The last project "Crash and Burn" and the speaker at the PSNE meeting last Thursday, got me thinking about the smallest possible risk you could have in a real world setting.
The business venture I undertook had zero risk essentially. This was because, my goal was to get as many orders as possible before I actually paid for the product. In the course of getting these orders, I came across a customer who actually suggested that I buy more of the product and that he would buy the remainder that I couldnt sell at my Cost Price.
At that point, that was a great deal. I was pretty much increasing my profit and taking a lower risk (zero risk) at the same time. So now, I'm wondering if this is really possible in the real world. My guess is that it is not, but if anyone knows of how this is possible, I am ready to listen. I figure that the risk for different businesses would vary by the industry. A Medical device business probably would have a greater risk than, say a facebook type company. So my question really is, are there any measures that can be taken to reduce the financial risk involved in any business venture?
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Brain Drain
As many of you know, I am from Nigeria. I was reading an article reecently about Nigeria, and the subject of "Brain Drain" was brought up. Brain Drain is simply a situation whereby the talented expertise in science, health and technology (and other areas) are leaving the country, and moving to Western countries where they have been offered better pay or better opportunities for their research etc. The main discussion was around doctors and researchers in health and science.
This phenomenon has been occuring in the country for over 20 years. In fact, more than half of doctors trained in Nigeria in the last 20 years practice outside the country, with over 21,000 of them in the US alone. This phenomenon has been blamed for a lot of the problems including deteriorating health care systems, problems in infrastructure etc. The case was made that after the country has trained the talent, they lose them to other countries.
There is still a lot of talented expertise left in the country, most of whom are not reaching their full potential. Many of them are making good livings and doing well for themselves, but the people who are needed to improve the society - the doctors, scientists and researchers. who actually want to make a difference, and come up with solutions are not able to do so, mostly because there is not really a system that further develops their talent.
There is no system or infrastrucutre that allows them to make good use of their talents and improve the societies that they live in. These doctors, scientists, technologists graduate form college and want to make a difference, maybe trying to provide solutions to various problems in the country, but they do not receive any funding from the government or from any sources in general. Even if they are paid, it is not at a competitive rate, so when a college in another country offers them an opportunity to do this, they take it.
So now, the question is what can be done? We have a country full of business men and women, engineers, scientists who are just working for some big company ( or themselves) to earn a living. But the people who could make the country a better place by developing solutions that the country needs are not given that opportunity, and are forced to leave the country. The big debate going on now is, how can that talent be retained. It is very easy to say, throw some money at it, but that really is not the solution, because it really goes back to asking where the money will come from. Most of these countries that can afford to swoop up this talent are huge developed countries like the UK and the US. These researchers develop solutions for them that made them even better.
A system needs to be developed for the country to provide resources to keep this talent. It will take many years, but we have to start small, maybe support just a few in the first year. It may lead to solutions that improve the country or even make a profit that can be reinvested and the cycle can continue.
This brian drain was the case with India years ago, and now India is becoming more developed and a lot of the talent is being retained now, so maybe we just need a huge boom in one sector of the economy to bring in a lot of money that can be invested in health and research.
This phenomenon has been occuring in the country for over 20 years. In fact, more than half of doctors trained in Nigeria in the last 20 years practice outside the country, with over 21,000 of them in the US alone. This phenomenon has been blamed for a lot of the problems including deteriorating health care systems, problems in infrastructure etc. The case was made that after the country has trained the talent, they lose them to other countries.
There is still a lot of talented expertise left in the country, most of whom are not reaching their full potential. Many of them are making good livings and doing well for themselves, but the people who are needed to improve the society - the doctors, scientists and researchers. who actually want to make a difference, and come up with solutions are not able to do so, mostly because there is not really a system that further develops their talent.
There is no system or infrastrucutre that allows them to make good use of their talents and improve the societies that they live in. These doctors, scientists, technologists graduate form college and want to make a difference, maybe trying to provide solutions to various problems in the country, but they do not receive any funding from the government or from any sources in general. Even if they are paid, it is not at a competitive rate, so when a college in another country offers them an opportunity to do this, they take it.
