the means of incorporation we have today: anyone can do it, and for a nominal fee.)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">There quickly followed a wholesale reinterpretation of the Constitution by the judiciary, granting new powers and rights to corporations. The primary thrust behind these precedents was the "due process" clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment protected the rights of freed slaves, but it was subsequently interpreted to give corporations the same status before the law as that of a natural person. On that basis, judges reversed hundreds if not thousands of state laws controlling wages, working conditions, ownership and corporate tenure.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">In the wake of those decisions, American business was transformed. Unions could be interpreted as "civil conspiracies" and could be enjoined from striking. With the reduction of state power, incentives were reversed and states such as Deleware began attracting business by having the simplest and most lax incorporation procedures and regulations, driving other states to compete by lowering their own standards. The marriage of business and government also undermined„turned upside down, in fact„the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, guaranting the right of every citizen to engage in free speech, was established to encourage, promote, and preserve democratic traditions. In the late 1700s there were very few ways to communicate except through speech: flyers, books, pamphlets, and broadsides from every conceivable quadrant of the political spectrum. The Founding Fathers wisely understood that the suppression of these political expressions would inevitably lead to tyranny of one sort or another; they did not want any one voice to have sway or dominance over the public discourse. There was little concern at that time that among the voices clamoring to be heard would be that of commerce... and the founders of the American republic still had no concept of the multinational corporation.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">By invoking the First Amendment privilege to protect "speech," corporations achieve precisely what the Bill of Rights was intended to prevent: domination of public thought and discourse. Although corporations profess that they are legitimately expressing their democratic rights in their attempt to influence the government, their argument presupposes that all parties, from the single voter to the multinational company, have an equal voice in the political debates surrounding important issues.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"><strong>Modern Corporations and Multinationals (21st Century)</strong>: A corporation is a business that is legally independent from its members. Corporations may incur or pay debt, negotiate contracts, sue and be sued. Corporations range in size from local retail stores to a nation's largest corporation. These larger corporations sell stocks to shareholders, and the shareholders legally own the company. Management of the company remains separate from, but accountable to, the ownership. The shareholders are organized with a board of directors who hold regular meetings and make decisions on broad policies governing the corporation. Although many Americans own stock, they normally do not participate in regular board meetings or exert significant control over corporate decisions.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Sometimes corporations with closely related business may share board members, which is called an interlocking directorate. In this arrangement a manufacturer, a financial services company, and an insurance company with shared business also share the same board members. These few individuals, then, exert power over multiple companies whose business is interdependent.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">According to a common online encyclopedia, <i>conglomerate</i> is a corporation made up of many smaller companies, or subsidiaries, that may or may not have related business interests. The buying and selling of corporations for profit—rather than for the service or products they provide—form conglomerates. The process of corporate merger often leads to large layoffs because, as companies combine forces, many jobs are duplicated in the other company. For example, a conglomerate may take over a smaller company, including that company's marketing department. The conglomerate will already have a marketing department capable of handling most of the new acquisition's needs. Therefore, as many as half or all of the acquired marketing department employees would lose their jobs. The same situation often occurs when two corporations of a similar size merge.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Other types of corporations include monopolies, oligopolies, and multinationals. Monopolies occur when a single company accounts for all or nearly all sales of a product or service in a market. Monopolies are illegal in the United States because they eliminate competition and can fix prices, which hurts consumers. In other words, monopolies interfere with capitalism. The Philippine government does not allow monopolies but U.S. government does consider some monopolies legal, however, such as utilities where competition would be difficult to implement without distressing other social systems. But even utility monopolies have seen increased competition in recent years. Recently electric power companies have seen deregulation and increased competition in some regions as well.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Oligopolies exist when several corporations have a monopoly in a market. The classic example of an oligopoly would be American auto makers until the 1980s. Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors manufactured nearly all vehicles built in America. As globalization has increased, so has competition, and few oligopolies exist today.