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What do you need to know to select the right air cylinder from the huge variety available in the industrial marketplace? Here is the answer.

How much force do you need to move the object you wish to move?

You’ll need to know the weight of the object. Consider what the object being moved is sliding and know that this friction is adding to the load.

Oversize the required force of the cylinder by 25% to take into account friction of the rod and piston seals within the air cylinder itself, and also allowing a safety margin as it relates to the expected load the cylinder will see.

Know your available air pressure (example: 90 PSI) and multiply that times the surface area of the piston inside the cylinder to get the theoretical output force of the cylinder.

If you multiply 3.14 x the radius - in inches -squared this equals the surface area of the piston in square inches.

Since cylinders only come in certain bore sizes, default to the standard cylinder bore that’s the next size up if none are exactly the bore diameter calculated. Note that the size of the outside of the cylinder on some types has no real bearing on what the piston diameter inside the cylinder is.

How far do you wish to move the object?

If you wish to move the object five inches, it’s logical to think that the cylinder piston / rod travel needs to be five inches. It could be that simple. It might not be. Take into account the size of the object that’s to be moved to be sure that the object itself doesn’t impact on the cylinder rod cap on retract.

You may wish to consider a cylinder with a longer stroke than required so that the piston of the cylinder can be stopped inside the barrel by having the object itself stop the movement. This stops the piston from “bottoming out” on either cap of the cylinder itself. Depending on the cycle speed, this may increase cylinder life.

Take into account how you are connecting your load to the cylinder rod. If using a clevis of some sort, take that dimension into account.
Regardless of what is attached to the end of the rod, the rod itself can only move the distance that the piston inside the cylinder can move. That’s all the stroke distance you have to work with.

How will you attach your object to the cylinder rod?

Careful, if you screw the object onto the rod thread directly. Make sure that the “load” and the rod are aligned.

A rod clevis is a “sloppy” connector that screws onto the end of the rod thread. Bolt the other half to your object, and the two halves are connected in the center via a cotter pin of sorts.

This “sloppy” type of connector forgives some misalignment between the rod travel and the object movement for if the object is too far off the axis of the rod, you will very quickly encounter problems with the air cylinder.

There are alignment couplers commercially available that will further absorb misalignment between load and rod. For extreme misalignment cases, the load can be installed on rods external to the cylinder, removing almost all side-load from the rod itself.

Note that there are standards in rod thread size which change depending on the bore size of the cylinder.

Further, the rods themselves can be modified to reduce the size of the thread, to change the type of thread, to make the rod end a female thread, or to replace the standard rod thread with a stud that can, if the stud breaks, be removed and replaced at minimal cost to parts and downtime.

How will you attach the cylinder to your machine?

Depending on the type and size of cylinder there are many options of unique and standard mounts.

Most cylinders come with integral mounting of some sort, whether it’s a rod-cap thread, a rear-cap thread, a rear tang for a clevis mount, threaded holes into which bolts can be turned, front or rear flanges, trunnion mounts…and so on. It depends on the type of cylinder.

Remember, if the load that’s being moved is not aligned with the rod travel, you will have problems. Therefore, the type and location of load will help determine the type of cylinder mount too.

What type of cylinder?

Some choices are:

repairable air cylinders or “throw-away” non-repairable types
NFPA cylinders (north American standard) or ISO cylinders (European standard)
aluminum, steel, stainless steel, composite construction
steel rod, stainless steel rod, chromed rod

Usually, as the bore size of the cylinder gets larger the style opted for is a repairable type, as more money will be spent on acquiring the cylinder therefore the cost for repair becomes a smaller percentage of the overall cost. It’s hard to get excited about trying to fix a $80.00 cylinder when the parts cost $30.00 and it will take a worker two hours to fix it. On the other hand, if the cylinder costs $500.00 - a different story.

As the bore size of the cylinder changes, so too will the rod diameter and rod threads, and the port sizes.

NFPA cylinders are imperial dimensions and imperial threads, ISO cylinders are metric dimensions and threads.

You need to consider the conditions into which the cylinder will be installed to determine if you need specialty materials in their construction. Also, specialty seals may be required in corrosive, low or high heat environments.

Cushions?

As referred to earlier, if you can avoid stopping the cylinder by having the piston “bottom out” inside the barrel, good. This will increase cylinder life. If this isn’t practical, your cylinder caps can usually have cushion vents installed which, when adjusted, trap and slow the exhaust of a small amount of air from inside the cylinder as the piston reaches end of stroke. This provides a cushion to lessen the impact of the piston to the end cap.

Where is it?

