Cabarete and Santiago will be the cities to held the Jazz Festival this year, as the Dominican Today says. Dates fromNovember 6th to 9th 2008. Enjoy!

Links: Jazz Fest DR

The second global imperative is the 'Chinese Military Muscle'. The United States of America will not allow China to develop a 'Military Capability' that would threaten it's 'Global National Interests' in Asia and around the world. Chinese believe that they would continue to grow it's offensive capabilities under the International radar. That is not going to happen. First, no country in the world could challenge America's dominance in it's R&D (Research & Development) and second, no country has such an advance indigenous capability. These advantages are not developed overnight. It has taken the US more than hundred and fifty years to create a vast 'Military Industrial Complex' as it exists today. Besides, it is becoming an inter-dependent world and no country benefits by trying to build a clandestine 'Military Infrastructure'. It is insane the way China wants to control it's national development.

America is not the only country that China needs to be concerned about. India, Japan and Russia are all very nervous with the rise of China. It is part of the 'United Nations Panchyat' and pretends to be in the family of 'European Brahmins'. India and Japan sit outside the 'Panch Pradhan' (Five High-Priests) of UN (United Nations) and are often scolded now and then for something that the 'Panchyat' feels is unacceptable. China equipped with a veto power over India has enjoyed the 'August Company' for 68 years. India is like the 'Untouchable', itching to storm the club of 'Permanent Five' (Panch Pradhan) and occupy the high-seat of power and prestige. This may not be a big deal for some but for atleast one billion Indians this is the biggest insult. China knows that and most Chinese pretend that it is their right to boss over India.

China is not just the India's neighbor, but is also a major rival for natural resources and an adversary in terms of our national security. The Government of India has to say nice things about it's neighbor as this is called diplomacy. As far as the people of India are concerned, they have always been suspisious of China and it's motives. Indians would continue to pretend that everything is honky-dory between China and India till we feel secured and strong enough to stand up to our 'Northern Bully'. We, the Indians, also believe that we have better brains compared to Chinese but they work a little harder than us. China has five to one advantage over India in economy, military power and every other parameter. This is absolutely unacceptable to Indians and they make no bones about it. Our growth rate is not as bad. While China is growing at the rate of 12% a year, India might chug along at 8% or close. So how do we catch up?

The Australian, ABCnews, The Age.

Clark has an impressive CV that involves more than just looking at rocks. Currently she is VP of mineral resource giant BHP Billiton, so certainly has management skills in tow.

Her predecessor also had a reputation as a innovative go-getter. However, Geoff Garret was heavily criticised by scientists and science media for focusing too much on marketing and branding. Sacrificing "blue sky" (open ended, discovery-based) research for investing only in profit-generating ideas, such as patents and marketable diets.

The CSIRO is a government funded science flagship, not a biotech start-up trying to impress shareholders. Voices are hopeful that Clark is going to work with the new government to pump out more science and less spin - but already, even the age article I can see the spin wheels turning. She is denying existence of low morale amongst staff, and somehow making it appear that the government is improving its R&D investments in the organisation.

In actuality the government cut $60 million over 4 years from CSIRO's budget in May this year (ABCnews, AustLifeScientist +2). This caused job losses and office closures in regional centres. Staff at the my local lab in Rockhampton first heard about their branches closure when the read it in the paper. This sort of business behaviour does not tend to cultivate strong morale.

Maybe it's just same shit different cow.

Here is a very clean little Yamaha XT 500 cafe racer. Seems like HONAHA has been posting more Yamaha pics than usual, thats because we keep finding more and more sweet Yamaha bikes out there. So, look this little beast over carefully and notice the front and rear drilled disc brakes, the blanked out battery and air boxes, the clean exhaust, and the flow of the tank and seat.  The overall look of this bike is stunning, so enjoy it.  

*Check out our new Tips / Advice page, and please send us your tricks for fixing common motorcycle problems.  As always, stay tuned for more.

I've just filled in an on-line form and for the umpteenth time have come across boxes which are designed for urban addresses not rural ones.

Our address used to just have an R.D. number and town; then we added a farm name; then came post codes and now NZ Post wants our RAPID number as well.

(R.D. stands for Rural Delivery, and isn't a strange abbreviation for road as some people to whom I give my address think.

