Categories | BlogZynergy

Ten Things That Will Change Your Life[style]

Many times we put our eyes on the big things out there. But the fact remains that as determined as we are to make significant changes and do big things, we can only reach that height of big things until we fix some small items in place.

Life has a lot of experiences, and only if we gather the right experiences, we will not get the best out of what we do.

The constant thing about life is change. No matter what you do, you cannot avoid change. The more we resist change, the more miserable our life becomes. And to give heed to change, we should ensure we plan it and take it gradually as our routine can permit.

We can, however, not avoid the unexpected from happening, but what we can do is, set a sample of what we want for ourselves when the unexpected does happen.

This is where our power of choice comes in, using this power of choice allows us to change our life. And that is the fulcrum of what we are going to be talking about today—using your power of choice to craft out something beautiful for our lives.

1. Make your bed daily

A lot of interpretations can be made from our little actions daily. Making your bed and how you make it can be one of the ways to tell how organized you are.

Many may want to trivialize this act, but making your bed will set you to the next task and the next after that, and you will be bubbling with fulfillment by the end of the day. But it all begins from you doing what is right immediately you get up from the bed.

As soon as you make your bed (clean your bed), the next thing to do is clean yourself. Wash your mouth and have your bath.

Even if you are not going out or you don’t have an appointment to catch, having your bath daily in the morning goes a long way to increase your productivity. Take your time to clean yourself.

2. Read the news

This is another little thing that could affect you most positively or negatively possible. Follow the news and know what is happening around you.

As little as it is, listening to the news can keep you informed about the kinds of jobs that are available, the places you should not visit, and most importantly, you get information that gives you talking rights when around people.

3. Cut Posters in your room

Having a motivational poster in your room is very important; it improves your success rate. It can be the only force that makes you continue reading that book when you are about to stop. You can put up your resolution to finish a book every week on your doorpost.

No matter how trivial it looks but that motivational poster helps you to stay motivated and to get rid of procrastination.

4. Clear youR To Do

To-do lists are usually written to guide you on what to do daily. If you have good things listed out, completing them daily will go a long way to improve every aspect of your life and can cause a drastic change. When you clear your to-do every day, it helps you assess yourself and decide your next move.

Hence you should ensure that your To-Do is cleared before you retire to bed daily. This way, you set yourself up for progress.

5. Exercise daily

The magic behind exercises comes when you are faithful to it. You tend to see its effect after being consistent for at least 21 days. Exercises will help reduce your stress level. Also, during exercise, your body will secret hormones that will help your body relax and prepare it for the day’s activities.

Exercising in the morning increases your chances of completing your To-do listings, thereby improving your productivity. No matter how busy you are, at least go for a 10 minutes walk.

6. Set your alarm 1 hour early

This trick is simple; if it has been difficult for you to get up at a particular time, then you should learn to set your alarm 1 hour before the time you want to wake up. This way, when the first alarm wakes you, you sleep back. Then the second alarm will have more effect, and then your sleep may not be profound.

Sleep can be refreshing sometimes that it can make you miss your appointment.

7. Volunteer

Find a cause you are passionate about and spend time volunteering. You can never experience true acts of kindness until you learn out to give your time and money for something you are passionate about with the expectation of nothing in return.

8. Grow a garden

Nurturing plants teaches patience. Not only will gardening give you something to do, but you’ll also be contributing to your environment. Imagine waking up, looking out your window, and seeing beautiful flowers and plants. You feel pride when you know that you are responsible for such a beautiful environment.

9. Reply all your mails

Sometimes, our mailbox can tell how lazy we are, especially if you accumulate your mails without responding to them. Unimportant emails should not be left unattended to, open them, read them, and take the necessary action.

Ensure that you do not sleep without attending to all your mails, even if you can’t get the information being asked for immediately, you can fix that on your To-Do for the next day.

10. Drink a glass of water before and after sleep

Water is good and can be used when thirsty. But it can also be used as a therapy. Taking water before bedtime has a way of reducing your stress level, and when you wake up, it helps you improve metabolism.

It is free, in your reach and will cost you nothing to take a stroll to the refrigerator before and after sleep.

Small activities go a long way to how we handle big things. Hence we mustn’t lose the touch of these little things; the more we are perfect in them, the more productive we become.

The New Normal from China:

If you want to learn how to successfully move your business to the new normal, learn from China. We talk a lot about digital transformation in the Caribbean, but until recently there was no sense of urgency.
As a blogger / trend watcher, I went on a little research to find out how China is doing with their strategy and innovation.

