The concept of authenticity has its roots in Greek philosophy: ‘To thine own self be true’. Authenticity has been described as the unobstructed operation of one’s true, or core, self in one’s daily enterprise. However, dangers arise if people assume that their personal values take precedence over other standards. Some assume that this justifies unprofessional behavior, e.g. personal criticism of colleagues rather than simply focusing on the issues. This undermines professionalism and can quickly contribute to a loss of motivation and breakdown of trust.

The assumption that ‘our way is the best way’ is invariably a limiting and potentially damaging viewpoint. In organizations, problems can emerge when systems are inadequate and managers lack the conviction required to surface problems and confront dysfunctional behavior. The success of any organization can then be threatened by leadership failings that include poorly designed systems, resistance to feedback, and inability to anticipate changing requirements. The shortcomings include a lack of personal conviction, which is important when dealing with unacceptable behavior.

Effective leadership builds on four core elements of authenticity. People who are regarded as ‘authentic’ demonstrate higher levels of self-awareness, insight and openness, and the ability to achieve ‘balanced processing’ of information.

Self-Awareness

This involves understanding your unique talents, strengths, sense of purpose, core values, beliefs and desires… are you open to new ideas, and receptive to feedback that helps you maintain and develop this insight?

Balanced Processing of Information

Effectiveness builds on a willingness to consider multiple sides of an issue, including other people’s views. Are you able to recognize that you may not see or appreciate all the issues?

Relational Authenticity

Trust develops when there is openness and truthfulness in close relationships. We can use selective self-disclosure to acknowledge that we’re not perfect. How well do you build trust and appear genuine when working with others?

Authentic Behavior / Action

This involves responding to situations in a way that is appropriate, in the context of your role, whilst respecting your core values. Do you behave (as far as possible) in a way that is consistent with these values? Important themes are explored in Seven Principles for Exceptional Performance.

Authentic Leadership is based on the idea that through increased self-awareness, self-regulation, and positive modelling, authentic leaders foster the development of authenticity in followers. The theory suggest that Authentic Leaders draw on their positive Psychological Capital or ‘PsyCap’ to make clear to others what is required and generate positive energy. They create meaning and a genuine sense of purpose, so that others develop a sense of personal ownership and become ‘stakeholders’ in the activity.

Evidence suggests that exceptional performance also requires additional steps. These include ensuring adequate support/resources are in place, and encouraging discretionary effort by involving people in developing and implementing solutions to problems. Use of 360 degree feedback, coupled with awareness of the Seven Principles for Exceptional Performance, build on the four elements of authenticity and help develop overall effectiveness.

Challenging circumstances and complex issues face every leader today, no matter the organization or environment. These circumstances and issues give rise to ever-increasing demands for leaders who have the capability to innovate.

Leaders who innovate see the bigger picture, grasp the entire situation including all the variables that may come their way. This means they have the capacity to think differently about their organization, they have the skills which allow them to bring new ideas and energy to their role, to address challenging situations and find solutions to complex issues. As a result, they bring more innovation into the entire organization.

Skills:

Innovative leaders have powerful imaginations, they challenge everything, looking where others have not looked. They constantly ask, ‘What if?’ And because they do, they find new opportunities and take reasonable and appropriate risks. An XBInsight survey of over 5,000 CEOs worldwide found innovative leaders are more successful than non-innovative leaders as a result of five key competencies. The survey found innovative leaders are better able to manage risk and seize opportunities. They demonstrate curiosity, lead courageously, and maximize a strategic business perspective.

Because they have excellent communication skills, innovative leaders generate enthusiasm for opportunities, motivating and inspiring others to collaborate with them and take the needed risks. They apply emotional intelligence to their everyday lives, continually building relationships with team members, colleagues, and bosses. They have confidence in their team, recognize and support creativity in the team, and the ability of them to work together effectively on implementation strategies.

Finally, innovative leaders are tuned in to the details of a situation and its effect on the organization. They dig down to seek out new patterns and consider new points of view. They are willing to change their perspective, challenging their own previously held convictions.