RAPID  stands for rural address property identification and that number may not be the same as that for the mail box because your number relates to the location of the drive to your hosue which isn't necessarily where the mail box is.)

Anyway, none of the address details I need to give, except the post card, fits in to the street, suburb, city address boxes most forms have.

It probably doesn't matter to the people who process the information but it's an unpleasant, albeit petty, reminder that rural people are a minority and those in official places don't realise their one-size fits all boxes don't fit us.

The duration of the internship remains to be negotiated, with a base salary of 800 €/month + primes. While this is not rigid, the ideal timing would start this internship around February 2009.

Profile and skills

The candidate must hold a Bachelor's Degree or equivalent in Computer Science and should be interested in the design of Virtual Machines. In addition, the candidate should have knowledge in at least one of the following domains:

• virtual machines
• safe programming language
• operating systems
• message-passing models
• compilation
• theoretical foundations of concurrency

The candidate must be eligible to work in France and should expect to work essentially in the Bourges branch of Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale d'Orléans, with occasional presence in the R&D department of MLState, in Paris. The primary task of the candidate will be the definition and implementation of an execution model for a simple concurrent, channel-based language. The final objective of this internship is the development of a small certified dedicated operating system/virtual machine for the execution of programs written in the language designed by MLState.

Application procedure

To apply, please send your resume and a motivation letter, by e-mail or physical mail to Henri Binsztok and David Teller. If possible, join a sample of your academic or technical work.

About MLState

Founded in Paris in 2007 by Henri Binsztok, lecturer in Universities Paris 6 & 7, MLState develops a new language for the creation of web applications. This functional language based on reduced algebras, opens new perspectives in terms of provability, distributed computation and database integration. For this work, MLState has been awarded the National Price for Innovating Technologies. Besides developments for clients, MLState invests time and effort in research, so as to enrich its integrated technological offer.

About SDS

Team SDS of Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale d'Orléans, based in École Nationale Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Bourges, carries on research on security of local and distributed operating systems against intrusions, trojan software and ill-programmed applications. The works deal first and foremost with the notion of security policies, from static or dynamic extraction of these policies from applications to high-level analysis of properties actually guaranteed by given policies or to the design of a programming language for co-development of distributed software and distributed security policies.

In order to make this a success we need to hear your original tips and advice so that we can share them with other vintage motorcycle owners. One of the best ways for new Cafe Racer enthusiasts to learn more about motorcycles is to gain perspective from veteran motorcycle builders. So, please send us your tricks, tips, advice, help, wisdom, and anything else you have to offer fellow rides so we can share it with them. Thanks so much for the help.

I figured it was about time to feature a little American V-twin power on HONAHA. I tend to highlight a lot of Japanese bikes on this site, but lets face it... there are some very nice Harley based cafe racers out there. It is nearly impossible to beat the sound of a Harley v-twin, and with parts becoming more and more available, look for sportsters to become increasingly popular on the cafe racer scene. Keep it tuned for more Harley motorcycles, and parts.

Ranbaxy sold out to some Japanese Daiichi Sankyo.

 

Why did the flag bearer of Indian pharma industry bow out like this? After 3 consecutive years of gobbling up large and promising pharma companies around the world, why did Ranbaxy sell out? Leave alone me, even the business veterans are shocked. Mahindra & Mahindra’s vice-chairman Anand Mahindra sums up the sentiment of many in corporate India:

It’s a landmark deal for the pharma industry. But I can’t help feeling a twinge of regret about an Indian multinational becoming a Japanese subsidiary.

So why this happened? There are some very valid reasons for this action by Malvinder Singh. This is what he had to say -

It was an emotional decision for the family, but after weighing several permutations and combinations, we felt that the deal with Daiichi Sankyo was the best for the shareholders and employees. What the family would get out of this was least of my concerns.

But why did the family have to sell out? Couldn't they just have gone for any other way? “The family had to completely exit Ranbaxy to allow Daiichi Sankyo 50.1% stake without which they would not have come on board,” said Mr Singh. He added, with current regulations preventing Indians from holding shares in foreign companies, a merger by way of a share swap was not possible.

Quite a few important observations can be made from this deal.

Firstly, though pharma sector is poised for growth, the Indian pharmaceutical policy is not very conducive for the same. The policy does need some tuning up. It is easier for the Indian companies to become subsidiaries of foreign firms to have better growth.