Adapt to uncertain times

China has been struggling with the pandemic and its consequences for the whole of 2020. But a big difference is that it is not the first epidemic for companies. Sars and the swine fever are still fresh in the memory. And it is certainly not the first disruption in normal business operations.

Things are changing very fast in China. If it is not the government rules that change again, then hundreds of new competitors will arise or your customers will switch massively, because they are not so loyal. In short, a crisis is almost business as usual. They have learned to adapt quickly in uncertain times.
They actually operate in that famous "VUCA world" (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous).

That sense of urgency is still lacking in the Caribbean. The digital transformation in this area is underway but slow. More speed is needed and a real push is necessary to get governments in this region up and running. As a leader, it is therefore very wise to look closely at the flexible strategy and rapid innovation within many Chinese companies.
However, they operate partly under completely different circumstances.

Here I have at least five lessons from Chinese companies where you as a top board member/leader may get benefits during the corona crisis and after:

1. Seek collaboration

The Chinese are very good at determining what they are best at and what they can do for themselves, and what they can involve from the outside. That goes far beyond what we know as a focus on core business and outsourcing the rest. Chinese companies like to work in a tight-knit ecosystem in which they bridge each other's competences and offer them together to the customer and the rest of the world. This ensures that you can operate very agile and resilient. Such an ecosystem is very opportunistic. It has its tentacles, as it were, in many markets. If an opportunity arises, the companies quickly emerge.

2. Continue to challenge your way of doing business

Call it opportunism or agile business: it is very easy for entrepreneurs to radically overhaul the way they do business. They are good at letting go of what they are selling and how they are selling it as conditions change.

3. Apply the Lemonade Principle

A third trait of successful Chinese companies that we can mirror is to be summed up as the Lemonade Principle. If you want to supply orange juice but you only have lemons, you make lemonade. That rowing with the oars you have has roots that go back to the times when China lacked everything. But an extremely contemporary example of being creative with what you have provided TikTok and film producer Huanxi Media Group earlier this year.

4. Embrace technology

Another point in which Chinese companies set an example for us is the eagerness with which they embrace digital technology. Of course, we are now discovering Zoom and other tools here, but the Chinese are trying to get all their business processes digital as much as possible.

In that respect, they are really miles ahead of other countries. Despite their late start with the internet and mobile telephony, they have skipped a few steps in its development and application. The Chinese government is creating important conditions for this. The government, in particular President Xi Jinping, has a clear agenda that is being pushed forward.

If it says: we will become a digital society, then the government will play a completely different role than the governments elsewhere in the world. Such a role may also work in the Caribbean. We also think completely differently about conditions such as the privacy of citizens. But there are other factors that are pushing digitization in China.

For example, research shows that Chinese consumers want to try something new three to four times faster than anywhere else in the world, eager if they take advantage of the relatively recent achievements of the Chinese variant of the free market. For various cultural and historical reasons, the Chinese model works very well in the field of digitization. The way companies use technology there is really fantastic. Western / Caribbean companies can certainly try to imitate that.

5. Give your people autonomy

A rather unique lesson can be learned from Haier, a giant manufacturer that we know from, among other things, his white goods and air conditioners and address electronics products. When companies run into something, it is the literal disruption of their global supply chains in these times. By the summer, not all factories will still be able to run, if only because they don't get that last percent of the parts.

Haier, on the other hand, came through the lock down in it's own country reasonably well and already turned almost full steam in February. The key turned out to be the way the company is organized: not top-down, but as a swarm of reasonably autonomous, small business units.
In recent months, this autonomy has shown that teams quickly and creatively looked for solutions to the challenges facing the pandemic. That is a structure that Haier has worked on for ten years, so you can't just copy it. But as a company you can still see whether you can not give your front-line teams, active in sales, production, product development and product management, more freedom and autonomy.

Even if only temporarily. Form crisis teams, let them make decisions, give them more budget power and confidence.
Managers will really have to step outside their traditional job description. Yes it will have to happen.

What awaits the Caribbean as the new normal?

Optimistic as I am and also following the world trends, I am sure that a new boom of companies will emerge. On the other hand, companies that have emerged during the previous crisis will also fail. Existing successful business models will be slaughtered as well. For companies that will be stuck with various things, it can best become a cold winter.

The
Caribbean Blog
Authority

The best business strategy during the corona crisis

One thing is clear. Due to the corona crisis, all strategy plans can be trashed. We are transitioning to the ‘new normal’. With a huge economic recession and an unknown 1.5- 2.0 meter society. What now? What do you have to do to stay upright? Which strategy do you choose as a multinational, Small/Medium company or self-employed person? The answer lies in a smart combination of a defensive and offensive approach.