If the application requires knowledge of load position, proximity sensing devices can usually be added to the barrel of the cylinder. They will “make” when a magnet on the piston inside the cylinder passes them. Since the distance from the magnet to end-of-rod is known, this will locate the load.

There are a variety of position sensing options for cylinders including reed switches, hall effect switches, linear potentiometers, or you can elect to sense the position of the load itself by using a barrel proximity switch mounted so that the switch “makes” as the load itself arrives.

If you need position sensing, make sure the cylinder you choose has that capability both in terms of magnets on the piston, and external mounts for the switch itself.

And there you have it - six steps to finding the right cylinder. Good luck in your hunt.

Bill Wade is a former sales representative, sales manager, marketing manager and president of a number of companies that use and sell compressed air, along with other equipment and supplies. His sales agency currently represents a select group of companies. Mr. Wade writes about understanding compressed air, how it’s compressed, how it’s treated, and how it’s used at www.about-air-compressors.com.

Copyright 2006 New World Opportunities Inc.

This is a true story.I was 25 years old when I answered an ad in the Toronto Star one day.It read “GROUND FLOOR OPPORTUNITY”. The content of the ad basically discussed the fact that the company was new,willing to train managers in every facet of the business and would promote successful candidates into their own office.As well they had large ,international intentions.I walked into a cramped ,shabby interior of an office smack dab in the heart of Chinatown but what struck me was the energy of the place and the confidence of the gentleman who interviewed me ( unbeknownst to me at the time but he was a millionaire by the age of 30).

I was hired on a 100% commission plan only and thus I entered the world of telemarketing selling paper rolls and ribbons for POS,cash registers and credit card machines.It was a classic boiler room only the business was a legitimate model through and through.However,hustle and attitude were the vernacular of the day.These gentlemen had run businesses before but their forte was strictly a direct sales platform where their peopel were independent brokers and every deal was cash on the barrelhead.

The one big gaffe that they were committing and it proved to be a valuable lesson for me to pay heed to before I was promoted to my first office 11 months later was this:they had a phone book for every,and I mean every province,territory,region and major island in Canada.One gent even specialized in contacting the Northwest Territories inside the Arctic Circle! Yes, there were citizens other than native peoples residing that far north.So, here they were shipping all over this vast nation right from Toronto……but here is the kicker.They were giving everyone and his mother 30 day billing terms.Next thing you know they had rung up well over $ 300 K in receivables in less than 100 days.We collected cash locally but this was astronomical and if it were not for the deep pockets of their direct sales divisions it would have sank this ship rapidly.Let’s just say it wasn’t difficult getting sales under those premises and they inevitably took a 25 % burn on those outstanding invoices.

Now,several months later we were in beautiful but not always sunny Vancouver,B.C. Here came mistake # 2.We rolled out too much money on start-up including unnecessary furnishings and leasing an excessively large office space,etc.I was down $30,000 before I could shake a stick at our first sale.

We eventually got better at the game and reached 34 offices over the next few years before the wheels came off.By the end of a two year tenure,our legal compliance dept. strongly advised us to pay ALL employees a base salary.The two biggest factors behind their reasoning were,unlike our direct sales divisions,we were dictating time and requiring them to work on our property utilizing our materials.Now, the hard knock school of only the strong survived transformed virtually overnight into one where everyone,regardless of performance,was guaranteed a weekly cheque.This did put a strain on one’s payroll and we had to be very careful as to how much we invested into one’s training and in how long we retained their services.A lot of us (managers) tended to put too much stock in a candidate who exuded professional habits and appearance,radiated great energy and spirit while possessing terrific interpersonal skills and leadership but who couldn’t sell his/her way to a bagged lunch ! Needless to say this was rather costly as we strived to develop future “business owners” in record time.

Here’s a real beauty.We were so naieve when I look back in retrospect and perhaps we placed too many comparisons to our brothers and sisters in direct sales.We did not fulfill our sales tax submittals for the first 6 or 7 months ( 2 fiscal quarters anyway) to Revenue Canada ( our version of the IRS).One day this ripe,old 26 year old gets a knock on the door by a visiting RC agent who isn’t there to try our coffee.We have a fairly pleasant chat and 20 minutes later he’s departed and I’m holding my head in my hands trying to figure out from where I’m going to get $140 K ! I guess sales hadn’t been too bad. Anyway,I paid it off in full within a few short months as I was fortunate to be somewhat talented in the sales and recruiting aspects of our business.As my millionaire mentor used to be fond of saying,I performed my best when my back was against the wall.