Secondly, it shows the coming of age of the Indian businessmen. Who are not at all afraid to leave their homegrown companies to look for greener pastures. Is it the start of Americanization of Indian businessmen or the start of the era of serial entrepreneurs? Only time shall tell. Major question for Mr. Singh is now to decide on ways of deploying his new found treasure of INR 10,000 Crores.

Thirdly, it will help Ranbaxy to enter newer markets hitchhiking with Daiichi and join forces with ‘new drug discovery’ division of its new parent. The Ranbaxy-Daiichi combine will be the fifteenth largest drug maker in the world, with a footprint in major global markets. In addition to an expanded global reach, the combined entity will have a complementary product portfolio and a strong growth potential by effectively managing opportunities across the full pharmaceutical life-cycle; and cost competitiveness by optimising usage of R&D and manufacturing facilities of both companies, especially in India.

Fourthly, its good for retail investors, who would be gain a whopping 30% in the open offer. Ranbaxy would be converted into a debt free firm with infusion of $1 billion retiring a debt of $500 million. The surplus funds can be pushed into newer growth areas and help in satisfying Ranbaxy's hunger for newer acquisitions.

Lastly it will help Ranbaxy to fight its patent battles with giants like Pfizer, etc. with a newfound parent which would be the 15th largest drug maker now.

New details were made available by the company later but it seems that the initial shock and horror has paved way for respect for the intelligent business sense shown by Ranbaxy’s board.

Cheers to Ranbaxy for this path breaking decision!!

Financial advantages (India):
India is the world leader when it comes to bagging outsourcing jobs in clinical research. It has double the market share of its nearest competitor, Italy, and nearly four times as much as the next in line, Spain. In 2005 contract research in India was valued at $100-120m and growing at a rate of 20-25 per cent each year. (Chemical Pharmaceutical Generic Association). Other projections (McKinsey report) say that clinical research in India will be a $1bn (€800,000m) industry by 2010.

Other advantages (India):

• Foreign sponsors must adhere to international rules and this could force India to better its regulation and monitoring process. India has certainly streamlined regulatory approval procedure and more regulation is on the cards.
• Infrastructure improves...in fact new clinical research centres are being built and people are being trained.
• Outsourced trials bring new technology, treatments, diagnostics and drugs to India.

Financial advantages (International pharma companies.)
The average cost of running a US-based clinical trial per patient is $19577. In India it can cost up to 60 per cent less than in the US. Getting trials done in India also saves time as not only are more people available, they are easier to convince. In the US patients with decent healthcare and health insurance will be reluctant to participate as they see few benefits. Time is money for the companies, particularly as patents are given to drug companies for limited periods.

The murky side
So these foreign companies come here to profit...but before we blame them we need to know that our own companies can be lackadaisical in carrying out clinical research. There was this incident where 200 adolescent students from an elite school in Delhi were stripped and examined (without permission from their parents). All this was done by a private research group called Health Care and Research Association for Adolescents (Noida-based). Other Indian companies like Bangalore-based Biocon and Hyderabad-based Shantha Biotechnic as well as Mumbai-based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries have come under a cloud for conducting medical testing of drugs without following proper procedures.

Patients often don’t know they are being tested
I think this is an important point which is often glossed over. The TIME article (all references are given at the end of this post) mentions that “despite regulations” most patients are not told by doctors that they are taking part in a trial. Doctors, hospitals are in cahoots as they gain financially.

My personal experience: My mother-in-law was given an injection just before her cataract operation and when I asked the nurse what the injection was for I got a vague answer. After my mother-in-law was wheeled into the OT, I confronted the nurse. He was aggressive and rude, but admitted that the hospital was conducting a ‘study' on older patients with cataract and as they were doing this for the “benefit” of patients why the hell was I complaining! He had the temerity to tell me that they cannot inform patients in advance as patients will refuse!

This can happen to anybody...and makes me wonder how many unsuspecting patients are unknowingly participating in medical studies?

Clinical trials carry risks
All clinical trials carry a certain degree of risk, and some can be outright dangerous. For example Mumbai based Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited conducted trials where patients were given an anti-cancer drug to see if it would induce ovulation, despite the known toxicity of the drug to embryos. Another example: The world's biggest pharmaceutical company Pfizer announced that clinical trials of its new cholesterol-reduction drug Torcetrapib were being halted due to the high death rate among the 15,000 trial subjects spread over three continents. More examples here.

