How long compound interest will take to double your investment?
A rule of thumb - called Rule of 72 can tell you:
Simply divide 72 by the rate of return on your investmenr.
For example:
For rate at 6%, will take you 12 years.
For rate at 10%, will take you 7.2 years.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Copy - one of the element lead to success
Tang Jun, the former CEO of Microsoft China said in one of Chinese buisness show No Free Lunch:
One of the successful way for him to regulate or standardise businesses is that - to copy the rules he learned from Microsoft after he served the company for 10 years.
要想使企业规范化运作，就要复制成功的体系。 —— 唐骏
One of the successful way for him to regulate or standardise businesses is that - to copy the rules he learned from Microsoft after he served the company for 10 years.
要想使企业规范化运作，就要复制成功的体系。 —— 唐骏
Sunday, November 2, 2008
网上购物——4秒商机
我们的宽容等候似乎并没能从超市收银台前的排队延伸到互联网上。
根据一项新的对消费者行为的报告，四秒钟是网上购物者在网站加载之前准备等待的最长时间。
该报告调查了1058位网上购物者的购物习惯。
它发现，如果页面加载超过4秒时间，一般购物者就会放弃这个网上商店。
事实上，网站的加载时间被认为是仅次于高的产品价格和运输费用而导致网上购物者不满的因素。
“这一研究得到的结论是，网上购物者不仅要求网站性能的是高质量的，这也是他们的期望。 ”
调查公司的高层说到 。
“四秒，是一个判断零售网站的新基准，零售商想要保持一个忠诚的网上客户群就几乎不能有任何的错误。”
调查的起因是，由于越来越多澳大利亚人采用了宽带互联网连接，网上购物也增加迅速。
澳大利亚统计局在06年6月的互联网活动统计调查中，就已经发现，百分之五十一的澳大利亚家庭现在拥有宽带。
此外，在市场研究公司AC尼尔森当年9月的进一步报告中发现， 590万澳大利亚人如今在网上购物，比一年前增了长百分之十三。顾客的平均每年支出也有所增加，增长了百分之十九，达到一千九澳元一年。
该报告发现，机票，住宿及活动门票是最受欢迎的项目，而eBay是排名第一网上的零售商。
Online shopping: it's click or miss
Our tolerance for waiting in the supermarket checkout queue doesn't appear to extend to shopping on the internet.
According to a new report on consumer behaviour, four seconds is the longest that online shoppers are prepared to wait for a site to load before backing out of the transaction.
The report - commissioned by JupiterResearch and carried out by web services company Akamai - surveyed 1058 online shoppers on their buying habits.
It found that the average shopper will abandon an online store if forced to wait more than four seconds for pages to load.
In fact, website loading times were found to be second only to high product prices and shipping costs as the leading determinants of online shopper dissatisfaction.
"The critical takeaway from this research is that online shoppers not only demand quality site performance, they expect it," said Akamai's Brad Rinklin.
"Four seconds is the new benchmark by which a retail site will be judged, which leaves little room for errors for retailers to maintain a loyal online customer base."
The findings come as more and more Australians are shopping online, thanks to an increased take-up of broadband internet connections.
The Internet Activity Survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in June, found that 51 per cent of Australian households now have broadband.
Further, a report, released by market research company ACNielsen in September, found that 5.9 million Australians are now shopping online, up 13 per cent from a year before. Average spending by each shopper is also on the rise, up 19 per cent to $1900 a year, it said.
Airline tickets, accommodation and event tickets are the most popular items, while eBay is the No. 1 online retailer, the report found.
According to a new report on consumer behaviour, four seconds is the longest that online shoppers are prepared to wait for a site to load before backing out of the transaction.
The report - commissioned by JupiterResearch and carried out by web services company Akamai - surveyed 1058 online shoppers on their buying habits.
It found that the average shopper will abandon an online store if forced to wait more than four seconds for pages to load.
In fact, website loading times were found to be second only to high product prices and shipping costs as the leading determinants of online shopper dissatisfaction.
"The critical takeaway from this research is that online shoppers not only demand quality site performance, they expect it," said Akamai's Brad Rinklin.
"Four seconds is the new benchmark by which a retail site will be judged, which leaves little room for errors for retailers to maintain a loyal online customer base."
The findings come as more and more Australians are shopping online, thanks to an increased take-up of broadband internet connections.
The Internet Activity Survey, conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in June, found that 51 per cent of Australian households now have broadband.
Further, a report, released by market research company ACNielsen in September, found that 5.9 million Australians are now shopping online, up 13 per cent from a year before. Average spending by each shopper is also on the rise, up 19 per cent to $1900 a year, it said.
Airline tickets, accommodation and event tickets are the most popular items, while eBay is the No. 1 online retailer, the report found.
