What should we make of the Bernard Madoff scandal?


The very idea that for decades one of the most visible pillars of the American investment community had been, in effect, running a gigantic scam is hard to believe. Even harder to believe is the fact that so many investors were duped. The total amount lost was first reported at $50Bn, but this number may rise as more and more institutional investors own up to having lost money to Madoff’s scam. Hardest of all to believe though is that US regulators allowed Madoff to get away with it for so long.

A failure of due diligence and regulation

The collapse of Madoff’s investment funds has revealed:
• That individual investors failed to carry out due diligence checks, either because they put their trust in their brokers and advisers, or else because they just did not care so long as they continued to make money;
• That regulators failed to investigate Madoff even when serious concerns were raised that fraud was taking place.

Losses from project failure – much bigger than Madoff

You may be asking yourself what this can possibly have to do with the subject of managing project risks? Two things:

• 1. The amount of money lost — $50Bn — is only about one third of the money lost to project failure in the European Union every single year.
• 2. No-one seemed to conduct a proper risk assessment before committing huge sums of money (sounding familiar?).

Assessing risks: your personal responsibility

So what can you learn from this that will help you manage your projects better? Here are three lessons you can take away from this awful tale:

• 1. Become a disbeliever. When something looks too good to be true it is because it is not true. This piece of advice applies as much to investments that promise 10% or more every year, no matter what, as it does to project reports that forecast no problems.
• 2. You are personally responsible for assessing risks. This is something that you cannot overlook, skimp on or leave to others to do for you. Remember, the buck stops with you.
• 3. Do not take risks that you do not understand. This may seem drastic, but it makes sense. Better to stay away from projects if you are not equipped to manage them.

Conclusion

However bad the Madoff collapse looks right now, it represents a small amount of the money lost each year to failing projects. The next time you are asked to take on a project, remember that it is a high risk venture. Take personal responsibility for assessing risks. If you do that you will increase your chances of success and get a positive return on your investment.

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Not everyone is knowledgeable about marketing but outsourced marketing companies can help those who need to get results fast. These companies specialize in marketing techniques like branding, search engine optimization, and lead generation. Not everyone can understand the strategies that professional marketers implement but they can utilize their services.

Specialized Skills Are Effective

It takes years to understand the techniques that are used in online marketing and not all business owners have the time to invest in that learning. Instead of spending their time learning something that others are experts in they can turn to outsourced marketing companies to get results while they put their efforts into doing what they do best.

People outsource their marketing for many reasons but the main reason is that the companies they outsource to have expertise in the area of marketing. Marketing companies have specialized skills in branding a company, search engine marketing, and many other areas. They can help a company develop a marketing strategy or implement a plan. They may also assist companies in finding new and innovative ways to generate leads. Marketing companies tend to focus on one just a few focuses, which allows them to specialize. As they put their attentions on a few of the marketing strategies that businesses tend to implement, they become experts in their field, and in doing so help businesses to become more effective in their marketing.

Evaluate the Costs

Do you need to outsource your marketing for you company? Ask yourself a few questions to determine this. What are you doing now? What kind of results are you getting? How much time are you spending on it? Do you wish you could do more? If you are not getting the results you want or if you could be investing your time into another area of your business more efficiently then you may want to consider outsourcing.

Outsourced marketing does cost money but think of it as an investment because the money you spend on your marketing will free you to do things that you can be more efficient at and you can grow your business as well! You will be able to spend more time managing your company and producing the product or service that you offer whilst marketing happens in the background. If you want efficiency in your marketing strategies then outsourcing your marketing needs could provide great ROI for you.

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No one has ever logged onto the Internet for the first time and started pocketing dollars in a really short period of time. As with all things in life, there is a learning curve.


SOME PERSONAL HISTORY

Just a few short years ago, I was a working stiff just like you. One day, I bought and read a book called “Multiple Streams of Income” by bestselling author, Robert Allen. Immediately, I began my journey. Every night after work and after my wife and children went to sleep, I would get online and explore different ways of using the Internet to make money.

