Why do medium and small companies do better than giants in terms of performance? It's because when you look at large corporations you are looking at the same thing as government organisations. The bigger the organisation the easier it is for incompetent people to get lost in the crowd. They can get by quite well, by keeping their head down and causing no waves.
Large organisations have large "human resource" departments with rigid procedures for promotion based on paper qualifications, and length of service. Inquisitiveness, can sometimes get in the way. The idea of maximsing profit can only cause stress so it best to keep it down. On the other hand, they can increase expenditure since this shows initiative and it ensures spending is secured into the next year.
Any real disturbance within the large organisation is usually due to a power struggle. Internal wars for power can continue for long periods without apparently damaging the corporation - at least not in the short term. The bigger the wheel, the bigger the inertia and it continues turning. Large sums may be spent on pet projects and if these fail, then being dismissed may provide a pay-off to the individual, big enough to make such failure a success. Failure may lead to promotion into a non job since it is more likely that the boss and the human resources executive will hardly admit to having made a bad decision concerning the person who blundered. Promotion into non jobs may also be the only quick way of getting rid of incompetent executives.
The larger the corporation, the further that senior managers are from the engine room. They are usually preoccupied by other irrelevant matters and most, make a habit of changing positions often enough to gain multiple benefits that are agreed to by their colleagues.
Imagine the increase in productivity if one could take the proverbial pneumatic drill and break up the large organisational concrete into small pieces. Everything and everyone would become clearly visible. Everyone would be accountable. Small organisations do not have the opportunities for self agrandissement or cover up. They are too small for privilege and empire. Success or failure is directly identified with individuals.
Sunday, 8 August 2010
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Managing Customer Service
Service business is all about people, about customers. In service you are at
the front end with little room for error. You have to make yourself available
to others and keep your own problems to yourself.
Customer satisfaction is high on your list of priorities but you know that the customer is not always right so you have to strike a balance between looking after them and looking after your business. There are customers who will never admit to being satisfied no matter what you may do for them, and then there are others who are always happy to see you.
An important rule of a service manager is to make regular visits to his customers. He has to be seen and build up a relationship. The human side is very important. Every one should have customer relations visits entered in their agenda. Setting up a visit allows you to get to know not only how well you are doing, but also to find areas of common interest and expand your business.You have to be a diplomat and a good listener letting customers speak and get their problems off their chest. You have to be sure not to miss either what they say and how they say it. You have to be patient and helpful.
Some visits should also be made with your engineer in attendance. You must not make such visits when the customer has problems. On those occasions, he expects solutions which only your people can provide. When meeting customers find out if there are added services that you can give that would make their operation more profitable. Organising their stocks or providing them with back-up facilities can be of some use. They may need a loan unit temporarily or lease a peripheral device such as a printer. You have to be a diplomat and a good listener letting customers speak and get their problems off their chest. You have to be sure not to miss either what they say and how they say it. In short you have to adopt a low profile and be helpful, making them think that they are always right.
You should also pay attention to the operators of your equipment. They are, in an indirect way working for you in keeping the machines in good working order and giving a good opinion of your products. In the end, your maintenance contracts are more profitable. Identifying and thanking users when they have solved a problem is appreciated by customers. In cases where you cover a large territory, visits to the field, also help you stay in touch with your local service reps.
Not all customers expect the same level of service. Those who enjoy low overheads by having their business in remote places make their own provision and do not expect the same response times as those in metropolitan areas. Then there are those that hardly ever call because they are well organized and take total responsibility for their equipment. Customers range from the near expert to those who no matter what you may do will run into problems and for whom a service contract can be an expensive business for you. No matter which type of customer, you have to placate and hand hold them because in the end they are all potential buyers and service is there to generate new business.
Take the case of a customer who has refused a service contract after the warranty because they want to save money. A major module fails after some months and the customer doesn't want to pay because the failure was just after the warranty expired. He writes to your president complaining and pointing out his budget difficulties and the president in turn passes the letter to you. You need to find a solution that satisfies both the customer and your business. A compromise is needed . You propose a free of charge replacement as if he were on a contract on condition that he takes a back- dated contract. The customer will now save face with his administration and you will have the contract to help cover the cost of repair. Every one wins.
Another customer complains that he is not getting the results expected from his system. You know from the field reports that the problems are due to lack of proper customer maintenance. You cannot blame his staff so you have to be diplomatic and offer a face saving solution, one that will get the maintenance done and save both sides from conflict. To fix the real problem you agree to taking the system out and replace it temporarily with a loan standard so as to give his machine a thorough check-up away from his premises. This satisfies him and in return you ask that for a period of time his people must send a daily report on the loan standard so as to follow - up until such time as you are satisfied that all is working well. The customer now has to maintain an updated daily log which means that maintenance will not be neglected. In the end you make the customer feel that he is right but you solve the problem to your satisfaction.