I realize many of you reading this might be thinking how could my predecessors or I be so ignorant or naieve but believe me when I say “it could happen to you”.It is too easy to put on the blinders or get caught in a vortex when you are placing all of your energies into sales or recruiting or training that one easily catches themself saying “manana”.I have yet to meet a salesman /marketer who enjoys administration.

In closing,it was the most incredible business boot camp a young man could ever want and I would do it…..well,almost all of it all over again.I don’t think the Wharton or Harvard business schools could have prepared me for the success for which I have been most grateful in achieving.

Mike La Penna is a offline/online marketer with extensive experience in both the telemarketing and direct sales industries before foraying into network and internet marketing with the advent of the world wide web in the early 90’s.He loves assisting others in their marketing projects.
He can be reached at rumrunner40@usa.com
www.prosperityautomatedsystem.com/members/globalgelt/

Of course, you would stop snoring if you could help it.
It irks your bed partner. It embarrasses you. And don’t you hate being nudged in the middle of the night, because you have been snoring?

Yet, your doctor will tell you that these are the least of his concerns. Snoring can be the cause- or the warning sign- of many serious health problems.

While high blood pressure, sleep apnea and brain damage top the list, there are others that should not be ignored. Such as low energy levels from poor quality of sleep, poor concentration, irritability, lower immunity and mood-swings.

Snoring can impact your personal well being as well as your social and professional life. In fact it can change your whole personality.

So what can you do about your snoring?
If you snore, you need to see a doctor. Only a doctor can tell you if your snoring is ‘just noise’ or a much bigger threat such as sleep apnea.

It’s equally important to understand what snoring is and learn about your treatment options. To start with…

What makes you snore?

All sound is caused by ‘vibration’ of some sort. If the flow of air is smooth and without obstruction, snoring wouldn’t happen. But what if the air meets with a loose obstacle, as it travels through the upper airway? The obstacle vibrates, leading to the sound we recognize as snoring.

Obstruction in the air passages can be caused by the fleshy tissues in your throat or mouth, such as the uvula, throat muscles, the tongue etc.

The type of obstruction in your air passages forms the basis for diagnosing your sleep problem. If the obstruction is partial, it is less likely to affect the quality of sleep you get or your overall health. In fact, snoring is the sign that some air is passing through. Yet, all is not well with people who snore.

In certain cases, there are brief episodes when breathing can stop completely. That leads your brain to send a distress “wake-up call” to your brain, raising your heart rate and rousing you from sleep. Snoring accompanied with brief spells of no breathing (when your air passages are completely closed) could be the sign of a serious disorder called sleep apnea.

In many cases of snoring without sleep apnea, relief can be found without special equipment or surgery.

Your sleep habits can make all the difference! Here are a few precautions you can take:

1. Avoid harmful drugs, alcohol or sleeping pills. Drug-induced sleep is more likely to loosen up your throat muscles, causing them to fall back into the throat and result in snoring.

2. Sleep on your side.
Sleeping on your side prevents the loose muscles and tissues of the mouth from falling back into the air passages. That makes it easier for you to breathe normally. Remember that sleeping on the side is stressful for your spine, so invest in a scientific side-sleeper pillow such as the “Sleep Better Pillow “

The Better Sleep Pillow will effectively align your head, neck and upper back, helping you enjoy deep restful sleep without aches and pains.

It has special arm-channels on the underside where your arm can slide in and out easily, while the pillow supports the weight of your head and neck. No more frozen shoulder!

3. Exercise the muscles of your jaw and throat. Here are two simple exercises:

A. Open your jaw as wide as you can, then close it shut gently.
B. Thrust your tongue as far out as you can, then return to its normal position in the mouth.

4. If your tonsils are large and inflamed, get them treated.

5. Try to sleep early and at the same time every night.

These simple steps are known to help in many cases of snoring. If your condition is not helped by these suggestions, see your doctor.

It will ensure better sleep for you and your bed partner, and relief from nights of labored breathing!

http://www.sleep-better-pillow.com

If you sell downloadable products, you’re going to have a thank you page (a URL where the buyer is redirected after a sale). With just a couple lines of HTACCESS code you can make that folder airtight.

You shouldn’t be putting a buyer through a mandatory signup process to download the product. They already paid, just give them the file right away and offer a chance to opt-in for updates later. Otherwise you’ll be getting lots of support e-mails from people asking where the product is they just paid for.

It’s always smart to name your thank you page something with a number — a name like postorder735.html or thank-you-9987.html will do. You just want to make this impossible to guess.

