What is Management

Management focuses on work. We manage work activities such as money, time, paperwork, materials, equipment, etc. Management focus more on:

Planning
Organizing,
Controlling
Coordinating
Directing
Resource use
Time management
Logistics and the supply chain
Finance and money management
Budgeting
Strategy
Decision Making
Problem Solving

The first five (planning, organizing, controlling, directing, and coordinating) are often listed in the management 101 texts as the major functions of management. Certain conceptual skills such as decision making, strategy development, and problem solving seem to fit better in management verses the leadership area, but you can go either way..

Some professors like to say "Managers are decision makers." but that doesn't seem quite right. A better description is, "Executives are decision makers? manager?s are problem solvers."

However, some things some things should be managed and others should not. People should not be managed?it implies we threat them like a thing.

What is Leadership

"I don't like to be managed. But if you lead me, I'll follow you anywhere." ? A comment heard in the halls of a large corporation

Leadership is hard to understand, there are so many definitions, some of them bad ones. Leadership has an essential focus on people and how they can be influenced. Leader?s focus more on:

Vision
Inspiration
Persuasion
Motivation
Relationships
Team work
Listening
One can add to the list activities such as:

Counseling,
Coaching,
Teaching,
Mentoring.


Conclusion

It's vital for senior individuals in positions of great responsibility to be able to play both roles: the boss who cannot manage will kill an organization just as fast as one who cannot lead. But the person who can do both, they are on the path to success.

Handy iPhone / iPod Touch apps for your travels

Packing an iPhone or iPod Touch for your trip? Here are some iPod Touch or iPhone apps that you may want to pack with you for your travels.

Road Trip:

AroundMe (Free)
Find out information about your surroundings en-route. AroundMe is an easy way to locate your nearest petrol station, bank, hotel, supermarket or somewhere to stop for lunch.

Road Trip Fun ($0.99)
Road Trip Fun contains a list of games that you and your family or friends can play on a road trip.

Packing ($0.99)
Become a packing perfectionist with this easy tool. Create lists of necessary items and check them off as you go.

Trazzler ($0.99)
Travel application helping you answer one question, “Where should I go?”.

Roadtrippr (Free)
The part of planning a road trip is finding places to visit. Everyone can find the main attractions, but most of the time the most interesting places to visit are off the beat path.

Accufuel ($0.99)
Monitor your vehicle´s fuel efficiency.

The Beach:

Weather Pro ($3.99)
Track the weather before you head out to ensure you are going to have a great day on the beach. Weather Pro reports high quality forecasts for over 400,000 locations, every 3 hours, 7 days a week.

Surf Report (Free)
Surf´s up. And thanks to Surf Report, you know exactly where you´ll find the best surf conditions near you. In fact, the free Oakley´s Surf Report offers surf conditions and weather reports for thousands of beaches around the world.

Facebook (Free)
Keep your Facebook status updated and upload photos from your iPhone so that your friends can see what an awesome time you´re having.

City break

UrbanSpoon (Free)
UrbanSpoon makes your life easy by suggesting places to eat when you´re stumped. With a shake of your iPhone, UrbanSpoon scrolls through restaurants wherever you are by type and price.

Currency (Free)
Currency provides up-to-date exchange rate information for over 90 currencies and 100 countries. Great for when you travel abroad and need to calculate the latest exchange rates.

My Gate Maps ($2.99)
Gate maps of worldwide airports, including a favorites list.

WikiMe ($0.99)
Hoping to learn more about The Tower of London? WikiMe is a fun and interesting way to find Wikipedia articles for your current location or post code of your choice.

Skype (Free)
Roaming on your iPhone? Skype gives you free calls and instant messages to anyone else on Skype.

Qype Radar (Free)
Search reviews on restaurants, bars, shops, hotels, and nightlife in over 15,000 cities worldwide.

Tipulator - The Fun Tip Calculator ($0.99)
Not sure what to tip? Use Tipulator the next time you go out to dinner. Enter the bill amount, select a percentage, and Tipulator will calculate the tip.