In the two years that followed, I spent over $10,000 racking up credit card debt buying eBooks, membership sites, special reports, opt-in leads, and joining every “guru” recommended business opportunity that flew into my email inbox. I stayed up learning, working, and drinking coffee until 5:00 in the morning, month after month filled with the hope of making money online. In my third year of working part-time to build a home based income, I finally broke through and earned over $100,000 in just twelve months from the Internet.

BECOME THE MASTER OF YOUR LEARNING CURVE

Research the lives of all of the “gurus.” The one thing that you will learn is that my own experience is not unique. Most of the high earners on the Internet experienced a learning curve very similar to my own.

Chances are that your curve will also be similar to mine, but it is my hope that you can get to the top faster than even I did. Three years was a long time to struggle, but every ounce of struggle was worth the reward I have finally received. In order to shorten your own learning curve, you must do a few things differently than the rest of us did. You must become the master of your learning curve.

THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO POINTS IS A STRAIGHT LINE
There is only one way to shorten the curve on the Internet:

You must plan to succeed!

Here is the deal. Most people put up a freebie website and select a few affiliate programs to add to their website. Right out of the gate, most people are running for the finish line without any real plan in mind.

After a few short weeks, people begin to see the writing on the wall that says, “This is going to be a long hard road.” People check their hit counters daily for six weeks before they realize that getting traffic to their free site is going to be tough.

At this point, they begin developing their first batch of advertising. Then they spend countless months finding places to show their advertisements for free. Some make an even more drastic mistake by blowing thousands of hard earned dollars on their new and untested ads.
These are the people who will learn the facts of life the hard way.

In time, they will learn how to make their advertising work for them, but most will earn very little money from their affiliate programs. At this point in the learning curve, most people throw up their hands and walk away from their dreams in utter disgust. Instead of a walking away point, this should have convinced the struggling online entrepreneur that they were simply traveling the wrong road.

YOU MUST PLAN TO SUCCEED

From day one, you must begin to learn about the nuances of web promotion. Read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t just read the hype, back it up with the opinions of others who have reviewed the same programs before you came along. Learn from their mistakes and successes. As you begin to learn, you must also look to make a decision. Do you want to step into a pre-built program that is designed to help you to succeed, OR do you want to create a completely new program of which you are the sole owner?

If you decide to step into a pre-designed and complete turn-key online money-making venture, then you must select the right venture to step into. If this is your decision, I encourage you to examine the Plug In Profit Sites. If you decide to go the journey on your own, then do all of the necessary research, planning and preparation that is needed for your success.

PREPARE TO SUCCEED

Decide what you think you would want to do, and then figure out how your planned site will generate a real income. Internet old-timers know about hundreds of corporation domains that existed with IPO millions, but did not have an actual money plan that could sustain their business model. Most of these companies were among the hundreds of companies that bellied up in the 2000 dot bomb experience.

Don’t blindly believe in your plan. Research others on the web who have undertaken similar business models and see if they have survived. Study your competitors in depth to learn what is working for them and what did not work for them. To better understand what has or has not worked for competitor websites, check out their time lapsed progressions using the Wayback Machine.

Once you have determined your money plan, then you should undertake the development of a business plan and a marketing plan. Utilize professional assistance if you need to do so. While creating your plans, make a determination as to which domain name you think would be best, then register it along with a hosting account.

Once you have developed your business plan and marketing plan and have run them through several revisions, then it will be time to buy your domain name and to begin work with a site designer and developer. You may need to have your domain sitting on a web host for your site developer, but this is not always necessary. While they are doing their work, enlist a copywriter to help you with your site sales copy.

When your site designer and developer have your site working, you should then undertake significant testing to make sure everything works as planned. It is much harder to fix problems on a operational site than it is to fix problems on a site that has yet to be launched. When testing is done, then you should fill in your sales copy and then shoot for launch. Of course, you already have a marketing plan in place, so your preparation here will be simply a matter of putting the pieces of the puzzle into place.

You are finally ready to open for business. Don’t be afraid to spend the money to bring your dream alive. Time can replace money in the goal of starting a profitable online business, but money invested can shave years off of your company’s growth.