Strategies:

Innovation is about implementation. Without implementation, innovation is creativity – the generation of new ideas, something new without the application – non quantifiable, minimal risk, and no investment. Kouzes and Posner, in their book, The Leadership Challenge, encourage leaders to challenge the status quo by searching for opportunities, experimenting, and taking risks. They suggest leaders ask themselves:

• What can be challenged?
• What needs to be improved?
• What can I learn?

To drive innovation in your organization, consider applying the following five strategies.

1. Increase your knowledge from a variety of sources.

Innovation is based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually expand your knowledge base. Read things you don’t normally read. Think about your personal experiences. Is there knowledge or skills you can apply to being innovative at work? What are your interests, hobbies, or volunteer activities? Do you play the piano, are you a gourmet chef, do you write short stories? Thinking about personal experiences may help you to tap into other knowledge and expertise and leverage them at work.

2. Treat patterns as part of the problem.

Sometimes we rely on previous experience to determine our next steps and we fall into a pattern of behaviour. Reach out to team members, colleagues, and bosses to test out your innovation plans. Are you relying on previous experience only to develop your solution? Are you spending time to reflect on the justification of your assumptions, beliefs and values?

3. Turn off idea generation and work on implementation.

Creativity is the process for generating ideas, lots of ideas. But at some point, you need to stop, step back, and decide on which idea to implement. Innovation is about actually working the idea, implementing and executing in order to bring the idea to life.

4. Foster an innovative environment.

Involve your team in your innovation decisions. Communicate and collaborate with them. Part of your role as a leader is to encourage the creativity of those who report to you. Make sure they have the tools they need to create and adapt to change. You do not need to, or should you, do this alone. That is why you have a team. Be a courageous change agent by trusting yourself to trust and lean on others. As you build your innovation skills and expertise, your team should be building theirs as well.

5. Evaluate, revise, repeat.

As with any change, it’s critical to evaluate the result. Ask yourself, and your team, what has been learned from the experience? Did anything occur that was not expected? What would we do differently? What could we have done better? Document your findings and apply them to the next situation that needs innovative thinking.

Innovation is not about the past but rather, visualizing a desired future state. The goal of innovation is to find a better way.

In applying the concepts and reflecting on the history of sustainability, what do we (as a people) want to sustain and in what ways can individuals work toward sustainability? Why was the first green revolution considered a failure in terms of the environment? Why do you think the green 2 revolution is a good idea?
discovering, growth of wealth, sustainability, democracy, adopting, implementing, Green Revolution, agriculture, food production, establishing, and adjusting appropriate institutions, policies, strategies, and technologies, G2R, seeds, fertilizers, roads

In applying the concepts and reflecting on the history of sustainability, what do we (as a people) want to sustain and in what ways can individuals work toward sustainability? Why was the first green revolution considered a failure in terms of the environment? Why do you think the green 2 revolution is a good idea?

“The earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” Gandhi
This discussion is obviously pretty related to the one we had last week. What would we do to ensure that we come up with a sustainable development project?
We would like to emphasize on the importance of “good governance” for this discussion since it is one of the main factors that determines whether or not a project is sustainable. Among others, poor governance was one of the reasons why the first green revolution failed.
With the second green revolution however, we see how good governance (theoretically) plays a huge role in shifting the outcome to a more successful one. The four principles of good governance (accountability, participation and decentralization, predictability, and transparency) are pretty much characteristics that would allow a sustainable development project officer to be successful.
First, we thought that we have to make sure to note that we (as people) want to sustain our environment and our natural resources before anything else. Our country/world’s economy sure is vital but we will not be able to use the term economy if we abuse what actually runs our economies all around the planet. Balancing our environmental and natural resources consumption would therefore be the first step towards achieving sustainability.
Once we determine the latter, we as individuals could work towards sustainability by exercising our right to participation. Again, participation is one of the four principles of good governance, so we need to realize that WE are the main stakeholders and beneficiaries in every nation’s development efforts. By doing so, we eliminate the risks of corruption by those in power, we decrease the gaps between rich and poor which was one of the major issues faced by the GR.
Julia Butterflies’ concept of making sustainability mainstream through individual action was quite interesting, while her actions are a bit extreme she set out to prove a point and did just that by living in the redwood tree she wanted to save…the key points that I want to make are that by her actions she caused questions to be asked by loggers and other community members, conversations were started and she saved the redwoods for a short time…importantly the thought process began, while we can’t all save the world alone; we can start a revolution.