When it’s possible I like to separate the sales page from the download, so I stash them in a folder called something like “download” or “order.” Problem: If you have these separate folders, these URL guessers can see the contents of them.

The obvious solution is to put an index.html in the folder, which keeps its contents from being listed… but what if you have, say, 25 of these folders? Do you need 25 index.html files?

No, and that’s where HTACCESS comes in. Open up a new text file in Notepad and put this text in exactly:

Options -Indexes

Then save the file as: .htaccess (WITH that dot in front)

Upload it to the root of your web site. Now, if you try to view the contents of a folder that’s missing an index.html file, your browser will show a “403 Forbidden” error.

Don’t worry, this won’t block out all files. It will simply keep a guesser from viewing a list of what files are in a given folder.

If you don’t want to see that ugly generic Forbidden page, you can supply your own by adding this line to that .htaccess file of yours:

ErrorDocument 403 /sorry.html

Now you can put your message into a HTML file (maybe it could be a link to the main page of your site), put it into a file named sorry.html and upload it. Now you’ll have a friendly notice that says anything you want.

One last bonus tip for you. If your forbidden message is extremely short, you don’t even need to create a separate HTML document. If it’s possible for your message to fit all on one line you can remove that ErrorDocument line above from your .htaccess file and put in something like this:

ErrorDocument 403 “Sorry…

I’m aware that there is a starting quote and no ending quote. That’s just how you have to type it. If you put in a quote at the end there it would show up in your HTML document. I know it looks funny, but it works. Remember that “Sorry…” text is HTML so you could put in line breaks, links, bold tags, H1, H2 tags, and so on. It’s all up to you.

In Part 2 we discussed how to determine if a sales action is a critical sales performance competency, and we determined the following:

• It is an Action that is tied directly to the end result (Good or Bad)

• It can be individually isolated and trained to for Improvement

• It can be objectively ‘Benchmarked’ and Measured

Next, we identified that the act of communicating one-on-one to a ‘Targeted’ prospect with the objective of setting an appointment as a KEY Core Sales Competency, because nothing happens until you get in front of someone.
And the measurement of that competency was determined to be your ‘Conversation-to-Appointment’ ratio which nationally averages out to somewhere between 4%-18%.

And if we choose to build a ‘Prospecting System’ to support a sales performance training objective to improve that ratio it would enable us to set more targeted ‘Top-down’ appointments in less time. And achieving that would allow us to obtain additional results and make us more money.
Not an unworthy mission for sure.

Additionally, we listed (6) sales prospecting reasons why the national ‘Conversation-to-Appointment’ ratio is only 4%-18%.
Our mission for Part 3 is to isolate each of these reasons, understand why the majority of the sales population lives by the ‘Definition of Insanity’ (Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result) and then develop alternative strategies to raise our Conversation-to-appointment ratio.

Sales Prospecting Error #1

We don’t seek to first (Before we pick up the telephone) understand the Prospect’s internal business challenges parallel to our solutions offering, and then model our appointment communication approach around it.

How many times have you received a solicitation call and listened to a stranger communicate nonspecifically about who they are and what they want. Let me say that again…”Who THEY are and what THEY want.”

Just the other day I received a telephone call (I accept them ALL because they provide a great X2 training ‘Lead source’) and the nice lady on the other end of the line started to tell me all about who she was and what her company did.
I let her go on for a while and then asked her a specific, closed-ended question:

“Do you understand who I am and what I’m trying to accomplish as it relates to what you are selling?”

Well, she did not. So I kindly left the door open to her if she decided to check out my website and find out (first) “Who I am and what I want.”

Don’t you think that’s fair? After all, aren’t most business people (Business levels tied to fiscal responsibility) open to learning about ways to recover costs, improve productivity, decrease risk, increase profits or provide a measurable Return on investment as long as it gets to the point and in line with one’s own ‘Internal language’… not in a nonspecific marketing language of product/service and feature-benefit.

Instead of “Who you are and what you want,” try switching to “What you know specifically about ‘Me, Myself and I’; MY responsibilities, MY business objectives and how you think you can help ME meet them.

The web is a great resource tool for investigating general business objectives of a company; items like business web sites, 10K reports, annual reports, investor sections, Press releases and published articles. Scanning those items prior to picking about the telephone is your first winning step in the process; “Who they are”.

Now for the second part; “What they want.” Think of this in terms of title of responsibility and how your offering (if the shoe fits) can help them meet their personal business objectives or what I like to phrase ‘Marching Orders’. If you don’t know, go get some Business Acumen training around the title of responsibilities you choose to call on. Because you want to be able to discuss specific business challenges as it relates to their title of responsibility.