There's never a boring day with such a variety of customers and problems. A good service can be profitable and at the same time it can be satisfying because you help people.
Customer satisfaction is high on your list of priorities but you know that the customer is not always right so you have to strike a balance between looking after them and looking after your business. There are customers who will never admit to being satisfied no matter what you may do for them, and then there are others who are always happy to see you.
An important rule of a service manager is to make regular visits to his customers. He has to be seen and build up a relationship. The human side is very important. Every one should have customer relations visits entered in their agenda. Setting up a visit allows you to get to know not only how well you are doing, but also to find areas of common interest and expand your business.You have to be a diplomat and a good listener letting customers speak and get their problems off their chest. You have to be sure not to miss either what they say and how they say it. You have to be patient and helpful.
Some visits should also be made with your engineer in attendance. You must not make such visits when the customer has problems. On those occasions, he expects solutions which only your people can provide. When meeting customers find out if there are added services that you can give that would make their operation more profitable. Organising their stocks or providing them with back-up facilities can be of some use. They may need a loan unit temporarily or lease a peripheral device such as a printer. You have to be a diplomat and a good listener letting customers speak and get their problems off their chest. You have to be sure not to miss either what they say and how they say it. In short you have to adopt a low profile and be helpful, making them think that they are always right.
You should also pay attention to the operators of your equipment. They are, in an indirect way working for you in keeping the machines in good working order and giving a good opinion of your products. In the end, your maintenance contracts are more profitable. Identifying and thanking users when they have solved a problem is appreciated by customers. In cases where you cover a large territory, visits to the field, also help you stay in touch with your local service reps.
Not all customers expect the same level of service. Those who enjoy low overheads by having their business in remote places make their own provision and do not expect the same response times as those in metropolitan areas. Then there are those that hardly ever call because they are well organized and take total responsibility for their equipment. Customers range from the near expert to those who no matter what you may do will run into problems and for whom a service contract can be an expensive business for you. No matter which type of customer, you have to placate and hand hold them because in the end they are all potential buyers and service is there to generate new business.
Take the case of a customer who has refused a service contract after the warranty because they want to save money. A major module fails after some months and the customer doesn't want to pay because the failure was just after the warranty expired. He writes to your president complaining and pointing out his budget difficulties and the president in turn passes the letter to you. You need to find a solution that satisfies both the customer and your business. A compromise is needed . You propose a free of charge replacement as if he were on a contract on condition that he takes a back- dated contract. The customer will now save face with his administration and you will have the contract to help cover the cost of repair. Every one wins.
Another customer complains that he is not getting the results expected from his system. You know from the field reports that the problems are due to lack of proper customer maintenance. You cannot blame his staff so you have to be diplomatic and offer a face saving solution, one that will get the maintenance done and save both sides from conflict. To fix the real problem you agree to taking the system out and replace it temporarily with a loan standard so as to give his machine a thorough check-up away from his premises. This satisfies him and in return you ask that for a period of time his people must send a daily report on the loan standard so as to follow - up until such time as you are satisfied that all is working well. The customer now has to maintain an updated daily log which means that maintenance will not be neglected. In the end you make the customer feel that he is right but you solve the problem to your satisfaction.
There's never a boring day with such a variety of customers and problems. A good service can be profitable and at the same time it can be satisfying because you help people.
Providing
a high level of Customer Service can be a very expensive business unless steps
are taken to recover that cost through
different strategies. Some may charge very little but offer even less. In such
cases the Customer Service is symbolic with a phone number to ring and an
e-mail address as well as some information on FAQs. In other cases the customer may be a large
organisation that provides its own trained engineering maintenance and only
needs initial product training and documentation both of which can be includewd
in the product cost. Where the product is complex and the customer operators
are not skilled in engineering most offer a comprehensive service which they
charge and on which they expect to make a reasonable profit. In such cases the
service has two parts. One is part of the product sale and unchargeable such as
warranty, and installation, while the rest is chargeable and offers a
guaranteed up time saving the customer cnsuiderable time and money.
By
extending the usable life of products and providing parts for peripherals that
are no longer being marketed the customer benefits well past the expected times
and this in itself can be counterproductive for the manufacturer who wishes to
supply new products more frequently.
It
also becomes convenient to bundle and hide other engineering services into the
service budget and thus product development and post design retrofits and
software revisions are not accounted as the costs of product short fall.
Quality protocols on alpha beta sites and some manufacturing costs are also put
into service. Specification short falls and testing that should have been done
at final test are also left to the field to resolve and incomplete products are
passed to the field being maintained on site at no cost. Marketing no charge
and inventory write offs due to retrofits are also absorbed by service. aswell
as documentationre writes.