Flight Status ($4.99)
Flight Status lets you check the status of your flight, view maps with live weather, view terminal, baggage claim and gate information.

Lonely Planet Phrasebooks ($9.99)
Never be at a loss for words with text and audio translations of common words and phrases from English into Cantonese, German, Japanese, Spanish, French and over 600 spoken (and phonetically written) phrases in each guide.

Business Travel

LinkedIn (Free)
Perfect for the business traveler, LinkedIn allows you to connect to your personal professional network, browse contact information and receive status updates.

Salesforce Mobile (Free)
Log on to your salesforce account via this application. Keep ahead of your business deals by viewing and editing your accounts in between meetings.

SpeakEasy Voice Recorder ($1.99)
Perfect for the forgetful mind. SpeakEasy allows you to record and replay important “to-dos” and notes for yourself.

Oracle Business Approvals for Managers (Free)
Take your business on the go! This application makes it easy for all managers and executives to keep track of delegated tasks and make important decisions anywhere.

Timewerks ($4.99)
Keep track of time with Timewerks. Timewerks is an application that allows you to send invoices and track important materials for your business. Create personal timesheets for each project.

Currency (Free)
Currency provides up-to-date exchange rate information for over 90 currencies and 100 countries. Great for when you travel abroad and need to calculate the latest exchange rates.

Air Sharing ($4.99)
This highly popular application allows you to drag and view important documents from your computer onto your iPhone.

Keynote Remote ($0.99)
Take some pressure off your next big presentation with Keynote Remote. This application allows you to control your Keynote slides on your computer with your iPhone.

Bloomberg (Free)
The most trusted financial report is now available on your iPhone. Get the latest financial news and create a customized list of the most important stocks from markets around the world.

Next Flight ($2.99)
Out of a meeting late and missed a flight? Next Flight keeps you updated with the next available flight so you can catch the flight that best fits your schedule!

AP Mobile News Network (Free)
Powered by the Associated Press, the Mobile News Network app allows you to stay current in local and global news right on your iPhone.

Expense2GO for Salesforce (Free)
Use salesforce.com to create expense reports right on your phone.

Finding the right external DVD burner

WITH many of us now (or soon to be) a proud owner of a netbook, there´s a need to have an external optical drive.

The Buffalo Technology Slim (RM239) The LiteOn eSAU108 (RM214) The NU External DVD-RW (RM199) The LG GP08-LU10 (RM249) The Samsung Slim E SE-S084B (RM180)

Most people tend to choose a DVD burner or combo drive � an optical drive that can read and write CDs, VCDs and DVDs. This drive will come in handy whenever you want to install drivers for a new peripheral or load new applications. It also gives you the option to back up your data on disc or extract content such as movies, video clips, and photos not yet loaded into your netbook´s harddisk.

You can also play lightweight games on your netbook off a disc if you have an optical disc drive.

DVD burners today are slimmer and more stylish, with some that even match your netbook´s design.

Third-party models are plenty, and many support both Windows and Mac machines.

The easiest interface to work with would be USB 2.0, as most netbooks have at least two ports.

For netbooks that have a FireWire interface, you can opt for models that support this connectivity and free up your USB ports.

Of course, DVD burners that support both USB 2.0 and FireWire offer more options, but they are more expensive.

Typically, each DVD burner offers different speeds for reading, writing and rewriting discs. If you plan to use the drive to back up data such as downloaded movies, music, videos and photos, you can invest in a DVD burner that offers faster speeds.

Speed-wise, the current offering is 20X for write-once speed on a singlelayer DVD, and 8X for dual-layer DVD.

The rewrite speed for DVD-RW is 6X. Most of the time, slimmer external DVD burners tend to be slower, unlike their internal counterparts. But you gain on portability, which is important if you travel a lot.

While speed affects pricing, items such as bundled software can add value. Check the list of software that comes with the DVD burner. Go for those that offer easy-to-use video and image authoring tools, data backup utility, and capability to encode data for playback on a regular DVD player.