What is the best basic strategy?

The corona crisis is leading to a global recession like we have never seen before. The consequences are enormous. Both in the field of health, society and economy. The Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expect the Dutch economy to experience an unprecedented contraction of perhaps -8 percent.

What is the best ‘basic strategy’ for companies and institutions during such a global recession? You understand that this question is not easy to answer, if it can be answered at all.

We are not only dealing with a unique crisis, but also with the greatest crisis since World War II. What can we possibly learn from previous recessions? Immediately cut back and wait for the storm to blow over? Or if it is possible to make targeted investments in new developments and market opportunities that also arise during times of crisis?

Harvard Business School professors Gulati and Nohria figured it out in 2009, just after the outbreak of the financial crisis. They wrote about this in 2010 in the article ‘ Roaring Out of Recession ‘ in the leading Harvard Business Review. They were the first to find that little empirical research has been conducted in this area. So it remains a matter of coffee grounds, but let’s see what they encountered and what their advice is. Remember that history often repeats itself, but always in a different way, in a different form.

Learn from survivors in the past

Gulati and Nohria analyzed the corporate strategies and business performance of companies during three global recession periods, namely those of 1980-1982, 1990-1991 and 2000-2002. Unfortunately, at that time, they were unable to include the results of the recession caused by the 2009-2014 financial crisis.

They studied turnover and profitability data from 4,700 companies over three periods: 3 years before the recession, 3 years after the recession, and during the recession years themselves.

Hard numbers

Immediately the hard figures: 17% of the companies did not survive a recession. They went bankrupt, were taken over, or disappeared from the stock exchange. Most survivors recovered slowly. Eighty percent of the companies that survived a recession were not on the old growth figures in terms of turnover and profit three years after the recession. In fact, three years after the recession, 40 percent of survivors were still not at the old absolute level of turnover and profit.

Only a small number of companies, around 9% in the study, rebounded after a slowdown, outperformed key financial parameters before, and outperformed their industry, with at least 10% in terms of sales- and profit growth. What did these successful survivors do different from all the others?

Four types of companies

The researchers saw that the companies investigated tackled the recession in various ways. In terms of strategy and management approach, they saw four types of companies:

Prevention-oriented companies , which are primarily defensive and more concerned than their competitors about avoiding losses and minimizing downside risks.
Promotion-oriented companies , which invest more in offensive movements, with new upward benefits, than their peers.
Pragmatic companies that combine defensive and offensive movements.
Progressive companies that use the optimal combination of defense and attack.

Only cutbacks are counterproductive

The companies that emerged most strongly from a recession were not the companies that cut costs the fastest and most deeply during the recession years. In fact, these types of ‘prevention-oriented companies’ are statistically relatively least likely to outperform their competitors in times after the recession has ended.

Anti-cyclical investing is not the solution

This seems to argue in favor of countercyclical investment, but that is not the solution, according to the researchers. The chances of these ‘promotion-oriented companies’ emerging as the winner after a recession by growing the fastest in terms of turnover and profitability are also relatively small for companies that (only) dare to invest anti-cyclically.

Pragmatic approach helps

The companies that, according to the researchers, are most likely to outperform their competitors after a recession are the ‘pragmatic companies’. Depending on the situation, these companies pragmatically combine more defensive and offensive actions.

Combining defensive and offensive actions is the best approach

However, the companies that perform best after a recession are the ‘progressive companies’. Their growth in sales and profit after the recession is the best among the four types of companies in the study. The defensive choices these companies make are selective. They mainly save on costs by improving operational efficiency and not by reducing the number of employees compared to colleagues.

However, their offensive actions are comprehensive. They develop new business opportunities by making much greater investments than their competitors in R / D and marketing, and they invest in assets such as factories and machines, taking advantage of steeply plunged prices.

Mix of defensive and offensive strategies

The best performing companies manage to strike a good balance between (1) cutting costs in time to be able to sing out the recession and (2) investing at the same time to grow tomorrow. In practice, such a combination strategy with defensive and offensive choices is not as simple as it seems.

According to the researchers, three defensive strategies can be distinguished:

Reduce the size of the workforce
Improve operational efficiency in business processes
A combination of the two

In addition, there are three offensive strategies :

Investing in the development of new markets
Investing in new capital goods
A combination of the two

When we combine these 3 defensive approaches with the 3 offensive, a total of 9 combinations are created, which not all work out equally effectively in practice.