Or if you are a self-directed person, do what I’ve done for years. Interview each new client and ask them what type of communication would make them sit up and take notice coming from a stranger’s initial business contact. Develop a stock series of questions to allow you to document what is important to them as it pertains to accepting business appointments and outsourcing solution providers.

You’d be amazed at the amount of valuable data you can collect just by asking for 5 additional minutes after closing a new sale. ‘Go to school’ on your new clients and earn a Masters degree in ‘Business Title Insight’.

Sales Prospecting Error #2

We settle for a business level of contact that has no direct fiscal authority.

Your ‘Playing Field’ is who you decide to call on and why. And there are basically (2) strategies in picking your ‘Playing Field’; a ‘Bottom-up’ approach or a ‘Top-down’ approach.

The following is an example of a Bottom-up approach. A Telecommunications rep initiates a telephone call into a company and asks the question “Who handles your telecommunications needs?” Guess where they are sent? If you said ‘office manager’ you guessed right. If you said ‘Head Janitor’ you weren’t far off. Is there anything ‘wrong’ with that? Not really; it’s legal and a lot of folks out there do it.

But let’s think through this option as a ‘Business person’ would. Historically, a bottom-up approach promotes a:

• Lower 1st appointment to Proposal ratio

• Lower Closing ratio

• Higher Sales cycle

• Lower Average revenue per sale

That being said, from a Business person view, if we had our choice, we would choose a ‘Top-down’ approach; meeting with the highest appropriate level of contact for our product/service.
And this is important. If our product/service is tied to a measurable Return on Investment, in soft or hard dollars over time, we need to be initially engaged with the correct title in our Prospect company. And that’s the fiscal authority that can make a business decision in line with our business solution.

Sales Prospecting Error #3

We sell our ‘product/service’ instead of selling the diagnostic steps in our ‘Evaluation’ Process

So far we have decided to call on the highest appropriate level of contact for our service offering, someone that is tied to the P&L; simply, they have some ‘Skin in the Game’. And we know with a ‘Top-down’ strategy we need to understand who our target Prospect is and what they’re trying to accomplish as it relates to what we are selling. And that’s BEFORE we pick up the telephone, right?

Imagine now we make that prospecting call and start to talk about our ‘Widget’; meaning our Product’s features and benefits, our excellent customer service, how many years we’ve been in business and our fantastic customer retention rate.

Are you beginning to understand now why the average ‘Conversation-to-appointment’ ratio is 4-18%? You might as well read off your Marketing Department’s latest brochure. This is a major sales prospecting mistake because it doesn’t speak first to the correlation between what your Prospects general business challenges are (By industry and title of responsibility) and how your service has helped other business people with the same titles and internal challenges.

The $100,000 question is how one goes about transitioning from a Product/service specific conversation to a ‘Business Reason to Meet’ conversation.

My answer to this question is to communicate your company’s service solution as a ‘System’. One definition of a ’system’ is a series of Components and Elements that when working in unison affects a required result. It makes things better. It lowers that ‘Business Challenge’ wall.
Those ultimate business results could be cost recovery, lower overhead, higher employee production, increase profit margin, more return on investment, faster time to market, etc. That depends on your particular system’s solutions and what business challenges they are tied to.

The ‘Components’ of your system are sub-systems comprising a series of elements that deal with particular business issues. As an example, if you were a Security Solution Provider your components might be themed Loss Prevention, Business Operations and Risk Management, each again dealing with a relevant business challenge.

The ‘elements’ of your ‘System’ are the individual products/services that you provide your clients depending on their unique business challenges and where they may have some ‘leaks in the ship’. Communicating to individual elements specifically during a prospecting sales call will take you down the ‘Slippery slope’ of low sales appointment conversion ratios and low sales commissions.

In-between your Components and elements you have internal Business issues. In the same Security Solution Provider example, your prospect’s business issues could be Fire/Life Safety, Theft, Sweet-hearting, Vandalism, Sabotage, Robbery, and Harassment just to name a few.

It’s your responsibility for an ‘effective’ prospecting sales call to sell the ‘Diagnostic steps’ in your evaluation process; to appraise if your ‘System’, with its series of Components and elements can facilitate lowering your prospect’s ‘Business Challenge’ Wall; effectively gaining a Return on investment in a measurable way; because ‘Business people’ are accountable to ROI.

In Part 4; How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time, we will discuss the final 3 Sales Prospecting Errors and outline some proven solutions that will head us toward our worthy goal of spending Less time to achieve more targeted ‘Top-down’ sales appointments.