In clinical trials victims cannot claim damages as they often agree to waive such rights before participating in trial.

Risks for Indians
It has been alleged that poor and illiterate patients and sometimes even mentally ill patients in India are being used for clinical trials. Patients being illiterate often do not understand the risks nor do they understand their rights. And at times they don’t care because at least they have access to medical facilities if they take part in a trial. In any case, as mentioned above, patients are often not told at all (even educated ones) that they are taking part in a study or trial.

Negligence during trials can happen due to untrained staff doing the work. India has a shortfall of skilled personnel in this field…hospitals turn a blind eye as they want to hurry through the trials.

Add to this lax enforcement of laws in India. So although we have good regulation regarding this issue, the monitoring body doesn't really keep a strict check.

Considering that this clinical trial procedure is new in India, the likelihood of things going wrong is very high. Why, in the United States, even after 40 years of building this clinical trial infrastructure, there are problems!

Problems in clinical trials in the United States
A recent survey of clinical trial participants in the US has shown that “the informed consent process is not up to scratch”. Here are the findings:

• 3 percent of respondents said that they “did not receive an informed consent form prior to starting the study.”
• 9 per cent of those who got the form admitted that they read it only partially
• 3 per cent admitted they did not read it at all!
• 27 per cent of survey respondents said that no one reviewed the informed consent with them
• 24 per cent said they did not understand that neither they, or their doctor, would know what medication they were receiving during the study
• 21 per cent said they did not realise that their study would carry 'additional risks and discomforts.'
• 4 per cent of those surveyed did not realise they could quit the study at any time
• 10 per cent said the information they received prior to the trial 'did not match their actual experience' or that they had in fact received 'no prior information.'

If this is the case in America, what can we expect in India where this industry is in its nascent stage?

So were those babies harmed?
When it comes to the current scandal, that of 49 babies dead, one cannot help but be suspicious. The AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) has denied that the deaths are due to the drugs administered during the trial. The deaths, says AIIMS represent the “normal mortality rate of 1.8 per cent.” An internal five-member commission of inquiry has been set up, but in any case considering that the inquiry will be internal, one cannot be 100 percent sure that the truth will be revealed.

(References: [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5] )

(Photo credits: First photo is from echinachem.com and the second is copywrited to me)

Related Reading: Indian students made guinea pigs in sex study
Do we value life in India?

• Some futuristic User Interface Concepts [Smashing Magazine] including this display which reminds me in a way of some work by an undergrad colleague of mine at Philips Research Labs. David's brief was to explore the concept of a multi-touch gestural display device. He investigated Fingerworks and how we might put their tech behind a screen for a portable device. This was in 2004, remind you of something that came out in 2007? Yep, Apple bought them out not long afterwards. I miss being in R&D...
• A subtle clock that tells you the time.
• The perils of being a music nerd.

Back to some work...

“Tigre tu si está bien que bregas con los verdes, mientras que uno aquí  mi hermano esta como el cangrejo.  Mírate a ti por ejemplo,  llegaste hoy y ya te estás pelando, con tu blin blin encendido  y en lo último pedales, sin problemas.  Montro tu cree que es fácil, tu sabe la lucha que tengo que coger yo para tal vez algún día poder comprar un celular como ese, no ombe no.   Aquí no hay vida.”

Mi gente si en Santo Domingo las cosas están mal, aquí están peor.  Económicamente jamás, pero ¿ustedes saben la lucha que se tiene que coger aquí para poder sobrevivir? Me imagino que no.  La  definición de “vivir cheque a cheque” es la más adecuada para que ustedes puedan entender en realidad como es que vivimos aquí. 

Me da risa cuando escucho mis amistades o hasta mi familia hablándome  de la vida de aquí.  “no que en NY pagan bien” es lo que dicen.  Claro las oportunidades que tiene este país no se encuentran  tal vez en Santo Domingo,  pero el sacrificio es más grande que la recompensa, ya que eh conocido Ingenieros de primera manejando un taxi. 

A veces trato de darle ánimo a la gente que cree que el mundo se le está acabando.  Lo único que no estoy de acuerdo es cuando va gente de NY a venderle  sueños a  gente luchadora que están pasando trabajo en RD, derrumbándole todas sus metas y cambiándole su forma de pensar. Esos baboso(a) que tal vez aquí cogen mas trote que cualquier infeliz. 