The
customer who has already paid for the product is paying again through the contract charges which are
calculated to recover the service cost. In reality, product development,
marketing and manufacturing budgets would be better exposed if customer service
was passed out to a third party with an incentive to make a profit. The
customer service strategic potentilaa has been often misused and
misunderstoodwith the convenient result of covering for mediocre performance.
Who
would object to the manufacturing when they come up with cost reductiions
bringing down the product cost on which everything is based? Yet often these
cost reductions are only temporary and simply shift the costs to the long term.
Reducing the metal thickness or using a cheaper frame would be welcome were it
onot for the fact that this would cause errors in alignments leading to
numerous countless interventions for recalibration or for searching to fing the
causes for final error of results.
With
a little imagination it could even appear as technician incompetence
leading
to countless visits with little to shopw for it. Organisation then can play a
big part in efficiency simply by having a system that identifies the costs and
puts them where they belong. A chief executive who knows little of the process
would find it difficult to argue with those who look at service as the
necessary evil at the end of the chain and where efforts should be made to get
them to reduce the costs. His reports in other areas can reap benefits which
are not deserved. Shippig systems that do not pass the specifications as layed
down to customers is a typical problem.
Saturday, 13 February 2010
Investing for beginners
No one cares more than you do about your money. The professionals, be they your bank or insurance company, may make you some money but if they fail they are unlikely to suffer. If you want to protect your hard earned cash, you’ll have to get involved and take matters into your own hands. What you lack in expertise you can make up in motivation. The internet has made it possible to get the information that was previously only available to professionals. You can now check out companies simply by going to the financial sites and get all the information and advice you need to make a decision.
If you stick to Blue Chip companies your returns maybe lower than those from small companies but they’ll be safer and you’ll still participate in the ongoing economy. More product variety and wider market coverage as well as deeper pockets make companies safer and able to withstand unexpected events.
Additionally, large companies are covered by just about every finance house as well as the press and all other news media so you’re likely to get to know what’s going on in good time.
Having chosen the leaders in your preferred sectors, the key to good portfolio management is following your investments at regular periods. This doesn’t mean trading by buying and selling just because a share price has changed. Equally it doesn't mean putting your share certificates in a box and locking them in a cupboard.
You may well set limits on both the down and upside ready to discard continual laggards and also take profits at the top end. You should also keep at least 20% of your investment capital in cash so as to take up any unforeseen opportunities.
Listing your holdings by date and purchase price, you’ll be able to record prices regularly and follow performance in absolute and comparative terms. Using a basic spread sheet you’ll be able to compare individual performance on a weekly or monthly basis and take corrective action well before year end.
You should expect to make a return better than what you'd get from the best fixed year's interest to account for the extra risk. Set your target and take corrective action. You have to remain in control by comparing your companies to each other and to the index.
In your own field of work, you’re probably required to write a monthly report to your boss concerning performance on your objectives stating any deviations, as well as reasons and corrective action for the month to follow. This way you have a good chance of keeping things on track for the year end. Why not make a "report" to your self on your your investments as well?
You might invest in a sector where you have direct knowledge or one that is currently in vogue such as environment or energy and where you can read and inform yourself on the fundamentals. You may even want to invest in your own company. You can use the key data as a dashboard to drive performance just as when you’re running your own company.
Government changes, new tax and spending policies, interest rate changes, inflation, currencies, raw materials, energy, world events, all have an impact on stocks. A flood, a hurricane, an earthquake, affect not only insurance companies but also the resources required to put things back as well as the impact on consumers. There’s little that cannot be put to good use.
If you wish to benefit from growth in emerging markets then you have two possibilities. You either find a unit trust or mutual fund specialising in them, or you select a company that is trading in these markets and you ride piggy back. Much safer to rely on their expertise than try and do it yourself. Globalisation and technology has led to economic growth. A person in India or China, Brazil or Nigeria can now make products for world markets at a low entry cost. Our planet has shrunk thanks to air transport, communications with satellites etc., and business has grown. People that were previously excluded are now both consumers and wealth creators.
If you have little knowledge in a particular company you need to do your homework and check on their financial strength, the management, on the market potential, on past performance, on new products, on competition and their leadership position within the sector. There are also social and political factors that drive performance. Are your stocks socially acceptable in terms of impact on people or the environment? Is the company in a sector favoured by government?
Finally there’s technology. Just consider computers which in a period of only 40 years shrunk from the size of a room full of hardware down to a few chips. Then look at the exponential progress in telecoms, as well as the biotech industry. Mobile phones have revolutionised our lives. All this is very exciting but also risky. Make sure that you do not end up paying for this progress out of your own pocket, by buying at very high prices with respect to their potential earnings.
