Lose weight: 27 kg / 60 pounds?
Well, I have done it, and why couldn’t you? My story started as I was on vacation at home in Istanbul and Southern Turkey continuing the pleasures of eating, drinking, sleeping and pretty much not being engaged in any other physical activity whatsoever; well it was the vacation, right?
Not quite right! I ended up with an additional 6 kg in two weeks built up in my belly and other vital parts of my already overweight body. The result was a 105 kg / 231 pounds standing on a 183 cm / 6 feet figure, ok athletic deep inside, but again way too much of a load to carry around.
The question that stood before me was the amount of time I got left till the end of my healthy life that had spanned through 33 years till then. Given my physical condition, it was not hard to estimate the encroaching heart attack or a circulatory system related problem that would be not fun to experience at a an early age.
Dismissing all bad publicity surrounding this industry, I went to a dietician right before we came back from vacation. He told me that my risk of facing an ultimate stroke could be as much as 1% in the coming 10 years. Well, I no have any motivation to deal with this kind of a probability, I told myself gently, giving the subliminal boost of positivism to accept any recommendation the doctor would throw in my way. He did give me a recipe and a dietary plan covering one month of three meals a day. Summary:
- Breakfast: 2 slices of bread, tomatoes, cucumber (unlimited, wow!) a small piece of feta cheese
- Lunch: 1.5 pretzels and a sugar free yoghurt drink
- Dinner: Grilled meat of any sort that should be as poor in fat as possible (fish, chicken, turkey would do)
Here you have it! I applied this diet for about 7 months quite strictly and added regular jogging and work-out sessions 2-3 times per week.
Result: 105 kg / 231 pounds converted into 79 kg / 174 pounds, bulky mass transformed into a lean muscular structure, 340 LDL cholesterol dropped to 200, constant tiredness and physical challenge became obsolete, back pains flied away, feeling a constant guilty consciousness of overeating faded into obscurity…
It has been exactly 13 months now, since I saw 105 kg on the scale. I can enjoy the pleasures of dining without limits every now and again, but I get back to my strict calorie and nutrition focused regimen afterwards for sure.
Conclusion: Yes you can! What is needed is self discipline and a structured dietary blueprint in reducing the calorie intake to below 1000 per day and practicing regular exercise, making it a habit as opposed to a momentary activity.
Filed under: health | Leave a Comment
Tags: calories, diet, eating habits, health, healthy eating, lean, lose weight, overweight, weight loss
Job based segmentation
There is wealth of information out there on the topic that dives deep into market research, customer behavior observation, measurements, customer satisfaction indexes… the list goes on and on. One of the insightful articles on the topic had a very practical approach: Finding the right job for your product (Christensen et al, MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring 2007). Main idea behind this article is to identify the root cause of the problem customer faces and then developing, enhancing or positioning the product for this particular problem.
Key premise behind the approach is a stance against product functionality enrichment and augmenting the product through well known, cookie-cutter segmentation strategies focusing on demographics, customer size or product usage. The catch: You will not be able to differentiate and/or create a new market through functionality additions or tweaks to make the product addressing the right customer segment; it will simply invite competition and the innovative functionality becomes the part of generic industry offering, simply raising the cost of being in the game.
The buzzword we are offered with the article is “job based segmentation”, job being the fit between customers’ immediate problem and the insightful solution the product offers. A rather eye-opening example we are being provided is the milkshake problem/opportunity a fast-food chain is confronted with: In their first trial in supporting the lackluster sales of the milkshake item on the menu, they organize the good-old focus group approach to engage current users of their products to understand “what other functionalities” would they see fit in their daily milkshake pleasure.
Without surprise, no improvement in top line observed and they decide to dedicate some resources in “observing the customers buying process”. Conclusion: Most of the customers are morning commuters in suits that hop-in to get the drink and move on into their daily driving experience. Having talking to these customers the insight reveals itself: Milkshake is actually an item that they use purchase as quick as possible on the way to office and drink in the car to pass time in heavy traffic by sipping the thick fluid through the tiny straw (getting the boredom job done) and soothe their morning craving (getting the hunger job done).
Therefore the company achieves the expected success by developing a milkshake initiative by offering even thicker milkshakes and a possible fast lane for milkshake purchaser that could make the purchase through swiping the card.
There were other cases provided in the article and I have found the overall content very insightful on the grounds that the conventional methods are challenged and a practical and simple way into the intricate world of customer needs and satisfaction process is introduced.
Filed under: Marketing | 1 Comment
Tags: customer insights, Marketing, marketing initiatives, product management, segmentation
Leadership in a changing world
Organizations are the bases of human interaction and financial activity in our society. We have know as far as we could remember the concept of leaders and followers since the early days of man. The evolution of small hunting groups to village systems, cities, nation states, state communities were due to people getting things done together and more importantly following a certain vision, mission, goal with an intention in mind.