Source: smh.com.au
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Fwd: The golden rules of investment
- Never invest in something you don't understand.
- Risk can be reduced by spreading investments across different asset classes - property, shares, and cash.
- Stop trying to predict the direction of the share, property or interest rate market; concentrate on buying an investment that makes long-term common sense.
- Buy things with a strong history of profitability.
- Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when others are fearful.
- Do not take annual results too seriously; focus on five year average growth.
- Focus on return on equity employed; not on earnings per share or gross rental.
- Remember that high returns normally equate to higher risk.
- Always invest for the long term. Think 'Does this investment have a favourable long term prospect?'
- Stick with your plan if it still makes sense when market conditions change. Recognise that short term volatility happens and that change costs money.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
How to motivate your employees
It takes a lot more than an annual barbeque and a bonus cheque at Christmas to motivate staff - anyone can tell you that. But what exactly is the "a lot more"?
It's too simplistic to say that motivation the result of a goody salary, perks and training opportunities. Inspiration takes time, effort and consistency. It's about creating a culture that inspires self-motivation as well as providing the security to develop and innovate. In fact, there is increasing evidence that creating a motivated workforce is less about monetary rewards and more about management styles.
So what can business owners and managers actually do to motivate employees? What really works?
The Harvard Business Review has just completed two major studies aimed at answering that question. In one, 385 employees of two global businesses were surveyed. In the other, employees from 300 Fortune 500 companies were surveyed.
The secret, HBR reports, is to focus on four basic emotional drives: the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Each of these drives can be managed by business owners or managers with a particular lever. Here are the drives and levers explained:
1. The drive to acquire. The lever: rewards
Individuals are driven to acquire goods that boost our sense of well-being and wealth. Delight is experienced when this is fulfilled, discontent when it is thwarted.
It's also important to note that the drive to acquire tends to be relative and insatiable: we compare what we have with those around us. And regardless of how much we have, we want more.
Businesses can use this drive to their advantage by creating a reward system that discriminates between good and poor performers, ties rewards to performance, and gives the best people opportunities for advancement.
2. The drive to bond. The lever: Culture
The drive to bond is associated with strong positive emotions like love and caring. When these are missing, negative emotions like loneliness take hold. When employees feel proud of belonging to an organisation they are motivated; when businesses betray them they feel demoralised. This also explains why employees find it hard to move around businesses internally: people become attached to those around them.
So how do you boost morale? Create a culture that promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness, and friendship.
3. The drive to comprehend. The lever: job design
We want to make sense of the world around us, we are frustrated when things seem senseless, and we are invigorated by the challenge of working out answers. In the workplace the drive to comprehend accounts for the desire to make a meaningful contribution.
Employees are motivated by jobs that challenge them and help them grow and learn. They are demoralised by jobs that seem to be monotonous or lead to a dead end.
Design jobs that are meaningful, interesting and challenging - whether or not the task is stacking shelves or managing clients. Talented employees that feel trapped look for new challenges elsewhere.
4. The drive to defend. The lever: performance management
We all naturally defend ourselves, our property and accomplishments, our family and friends. Instinctively we want what is fair and just.
It's important to make sure the way you measure performance and calculate salaries and bonuses meet this employee's drive to defend. If employees feel they're being taken advantage of, or others are being unfairly advanced, they will go elsewhere.
Each of these drives is independent and there is no heirarchy.
This means that you can't pay your employees a lot and hope they'll feel enthusiastic about their work in an organization where bonding is not fostered, work seems meaningless, or people feel defenceless. Nor it enough to help people bond as a tight-knit team when they are underpaid or toiling away at deathly boring jobs.
Here's the evidence: If a business owner whose business ranked in the 50th percentile on employee motivation improved job design, the business would only move up to the 56th percentile. In comparison, an improvement on all four drives would catapult the business up to the 88th percentile. Does this research ring true? How do you get the most out of your employees, or reduce the risk of losing them, when a better job comes along?
(Source: smh blogs)
It's too simplistic to say that motivation the result of a goody salary, perks and training opportunities. Inspiration takes time, effort and consistency. It's about creating a culture that inspires self-motivation as well as providing the security to develop and innovate. In fact, there is increasing evidence that creating a motivated workforce is less about monetary rewards and more about management styles.
So what can business owners and managers actually do to motivate employees? What really works?
The Harvard Business Review has just completed two major studies aimed at answering that question. In one, 385 employees of two global businesses were surveyed. In the other, employees from 300 Fortune 500 companies were surveyed.
The secret, HBR reports, is to focus on four basic emotional drives: the drive to acquire, bond, comprehend and defend. Each of these drives can be managed by business owners or managers with a particular lever. Here are the drives and levers explained:
1. The drive to acquire. The lever: rewards
Individuals are driven to acquire goods that boost our sense of well-being and wealth. Delight is experienced when this is fulfilled, discontent when it is thwarted.
