Cliches for success

Though it may not qualify as "executive education", the theme of this Blog, I found this article to be totally relevant to the context and written in a style that provokes thought and may be easier to remember than didactic articles "instructing" one to behave in a certain manner.

I am sure you will enjoy it...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/06/19/89-business-cliches-that-will-get-any-mba-promoted-to-middle-management-and-make-them-totally-useless/

Laguage - apostrophe (contd...)

Answers for the situations posted last week are given below.

Correct usage is in Black. Incorrect usage is in Red.

In some cases, both options given my be correct.

Please review and post a comment in case you disagree with any.

Boy’s hats	Boys’ hats
Childrens’ playground	Children’s playground
Their’s property	Their property
Scissor’s blades	Scissors’ blades
Bob’s paan shop	Bobs’ paan shop
Food at it’s best	Food at its best
Member’s entrance	Members’ entrance
It’s your turn	Its your turn
Manager’s only wish	Managers only wish
Manager’s only concern	Managers only concern

Language - apostrophe

Though language is a big, wide field in itself and one can spend a lifetime studying a particular language, there are some common issues that can be addressed selectively and quickly.

One such area is use of apostrophe in written communication. Incorrect use of apostrophes can change the entire meaing of a phrase.

I invite you to do a small exercise.

Identify the correct usage of apostrophe from each of the pairs given below:


<><> <><> <><>

Boy’s hats	Boys’ hats
Childrens’ playground	Children’s playground
Their’s property	Their property
Scissor’s blades	Scissors’ blades
Bob’s paan shop	Bobs’ paan shop
Food at it’s best	Food at its best
Member’s entrance	Members’ entrance
It’s your turn	Its your turn
Manager’s only wish	Managers only wish
Manager’s only concern	Managers only concern

Answers in the next post.

Comparing contribution on charts....2

Continuing from the situation presented in the Post of the same title on 26th April, the question asked was:

"if I want to know is how the composition of my portfolio has changed over the priod tracked, i.e. if I had allocated a certain percentge of my investments to each of the three shares on 1st January, 2011, based on my risk perception and judgment, do the values of the three shares held reflect an altered situaion on 1st January, 2012?"
A Stacked Bar Graph was presented as an option and a question asked :

"Is there a better way of showing this movement?"
In an effort to answer that question, we present the same data in the form of another graph; this time a Pie Chart.

The position on 1st January, 2011:

The position on1st December, 2011:

A quick glance at the two charts above is adequate to make out (at least to me) that proportion of holdings in Unitech has reduced and that in Tata Motors has increased in this 11-month period, ITC remaining relatively unchanged. Or, looked at another way, Tata Motors now contributes more to my assets in December 2011 than it did in January 2011, and Unitech lower, despite me not having made any transactions during this period.

So, as a decision trigger, if I still need to allocate my funds in the same proportion as on 1st January, 2011, I may need to buy some Unitech and sell some Tata Motors shares.

Hence, to me this look like a better way of presenting this data.

Do you agree?

Gunshot email

This is an email written by a Manager to the Business Head. In the organisation structure, the Manager reports to a Senior Manager, who reports to a Deputy General Manager, who reports to the Business Head. Hence, an email written to a person three levels above in the hierarchy.

Quote

Hi

Below mentioned is the headset that has to be procured for my TL's, they need this headset to listen to recorded calls

MODEL        Price per piece           headset Required        Total cost

Logitech      Rs. 950/- plus taxes    3 nos                           2850/-

Kindly approve the same.

Many Thanks

AWL

Unquote

Ignoring the grammatical issues in the email, what do you think will be done with this email and its writer :

• It will be circulated across the organisation as an example of a great email
• It will be printed and hung at the entrance to show visitors the great quality of emails written by employees ?
• Its writer will be recommended for the Nobel Prize in Literature
• Its writer will be requested by the Business Head to swap roles with him
• None of the above

Ignoring the grammatical issues in the email, what do you think about the construction of the mail,  the message it conveys and possible responses :

• The Business Head will drop everything else and read this mail over and over again
• The Business Head will pinch himself to check if he is asleep or awake
• The Business Head will order a year's supplies of the requested items
• The Business Head will burst into tears at the high level of respect shown in the email
• None of the above

Why ?
How would you write it ?

Comparing contribution on charts

If one has a holding of stockas indicated by the chart we have used earlier, what else would one want to know or do with the information.

One of the things I may want to know is how the composition of my portfolio has changed over the priod tracked, i.e. I had allocated a certain percentge of my investments to each of the three shares on 1st January, 2011, based on my risk perception and judgment. Do the values of the three shares held reflect an altere situaion n 1st January, 2012?

How do we do that ?

Before we create a Chart, let us update the data table to reflect the value of holdings.

For this, let us assume that we hold 100 shares of each of the three companies.

The data table, then, will look like :

Date	Tata Motors	Unitech	ITC	Total
01-Jan-11	6000	7600	19000	32600
01-Feb-11	7000	7000	20000	34000
01-Mar-11	8000	6500	20200	34700
01-Apr-11	9000	6500	20200	35700
01-May-11	12000	5600	19000	36600
01-Jun-11	11000	4100	17600	32700
01-Jul-11	15000	3200	17600	35800
01-Aug-11	17000	1900	18000	36900
01-Sep-11	20000	1800	19900	41700
01-Oct-11	20000	2000	21000	43000
01-Nov-11	20000	2500	22000	44500
01-Dec-11	23000	3200	23000	49200

What are the options now ?

Let us try a Stacked Bar Chart.

It might look like :

Oops! Looks like we selected the entire set of data. The purple bar showing totals is also appearing on the Chart.

Do we need it ?

Probably no, because we are trying to establish the proportion of value of holdings between the three shares. The total is only a derivative.

Taking the total column out, the Chart now looks like :

Does this reflect the composition of valuen of holdings over the tracked period ?

I will say it does.

Is there a better way of showing this movement ?

I will say there is.

What is that better way ?

A Line Graph can also be smart

In the last post (apologies to Ford Madox Ford), we selected a Line Graph over a Bar Chart to represent a movement in values over a period of time.

Our graph looked like :

The above Graph clearly shows a comparative picture of the movement of three values over a period of time. It shows that from a simlar starting point, one share has appreciated over the tracked twelve-month period whereas another one has depreciated over the same period. A third share tracked on the same chart has remained within a range.

Who will be interested in presenting the above picture ?

The person / team representing the data that has performed well over the period tracked will have the greatest interest in presenting this data. Hence, in our example, if apreciation in value is the desired objective, the person / team representing Tata Motors would like to present the data in the above format at every opportunity.

Somewhat akin to histoy being written by the victors.

So what would the person / team representing Unitech, where there has been a depreciation in value, do ? Do they just present the data as shown in the graph above, and open themselves up to jibes and criticism about their performance ?

While data remains the same, and their poor performance cannot be airbrushed away, they do have an option of softening the blow.

This can be done through us of the "scaling" facility available in Excel.

Instead of the Y axis being automatically fixd at 250 by Excel, if they make the scale longer and manually fix it at a larger number, say 1250, the resultant graph will look like :

This makes the lines seem closer together and their own line a lot flatter than it was in the earlier graph.

This is not to be mistaken or confused with fudging of data or using incorrect data. Fudging of data or using incorrect data is not permissible under any circumstances.

If performance is poor, it still stays poor. This is only a way in which the conversation can be opened and relevant points made, rather than the conversation being hijacked by the negative slope of the line in the graph.

The vanquished may also get to write some history.