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Multinationals are corporations that conduct business in many different countries. These corporations produce more goods and wealth than many smaller countries. Their existence, though, remains controversial. They garner success by entering less-developed nations, bringing industry into these markets with cheaper labor, and then exporting those goods to more-developed countries. Business advocates point to the higher standard of living in most countries where multinationals have entered the economy. Critics charge that multinationals exploit poor workers and natural resources, creating environmental havoc. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody">Sources: <a href="http://www.mecgrassroots.org/NEWSL/ISS19/20CorpBirth.html" target="_blank">http://www.mecgrassroots.org/NEWSL/ISS19/20CorpBirth.html</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-family: arial;" class="postbody"> <a href="http://thecorporation.com/" target="_blank">http://thecorporation.com/</a></span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-37227266795954092892009-08-30T02:39:00.000-07:002009-08-30T02:50:21.394-07:00Downsizing Human Resource<div style="text-align: justify;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;">Due to the recent world financial crisis, many business firms and corporations closed becase they cannot sustain anymore the high inflation of high prices through low income and high expenses such as in labor expense, ect. because of the stiff competition of many companies. The only solution found out by the management of different firms is to have a recession and decrease their manpower so that the company can sustain and survive.<br /><br />There are companies were affected last 2008 global financial crisis and one of these companies is the FedEx Corporation (Global). FedEx is well known because of its global services such as the FedEx Express in which it delivers cargoes and baggages of customers throughout the world. Here is an online magazine (ProcurementAsia Mag) which covers about the huge loss of FedEx,</span></div><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:85%;" ><br /></span><div style="margin: auto; text-align: center; width: 100%;font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span> <table width="90%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr><td><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="genmed"><b>Quote:</b></span></span></td></tr><tr><td class="quote"><div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size:85%;"><strong> FedEx Post Huge Loss, Outlook Gloomy</strong><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"> By: Jerrel Yun, Singapore<br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:85%;">Global - FedEx announced a huge loss in the previous quarter, as consumers and businesses downsized shipments and the company took over approximately US$1.2 billion in one-time charges.<br /><br />FedEx lost US$876 million, in the three month period ending in May, compared to a US$241 million loss a year ago.<br /><br />The company took a US$900 million write-down for its 2004 purchase of Kinko's Inc - now known as FedEx Office - and US$90 million in charges for the acquisition of Watkins Motor Lines in September 2006. It also took charges for employee severance and facility cutbacks.<br /><br />In addition, FedEx's operating performance continued to be restrained by the global recession, which resulted in lower shipment volumes at FedEx Express and FedEx Freight, the company said.<br /><br />Revenue for the fourth-quarter fell 20% year-on-year from US$9.87 billion to US$7.85 billion.<br /><br />The company foresees difficult operating conditions in the near future.<br /><br />"The operating environment for our first two quarters in fiscal 2010 is expected to be extremely difficult," Alan Graf, executive VP and CFO of FedEx said.<br /><br />The company said Q408 revenue at the company's Express arm fell 25% due to a contraction in freight volumes and a rise in fuel prices. In the freight segment, revenue dropped 28%. However the company's ground segment did comparably well, with revenue dipping approximately 1% year-on-year.<br /><br />FedEx said that international package volumes improved in the fourth-quarter compared to the quarter before, which could signal that the financial slowdown is levelling off.<br /><br />"There are signs that the worst of the recession is behind us and we remain optimistic that we will see quarter-over-quarter economic improvement later this calendar year," said Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president and CEO, FedEx Corp.<br /><br />In a conference call with analysts, Graf said the company hasn't yet decided whether it will have to layoff more workers or make further cut backs because of economic conditions, reported AP.<br /><br />"That is a question that's going to play out during the year," Graf said. "We have hiring and wage freezes, basically across the board. We have suspended our 401(k) contributions. If the economy turns up and we start to see the growth that we think we will get, we will start to repair those reductions," said Graf.<br /></span></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody"><br /><br /><div align="justify">And because of this huge loss happened to the FedEx Corporation, at first they downsize their human resource but time came the CEO of the FedEx decided to close their company. Last year, the FedEx-Philippines had their last cargo flight to China and had their farewell party.</div><br /><br /><div align="justify">There are many reasons why an organization may need to lay off employees in the current business environment that includes mergers and acquisitions, outsourcing key operations, and eliminating less-than-optimal business lines are just a few. However, at the heart of any layoff decision is the need to remain financially viable and competitive both now and in the future. It can therefore be tempting to continue the cost-saving measures as you select an outplacement services provider for your downsized employees. However, the choices you make can seriously impact your company’s reputation and profitability in the future, warns Sharon Winston, regional senior vice president and general manager of leading career services company Lee Hecht Harrison’s San Jose office.<br /><br />Winston notes that in outplacement, there are no real shortcuts. "There are many paths, but they are each a climb, and anyone who tries to convey something different is misleading you."