It's also important to note that the drive to acquire tends to be relative and insatiable: we compare what we have with those around us. And regardless of how much we have, we want more.
Businesses can use this drive to their advantage by creating a reward system that discriminates between good and poor performers, ties rewards to performance, and gives the best people opportunities for advancement.
2. The drive to bond. The lever: Culture
The drive to bond is associated with strong positive emotions like love and caring. When these are missing, negative emotions like loneliness take hold. When employees feel proud of belonging to an organisation they are motivated; when businesses betray them they feel demoralised. This also explains why employees find it hard to move around businesses internally: people become attached to those around them.
So how do you boost morale? Create a culture that promotes teamwork, collaboration, openness, and friendship.
3. The drive to comprehend. The lever: job design
We want to make sense of the world around us, we are frustrated when things seem senseless, and we are invigorated by the challenge of working out answers. In the workplace the drive to comprehend accounts for the desire to make a meaningful contribution.
Employees are motivated by jobs that challenge them and help them grow and learn. They are demoralised by jobs that seem to be monotonous or lead to a dead end.
Design jobs that are meaningful, interesting and challenging - whether or not the task is stacking shelves or managing clients. Talented employees that feel trapped look for new challenges elsewhere.
4. The drive to defend. The lever: performance management
We all naturally defend ourselves, our property and accomplishments, our family and friends. Instinctively we want what is fair and just.
It's important to make sure the way you measure performance and calculate salaries and bonuses meet this employee's drive to defend. If employees feel they're being taken advantage of, or others are being unfairly advanced, they will go elsewhere.
Each of these drives is independent and there is no heirarchy.
This means that you can't pay your employees a lot and hope they'll feel enthusiastic about their work in an organization where bonding is not fostered, work seems meaningless, or people feel defenceless. Nor it enough to help people bond as a tight-knit team when they are underpaid or toiling away at deathly boring jobs.
Here's the evidence: If a business owner whose business ranked in the 50th percentile on employee motivation improved job design, the business would only move up to the 56th percentile. In comparison, an improvement on all four drives would catapult the business up to the 88th percentile. Does this research ring true? How do you get the most out of your employees, or reduce the risk of losing them, when a better job comes along?
(Source: smh blogs)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Shop til you drop (over the keyboard)
It seems that Australians and Kiwis share the rare distinction of being the nationalities most likely around the globe to make online purchases. Who would have believed that?
A survey conducted by Coremetrics, a digital marketing company revealed that Australian and New Zealand consumers are twice as likely to buy products online, when compared to their UK counterparts. With a conversion rate of 4.4 orders per 100 online sessions for Australians and 4 for New Zealanders, the ANZ region sits above the average global conversion rate of 2.96 orders per 100 sessions.
The analysis is based on a six-month benchmarking study undertaken in the US. The study looked at buyer activity across 72 million e-commerce retail web sessions, with a specific focus on analysing the habits of nearly one million Australian and New Zealand visitors.
Kevin Mackin, general manager for the local operations of Coremetrics commented that “The US and UK are thought to be the most tech-savvy, but the conversion rates suggest otherwise when it comes to e-commerce. US consumers tend to place 3.3 orders every 100 sessions, while the UK only place an average of 1.7.
Interestingly, the participating businesses that enjoy the lengthiest visits from consumers are the ones engaging consumers with relevant content, including third party references and recommendations. These sites were also experiencing a higher number of page views, demonstrating a strong ability to hold people’s attention by capitalising on the more engaging Web 2.0 technologies.
A survey conducted by Coremetrics, a digital marketing company revealed that Australian and New Zealand consumers are twice as likely to buy products online, when compared to their UK counterparts. With a conversion rate of 4.4 orders per 100 online sessions for Australians and 4 for New Zealanders, the ANZ region sits above the average global conversion rate of 2.96 orders per 100 sessions.
The analysis is based on a six-month benchmarking study undertaken in the US. The study looked at buyer activity across 72 million e-commerce retail web sessions, with a specific focus on analysing the habits of nearly one million Australian and New Zealand visitors.
Kevin Mackin, general manager for the local operations of Coremetrics commented that “The US and UK are thought to be the most tech-savvy, but the conversion rates suggest otherwise when it comes to e-commerce. US consumers tend to place 3.3 orders every 100 sessions, while the UK only place an average of 1.7.
Interestingly, the participating businesses that enjoy the lengthiest visits from consumers are the ones engaging consumers with relevant content, including third party references and recommendations. These sites were also experiencing a higher number of page views, demonstrating a strong ability to hold people’s attention by capitalising on the more engaging Web 2.0 technologies.
(Source: MyBusiness eNews)
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