If in the end all this does not interest you and you want to hand your assets to financial advisors you still need to get involved and have a timely system of reporting to make sure that their priorities are your priorities. You still need to take part in the investment decisions where your own money is concerned.
Investing in Stocks Pt2
As an investor you should buy stocks for the long run but this
doesn’t mean that you put them away in a shoe box and forget about
them. You need to keep close to information about your stocks and be
ready to react. You ought to treat your investment as a business in
which you have to pay close attention, and adjust to the market.
In any worthwhile business you need to keep books that track your
performance on a weekly and monthly basis with milestones towards
your year end objectives. A spread sheet showing prices per week
compared to the index helps show the leaders and laggards. You also
need a short list of key indicators on a dashboard, that drive the
business forward. Review your successes/failures on a monthly basis
with corrective action to close up deviations on the way to year
end.
You may consider creating a virtual portfolio to start with choosing
and following your companies to get practice. A number of financial
sites provide this facility and give you all the advice necessary to
get you started. When you’re ready to go live, you can choose an
online broker. This will provide you with practically all the tools
needed to buy and track your stocks. Like a supermarket it will also
reduce your costs, benefitting from massive sales in getting lower
trading prices.
Look at the High Street itself - it may help you identify a good
stock. You may want to choose a company where either you or someone
close to you have first hand knowledge. You then start by making
gradual small purchases ramping up gently, giving you time to see
how the particular investment is performing.
You can use the Price/Earnings Ratio PER to compare different
stocks. If the price is high it could be that people are willing to
pay more for quality or future high growth. You can compare the P/E
ratio of a stock to its competitors. You can also use the inverse
namely the earnings / price as the yield of the stock to give you an
idea on how it compares with long term interest rates. With interest
rates at say 5% this would be equivalent to a P/E of 20 but you
might settle for a P/E of 17 as a middle value to allow for the
extra risk in stocks.
There are also mutual funds that cover sectors or the whole index
but these are somewhat blunt instruments. You cannot move quickly
concerning individual shares, you lack flexibility. Mutual funds are
good if you want to invest in other markets where you are unlikely
to have sufficient knowledge such as foreign stocks or raw
materials, gold etc.
If you want to spread your risk you may also consider trackers,
which combine the lower risk of mutual funds but are traded as
ordinary shares. They may cover a particular sector like pharma or
financials etc. You don’t have a fund manager and consequently you
do not pay an entry, exit or annual fee.
If you stick to Blue Chip companies your returns maybe lower than those from small companies but they’ll be safer and you’ll still participate in the ongoing economy. More product variety and wider market coverage as well as deeper pockets make companies safer and able to withstand unexpected events.
Additionally, large companies are covered by just about every finance house as well as the press and all other news media so you’re likely to get to know what’s going on in good time.
Having chosen the leaders in your preferred sectors, the key to good portfolio management is following your investments at regular periods. This doesn’t mean trading by buying and selling just because a share price has changed. Equally it doesn't mean putting your share certificates in a box and locking them in a cupboard.
You may well set limits on both the down and upside ready to discard continual laggards and also take profits at the top end. You should also keep at least 20% of your investment capital in cash so as to take up any unforeseen opportunities.
Listing your holdings by date and purchase price, you’ll be able to record prices regularly and follow performance in absolute and comparative terms. Using a basic spread sheet you’ll be able to compare individual performance on a weekly or monthly basis and take corrective action well before year end.
You should expect to make a return better than what you'd get from the best fixed year's interest to account for the extra risk. Set your target and take corrective action. You have to remain in control by comparing your companies to each other and to the index.
In your own field of work, you’re probably required to write a monthly report to your boss concerning performance on your objectives stating any deviations, as well as reasons and corrective action for the month to follow. This way you have a good chance of keeping things on track for the year end. Why not make a "report" to your self on your your investments as well?
You might invest in a sector where you have direct knowledge or one that is currently in vogue such as environment or energy and where you can read and inform yourself on the fundamentals. You may even want to invest in your own company. You can use the key data as a dashboard to drive performance just as when you’re running your own company.
Government changes, new tax and spending policies, interest rate changes, inflation, currencies, raw materials, energy, world events, all have an impact on stocks. A flood, a hurricane, an earthquake, affect not only insurance companies but also the resources required to put things back as well as the impact on consumers. There’s little that cannot be put to good use.