<br /><br /><br />Winston recommends that human resources professionals and senior management teams develop a system for evaluating potential outplacement providers that takes into consideration the quality of the program and the overall capabilities of the provider company. "Management teams need to realize that every former employee will likely talk to at least six people about the experience," says Winston. "That’s a lot of exposure. And if just one of those former employees feels badly enough to sue you, it will be a costly event. Taking the time up front to select the right outplacement provider can save money in the long run."<br /><br /><br />With that in mind, the experts at Lee Hecht Harrison suggest five criteria to consider when choosing an outplacement services provider:<br /><strong><br />BUSINESS BACKGROUND</strong><br />Look for a firm with solid business experience and a proven track record. Be sure that the people who will service your account have experience working in the business world. If you are looking at a boutique firm or a company that focuses only on the local market, consider whether or not they have the depth and breadth of experience to handle candidates who may need to pursue a national job search.<br /><br /><strong>CONTINUITY</strong><br />Your employees are all business people; therefore, it makes sense that the outplacement package you purchase should be based on project management principles, like milestones, team meetings and individual accountability. This will allow each employee to jump into the job search quickly, without having to take the time to learn how the program itself works. It’s also important to ensure that each employee will be assigned a job search counselor who will remain with him or her throughout the process. Be cautious of the "bait and switch." The team you meet during the selection process should be comprised of the people who will actually provide services to your employees.<br /><br /><strong>NOTIFICATION TRAINING</strong><br />A good outplacement provider can help managers craft both the specific message and the tone in which news of the layoff should be delivered. Notification training ensures that all managers follow the same process and have the opportunity to ask questions before, rather than during, the event. This can help reduce the company¹s legal exposure. Don¹t assume that your managers know how to conduct themselves during a layoff. Managing a downsizing isn¹t a repetitive task, and your leadership team may not have extensive experience delivering the news.<br /><br /><strong>ONSITE ORIENTATION</strong><br />Your outplacement provider must be able to provide initial onsite services to downsized employees immediately after the notification. These employees need an opportunity to vent and assistance in formulating their next steps, including how to notify their families. A good outplacement provider can offer a highly facilitated opportunity for employees to express their feelings and give options to deal with the situation in a positive way. Without this guidance, it’s impossible to gauge how individuals will handle the time between the notification and leaving the property.<br /><br /><strong>LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT</strong><br />After a layoff, business doesn’t slow down to accommodate the smaller workforce. Instead, organizations must quickly regroup, re-identify themselves, shift key management roles and find new ways to move forward. An outplacement provider should be able to work with individuals and management teams within an organization to help them assimilate into the new corporate structure and develop key leadership competencies. This kind of coaching can have a tremendous impact on the company’s ability to remain productive after a downsizing.</div><br /><br /><div align="left">Sources:<br /><a href="http://www.procurement-online.com/news/13501" target="_blank">http://www.procurement-online.com/news/13501</a><br /><a href="http://www.globalhrnews.com/story.asp?sid=412" target="_blank">http://www.globalhrnews.com/story.asp?sid=412</a><br /><a href="http://www.fedex.com/" target="_blank">http://www.fedex.com/</a></div></span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3887571327751365299.post-38569580870493968072009-08-30T02:34:00.000-07:002009-08-30T04:58:26.451-07:00Insourcing or Outsourcing?<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Why outsourcing and why in sourcing???</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Well, in this kind of situation I cannot easily judge which is better. Before we are going to choose, let’s define these two words so that we can able to decide which of these is better. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">As I scan over the internet, I found these definitions which are better to understand what an outsourcing really is. According to a common online encyclopedia, it is the procuring of services or products, such as the parts used in manufacturing a motor vehicle, from an outside supplier or manufacturer in order to cut costs.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Another online investment dictionary defines that, it is a practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Since most of the companies now suffering from financial crisis due to the recent world financial crises, most of them need to minimize their expense in order for them to sustain and support their companies. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">According to small business encyclopedia, outsourcing occurs when a company purchases products or services from an outside supplier, rather than performing the same work within its own facilities, in order to cut costs. The decision to outsource is a major strategic one for most companies, since it involves weighing the potential cost savings against the consequences of a loss in control over the product or service. Some common examples of outsourcing include manufacturing of components, computer programming services, tax compliance and other accounting functions, training administration, customer service, transportation of products, benefits and compensation planning, payroll, and other human resource functions. A relatively new trend in outsourcing is employee leasing, in which specialized vendors recruit, hire, train, and pay their clients' employees, as well as arrange health care coverage and other benefits.