En Santo Domingo hay todo lo que necesitamos para vivir cómodo y ser feliz.  No tanto por el apoyo de nuestra gente sino por la liberta que existe de la cual NY carece.

STTR: Small Business Technology Transfer

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Technology administers the SBIR and STTR programs, which were established to provide small high-tech businesses with access to the federal government's R&D funding opportunities.  More detail can be found at http://www.sbir.gov/index.html  Even so, according to the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, small businesses receive only about 4% of federal R&D dollars.

S. 3362, which was reported favorably out of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entreprenuership on August 22nd, 2008, will - if passed - reauthorize the SBIR and STTR programs, originally scheduled to "sunset" on Spetember 30, 2008 but extended to March 20, 2009 as part of a temporary reauthroization bill for all SBA programs.

The programs would be reauthorized for fourteen years each - 2022 for SBIR and 2023 for STTR. 

More, The legislation gradually increases, over ten years, the allocation for the SBIR program at most participating agencies from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent of the agency's extramural research and development budget, and, for the STTR program, it gradually increases, over six years, the allocation at all participating agencies from 0.3 percent to 0.6 percent of this same budget. It also increases the award size guidelines for the SBIR and STTR programs from $100,000 to $150,000 for Phase I and from $750,000 to $1 million for Phase II.

Congress won't be back in session for another two weeks, and has much on its plate before recessing again. So no predictions on when the full Seante and/or the House will consider this bill. Hopefully sometime before March 20th of next year! --nks

Need more information?  Perhaps I can help.  http://www.nksinfoservices.com

In the article, Mingliang applauded lab's advancement computing and Bill Gate's decision to open the lab in China. The lab's creation has developed deep inroads to the Chinese's psyche and brought upon great sense of pride and self-belief. He also described the lab's dynamic and open environment as the key that foster creativity among its researchers in the midst of China's transformation to a knowledge based economy.

周民良：微软亚洲研究院带给我们什么

在观看奥运会的人群中，有比尔•盖茨的身影。作为开启新办公时代的领航者，盖茨对全球的贡献非常大。作为一名成功商人，盖茨多次来过北京。不知是否有人想过这个问题：盖茨带给我们什么？
 
在笔者看来，作为微软前总裁，盖茨以往到北京的最大成就，就是创立了微软亚洲研究院，这是一个类似于“鸟巢”和“水立方”、具有地标意义的外资研发机构，但也由此可见盖茨的远见卓识。微软亚洲研究院成立以来，诞生了大量研究成果，尤其是近两年来，微软亚洲研究院的成果更加丰富。据介绍，微软亚洲研究院的最新技术，在微软全球五大研究院中占据近1/3。在多媒体检索计算机系统和存储、数字娱乐及计算机图形、分布式系统研发、大规模数据分析等领域，微软亚洲研究院都有创造性的贡献，有多项技术成功转移到微软公司的核心产品中。不仅如此，微软亚洲研究院在各类国际一流刊物和会议上发表论文超过1500篇。微软亚洲研究院是盖茨成功的一部分，就如同他创立微软一样。
 
但是，微软亚洲研究院带给我们的意义应该是不一样的。首先，微软亚洲研究院告诉我们，高科技企业的成长十分依赖技术创新，要做世界顶端的企业，就要依赖世界顶端的技术。技术创新，是企业生存与发展的核心价值所在，也为企业的进一步发展提供了独特的竞争力。对我国企业来说，在一段时期引进技术和模仿技术是必要的，但从长期来看，企业要在市场上生存和发展下去，必须建立自己的技术创新体系，开发出具有自主知识产权的技术产品，在这方面，微软亚洲研究院为我们提供了很好的镜鉴。
 
其次，微软亚洲研究院告诉我们，中国人在技术创新方面的才智并不弱于欧美国家。妄自菲薄、认为中国是发展中国家，其技术水平就只能都停留在发展中国家的思维是不合乎发展实际的。中国的经济发展水平尽管不算发达，但在技术人才的培育上具有规模优势，如果能合理组织，实现技术与资本的良好结合，中国人完全可以在技术密集型产业领域取得成功。
 
再次，微软亚洲研究院告诉我们，技术创新除了与人才供应有关外，还与人才的激励与约束机制、人才的合作机制与团队精神、研究项目的设置等因素有关。在科研机构内部设置许多不正当竞争手段、任人唯亲地进行反向激励约束、黑箱操作地进行不公正的绩效评价，都无助于人才的脱颖而出和技术创新成果的不断涌现。在技术创新方面，微软亚洲研究院给我们提出一个颇具现实意义的问题：如何建立创新型的现代科研院所？

I am thinking about this again as people I work with regularly are all on the move.