If you wish to benefit from growth in emerging markets then you have two possibilities. You either find a unit trust or mutual fund specialising in them, or you select a company that is trading in these markets and you ride piggy back. Much safer to rely on their expertise than try and do it yourself. Globalisation and technology has led to economic growth. A person in India or China, Brazil or Nigeria can now make products for world markets at a low entry cost. Our planet has shrunk thanks to air transport, communications with satellites etc., and business has grown. People that were previously excluded are now both consumers and wealth creators.
If you have little knowledge in a particular company you need to do your homework and check on their financial strength, the management, on the market potential, on past performance, on new products, on competition and their leadership position within the sector. There are also social and political factors that drive performance. Are your stocks socially acceptable in terms of impact on people or the environment? Is the company in a sector favoured by government?
Finally there’s technology. Just consider computers which in a period of only 40 years shrunk from the size of a room full of hardware down to a few chips. Then look at the exponential progress in telecoms, as well as the biotech industry. Mobile phones have revolutionised our lives. All this is very exciting but also risky. Make sure that you do not end up paying for this progress out of your own pocket, by buying at very high prices with respect to their potential earnings.
If in the end all this does not interest you and you want to hand your assets to financial advisors you still need to get involved and have a timely system of reporting to make sure that their priorities are your priorities. You still need to take part in the investment decisions where your own money is concerned.
Investing in Stocks Pt2
As an investor you should buy stocks for the long run but this
doesn’t mean that you put them away in a shoe box and forget about
them. You need to keep close to information about your stocks and be
ready to react. You ought to treat your investment as a business in
which you have to pay close attention, and adjust to the market.
In any worthwhile business you need to keep books that track your
performance on a weekly and monthly basis with milestones towards
your year end objectives. A spread sheet showing prices per week
compared to the index helps show the leaders and laggards. You also
need a short list of key indicators on a dashboard, that drive the
business forward. Review your successes/failures on a monthly basis
with corrective action to close up deviations on the way to year
end.
You may consider creating a virtual portfolio to start with choosing
and following your companies to get practice. A number of financial
sites provide this facility and give you all the advice necessary to
get you started. When you’re ready to go live, you can choose an
online broker. This will provide you with practically all the tools
needed to buy and track your stocks. Like a supermarket it will also
reduce your costs, benefitting from massive sales in getting lower
trading prices.
Look at the High Street itself - it may help you identify a good
stock. You may want to choose a company where either you or someone
close to you have first hand knowledge. You then start by making
gradual small purchases ramping up gently, giving you time to see
how the particular investment is performing.
You can use the Price/Earnings Ratio PER to compare different
stocks. If the price is high it could be that people are willing to
pay more for quality or future high growth. You can compare the P/E
ratio of a stock to its competitors. You can also use the inverse
namely the earnings / price as the yield of the stock to give you an
idea on how it compares with long term interest rates. With interest
rates at say 5% this would be equivalent to a P/E of 20 but you
might settle for a P/E of 17 as a middle value to allow for the
extra risk in stocks.
There are also mutual funds that cover sectors or the whole index
but these are somewhat blunt instruments. You cannot move quickly
concerning individual shares, you lack flexibility. Mutual funds are
good if you want to invest in other markets where you are unlikely
to have sufficient knowledge such as foreign stocks or raw
materials, gold etc.
If you want to spread your risk you may also consider trackers,
which combine the lower risk of mutual funds but are traded as
ordinary shares. They may cover a particular sector like pharma or
financials etc. You don’t have a fund manager and consequently you
do not pay an entry, exit or annual fee.
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Opportunities in Life
Are opportunities in life predetermined?
In my younger days I had a number of opportunities, some of which I recognised and I took. As I grew older I became more cautious and the number of chances coming my way seemed to decrease. Why were my opportunities so numerous when I was young and so few as I got older? Maybe being young I was not so fearful and prepared to take risks. Put in a more physical way, my energy, my mind, my thoughts, were generating the very environment around me.
That the mind generates the conditions around us is also evident in a negative way. Take for example a case where we are aware of a guilty secret. Most of us become so preoccupied by it that we broadcast it to those experienced and able to receive the message. Our subconscious mind can give us away.
We could use a scanner of sorts able to pick up on those signals. Our bodily functions such as our heart or sweating could give us away every time someone mentioned the event that we hold as a secret. Sometimes we could even bring about the thing that we would be trying to avoid simply by thinking about it. Dreading a certain event or even a certain illness, we would be likely to create the conditions for it to happen.
Now assume that all possible opportunities are out there. If we start the day by focusing on positive wants then we home in on those that we want to happen. Negative events are passed by as if they did not exist at all. Our minds suppress them.
So back to opportunity. All possibilities exist at the same time and if we want to do something badly enough we beam the light of energy from our wants onto it and activate it. We have tuned ourselves to it; we have created that opportunity because we wanted it to happen. Our ambitions, our dynamism, our desires to achieve, they create our chances.