Jeff Hardesty is President of JDH Group, Inc. and the Developer of the X2 Sales System®, a blended training system that teaches sales professionals the competency of setting C-level business appointments. Jeff can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com. Calculate your sales team’s ‘Sales Performance Competencies’ here: http://convertmoresales.com/marketing_blitz.php Submit your numbers for a complimentary 30-minute performance consultation with Jeff Hardesty: http://convertmoresales.com/roi_survey.php

It has been observed that often business opportunity sellers use shills to promote their products or business opportunities in advertising. Perhaps you seen this before when someone on TV was obviously a very skilled actor will swear by certain product or business opportunity in an infomercial. They claim that they’ve made all kinds of money in this new investment and business opportunity, yet often this is totally fraudulent.

You see, often the person stating what a great business it is; is only an actor they are not in the business nor have a meeting the money doing anything for the business other than being an actor for the video.

You see, the Federal Trade Commission is now onto this and they have proposed a new set of rules to prevent this type of fraud, as it is disreputable and misleading advertising and misrepresents the truth. Below is an excerpt from the Federal Trade Commission’s report on their new proposed set of rules for business opportunity disclosures;

Proposed section 437.5(q): Shills

“Proposed section 437.5(q) would address one of the most pernicious practices common in fraudulent business opportunity sales - the use of shill references to lure unsuspecting consumers to invest. The Commission has brought many actions against business opportunity sellers who provided prospects with the names of individuals they falsely claimed were independent prior purchasers or independent third parties, but who in fact were paid by the seller to give favorable false reports confirming the seller’s claims, especially their earnings claims. The use of paid shills to give false reports induces prospective purchasers into believing that the opportunity is a safe and lucrative investment.

To address this deceptive practice, proposed section 437.5(q) contains two related prohibitions. First, it would prohibit any seller from misrepresenting, directly or through a third party, that any person “has purchased a business opportunity from the seller.” This would prevent a seller, for example, from claiming that a company employee, locator, or other third party is a prior purchaser of the opportunity, when that is not the case. Second, the provision would prohibit a seller from misrepresenting that any person - such as a locator, broker, or organization that purports to be an independent trade association - “can provide an independent or reliable report about the business opportunity or the experiences of any current or former purchaser.” Providing a prospect with a list of brokers who are paid to give favorable reports, for example, would violate this provision because any statement a person on such a list makes would fail the “independence and reliability” test.”

Now then, you can obviously see how this problem can do totally out of hand and perhaps you are wise enough to know a shill when you see one, however there are a lot of snakeskin oil, fast talking, fraudulent business opportunity sellers out there in the use trying to get rid of them sold out the ethical practitioners of business opportunities can run their honest businesses with out all these negative in dishonest people in the marketplace. Consider this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Talk of China’s economic impact on the global economy is all the rage at most business meetings and in media articles focused on improving North American competitiveness. The barrage of news and numbers coming out of China seems relentless. It makes even the strongest quiver.

• Growing technological expertise - 360,000 new engineers per year join China’s workforce
• Low wages for both skilled and unskilled labor - Fortune Magazine (Dec. 6/04) cites 39 cents per hour for industry laborers, $2,000 per month for design engineers, and $20 per month for general laborers
• China is experiencing more than 10% growth per year
• At the same time, hundreds of thousands of jobs are disappearing in North America
• Fortune 1000 companies are being bought up or heavily invested in by Chinese companies
• Natural resource and energy prices are skyrocketing, in part because of increased global demand

China seems to have become a world economic power practically overnight. As we woke up to the new environment, market pressures had increased at a phenomenal rate and our margins were spiraling downwards out of sight.

As with any change we think is outside of our control, our natural reaction is fear. The resulting panic can stimulate business leaders into a range of knee jerk reactions. Prices are cut, people are laid off, operations are moved offshore, and some businesses even give up. We rationalize these short-term decisions as solutions but, in reality, they only delay the inevitable. We are caught trying to buy time in the hope that the crisis will go away.

If we were to stand back and look at the situation more calmly, we would see alternatives and opportunities to actually transform our businesses to renewed levels of success. Quick solutions are usually not solutions at all. They are, all too often, highly visible indicators that we are desperate.

There are no miracles without ’sweat equity’. We have to thoroughly understand the competitive situation and develop solid plans that work for the long term rather than simply give us a temporary blip in stock value. It’s just not good enough to say we tried but failed.

The question from business leaders is - how do we compete with low labor costs, a seemingly unlimited supply of labor, a highly educated workforce, rapidly increasing costs of commodities and resources as well as a competitor poised to become the economic power worldwide?

