In times of financial dire straits, both the hustler and the corporate honcho become the best management gurus around. They both have some nuggets of wisdom to share. The credit crunch seems to bring out the best in them. Their leadership traits are put to a test and subsequently bloom. There are, however, some more management tricks that a drug leader can teach the corporate big guy.

Drug dealers are often on the brink, living ‘permanently in a world of zero credit.’ They can hardly get loans from banks, so they tend to excellently manage their cash flows. That’s a trick that the dealer can impart to the corporate boss – to run things in a way where you know that nothing or no one can bail you out, and that you’re on your own.

The CEO would also do well to learn the art of ruthlessness from the drug dealer. While the drug dealer should always hand over good stuff to his clients, not tweaking the good stuff a bit is tantamount to not taking care of his business interest. This ruthlessness would work well for the CEO especially when he has to axe a good part of his workforce so as to control his cost center and protect his profit center.

Another area that a drug dealer can teach a CEO in is accountability. The drug dealer is totally accountable for whatever goes on and happens in his trade. He just has to survive the deal, whatever it takes and however the ins and outs of it turn out. This is total responsibility. The CEO would do well to embrace such complete personal dependability. In other words, like the drug dealer who is out to protect his trade through total attachment to the belief in what he does because his life literally depends on some given strategies, the CEO should also employ the same adhesion to the belief that what he does, and how he does it, should and would work.

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Via Financial Times

It’s the recession time and it has virtually pinched almost everybody’s pockets. And if you are still going haywire with your expenses, then perhaps it’s about time that you looked into it seriously. But unfortunately, you may not really know how to go about restraining yourself from the cruel credit crunch that has affected the Global Economy very badly. In order to keep a watchful eye on your financial status, Sonic Design, A Brooklyn based company, has developed the Tough Times Belt Puncher.
This belt uses a 3-disc adjustment mechanism, which allows the user to dial in their annual net income and estimated cost of living. This sounds like your personal accountant but functions and advises you as one as well.

The belt is designed in such a way that the integrated hole punch is positioned at an appropriate distance from the last hole according to the economic situation and personal needs of the user.

I am just wondering if people would really have to depend upon this belt to watch their finances. I would rather educate myself financially and work my ways out to swim through unscathed from the so called credit crunch.

Via: NewLaunches\Core77\Sonicny

The retail sales are reported to be down in the real terms for five months now. With the current free fall in the consumption pattern, do not be surprised if the US domestic growth shows poor figure in the fourth quarter of the current year.

The economic recession has had a cascading effect on almost all the sectors. The job cuts, bonus cuts and the constant nightmare of the pink slips have made the consumers extremely conscious of their spending habits. This has initiated the buyers to spend within their means, a trend unheard of during the former years before the credit crunch.

The debt-to-disposable- income ratio has increased from 70 percent in the 1990s to 140 percent in 2008. Majority of the consumers in the US markets are under a heavy burden of debt.

Another reason for the change in the consumption pattern is due to the fall in the real estate sector as well. The value of the houses has been reported to soon reach the depreciation of 30 percent. Also, a large chunk of the population under the scanner is the households with the mortgage.

The bottom line is that the US customers are not only shopped out but also debt-burdened. The effects of all these have negatively affected the spending habits and definitely not helped the previously booming retail sector.

Via: Forbes