Ask and you shall be given, says the Bible. That’s about it really; God that answers our prayers lies deep inside us. It’s to us, our inner selves that we have to address the request.
When we get old and play safe we focus on the risk more than the value of the opportunity. It is that we have little ambition anymore, we no longer want things badly enough. A paradox really because in old age we’d have little to lose if we dared.
We see the external world as we create it!
In my younger days I had a number of opportunities, some of which I recognised and I took. As I grew older I became more cautious and the number of chances coming my way seemed to decrease. Why were my opportunities so numerous when I was young and so few as I got older? Maybe being young I was not so fearful and prepared to take risks. Put in a more physical way, my energy, my mind, my thoughts, were generating the very environment around me.
That the mind generates the conditions around us is also evident in a negative way. Take for example a case where we are aware of a guilty secret. Most of us become so preoccupied by it that we broadcast it to those experienced and able to receive the message. Our subconscious mind can give us away.
We could use a scanner of sorts able to pick up on those signals. Our bodily functions such as our heart or sweating could give us away every time someone mentioned the event that we hold as a secret. Sometimes we could even bring about the thing that we would be trying to avoid simply by thinking about it. Dreading a certain event or even a certain illness, we would be likely to create the conditions for it to happen.
Now assume that all possible opportunities are out there. If we start the day by focusing on positive wants then we home in on those that we want to happen. Negative events are passed by as if they did not exist at all. Our minds suppress them.
So back to opportunity. All possibilities exist at the same time and if we want to do something badly enough we beam the light of energy from our wants onto it and activate it. We have tuned ourselves to it; we have created that opportunity because we wanted it to happen. Our ambitions, our dynamism, our desires to achieve, they create our chances.
Ask and you shall be given, says the Bible. That’s about it really; God that answers our prayers lies deep inside us. It’s to us, our inner selves that we have to address the request.
When we get old and play safe we focus on the risk more than the value of the opportunity. It is that we have little ambition anymore, we no longer want things badly enough. A paradox really because in old age we’d have little to lose if we dared.
We see the external world as we create it!
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
The Future
The present economic crisis has again brought out the Cassandras that predict misery for the future. In a perverted way this sort of pessimism satisfies the human psyche. It's like the effect of horror movies that excite through fear. At times like these few are those who predict and are listened to about a better future for humankind yet progress has been exponential throughout time. The media prefer to frighten us with doom and gloom because that makes better news.
On the whole, people are pessimists by nature. Might this have something to do with the only thing that awaits individuals in the end? The evening news on TV will show us the gory pictures of people burned by fires, buried in rubble from earth quakes, of mutilated bodies from war, and heinous crimes committed by criminals such as abductions and murder of innocents, or children dying of cancer. These are the issues that interest us, issues to do with our safety. Seeing these images we extrapolate them and expect that these are the norm and not the rare exceptions that are of little statistical significance when set against the millions if not billions of people going about their business trying to earn their way. Rarely do we see acts of bravery, of people risking their lives to save a stranger in distress, compassion and love, the common bonds that bind us all together.
Look back 20 years and consider the advances in medicine, in computers and in telecoms, not to mention the internet. We accept all this as we do the end of the Soviet empire that kept millions of people trapped behind an iron curtain.
China, India, Russia, Brazil to mention the giants that are waking up, are all advancing at great speed. The whole world is coming closer together. They will all make considerable progress in the next 20 years and will in turn contribute to our progress. Where was India and China after the Second World War?
Where would most countries in Europe be now if the European Union had not been created? What would have happened to Italy's or France's currencies without the Euro to stabilise them?
We'll find intelligent ways to use energy and produce food for everyone. We'll make better use of mineral resources for the benefit of all the world and not just a few. We will learn to use space both on the earth and beyond and we'll develop new forms of energy. This is less amazing than going back fifty years and being told that we can have a teleconference with people on another continent. A hundred years back and our world would appear as magic. Cars, Planes, Satellites, Computers, Mobile Phones etc.
Just imagine where we'll be in another 50 years with space technology as well as medical and technological advances. There are many things in the pipeline that will make the world a better place for everyone. Nanotechnology will make the inside of our bodies an open book for self diagnostics. Cars will drive themselves, energy and other mineral resources will be recycled. Above all, the world will become multipolar giving a voice to all its citizens and not to the privileged few. Some people may find adjustment difficult but they'll be helped by the spread of knowledge. "Cogito ergo sum" that is the motto for the future; it's our ability to think that will carry us
On the whole, people are pessimists by nature. Might this have something to do with the only thing that awaits individuals in the end? The evening news on TV will show us the gory pictures of people burned by fires, buried in rubble from earth quakes, of mutilated bodies from war, and heinous crimes committed by criminals such as abductions and murder of innocents, or children dying of cancer. These are the issues that interest us, issues to do with our safety. Seeing these images we extrapolate them and expect that these are the norm and not the rare exceptions that are of little statistical significance when set against the millions if not billions of people going about their business trying to earn their way. Rarely do we see acts of bravery, of people risking their lives to save a stranger in distress, compassion and love, the common bonds that bind us all together.