Sustainability, I am struggling with whether sustainable development truly means to sustain any and all human activities…while I believe that sustainability is truly necessary and there is a need for real change because resources are diminishing as nature and the environment are suffering, but how much can realistically be changed? Should we be trying to take a step back or a step forward? Is there a way to capitalize on globalization, but still sustain? Will globalizing third world countries hurt or help long term?
Balance among the determinants of sustainability will help transition towards more sustainable societies and cause collaboration. It almost seems like common sense; consumption of too much of anything isn’t good…too much food can cause you to be fat, too much sun will cause cancer, etc. Consumption…reducing food consumption would help in the US in more than one regard…obesity…Eco-efficiency/economic efficiency…collaborate vs. compete…
In regards to production let’s become leaders ourselves and implement ways to help unsustainable production.
“Sustainability represents an idealized societal state where people live long, dignified, comfortable, and productive lives, satisfying their needs in environmentally sound and socially just ways so as to not compromise the ability of other human beings from doing the same now and into the distant future. It is, in effect, an attempt to merge development and nature conservation efforts in a mutually beneficial way for the common good of the planet’s present and future generations alike. In practice, achieving sustainability occurs through the process of sustainable development – discovering, adopting, implementing, establishing, and adjusting appropriate institutions, policies, strategies, and technologies to produce a just transition that moves society toward the envisioned idealized state of existence. Democracy is often viewed in the same way, as a process of working toward the ideal.” (Kermit, 2007)

“In the case of sustainability, the ideal consists of the simultaneous establishment of the two spatially and temporally essential and universal conditions – “environmental integrity” and “social justice” – that must be maintained over the long haul.” (Kermit, 2007)
The first Green Revolution was considered a failure because of bad governance and rich farmers didn’t give the poor farmers are chance to take advantage of the subsidized fuel and in turn caused an “increased income gap between the rich and poor” (p. 74)

The “Green 2 Revolution” is an agriculture development which is needed to achieve sustainable development in the world. What I like about the Green 2 Revolution is that the five policy elements are trying to promote sustainable development and make a significant impact on poverty reduction. For example the first policy “redistributes policy that favors the poor by providing them access to land and modern impact”. (p. 74) hopefully, this can help the poor help themselves, which is the long term goal n all cases. “good governance includes predictability, fair, compensation pursuant to law will be required for a successful redistributive policy.” (p. 74)
Increased investment in rain-fed agricultural areas in both Asia and Latin America. “as a one-time cattle owner in South America and understanding the need to be able to level the land and knowing that just because an area may get ample rain, doesn’t mean the farm is successful. Many factors come in to play and need to be understood.

The woman beggar on page 77 that was able to take on a micro-loan is a prime example of “showing someone how to fish and you feed them for life” giving someone willing and wanting to learn can give them a chance for change and respect. It enables them to produce their own goods and earn a living. While, microfinance isn’t the key way for change, as “micro finance can help the working poor, but not generally the poorest of the poor” (p. 77)
In response to the questions on the failures of GR, a few points are worth mentioning:
1- Despite its production success the GR favored the big agricultural corporations over the small farms leading to a huge disparity between rich and poor. The small farmers had no say in the way the GR worked (centralization and lack of participation) which is a sign of poor governance.

2- The use of pesticides and fertilizers works best on soils with a high degree of water control, so what happens to the small farms that cannot afford to pay for such technologies?

3- The GR was completely dependent on the new technologies, where resources were consumed at unreasonable levels compared to the GR2 which worked with nature rather than used nature’s resources (issue of system of irrigation and drainage).