Software titles from Nero and Roxio are common inclusions. But there are models that pack in proprietary software that might need a bit of learning. So, it´s important that the tools suit your computing needs.

As you browse for a DVD burner, you will likely come across the term "LightScribe", which refers to a disc-etching technology licensed by Hewlett-Packard. DVD burners that support LightScribe let you creatively label each disc you create using text and images.

Check for warranty details and after-sales service before you settle on your purchase.

Also, make sure that you get the vendor to bundle in the necessary cables.

Choosing speakers for your MP3 player

Portability. Entertainment. MP3 players offer many benefits. But do they sound good? To truly enjoy the digital music stored on these devices, many people are looking to purchase high-quality MP3 speakers and add an essential accessory to their setup.

Today, a number of companies offer a full range of speaker systems designed specifically for digital music players. These speakers offer different features designed to address the various needs of the digital music consumer. Unique design, alarm clock functions, and high-performance audio drivers are just a few features that distinguish these products.

However, the most important element of any MP3 speaker system is audio quality. When you are getting ready to test and review sound quality, these tips may help:

Listen to similar, high-quality files

To make an accurate comparison, ensure that the files you´ll be testing are all high-quality files. With your media player open and your song selected, you can find the bit-rate by �- for example, in iTunes -� clicking “Get Info” from the File menu. Compared to a 128-kilobit file, a 24-kilobit file is not going to do justice to the listening experience.

Enjoy your favorite songs and artists

Because sound quality is often subjective, listening to songs based on some previous experience will help you better assess a speaker´s audio quality. For example, you´ll be able to tell right away if the vocals are thin or the piano is tinny because you know what a faithful reproduction of the music ought to sound like.

Listen to a wide variety of music

Without advanced analytical equipment, you can still make a good qualitative assessment of a product´s acoustics. But you´ll want to make sure you get an idea of how it performs in each range. As you listen to multiple tracks, make sure that the audio sounds balanced. The bass, mid and treble ranges should sound balanced relative to each other. Make sure to listen to rock, rap, classical. The breadth of styles will give you a good idea of how the speakers perform across all frequencies.

Your ears don´t lie

Remember, your ears are a reliable source of information. You´ll be able to tell if the speakers you´re reviewing fill the room with the rich, hair-raising sound you love. And if they don´t, you´ll hear that, too.

So now, with the right choice of music and the right choice of music speakers, with the push of a button on your remote, you can throw a party, be motivated to do your house chores or even groove to the music at the comfort of your home.

Ways to network successfully Internet

IF you use the Internet, chances are you are in a social network or two.

According to ComScore, more than 600 million active users frequent social networks, blogging and photo sharing sites.

A study conducted by Synovate of 15- to 24-year-olds in Asia commissioned by Microsoft found that young Asians are spending an average of almost five hours a day online. This number goes up to nearly seven hours in countries such as Singapore (6.8 hours), Taiwan (6.8 hours) and Malaysia (6.7 hours).

But if you have not jumped on the social networking bandwagon, here are some tips to help you become a successful social butterfly online.

Be selective
There are more social networks out there than you can imagine, and there´s no way you will have the time to be involved in all of them.

Explore some of the key choices on the Web, such as Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, Twitter, De.li.cious, Flickr, Friendster and Picasa Web.

Then ask yourself: What do I want to get out of this? Do I want to make friends? Do I want to promote my music or art? Do I just want a platform for sharing ideas?

If you want to do all of the above, do consider Windows Live home page, Facebook, MySpace or Friendster.

Stay focused

If you have chosen to sign up with more than one social network, signing in to all of them daily to keep track of the latest updates is likely to wear you out.

Who are you?
People like to put a face to a name. Put up an eye-catching photo of yourself and share some details about yourself on your profile. But overdoing it might just earn you a cyber-stalker or two.

So be smart about the personal information you put out there and manage your privacy settings well.