Look back 20 years and consider the advances in medicine, in computers and in telecoms, not to mention the internet. We accept all this as we do the end of the Soviet empire that kept millions of people trapped behind an iron curtain.
China, India, Russia, Brazil to mention the giants that are waking up, are all advancing at great speed. The whole world is coming closer together. They will all make considerable progress in the next 20 years and will in turn contribute to our progress. Where was India and China after the Second World War?
Where would most countries in Europe be now if the European Union had not been created? What would have happened to Italy's or France's currencies without the Euro to stabilise them?
We'll find intelligent ways to use energy and produce food for everyone. We'll make better use of mineral resources for the benefit of all the world and not just a few. We will learn to use space both on the earth and beyond and we'll develop new forms of energy. This is less amazing than going back fifty years and being told that we can have a teleconference with people on another continent. A hundred years back and our world would appear as magic. Cars, Planes, Satellites, Computers, Mobile Phones etc.
Just imagine where we'll be in another 50 years with space technology as well as medical and technological advances. There are many things in the pipeline that will make the world a better place for everyone. Nanotechnology will make the inside of our bodies an open book for self diagnostics. Cars will drive themselves, energy and other mineral resources will be recycled. Above all, the world will become multipolar giving a voice to all its citizens and not to the privileged few. Some people may find adjustment difficult but they'll be helped by the spread of knowledge. "Cogito ergo sum" that is the motto for the future; it's our ability to think that will carry us
Belief in God
Physics theories seem to be getting us closer and closer to God the Unknown the One without a name. This is a good time to reflect on God and Creation, so here are a few ideas which I'm sure will be challenged by any true atheist.
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Some people, believe because they’re afraid. Others believe because they see the order and purpose of nature. A third group believes because modern science has opened up new dimensions. We are now faced with scentific theories that are more difficult to digest than the belief in a supernatural force. New physics has replaced Newton's classic claim of "cause and effect," at least in the microworld. Now we can have something happen without a cause. Something out of thin air as you might say. Would this not challenge evolutionists as well as creationists?
The arguments between evolutionists and creationists have raged for a long time. The first would have us believe that it all happened by chance, while the second, got us here ready made. Either way there had to be an initial seed. The main issue here is not about what form we started off as, but whether there was a Prime Mover an Intelligent Designer. At the limit, this could still leave some room for evolution.
If photons and electrons can change and appear as both particles and waves, depending on whether we are looking or not then why not God taking on whatever form suits the occasion? A particle changing form as it approaches two holes and then becoming a wave interfering with itself could be taken as a sort of miracle. Why not admit that we don’t understand what really goes on? We set up scientific models to explain things we cannot see.
It now seems that scientists have discovered higher dimensions, places or universes parallel to ours. Is such a higher dimension where God might be? Fiction writers or for that matter theologians are finding it difficult to keep up with science these days. With theories of parallel worlds being legitimate, the idea of God is no longer so improbable, and with that the idea of creation becomes a possibility.
Of course some scientists would tell you that this is all sonsense. Some would go so far as to exclude Him from any model. They would say that there’s no physical proof of God's existence and in saying it so persistently they’ll make it more likely. As if theories into multiple higher dimensions and black holes with tunnels to other worlds are less preposterous.
Other scientists have taken up psychology, telling us that nothing is real; that there’s no independent universe. According to them if we were not here the universe wouldn’t exist; Physics is fast becoming the sphere of new prophets. Science has grown up, it’s not embarrassed to speculate with theories that cannot yet be proved.
We seem to be living in a big balloon. It’s being blown up more and more as we advance, with a possibility of it going bust releasing us from the three dimensional spatial straight-jacket.
We often ask how can there be a God with so much suffering and injustice in the world and with religion being responsible for so many wars. We forget that religion is human and that we cannot blame God for human failings. As for the natural injustices - we simply do not know. Theories abound just as they do in science.
We know that there are many invisible forces all around us, and although we can not see them we feel their presence. Why stop at electromagnetism or gravity?
Science observes certain truths and draws conclusions which are evolving as new observations are made. From these facts we can conclude that science is open minded.
I have not had any mystical experience but I have an open mind and accept the magic that others may see. Man was given the faculty of reason and should use it without any bias. To say that miracles are simply things that have a physical future explanation is the very same argument used to explain quantum phenomena. Maybe there are some things which will remain unknowable, at least while we are in our spacial three dimensional bubble.