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Naming a business is like laying the cornerstone of a building. Once it’s in place, the entire foundation and structure is aligned to that original stone. If it’s off, the rest of the building is off, and the misalignment becomes amplified. So if you have that gnawing sense that choosing a name for your new business is vitally important – you’re right. With 18 years in the naming and branding business, I’ve witnessed the good, the bad, and the really bad. Here’s how you can avoid the worst of the mistakes and get off to a good start.

Mistake 1: The Committee (Getting all your clients, employees and family members involved)

We live in a democratic society and it seems like the right thing to do – involving everyone in an important decision. This approach, however, presents a few problems. The first and most obvious fact is that you will end up choosing only one name – so you risk alienating the very people you are trying to involve. Second, you often end up with a consensus decision, resulting in a very safe and very vanilla name. A better method is to involve only the key decision makers, the fewer the better, and select only the people you feel have the company’s best interests at heart. The need for personal recognition can skew results – so you are best served by those who can park their egos at the door. Also, make sure you have some right brain types in the mix. Too many left brains and the name often ends up too literal and descriptive.

Mistake 2: The Train Wreck (Taking two words and colliding them head on)

When forced to come up with a creative name, many aspiring entrepreneurs will simply take part of an adjective and weld it onto a noun. The results are names that have a certain twisted rationale to them, but look and sound awful. Someone starting a high-end service franchise then becomes QualiServe. It’s a bit like mixing chocolate syrup with ketchup – nothing wrong with either, but they just don’t go together. Other common truncations include Ameri, Tech, Corp, Tron, etc. The problem with this approach is that it’s simply forced � and it sounds that way.

Mistake 3: Where’s Waldo? (Names so plain they’ll never stand out in a crowd)

The first company in a category can get away with this one. Hence, you have General Motors, General Electric, etc. But once you have competition, it requires differentiation. Imagine if Yahoo! had come out as GeneralInternetDirectory.com? It would be much more descriptive, but hardly memorable. And with the onslaught of new media and advertising channels, it’s more important than ever to carve out your niche by displaying your uniqueness. Nothing does that better than a well-conceived name.

Mistake 4: The Atlas Approach (Using a map to name your company)

In the zeal to start a new company, many businesses choose to use their city, state or region as part of their name. While this may actually help in the beginning, it often becomes a hindrance as a company grows. One client came to me with complaints he was serving more of the market than his name implied. He had aptly called it St. Pete Plumbing since he hailed from St. Petersburg, Florida. But yellow page shoppers assumed that was also his entire service area. With a little creative tinkering we changed the image of St. Pete from a city to the image of St. Pete himself, complete with wings and a plumber’s wrench. The new tag line? “We work miracles!”
Other companies have struggled with the same issue. Minnesota Manufacturing and Mining was growing beyond their industry and their state. To avoid limiting their growth they became 3M, a company now known for innovation. Kentucky Fried Chicken is now KFC, de-emphasizing the regional nature of the original name. Both of these companies made strategic moves to avoid stifling their growth. Learn from them and you can avoid this potential bottleneck.

Mistake 5: Cliche’ You Say? (A good name is worth a thousand words)

Once past the literal, descriptive stage, the thought process usually turns to metaphors. These can be great if they are not overly used to the point of trite. Since many companies think of themselves as the top in their industry, the world is full of names like Summit, Apex, Pinnacle, Peak, etc. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these names, they are just overworked. Look for combinations of positive words and metaphors and you will be much better served. A good example is the Fortune 1000 data storage company Iron Mountain, which conveys strength and security without sounding commonplace.

Mistake 6: Hide the Meaning (Make it so obscure, the customer will never know!)

It’s great for a name to have a special meaning or significance. It sets up a story that can be used to tell the company message. But if the reference is too obscure and too hard to spell and pronounce, you may never have the opportunity to speak to that customer. They will simply pass you by as irrelevant. So resist the urge to name your company after the mythical Greek god of fast service or the Latin phrase for “We’re number one!” If a name has a natural, intuitive sound and a special meaning, it can work. If it’s too complex and puzzling, it will remain a mystery to your customers. This is especially true if you are reaching out to a mass audience.

I pushed the envelope a little on this one myself, naming my branding firm Tungsten, after the metal that Thomas Edison used to create brilliant light. However, my clientele consists of knowledgeable professionals who appreciate a good metaphor and expect a branding firm to have a story behind its name. It’s also a way to differentiate my services (illuminated, bright, brilliant). So while it works for a branding firm, it would not do well as an ice cream parlor.