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Most organizations choose outsourcing because outsourcing offers a lot of advantages. When organizations outsource to countries like India, they benefit from lower costs and high-quality services. Moreover organizations can concentrate more on core functions once they outsource their non-core functions. Outsourcing can also help organizations make better use of their resources, time and infrastructure.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">In outsourcing, the outsourcer and the outsourcing partner have a greater relationship when compared to the relationship between a buyer and a seller. In outsourcing, the outsourcer trusts the outsourcing partner with vital information. Outsourcing is no longer confined to the outsourcing of IT services. Outsourcers in the US and UK now outsource financial services, engineering services, creative services, data entry services and much more.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Most organizations are opting to outsource because outsourcing enables organizations to access intellectual capital, focus on core competencies, shorten the delivery cycle time and reduce costs significantly. Organizations feel outsourcing is an effective business strategy to help improve their business.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Now, we are going to discuss what is in sourcing is all about. You may define in sourcing as the opposite of outsourcing but it is still vague for it is still a broad term. According to a common online encyclopedia, insourcing is the (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">According to PR Web, insourcing was becoming more common by 2006 as businesses had less than satisfactory experiences with outsourcing (including customer support). Many outsourcing proponents responded to a negative consumer opinion backlash resulting from outsourcing their communications management to vendors who rely on overseas operations.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">To those who are concerned that nations may be losing a net amount of jobs due to outsourcing, some point out that insourcing also occurs. According to a study by Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other industrialized countries more jobs are insourced than outsourced. They found that out of all the countries in the world they studied, the U.S. and the U.K. actually have the largest net trade surpluses in business services. Countries with a net deficit in business services include Indonesia, Germany and Ireland.[1]</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Insourcing is loosely referred in call centers who are doing the work of the outsourcing companies. Companies that outsource include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Symantec, and Linksys. The callcenters and technicians that are contracted to handle the outsourced work are usually over-seas. Customers may refer to these countries as "India" technical support if they are hard to understand over telecommunications. These insourcing companies were a great way to save money for the outsourcing of work, but quality varies, and poor performance has sometimes harmed the reputations of companies who provide 24/7 customer/technical support.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">The Organization for International Investment, a Washington D.C. trade association, uses the term to describe the creation of jobs through foreign direct investment within the United States.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">When an organization delegates its work to another entity, which is internal yet not a part of the organization, it is termed as insourcing. The internal entity will usually have a specialized team who will be proficient in the providing the required services. Organizations sometimes opt for insourcing because it enables them to maintain a better control of what they outsource. Insourcing has also come to be defined as transferring work from one organization to another organization which is located within the same country. Insourcing can also mean an organization building a new business centre or facility which would specialize in a particular service or product.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Organizations involved in production usually opt for insourcing in order to cut down the cost of labor and taxes amongst others. The trend towards insourcing has increased since the year 2006. Organizations who have been dissatisfied with outsourcing have moved towards insourcing. Some organizations feel that they can have better customer support and better control over the work outsourced by insourcing their work rather than outsourcing it. According to recent studies, there is more wok insourced than outsourced in the U.S and U.K. These countries are currently the largest outsourcers in the world. The U.S and U.K outsource and insource work equally.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Now we are going to decide which fits to the organization. If your organization has a number of non-core processes which are taking plenty of time, effort and resources to perform in-house, it would be wise to outsource these non-core functions. Outsourcing in this case, would help you save on time, effort, manpower and would also aid you in making quicker deliveries to your customers.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">If you require expertise services in areas which do not fall under your core competency, then outsourcing will be a good option as you can get access to expertise services. For reducing costs and making faster deliverables, outsourcing is again a good option.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">If your work involves production, then it would be more ideal for your organization to opt for insourcing, as you can save on transportation costs and exercise a better control over your project. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">It is not necessary to choose outsourcing over insourcing or vice versa. Your organization can outsource and insource at the same time. By outsourcing and insourcing simultaneously, you can have the best of what both offers and your business can get a competitive advantage!</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">For me, outsourcing is better for we may minimize our expenses and labor cost. That is why many multimillion companies and businesses firms not only that but also colleges and universities choose outsourcing.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Take note that there are advantages of outsourcing. These are:</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Cost savings. </i>Many businesses embrace outsourcing as a way to realize cost savings or better cost control over the outsourced function. Companies usually outsource to a vendor that specializes in a given function and performs that function more efficiently than the company could, simply by virtue of transaction volume.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Staffing levels.</i> Another common reason for outsourcing is to achieve headcount reductions or minimize the fluctuations in staffing that may occur due to changes in demand for a product or service. Companies also outsource in order to reduce the workload on their employees (freeing them to take on additional moneymaking projects for the business), or to provide more development opportunities for their employees by freeing them from tedious tasks.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Focus.</i> Some companies outsource in order to eliminate distractions and force themselves to concentrate on their core competencies. This can be a particularly attractive benefit for start-up firms. Outsourcing can free the entrepreneur from tedious and time-consuming tasks, such as payroll, so that he or she can concentrate on the marketing and sales activities that are most essential to the firm's long-term growth and prosperity. "What an outsourcing partner really sells is focus," wrote Adam Katz-Stone in Baltimore Business Journal. "In accounting for instance, that is something that typically is seen as necessary but not essential, not the core of the business. So you bring in an outsourcing partner and then you don't have to think about that any more. You can focus your energies on sales, marketing, all the other things that matter more."</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Morale</i>. This is an often-overlooked but still notable benefit that can sometimes be gained by initiating an outsourcing relationship. "Often a business's lack of internal expertise or dedication to non-core tasks results in poor attitudes and ultimately poor performance," wrote Kevin Grauman in CPA Journal. "This can lead to overlap and duplication of internal efforts. An effectively designed and ongoing communication process emanating from one or more outsourcers can greatly reduce or eliminate these duplications."</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Flexibility.</i> Still others outsource to achieve greater financial flexibility, since the sale of assets that formerly supported an outsourced function can improve a company's cash flow. A possible pitfall in this reasoning is that many vendors demand long-term contracts, which may reduce flexibility.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Knowledge. Some experts tout outsourcing of computer programming and other information technology functions as a way to gain access to new technology and outside expertise. This may be of particular benefit to small businesses, which may not be able to afford to hire computer experts or develop the in-house expertise to maintain high-level technology. When such tasks are outsourced, the small business gains access to new technology that can help it compete with larger companies.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><i>Accountability</i>. Outsourcing is predicated on the understanding—shared by business and vendor alike—that such arrangements require quality service in exchange for payment. "Paying for a business service creates the expectation of performance," stated Grauman. "Outsourcers are well aware that this accountability is both practical and legal, with fiscal implications. The same cannot be said for internally provided functions."</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;">Bear in mind also that there are disadvantages of outsourcing. Some of the major potential disadvantages to outsourcing include poor quality control, decreased company loyalty, a lengthy bid process, and a loss of strategic alignment. All of these concerns can be addressed and minimized, however, by companies who go about the outsourcing process in an informed and deliberate fashion. Info World's Maggie Biggs counsels businesses to define "exactly what business processes and/or functions it makes sense to maintain via a service relationship. Unless you have a lot of resources to expend, it may make sense to prioritize outsourcing projects based on the number of benefits you expect to gain from the arrangement." There may also be inherent advantages of maintaining certain functions internally. For example, company employees may have a better understanding of the industry, and their vested interests may mean they are more likely to make decisions in accordance with the company's goals. Indeed, most analysts discourage companies from outsourcing core functions that directly affect the products or services that the business offers.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"> Source: </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.outsource2india.com/why_india/articles/outsourcing-versus-insourcing.asp" target="_blank">http://www.outsource2india.com/why_india/articles/outsourcing-versus-insourcing.asp</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/outsourcing" target="_blank">http://www.answers.com/topic/outsourcing</a></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span class="postbody" style="font-family:arial;"></span></span></div>Chris Romaratehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03114320772793029387noreply@blogger.com0