What is the driving source behind people working together to achieve a particular goal, or even when following a random path to enjoy a common day trip? This is where the leader steps on to the stage. If you have more than 1 person, you sure will have a person that will be the wiser one at times of decision making and giving a clear or subtle direction to others.
The concept of leadership has grown popular as capitalism and corporations started to shape our world, literally becoming a subject that is taught at schools, seminars, companies. It is being aspired by millions to be learned and whole-heartedly practiced to get ahead of the crowd, as “true” leaders would live the most meaningful life followed by the fortunes, if coupled with financial success, goes the common belief.
If it is something to be learned or something to be born with has always been a topic a topic of discussion. Management professors, gurus and professionals, who earn their daily bread through teachings of leadership understandably support the mantra that says “leadership can be learned”. We are not going to discuss and engage ourselves in a dialectic discussion, but instead explore some undiscovered paths to leadership.
There are many characteristics of a good leader; as we all know, bad leaders can lead their followers into obscurity and even destruction. A management guru named John Crupi states that the learning through practicing the character building stones of a typical leader is not the most effective way to understand where you stand as a leader. He has a simple framework:
- Know yourself
- Know your elements
- No tolerance when certain rules are broken
- Give freedom and expect responsibility afterwards
- Know that you have a direct impact to people’ s lives
- You either become the one that is revered and followed, or the one that others do not want to have anything to do with
Leadership is actually nothing more than making the best out of any situation for the people and with the people, by having them share a common goal, motivating them to give their best all along till the end and when the victory is achieved, giving them back all the credit, as they have done a great job.
Good leaders have very strong self discipline with a relentless integrity, they work harder and smarter, they have above average intelligence and physical energy, they are natural good communicators and have exemplary relationship skills, most interestingly they have been this way since their childhood.
Now given that the expectations from the leaders of today are above and beyond the call of duty, it has become vital to carry most of the characteristics listed above; even to be performed in multi-cultural working environments, with followers coming from all walks of life and from widely different cultural backgrounds. What needs to be done to develop such character dimensions and people that will lead the next generation of followers to the next level?
The task starts in the family and at school, where the fundamental pillars of character is formed and shaped. Our children need to go to the basics. Responsibility, working discipline, rigorous reading and physical activity as opposed to virtual play, socializing outdoors vs online, going to next door and talking face to face and not utilizing the ease of SMS. Harder conditions, physically and mentally challenging experiences are leader makers.
We are living in a world of ubiquitous technology providing seamless connectivity, endless flow of information, unlimited ways of online interaction and sharing. Yet the requirements of leadership has not changed. We need more focused and self-disciplined leaders more than ever, as our world has become very complex, chaotic and global. For centuries the leaders led their folks in their close vicinity and now they need to see beyond the boundaries of Internet and technology to solve world’ s problems, seek opportunities and let their diverse constituents achieve that has never achieved before.
Filed under: Leadership, Soceity | Leave a Comment
Tags: business life, followers, Leadership, management, success
Germany Economy Update
One of the feared scenarios in the beginning of 2006 was the negative impact of VAT increase by nearly 2% points in 2007. Expectations pointed to a further dampened GDP growth below 1% throughout the first quarter. What turns out to be a far more minimal impact on the overall economy. Increasing tax revenues is helping Angela Merkel close the far reaching budget deficit further down below EU required standard of 3% of GDP levels.
Tax revenue of German state has increased 16.4%, 16.7% and 12.8% in Jan, Feb and Mar. This is a significant improvement for a large base. Increasing company profits due to strong export growth is contributing to this tax stream. Germany GDP forecast is stated to be pushed above 2% that has been estimated around 1.5% for 2007 (Global Insight). GDP outlook for 2008 and 2009 still remain at 2%. Main concern within the GDP elements is consumer consumption that has been week since the beginning of the millennium. As stated earlier, increasing exports is leading to an increase in hiring and a down-push on unemployment, which has fallen to 9%. This will lead to increased salaries and might convince the Germans spend more.
Inflationary expectations are in mid or high 1%s throughout 2008 and 2009. VAT increase contributed to 0.3-0.5% points of inflation increase. Currently, inflation has leveled around 1.6%. As in many other countries core inflation is impacted mainly due to rising commodity prices, especially oil.
So what do we need to monitor: Export is the most important growth driver of the German economy. Key influencer is Euro/USD exchange rate and the latter is bound to devalue further with ever increasing trade deficit in the US and an expectedly weakening US economy. Given that Asian countries, especially China, have pegged their currencies to USD, any sharp dampening of USD will put US and Asia trade lanes under stress. However, accounting for the bulk of Germany exports, intra-Europe together with the new EU member states is helping Germany to expand their exports.
We are seeing the outlook positive for the German economy and the horizon is full of opportunities for businesses focusing on exports.
Filed under: Economy | 1 Comment
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