The use of the word phenomena is very apt I think. In Plato's cave, those who are tied and can only see the images or shadows thrown up by the fires behind them would hardly believe the enlightened one who tells them of the brilliant world outside.
Men much wiser than me have spent their lives studying the question of God and I try to keep an open mind. It's easy with hindsight to ridicule some things, but Christ or Mohammed were endowed with extrordinary wisdom and knowledge relative to their humble education. Greek philosophers who also speculated on the one God were learned men.
Seeing how Paul universalised a Jewish obscure sect and achieved so much within the civilised Greek world with his epistles gives some credence to the concept of a "guiding finger". Maybe there is and always was an easier path to the top of the knowledge mountain as in the Pilgrims Progress.
There are too many fantastic and unexplained phenomena to leave the whole thing to chance. Nature has a high degree of symmetry and for me that implies intelligence. From that point, belief is a question of degrees and sophistication.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some people, believe because they’re afraid. Others believe because they see the order and purpose of nature. A third group believes because modern science has opened up new dimensions. We are now faced with scentific theories that are more difficult to digest than the belief in a supernatural force. New physics has replaced Newton's classic claim of "cause and effect," at least in the microworld. Now we can have something happen without a cause. Something out of thin air as you might say. Would this not challenge evolutionists as well as creationists?
The arguments between evolutionists and creationists have raged for a long time. The first would have us believe that it all happened by chance, while the second, got us here ready made. Either way there had to be an initial seed. The main issue here is not about what form we started off as, but whether there was a Prime Mover an Intelligent Designer. At the limit, this could still leave some room for evolution.
If photons and electrons can change and appear as both particles and waves, depending on whether we are looking or not then why not God taking on whatever form suits the occasion? A particle changing form as it approaches two holes and then becoming a wave interfering with itself could be taken as a sort of miracle. Why not admit that we don’t understand what really goes on? We set up scientific models to explain things we cannot see.
It now seems that scientists have discovered higher dimensions, places or universes parallel to ours. Is such a higher dimension where God might be? Fiction writers or for that matter theologians are finding it difficult to keep up with science these days. With theories of parallel worlds being legitimate, the idea of God is no longer so improbable, and with that the idea of creation becomes a possibility.
Of course some scientists would tell you that this is all sonsense. Some would go so far as to exclude Him from any model. They would say that there’s no physical proof of God's existence and in saying it so persistently they’ll make it more likely. As if theories into multiple higher dimensions and black holes with tunnels to other worlds are less preposterous.
Other scientists have taken up psychology, telling us that nothing is real; that there’s no independent universe. According to them if we were not here the universe wouldn’t exist; Physics is fast becoming the sphere of new prophets. Science has grown up, it’s not embarrassed to speculate with theories that cannot yet be proved.
We seem to be living in a big balloon. It’s being blown up more and more as we advance, with a possibility of it going bust releasing us from the three dimensional spatial straight-jacket.
We often ask how can there be a God with so much suffering and injustice in the world and with religion being responsible for so many wars. We forget that religion is human and that we cannot blame God for human failings. As for the natural injustices - we simply do not know. Theories abound just as they do in science.
We know that there are many invisible forces all around us, and although we can not see them we feel their presence. Why stop at electromagnetism or gravity?
Science observes certain truths and draws conclusions which are evolving as new observations are made. From these facts we can conclude that science is open minded.
I have not had any mystical experience but I have an open mind and accept the magic that others may see. Man was given the faculty of reason and should use it without any bias. To say that miracles are simply things that have a physical future explanation is the very same argument used to explain quantum phenomena. Maybe there are some things which will remain unknowable, at least while we are in our spacial three dimensional bubble.
The use of the word phenomena is very apt I think. In Plato's cave, those who are tied and can only see the images or shadows thrown up by the fires behind them would hardly believe the enlightened one who tells them of the brilliant world outside.
Men much wiser than me have spent their lives studying the question of God and I try to keep an open mind. It's easy with hindsight to ridicule some things, but Christ or Mohammed were endowed with extrordinary wisdom and knowledge relative to their humble education. Greek philosophers who also speculated on the one God were learned men.
Seeing how Paul universalised a Jewish obscure sect and achieved so much within the civilised Greek world with his epistles gives some credence to the concept of a "guiding finger". Maybe there is and always was an easier path to the top of the knowledge mountain as in the Pilgrims Progress.
There are too many fantastic and unexplained phenomena to leave the whole thing to chance. Nature has a high degree of symmetry and for me that implies intelligence. From that point, belief is a question of degrees and sophistication.
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