The first thing we have to realize is that our competitor shares many of the same pressures that we ourselves feel. To paraphrase George Santayana, “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” We have to remember that Japan, post World War 2, had a huge but fleeting advantage based on low labor costs and low-tech mass production. It doesn’t last. There is always another country or group of companies waiting to come at you the same way.

So what happened with Japan? Their companies and government brought in experts (remember Deming and Juran) and worked out how they could increase quality and technical expertise without sacrificing market share or profits. Oh yes, they also started to focus more intensely on that all-important part of the equation - the customer! Toyota, Lean principles, customer focus - success! That’s what grew a country’s economy to become one of the most successful worldwide - not cheap labor, not low-tech mass production. China is going to have to do this and so are we - price is not what satisfies the customer - it’s value.

China has to struggle hard with this value proposition. The logistics of reliable delivery to the customer must improve, their infrastructure has to get more efficient in dealing with resource needs and pollution, their companies are going to have to pay more for labor as their population grows into one of the world’s largest consumer forces. Their tasks are daunting - as much as our fears that it’s game over when we look at cheap offshore labor as the monster that ate our profits.

Chinese investors may be buying some of North America’s biggest companies but North American businesses are also in China selling goods and services to one of the world’s largest markets. If their government would allow it, we’d be there buying their companies at an even greater rate. Let’s start thinking of China as a huge opportunity for our companies!

We need to look at the China phenomenon in the context of economic history - it’s a wake up call that we must never forget. The customer comes first and unless we become Lean Enterprises we will lose the competition game, not to other nations, but to competitors in business everywhere, including our own back yard.

Before any of you give up or, even worse, react without a solid plan, realize you do have options. China is not a threat unless you allow them to be. China is just our newest challenge as business leaders.

Note - after China, there will be another challenge - it never ends. China is driving all of us to be better. As leaders, our role is to establish an environment where the organization is constantly driving transformation with a solid direction and a detailed, customer-driven Future State plan to get there.

About The Author
Larry Coté is well known for his penetrating analysis and creative energy. He was with the Lean Enterprise Institute in Boston for almost two years as C.O.O./E.V.P. He was the Founder and President of the Lean Enterprise Institute Canada.

Over the years, Larry has worked with 100’s of companies at various stages of their Lean journey in many different business sectors. Larry has expertise in Toyota Production System concepts, diagnostics and assessment of Lean readiness. He works with the corporate leaders to develop effective plans for transforming organizations using Lean and adapting it to their particular culture.

Larry Cote
President
Lean Advisors Inc.

Lean Advisors Inc. (LEAD) provides Lean Training And Lean Implementation support to organizations of all sizes and sectors including healthcare, office, service, manufacturing, mining, aerospace, food processing, high tech.

I have received incredible feedback on the financial quotes series so I am providing another ten GEMS for you to ponder and evaluate. Sometimes a great book has had a profound impact in my life and made me change my ways. Occasionally a great quote has also had the same effect. Enjoy!

1) “I learned more about economics from one South Dakota dust storm than I did in all my years at college.”

-Hubert Humphrey

2) “A bull must be fed every day with good news. But a bear need only be fed once in a while.”

-Anonymous

3) “Each of us has a choice - we must make money work for us or we must work for money.”

-Conrad Leslie

4) “Don’t ever make the mistake of telling the market it is wrong.”

-James Dines

5) “It was never my thinking that made me money. It was my sitting.”

-Jesse Livermore

6) “Stocks are simple. All you do is buy shares in a great business for less than the business is intrinsically worth, with managers of highest integrity and ability. Then you own those shares forever.”

- Warren Buffett

7) “The trading rules I live by are: (a) Cut losses, (b) Ride Winners, (c) Keep bets small, (d) Follow the rules without question, and (e) Know when to break the rules.”

-Ed Seykota

“Taxpayer: Someone who works for the government but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination.”

-Ronald Reagan

9) “October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.”

-Mark Twain

10) “It’s not how much you make when you are right. It is how little you lose when you are wrong! Manage your risk on every trade and the winners will take care of themselves!”

-Harald Anderson -Analyst at eOptionTrader.com

Harald Anderson is the founder and Chief Analyst of eOptionsTrader.com a leading online resource of
Options Trading Information. He writes regularly for financial publications on Risk Management and Trading Strategies. His goal in life is to become the kind of person that his dog already thinks he is. http://www.eOptionsTrader.com.

