Is it true?
Undeniable, this period of time is the situation we call "Financial Crisis". It happens all over the world right now. Actually, we have some sketch of this crisis since 2007 when USA faced the Sub-prime crisis plus the highest oil's price in history then the real crisis in 2008.
The most obvious incident is come from stock market all over the world, they crashed in just a short period. The investors in stock market facing a big bear market right now and do not know when the bull will come back.
Many people head back to the most fundamental asset in capitalism, it is "Cash". They think that "Don't invest in anything right now, the markets are very bad and businesses are even worse. Keep your cash, wait for the rise". This suggestion is not only for individual but also for companies which have a plan to invest their capital to grow in this period to stop for a while and consider it carefully before let their cash out of their pocket.
Is it true?
hmmmm...
I will start from stock market. When you look into the stock market, you will find many types of investor. Somebody is the speculators. They hold the stock in just a short period, maybe 2 days, 1 day, 1 hour or even minutes. They buy and sell their stock according to the news around the market, their marketing's suggestions, or even someone who said that he is a "guru" who knows that which stock will going up or down. On the other hand, you may find somebody who is the investors. They look in to the business behind their stock fundamentally, invest their money when the price is going down below the real value of the company (they call it's Cheap) then sell it when the market change its direction. Investors play with psychology of speculators, they believe that stock market always over-acting with bad and good situations. They use this strategy and hold the stocks longer than speculators.
Well... You can see that the crisis is bad for the speculators. When they buy the stocks, speculators expect to sell their stock very fast with the profit. But, in the crisis period, whenever they buy, the price always goes down and speculators have to sell them lower than the price they bought. However, for investors who do not care so much for the share's price in just a short period. They can buy stock and hold for longer time. This crisis is the real opportunity to find the really cheap stock with very good company, good business behind that stock. They look for value, not a price.
So, Cash is always King???
Yeah, I have to admit that you must always carry cash to be ready for the market though you are investor or not, otherwise where is the money to invest? But, for the speculators, they hold their investment in crisis period and think that "Cash is King, don't invest" while for the investors, they turn cash to be the stock when the bear market comes and think "It's time to invest now!"
Different, huh?
This is just for individual investment, it may be not the real entrepreneurial activity. Therefore, next time I will serve you with the company's investment, "Cash is King???"
By the way...
Which type of investor you prefer?
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Wanna be a Middle Manager???
Well, as I'm focusing on business creation and entrepreneurship, it's quite strange if I say "Yes". Middle manager in my opinion is the middle executive level in the very big company who is the middle man (or woman) between top management team and operational employees. Therefore, they are not the real entrepreneur or highest leader in the organization.
However, in the leadership aspect, it is very interesting to study from middle manager. Because they are leader and follower in the same time so middle manager basically will face many dilemmas between 2 roles more than person who has only one role in the organization.
Mica Wulff Kamm, the middle manager from TeliaSonera company, gave us a broader sense of leadership knowledge with her own experiences in the real working life and the first thing I noticed was her energetic and out-going personality during her presentation. It is very impressive and might prove that how she loves her job as well. Moreover, she talked about dilemmas in the middle manager position which we did not discuss seriously during the seminar but it is very important if you are the middle manager. Middle managers must balance the operations and leadership within themselves. They also standing between 2 concepts of re-organization, centralized or decentralized, because they are not the highest management team who always consider about this topic according to the organization's policy. Therefore, the middle managers have to choose the bus (organization), the bus driver(boss), and passengers (members in the team) very carefully to make sure that you have the appropriate working environment and colleagues who will always support you. However, sometimes you cannot choose all of them then I would like to add that middle manager also must adapt themselves according to the environment changing in the office.
Another important topic I would like to reflect is about feedback. Mica insisted that feedback is very important when you work as the middle manager. It is necessary to know that how your colleagues thinking about you. Nevertheless, to accept any feedback the middle manager may received, courage is required. Basically, people always avoid the critic about them and said that it is not true. That is the reason why I think that to accept any feedback, leader must have the very open-minded personality. Unfortunately, they always don't (at least in my own experiences).
Back to the question, Do you want to be the middle manager?
Considering about the dilemmas I may have got, political problems in the organization and also I really would like to create my own company. So, unfortunately, my answer is No.
What about yours?
However, in the leadership aspect, it is very interesting to study from middle manager. Because they are leader and follower in the same time so middle manager basically will face many dilemmas between 2 roles more than person who has only one role in the organization.
Mica Wulff Kamm, the middle manager from TeliaSonera company, gave us a broader sense of leadership knowledge with her own experiences in the real working life and the first thing I noticed was her energetic and out-going personality during her presentation. It is very impressive and might prove that how she loves her job as well. Moreover, she talked about dilemmas in the middle manager position which we did not discuss seriously during the seminar but it is very important if you are the middle manager. Middle managers must balance the operations and leadership within themselves. They also standing between 2 concepts of re-organization, centralized or decentralized, because they are not the highest management team who always consider about this topic according to the organization's policy. Therefore, the middle managers have to choose the bus (organization), the bus driver(boss), and passengers (members in the team) very carefully to make sure that you have the appropriate working environment and colleagues who will always support you. However, sometimes you cannot choose all of them then I would like to add that middle manager also must adapt themselves according to the environment changing in the office.
Another important topic I would like to reflect is about feedback. Mica insisted that feedback is very important when you work as the middle manager. It is necessary to know that how your colleagues thinking about you. Nevertheless, to accept any feedback the middle manager may received, courage is required. Basically, people always avoid the critic about them and said that it is not true. That is the reason why I think that to accept any feedback, leader must have the very open-minded personality. Unfortunately, they always don't (at least in my own experiences).
Back to the question, Do you want to be the middle manager?
Considering about the dilemmas I may have got, political problems in the organization and also I really would like to create my own company. So, unfortunately, my answer is No.
What about yours?
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