4- The increase in production was mostly done for rice and wheat, leaving regions where such production is not very popular, struggling to find a way out of their food crises like Africa.

5- Greed is what has harmed the GR in the past and will harm the GR2 sooner or later. We need to find a way to develop policies and programs that are fair to all stakeholders, without destroying our earth by unreasonably using up its resources.

Thomas Woodfin is an expert article writer. Achieving sustainability [http://www.triplebottomlineapproach.com] occurs through the process of sustainable development – discovering, adopting, implementing, establishing, and adjusting appropriate institutions, policies, strategies, and technologies to produce a just transition that moves society toward the envisioned idealized state of existence. Democracy is often viewed in the same way, as a process of working toward the ideal.

Sustainability is an ambitious goal for humans. We do however have a chance to create a sustainable environment that will allow the human race to endure infinitely. To achieve this we must start with sustaining the earth. The earth provides the raw materials, which become commodities, which are used in the development of everything essential to life, including food, water, and shelter. Water, land and air, are the basic foundations of life that can also serve as representative of our resource depletion and sustainability efforts. The intangible coexistent requirement for future sustainability is a strong social or culture environment that will be responsible for developing processes, policies, laws and other mechanisms that will support sustainability. In 1991, Mohan Munasinghe and Ernst Lutz said:

“Sustainable development is an approach that will permit continuing improvements in the quality of life with a lower intensity of resource use, thereby leaving behind an undiminished or even enhanced stock of natural resources and other assets.”

Our goal should be to work toward restoring and maintaining their function and integrity so that their services and human uses can be sustained over the long term. This can be done by incorporating triple bottom line in our personal lives. According to Lozano (2007) the dominant socio-economic paradigm, has led to behaviors that are increasingly pervasive in our society today. We as individuals should set goals that will help restore our global ecosystem, foster healthy living and reduce our impact on the local environment. We should look at our activities and consider some of the not-so-positive ways in which we impact the future and the globe. We should view in a new way the daily decisions we make about energy use, water consumption, recycling, transportation and food.

The first green revolution was considered a failure in terms of environment because did not work alongside nature. It failed because of bad governance. The small farmers were eventually left behind and were not able to get assistance with their farms. Their voices were not heard. The voices of the people who bought the larger farms were heard instead. Alongside this new pollutants arrived such as pests, petroleum, fertilizers, etc… the green revolution turned out to be a failure, they did not listen and take heed to nature and the local farmers.

Green 2 revolution is a good idea because hopefully they have learned from past mistakes and are more keen to understanding and realizing what truly needs to be done to sustain. Perhaps this time they will work alongside nature. According to Rogers there are five elements for the new green 2 revolution. They are:

“1. A redistributive policy that favors the poor by providing them access to land and modern inputs.

2. Increased public funding for less favorable agricultural land.

3. Increased attention to the needs of small holder farms and landless laborers, including credit.

4. Increased investment in rain fed agricultural areas in both Asia and Latin America.

5. Decentralized agricultural research, development, and extension systems focusing on particular issues such as soil and water management”(Rogers, 2008)
These are very sound elements and if put to use correctly should be very successful. They need to work alongside nature as well as the local people…what will sustain the environment yet sustain the people too!

According to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, the purpose of environmental sustainability is to “foster and promote the general welfare, to create and maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of the present and future generations”. To achieve this goal, it is vital for us to always apply the triple bottom approach. Nowadays, living a “green” life is the talk of the day as many people are beginning to realize the consequences of our actions to the environment. Despite all the growing scientific evidence of the detrimental effects of some of our social and economic activities to the environment, a significant number of people continue to deny the effects of global warming for ideological reasons. For us to achieve the goal of sustainability, we all need to look past our ideological differences and focus on the scientific evidence presented before us.