Stay active
Make sure you engage your friends regularly and take part in discussions, update your status and give your two cents´ worth every now and then.
You don´t want to drop off the face of the online universe. On the flip side, don´t overload your friends with links, messages, comments and content or you will be deemed a spammer.

Have fun!
Social networking should be fun. Keep it simple!
Aggregating your social networks is a great start. After all, this is about making friends, socialising and sharing interests.

Green-It-Yourself: Promoting greener living through Twitter

Three colleagues are promoting greener living through Twitter. YONG HUEY JIUN writes.

GREEN is the new black. On Twitter anyway.

The man who made saving trees in vogue, former United States vice president Al Gore, has taken his environmental crusade to one of the fastest-growing online social networks.

Just three years ago, the Nobel prize and Oscar winner hammered home the message of a planet in jeopardy in An Inconvenient Truth, a compelling film documentary about global warming.

Thirty-year-old Jek Tan recalls how in one simple yet powerful diagram, Gore explained carbon dioxide´s impact on the earth´s temperature and projected its effects in 50 years to come. To this day, the presentation has stuck indelibly in his mind, forever changing the way he viewed planet earth.

“The readings were off the charts!” Tan remarked. “It scared me to think what Earth would be like for my children.” That alarming revelation has yielded “#GIY”, short for “Green-It-Yourself”, an online collection of green tips named for Twitter´s popular communication format.

In March this year, Tan, along with two of his colleagues, Tee Tsun Joo and Alex Lam, came together to promote greener living through the online social network. From turning off the tap when brushing your teeth to hibernating your PC when you are out for lunch, the (#GIY) hub offers practical green tips and ideas that are easy to apply both at home and at work.

“Anyone can be part of this. It´s about what you can do and how you can do it,” said Tee, 28, who first envisioned Twitter as a tool for advocating green.

The trio decided to translate their tweets (messages) into action at the place they spend the most time together: at work. Making sure their company´s corporate culture dovetails with their green mission, they started bringing their own food containers to work. Soon, other employees began to follow.

“The numbers for using food (plastic) containers don´t look very impressive on a day-to-day basis. But if you take an average of eight containers a day and multiply that by five working days and one year -- and we´ve been doing this for the last three to four years -- we´ve actually saved thousands of containers,” Tan explained.

But why Twitter? With tweets limited to 140 characters, Tee said Twitter is fast, easy and concise.

A voting mechanism on Twitter unearths the more popular green tips that may sometimes get buried in a seemingly bottomless stream of information. “If you make the effort to dig through websites of power companies, you´ll find many green handy tips. But the problem is they are buried so deep within the site no one really reads them,” Tan pointed out.

However, Twitter´s most productive use has been its potential in tapping into the world´s collective brain. Twitterers can re-tweet (RT) -- pass along what someone else said on Twitter -- to their followers.

“We don´t always have to come up with new green ideas,” said Lam, 30, known on Twitter as @TheBackpackr.

As Tee discovered, no idea is too bizarre on Twitterland. In May, Google, the world´s largest search engine, announced in its blog an unorthodox low-carbon approach to property maintenance -- the company is turning to a herd of 200 goats to replace its lawn mowers.

Though still an early-adopter phenomenon in Malaysia, Twitter´s traffic growth is accelerating. Traffic on #GIY soared on World Earth Day (April 22), double the number of tweets on a normal day. Already, the trio has drawn a large following, with a network spanning 10,000 twitterers since they began.

Twitter, as it turns out, has become an unlikely intersection of digital concepts and social activism. But it wasn´t always this way. When Twittermania first hit the World Wide Web, Internet hipsters randomly tapped out a slew of mundane status updates and comments to pass their time.

If Twitter´s power is properly harnessed, the stream of mindless Internet chatter on #GIY may one day offer an early glimpse into public sentiment -- if not already -- and perhaps even help shape it.

“The power is exponential in the realm of online social network,” Tan marvelled.

For now, though, the trio is content on making an earthly difference in the digital world -- one tweet at a time.