So now, the question is what can be done? We have a country full of business men and women, engineers, scientists who are just working for some big company ( or themselves) to earn a living. But the people who could make the country a better place by developing solutions that the country needs are not given that opportunity, and are forced to leave the country. The big debate going on now is, how can that talent be retained. It is very easy to say, throw some money at it, but that really is not the solution, because it really goes back to asking where the money will come from. Most of these countries that can afford to swoop up this talent are huge developed countries like the UK and the US. These researchers develop solutions for them that made them even better.
A system needs to be developed for the country to provide resources to keep this talent. It will take many years, but we have to start small, maybe support just a few in the first year. It may lead to solutions that improve the country or even make a profit that can be reinvested and the cycle can continue.
This brian drain was the case with India years ago, and now India is becoming more developed and a lot of the talent is being retained now, so maybe we just need a huge boom in one sector of the economy to bring in a lot of money that can be invested in health and research.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Apply Online
I'm sure most of you have been to the career fairs. You wait in line for 20 minutes, talk to the recruiter for another 20, you are expecting to be asked to come for an interview only to hear "this sheet has our website address, please go on there and apply online." That is probably the worst part of the career fair. You leave the Bryce Jordan Center after 3 hours of hand shaking and sore feet, with stacks of paper that just have website addresses on them.
You could say that sometimes it's because they do not want to hire you, but I think some companies just do that all the time, because I do get calls from some of them after applying online. I really wonder why these companies would travel this far, just to hand out the flyers that say "apply online," when someone else would be making the decisions anyways. You probably have to apply online either way, if it is a big company. However, I prefer to have been offered an interview before I apply online, because I do not want to waste hours of my time filling out online applications with no results..or results that come in too late.
So from the past 3 years of going to the career fair, I think I have mastered the art of figuring out the ones who interview on campus and the ones who just say "apply online." I know the companies that I would not go to, and if you watch closely, you can usually tell that they are mostly handing out the "apply online" flyer. I could probably just find that information online, or from a friend who stopped by their booth. I have my list set and ready and I am prepared to not leave with sore feet. I hope more people join the "no more sore feet" campaign.
You could say that sometimes it's because they do not want to hire you, but I think some companies just do that all the time, because I do get calls from some of them after applying online. I really wonder why these companies would travel this far, just to hand out the flyers that say "apply online," when someone else would be making the decisions anyways. You probably have to apply online either way, if it is a big company. However, I prefer to have been offered an interview before I apply online, because I do not want to waste hours of my time filling out online applications with no results..or results that come in too late.
So from the past 3 years of going to the career fair, I think I have mastered the art of figuring out the ones who interview on campus and the ones who just say "apply online." I know the companies that I would not go to, and if you watch closely, you can usually tell that they are mostly handing out the "apply online" flyer. I could probably just find that information online, or from a friend who stopped by their booth. I have my list set and ready and I am prepared to not leave with sore feet. I hope more people join the "no more sore feet" campaign.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Google chrome
I was reading today about the release of the beta version of Google's new web browser called Google chrome. It is supposed to load faster, with more security than other browsers currently available. Google is probably one of the very interesting companies out there, I find it really interesting how they always expand into so many different things, all around the same base(the internet). From search engine to emails, google docs, google earth and so many more and usually have a better product than what is in the market...or just something really interesting like the case of google docs.
Now they have the Google Chrome. It is faster and more secure and is also open source, which means that it is available for developers to enhance. However, I think the most interesting feature is the privacy mode which allows users to make a window, whereby nothing on that window is logged to the computer. Apparently Internet explorer is also coming out with that, but I think Google Chrome will come out ahead because of the past successes of other Google applications and the fact that it is also open source.
Hopefully, there won't be any legal issues with the privacy mode, because that might lead to unsolved internet crimes - fraud, child pornography, to name a few.
Now they have the Google Chrome. It is faster and more secure and is also open source, which means that it is available for developers to enhance. However, I think the most interesting feature is the privacy mode which allows users to make a window, whereby nothing on that window is logged to the computer. Apparently Internet explorer is also coming out with that, but I think Google Chrome will come out ahead because of the past successes of other Google applications and the fact that it is also open source.
Hopefully, there won't be any legal issues with the privacy mode, because that might lead to unsolved internet crimes - fraud, child pornography, to name a few.
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