The most profitable combination, applied by the progressive companies, consists of using cost savings to increase operational efficiency in particular. And therefore not to put the primary focus on damaging the number of employees at all costs. You must combine the savings on business processes by investing more in marketing, R / D and (where relevant) in capital goods such as machines and factories, compared to competitors.

Smart marketing in times of crisis

It is therefore important to continue to invest in targeted marketing and R / D. Stay closely connected to customers’ wishes, needs, expectations and behaviors. Because they change due to the strongly changed circumstances. Just think of the enormous flight that teleworking, digital care, distance learning, aid initiatives, home entertainment and online shopping have taken.

We know from various other studies that marketing can make the difference, especially in times of crisis and recession. That requires a different, smarter way of marketing companies .

Agile organizations have an advantage

As we can see, the best performing companies cleverly combine defensive and offensive actions. Agile companies have the advantage here. After all, you have to be able to switch quickly and often take drastic decisions. Companies that have invested in ‘ strategic agility ‘ in recent years are now at an advantage.

Working on agility and resiliency

Strategic agility consists of two elements that reinforce each other. On the one hand, the agility and agility of the organization to quickly take advantage of offensive opportunities that arise due to changes in the market. On the other hand, the resilience and robustness (resiliency) of the organization to absorb the consequences of often large and unforeseen changes. Agility and resiliency are therefore two sides of the same coin.

Organizations can enhance their agility by increasing agility and agility at all organizational levels. For example, through a cyclical strategy process ( rolling strategy ), business model innovation, digital transformation and a flexible work organization.

Resiliency is mainly enhanced by a strong organizational identity (such as with companies such as Coolblue and organizations such as the Red Cross), strong shared values (think of the solidarity among care providers), strong partnerships (think of the help of distribution and chain partners) and sufficient financial buffers (think of the banks that have been busy strengthening their financial buffers in recent years).

Balancing between cutbacks and investing

In short, the best strategy during a major crisis and recession generally seems to consist of:

Reduce costs wisely to create lean and mean business operations,
targeted investment in marketing, R / D and new capital goods, doing more than colleagues
strengthening the agility of the organization.

According to researchers Gulati and Nohria, this is the formula for success to emerge from the recession as the winner. Because so they say:

This agility, even as leaders hold the course toward long-term growth and profitability, serves organizations well during a recession.

That means ‘ Investment in both existing and new businesses ‘. And ‘ stay closely connected to customer needs, a powerful filter through which to make investment decisions’ .

But it is balancing, because the researchers write: ‘Don’t be too defensive, Don’t be too aggressive.’

Choose the approach that suits you

One crisis is not the other. Past performance is no guarantee for the future and a ‘ one size fits all ‘ approach does not exist. And as they often say: history repeats itself, but then know this is always different than in the past.

Find out what suits your organization, in your sector, in your situation, at the moment. Listen to what Richard Branson, the famous Virgin Group CEO, once said:

When it comes to the future, there are three types of people: those who make it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened. Some companies are determined to belong to the second group.

The question remains: how ‘progressive’ is your organization? Good luck with your strategy!

The Caribbean Blog Authority

Make Money Online [E-Commerce]

The Caribbean Blog Authority

Responding in Crisis Periods, How do you do that ?

My 5 tips to get through home isolation as a family

Due to the corona crisis, we are instructed to stay at home as much as possible. It may be quite a challenge to get through a longer period of home insulation, especially if several people live in one house. With the following tips you can keep a cool head as a family in the coming period.

Pause, reflect and stay home': how to look after yourself and ...

According to studies, three basic psychological needs can be disturbed by living in isolation for a while. These needs are autonomy, commitment and ability.

Routine

Do you have children over the age of three? Then make a schedule If you make good agreements, rhythm and structure contribute to stability and rest. Let the children think along with the schedule, this gives them autonomy. As a family you do not have to follow the schedule very strictly, because this can actually infringe on their autonomy.

Move

Home isolation does not have to go hand in hand with just sitting still. Exercise is always good for every family member. Schedule exercise moments, play an active indoor game, take a daily dance quarter or let the kids play in the garden or on the balcony.

Get satisfaction from other things

Some people no longer feel satisfied when they no longer have a full working day. Because competence is an important part of your basic needs, you can choose to get satisfaction from helping and supporting your children. It is a great achievement for the society to ensure that the virus does not spread as quickly. Completing fewer work tasks, but supporting your children, is an important part of the bigger picture. You can be proud of that.