Mistake 7: The Campbell’s Approach (Using alphabet soup to name your firm)

This is a trend that is thankfully wearing off. Driven by the need for a matching domain name, many companies have resorted to awkwardly constructed or purposefully misspelled names. The results are company names that sound more like prescription drugs than real life businesses. Mistake 2 sometimes gets combined with this one and results in a name like KwaliTronix (or worse – mistakes 2, 4 … 7, resulting in KwalTronixUSA). It’s amazing how good some names begin to sound after searching for available domain names all night. But resist the urge. Avoid using a “K” in place of a “Q” or a “Ph” in place of an “F.” This makes spelling the name and locating you on the Internet all that much harder.

It’s not that coined or invented names cannot work; they often do. Take for example, Xerox or Kodak. But keep it mind, names like these have no intrinsic or linguistic meaning, so they rely heavily on advertising � and that gets expensive. Many of the companies that use this approach were either first in category or had large marketing budgets. Verizon spent millions on their rebranding effort. So did Accenture. So check your pocketbook before you check into these types of names.

Mistake 8: Sit On It. (When in doubt, make no change at all)

Many business owners know they have a problem with their name and just hope it will somehow magically resolve itself. The original name for one of my clients was “Portables,” which reminded some people of the outdoor restrooms or the portable classrooms – neither one a good association. This added to the confusion when phone operators tried to explain their new concept of moving and storage. After some careful tweaking, we came up with the name PODS, an acronym for Portable On Demand Storage. The rest is quickly becoming history as they expand both nationally and internationally.

Fact source: ideamarketers.com
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LAST week’s further fall in the value of the euro against sterling, with the single currency dipping to just 82p against the British currency this week, is good news for a wide range of Irish companies.
Two groups of Irish companies are set to benefit from the decline in the value of the euro — those who export to the UK and those who have large UK operations (there are several companies which fall into both categories).
Among the exporters set to benefit from dearer sterling are Kerry, Glanbia and C&C, while companies with large UK operations whose results will benefit when they are converted back into weaker euro are Kerry, DCC, Ryanair, Greencore and Grafton.

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The Government’s decision to impose swift and deep spending cuts and tax increases to rein in Britain’s record deficit has won international endorsement at the G20 summit in Canada.

A communique agreed by leaders of the world’s major economies acknowledged that countries with large budget deficits, like the UK, need to “accelerate the pace of consolidation” and welcomed the announcement of plans by countries including Britain to get their finances under control.

Despite his pre-summit warning that over-hasty retrenchment risked tipping the world back into recession, US President Barack Obama singled out Britain’s Budget for praise as a necessary and courageous action.

The document set non-binding targets for member states to at least halve their deficits by 2013 and see debt stabilised or falling by 2016 – both of which Chancellor George Osborne said would be achieved by the measures in his emergency Budget.

“It is clear that consolidation will need to begin in advanced economies in 2011 and earlier for countries experiencing significant fiscal challenges,” said the communique. “There is also a risk that the failure to implement consolidation where necessary would undermine confidence and hamper growth.”

The final communique released at the end of the two-day summit in Toronto papered over cracks between the G20 states, accepting that different countries will pursue policies of continued fiscal stimulus or consolidation depending on their individual circumstances.

The G20 also backed proposals for “significantly higher” capital requirements on banks to enable them to withstand future shocks of the kind which triggered the recent crisis – with details to be fixed at the next summit in South Korean capital Seoul in November.

And it agreed the need for the financial sector to “make a fair and substantial contribution towards paying for any burdens associated with government interventions”, while stopping short of endorsing a global bank levy of the kind sought by some campaigners.

And the UK welcomed G20 support for a “balanced and ambitious” conclusion to the long-running Doha trade liberalisation talks, even though the document finally drops the December 2010 target for completion, which has long been regarded as unrealistic. Negotiators have been asked to bring a report on Doha to Seoul,

In a further boost for trade, the G20 states renewed commitments to avoid protectionist measures for another three years to 2013.

Source : independent.ie
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