In this second part we will go onto the TV Tower, and through the Brandenburg Gate, and… let’s see

Did you know that Berlin Germany has more than 140 Museums? Did you know that this city has more than 1,400 bridges, and besides all that more than 100 additional places of interest? Read on to discover.

IV. Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral)

This impressive building was the court church of the Hohenzollern Dynasty. It was also conceived as a protestant answer to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. It was built during the reign of Kaiser Wilhem II, end of 19th Century. Following extensive damage to the building during the Second World War, a simplified reconstruction took place from 1975-93. The Christening and Marriage Chapel contains the altar painting “Miracle of the Pentecost” by K. Begas the Elder. The royal crypt of the Hohenzollern contains around 100 burials of five centuries.

V. Alexanderplatz

Its short name is “Alex”, and it’s the most famous square in Berlin. It was almost completely destroyed in the World War 2. It has also the big TV Tower which dominates the square, the Fountain of International Friendship, and the World Time Clock.

VI. Fernsehturm (TV Tower)

This is the highest building in Berlin and one of the biggest attractions. It has a height of 368 metres. When you go up to the viewing platform (at a height of 203 metres), you have a perfect view over the whole city you will never forget.

VII. Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate)

This is the true symbol of the city. Because it was situated in the no man’s land just behind the wall, it also became a symbol of the division of the city. After the fall of the Wall, the Gate was reopened on December 22nd, 1989. It is just amazing to walk through this huge and historical building. Would you like to know how the gate looked like in the year 1770? Or in 1969? Go to http://www.smart-travel-germany.com/brandenburg-gate.html for further information. There you will find the gate’s history, and some pictures.

Fortunately, since October 22nd, 2002, the Brandenburg Gate remains closed for cars, cabs and busses. So now you can better enjoy the renewed beauty of the Pariser Platz, which forms the link between the Brandenburg Gate and the magnificent “Unter den Linden” boulevard.

VIII. Unter den Linden

It’s called as the magnificent boulevard of Berlin Germany. It is surrounded by trees, which it was not all the time. Hitler ordered the linden trees to be chopped down so that the road could be widened and integrated into the east-west axes. However, by the end of the Second World War, the avenue was a wasteland of ruins. Today you can not recognize this part of history. Unter den Linden has been beautifully and well developed and reconstructed.

Museum’s Island? Where is it? Calm down It’ll arrive in the third part of this 4-part article about the TOP 10 Sights in Berlin Germany. And in the fourth part, we will cover the Erotic Museum an… we’ll see what else.

Stay tuned!

Kind regards,
Marcus Hochstadt
© Copyright http://www.smart-travel-germany.com/ All Rights Reserved

Marcus Hochstadt has a high interest in helping you gain the delightful form of a smart travel to and through Germany. Just recently, he has written a special report on How to Travel for Free! You can download it at http://www.smart-travel-germany.com/freetravel

“Lean on Me” Cancer through a carer’s eyes
Lorraine Kember (2003)
130pp.ISBN 0 646 49969 6

As Janet Craven, palliative care nurse, and Andrew Dean, palliative care physician note in their respective forwards to this book, Lean on Me is a unique and intensely personal description of a writer’s responses to her husband Brian’s diagnosis, treatments and final death from mesothelioma. The book also provides useful discription of the nature of pain, the usefulness of certain drugs, and the ways in which keeping a journal can assist the medical practitioner in assessing pain management. The overarching narrative, however, is the progression of Brian’s cancer, and his erratic but inevitable deterioration. Interspersed with poems and excerpts from Lorraine’s diary, this is perhaps the most confronting aspect of the book, simply because it is so personal. While Brian’s death is factually noted, Lorraine’s description of the moment is emotionally conveyed in a short poem and diary entry. The book concludes with reflections written days, weeks and a year later, on Brian’s presence, and her search for meaning and love in her changed life trajectory. this is indeed a compelling read, and a useful resource for both carers and practitioners.

David Ritchie
Media,communications and Creative Arts Research
School of communicaton and Creative Arts,
Deakin University, Melbourne

Lorraine Kember is the Author of “Lean on Me” Cancer through a Carer’s Eyes. Lorraine’s book is written from her experience of caring for her dying husband in the hope of helping others. It includes insight and discussion on: Anticipatory Grief, Understanding and identifying pain, Pain Management and Symptom Control, Chemotherapy, Palliative Care, Quality of Life and Dying at home. It also features excerpts and poems from her personal diary. Highly recommended by the Cancer Council. “Lean on Me” is not available in bookstores - For detailed information, Doctor’s recommendations, Reviews, Book Excerpts and Ordering Facility - visit her website http://www.cancerthroughacarerseyes.jkwh.com