Take a rest

During home isolation, everyone needs their moments of rest. Think of ways in which you can show each other that you don’t want to be disturbed; think of certain areas where someone can take a break in peace or put on headphones that indicate that you do not want to be disturbed. Also give your mind some rest, and do not search all day for news about the corona virus, this can be mentally stressful.

Ask for help

It is important to ask for help if you find that you can no longer cope. Do not hesitate to knock on the door for psychological help, digital help can work just as well as a physical consultation.

Enjoy your home isolation. Make it the best time

The Caribbean Blog Authority

Hey How are you there …

Okay, we'll stay in until I don't know when.
Really depends on the situation / circumstances.
Everything changes.
You have no influence on many things.

You might be watching the news all day.
Try to find something on social media.
But because you don't know exactly what, you keep scrolling.
You are stressing yourself over things that you have no influence on.
Hoping you recognize it when you see it.
Maybe it's a good time to stop scrolling.

How are you?
What have you discovered about yourself in recent days?

Where are you:

1. Disappointment / Anxiety -Why
2. Acceptance - Nothing can be done
3. Embrace - What an opportunity!
The faster you are in embrace, the sooner you will be ahead again.

This is it.

See it as it is, not as it should be.
(then there was no war, famine and chocolate made you slim and intelligent).
This is not tra la la science.
Get deeper into various skills during this period. Try to solve long drawn-out cases. You can do so much without feeling trapped.
THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO!

In this COVID-19 quarantine time, look for new things and embrace them for later.
The world will never be the same as before the outbreak of COVID-19.
And right now it is important to move with it.
Transform.

Speed is everything now.

Whatever you do, remember
- Even if we are in quarantine, you are not alone
- Although the environment is now uncertain and miserable, you will find guidance in your own perseverance, resourcefulness and character.
- Even though everything is now chaos, know that every order always creates new order
Be strong.

Show who you are.

This is your chance.
In the meantime, I will continue to provide you with inspiration, love and positivity.

Greeting from
The Caribbean Blog Authority

Why we suffer: the human factor

No company has ever gone bankrupt due to a crisis.
Companies go bankrupt because of wrong decisions.

A relationship has never been broken by a crisis.
Relationships are broken by wrong choices.

You cannot lose money through a crisis.
You can lose money through silly actions.

Sometimes those wrong decisions were made long before the crisis.
Often those wrong decisions are made during a crisis.

As soon as the world around us is no longer what we think it should be, we panic.
And if you’re in a blind panic, you don’t see much. You easily make the wrong choices.

There are series of examples (on the net) that will help you see more options.
And if you can see good options, you can make better choices.

We rarely suffer from external circumstances.
We almost always suffer from our own choices.

The good news: we can make better choices. Try it by doing DEEP THINKING !

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Opportunities thanks to crisis: from responding to adapting

Money rolls a lot faster in times of crisis than in times of prosperity.
Wherever someone is currently losing money, someone else is going to be very rich.

Money cannot evaporate.
It can only switch hands.

It rolls out of panicky hands.
Quiet hands.

Many entrepreneurs are now paralyzed.
They don’t do anything. “Because nothing is possible!”

Others do little.
“Because not much is happening now.”

Some respond.
They request support.
They send staff home.
Communicate with their customers.

You can respond for a while.
But it is not a sustainable business model.

For that you will have to adjust.
Adapt to reality as it is.
And do not respond and in the meantime wait until reality becomes as it should be again.

Adjusting means seeing the way it is.
Take current reality as a starting point.
And from that position, looking for opportunities.

To mention some current reality:

There is a bunch of intelligent people at home with a lot of time on their hands, and a desire to earn some money to continue paying their rent: students. Who will provide that group with work? Opportunity.
People Googly go to “How to make soap yourself”, “How to install zoom / Skype / Microsoft Teams / Slack”, “How to work together remotely”, etc. Who will answer their questions in the form of video training? Opportunity.
A gang of online events will be organized in the coming weeks / months. Companies are looking for all kinds of possibilities to dress up those online events by, for example, having (lunch) packages delivered to participants at home, or to connect people more easily. Who will facilitate that? Opportunity.
Many seniors are even more lonely than usual, as they also have to miss their children’s monthly visit. Opportunity.
Millions of people are at home. They are bored. Opportunity.

Remember, the only thing that has changed is the circumstances.
People still have exactly the same needs.

Survival of the fittest is continuously mistranslated as “survival of the fittest”.
What it really means is survival of those who can best adapt.

Everyone can respond.
Competent people and entrepreneurs can also adapt.

The Caribbean Blog Authority – DEEP THINKING

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