I am sad to miss the Kingswood Warren 60th Birthday party however obscure that might soundKingswood Warren has been the home of BBC R&D for 60 years and there is a party to celebrate next week, and a day of demos. But I read in the Guardian yesterday that there may be strike action to coincide with that day. That was news to me and got me thinking about the relationship between innovation and place.

You may have read articles in the press about the closure of Kingswood Warren and what that means to the the BBC , and there is undoubtedly a lot to think about when you start a discussion about the relationship of innovation and creativity to a place, geographical location or to a building.

But the fact that this building looks so opulent and other worldly obscures a proper discussion about the relationship between a place and the work that goes on it it. When we talk about an "esprit de corps" in an organisation or team, it's a body of people we are talking about and their spirit we are highlighting - but does the place in which they work together count in the equation and if so what does it count for? Or can we say that wherever teams who know each other well work it will be the same? Is the power of the network strong enough to beat the power and advantages of proximity?

At the BBC this is the first move for the Kingswood Warren staff to London and that is likely to be followed by a second for some of them and many others to Salford to the MediaCity Development. This is a very interesting and exiciting development and the opportunity to create a groundbreaking research and production centre - but it will be a few years until it is all up and running and lots of transition time is hard for even the most dedicated to handle while keeping productive .I say this as someone who has worked in an organisation for many years whose propensity for change is high, and whose need to change is great.

This is not only being debated at the BBC, but more generally by writers such as Clay Shirky and Charles Leadbeater writing about collaboration and the network. What can be done virtually and what has to be done face to face? My take on this has always been that innovation is a social process. The place can be a garage or indeed a dingy forgotten basement such as the birthplace of BBC Imagineering, but the spirit needs to be willing. Networks work well virtually when there is a common purpose and a vision or mission. They also work in real locations for the same reason - the key is in relationships, language, camaraderie and cooperation - in other words in the social.

]]> http://consultaglobal.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/obscura-digitals-visionaire-gestural-holographic-interface/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:00:19 +0000 consultaglobal http://consultaglobal.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/obscura-digitals-visionaire-gestural-holographic-interface/  

"Our vision is to develop our technology into a whole new medium-one that's not dependent upon a device such as a phone, television set, or computer, but that allows people to tap into the vast cloud of digital information and interact with it in new and meaningful ways from any surface, any place."

http://www.obscuradigital.com/

Obscura Digital delivers an interactive and fully immersive experience. Multiple users can interact by gesturing around in mid-air while interfacing with a variety of digital content. 

Relevant posts:

• Heliodisplay: interactive video projected in free space.
• Multitouch, TouchSmart, Lucid Touch.
• Minority report GUI.
• The  trouble with computers.
• Microsoft’s Lucid Touch.
• Siggraph 2007: emerging technologies.
• NxtFest 2007.

J. de Francisco
Chicago, IL     23 August 08

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"These shenanigans have become so common that they're almost invisible. The budgeting process is so deeply embedded in corporate life (...) creating incentives to game the system."

Read Michael C. Jesen's paper, "Corporate Budgeting Is Broken - Let's Fix It." on Harvard Business Review. Requires registration.

Related posts:

• Do you really need business modeling?
• The problem with budgeting (1)
• The problem with budgeting (2)
• The problem with budgeting (3)

Jensen's paper discusses budgeting pitfalls driven by questionable revenue and expense recognition tactics.

This is mostly due to pay for performance incentive systems driving managers to either delay or accelerate "the numbers" when aiming to hit or miss specific targets.

Jensen's solution approach is based on setting up a linear compensation plan that rewards performance, one that is  independent of budget targets.

Peter Horvath, whose paper I quoted in one of my previous posts, recommends a 15 month rolling forecast updated on a quarterly basis. This enables entrepreneurs to better operate in highly dynamic markets where moving targets happen to be the reality of the business.

Rolling forecasts and budgets are meant to free us from the stiff one off annual budgeting process. His recipe relies on reducing detail through the use of aggregate budgets.

I realize the above might read a bit cryptic to some. So another post with additional insights on this subject will follow. In the meantime, I will continue to welcome your comments and emails.

Picture credits: Hemera Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Jupiter Images Corporation.

J. de Francisco
Chicago, IL     22 August 08

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The lounge at the Ed Martin Acura dealership at Keystone and 96th Street.

Yesterday afternoon, I took dad's car to get an oil change there because he was busy with some things at work. I dropped off the car and was waved into the "lounge" to wait.

*sigh* Great, I thought. I should have brought my book.

But oh no. This was not one of your typical 2 feet by 2 feet waiting areas where the ONLY thing to read is either a car catalogue or Midwest Gardening. This spacious little area had FREE soda (just like a coke machine, only you just press the buttom and BAM...free coke), FREE Starbucks coffee, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, cable television on a high-definition plasma screen, awesome couches, and work spaces with free wireless internet.

Seriously? Yes. I am serious. When they came in a half an hour later to ask if I wanted the courtesy car wash, I said, Of course, take your time. My soap's on, as I sipped my free diet coke.

Just kidding. I didn't say that. I hate soaps. But seriously, how cool is that??

It's the simple things, I guess.

And it's the simple ways God answers our prayers that always startles me. It has been a really crazy past few weeks. I was lacking sleep, lacking time with Cody, lacking time to work out. Then this morning, I switched up my routine just a smidge and went for a run. And I was able to watch the sunrise during my run...it was all these really subtle shades of purple, lavender, hot pink, light orange...it was so beautiful and gentle-looking. Like God was trying to break the day gently for us.

Other simple good things this week include...

-How God has showed up for the Reid family...if you haven't taken the time to check out RD's website and read about his progress and how his family is doing, you should. His wife Jill has taken to starting each day with thanksgiving and praise, and it has been encouraging to me, even in this time that is so hard for her. Every single one of your prayers matters. Please keep it up. :) http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/rdreid

-Dinner and Starbucks with the Precioussssss...we laughed...a lot.

-Talking to Caitlyn on the phone...and knowing I get to see Julie soon.

-Cody making dinner for me last night.

-Feeling generally more aware of God and His working in the people around me...and being thankful that even when I feel helpless, he provides ways for me to help those who might need it.

-Knowing He will provide...it may not be what I think I want, but it will always be what I need the most.

"The LORD answered Moses, "Is the LORD's arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you." -numbers 11:23

"Your grace is enough..."

There is a seller who wants to sell and a ready, willing and "able" buyer for their house.  Easy, breezy, right?

Not so fast my friends...there are lenders, appraisers and attorneys in the mix.  Which means financing, value verification and title searching are in play.  That poor "able" buyer is suddenly thrust under the micorscope of lending scrutiny and that group is being very tough on the borrowing public right now and even if they are not being tough on the borrower, they are being brutal on properties.

Lets talk about RD...

Rural Development financing has been dusted off and is back in play for today's market.  It follows FHA guidelines (for the most part) but is one of the few 100% financing programs still available.  This program is being widely used in rural areas right now and along with FHA, CHFA and VA they are ruling the day.  What is irksome, aside from their long absence from the playing field which can make for some rusty lenders and REALTORS (not to mention perplexed sellers and buyers) is that for all the talk of more property tolerance and higher price caps...they are just as nit picky as they ever were.

Buyers be ready with your documentation and limber writing hand; they are all government financing after all and paper intensive.  Say what you will about subprime meltdowns and too liberal lending practices and I will likely agree; but nearly gone are the days of 3 weeks until closing, we are back to 80's style minimum of six weeks and the non-committal lending which keeps you on the edge of your seat until the whirlwind closing scenario.

I attribute it all to too many cooks in the kitchen.  And, don't get me wrong, I have no problem with government financing programs, in fact, I am deliriously happy that they are here to get some fine folks into homeownership...I just long for properly prepared and educated buyers and sellers..folks who understand there shall be hoops to jump through...think of it as a means to the end. 

In many cases, it is the only gig in town so I also recommend that sellers not be too quick to disregard...it may be the best way to get your house sold.  And the process just is what it is...hang in there!