The Green Revolution is a concept that was employed to increase the produce of farmers in developing countries, so as to fight the famine that was a plaque to some developing countries in the world. Despite the fact that it improves the social and economic status in those countries like India and Mexico through an increase in food production, it had its drawbacks on the environment. The use of fertilizers and pesticides led to an increase in soil and water pollution. These countries depended on primitive water sources for drinking and irrigation like “wells”, streams, and rivers. These water sources got polluted by the chemicals for the fertilizers and pesticides, thereby destroying marine life and other elements of the ecosystem like the nitrogen fixing bacteria which are essential in recycling some of the elements required to sustain human life. Repeated use of the same piece of farm coupled with the chemicals and land slide due to irrigation led to soil infertility; “shifting cultivation” wasn’t practiced anymore. The use of a few genetically engineered seeds and chemicals led to decrease in crop diversity.

As a consequence of the Green Revolution, there is a steep increase in the world’s population today. The new challenge to the world is to sustain this rapidly growing population. To do so, we need to explore the field of research and technology which is the main idea behind the Green II Revolution. I believe we can handle these challenges by implementing the concepts of Green II Revolution. To me, Green II Revolution is a good idea. Besides the fact that it minimizes the drawbacks of the Green Revolution and to cope with the demands of the rising population, effective investment in research and biotechnology will create jobs and other social and economic benefits to the people and the community as a whole. By constantly striving for better techniques and production of more humane and environmentally friendly pesticides, fertilizers, and irrigation methods, we can sustain our environment. Knowing that the ecosystem is dynamic, and that every action we take has its pros and cons, we can maintain the welfare of humans without destroying our environment by maintaining a balance between our social, economic, and environmental activities.

The Green 2 revolution is a good idea to prevent the destruction of our environment due to increase food production. The Green Revolution was an agriculture movement in south Asia which was initiated to combat starvation in the region. The Bangladesh imported fuel to run irrigation pumps but the small farmers were turned away the subsidized prices and were forced to buy more expensive private prices. Bad governance hurt small farmers. As Schoenberg suggests, sustainable Development is based on economic, environmental, social and institution. The institutional part was lacking in the first green revolution. Bangladesh small farmers with little political influence were also unable to “seeds, fertilizers, roads, and communal storehouses.”Both circumstances lead to the larger farmers benefiting more greatly from the green revolution than small farmers and overall increased the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. (Rogers 2008).

A pessimistic view during the green revolution was that the Malthusian catastrophe would occur. However, these predictions have failed to materialize. Hiis prediction of impending famine did not prove self evident. The world’s population had doubled by 1923 and doubled again by 1973 without fulfilling Malthus’ prediction. Mathusian view that “population cannot increase without the food to support it” is true but the technological advancements allow the human race to produce more food. A Malthusian Paul R. Ehrlich, in his 1968 book The Population Bomb, said that “India couldn’t possibly feed two hundred million more people by 1980” and “Hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs.” Ehrlich warnings failed to materialize when India became self-sustaining in cereal production. Ehrlich states in his book the following. “As the most powerful nation in the world today, and its largest consumer, the United States cannot stand isolated. We are today involved in the events leading to famine; tomorrow we may be destroyed by its consequences.” Even though the food production dilemma has been solved, Ehrlich said in an interview that George W. Bush was his environmental nightmare.
The scarcity of food due to increased population has been a concern even before the times today of larger populations. Malthusian documents, “at Nookie Sound, in the year 1794, fish had become very scarce and bore an exorbitant price; as, either from the badness of the season or from neglect, the inhabitants had experienced the greatest distress for want of provisions during winter.” Some will always be pessimistic about our sustainability. In many ways pessimism is needed, for this view may have driven India to solve their food problem rather than ignore it.

In conclusion, the basic problem of the Green revolution was the absence of the triple bottom line approach which must be balanced environmentally, economical and socially. In addition, institutions failed. Governments gave preferential treatment to large farmers. The degradation of the land, the increasingly unequal distribution of income and increase in poverty all lead to threats to peace and security. Green revolution was good but emphasized more on the economic. It maximized the economic at the detriment of the environment and social implications. Sustainable development must be enduring. Another factor that affected the Green revolution was unequal distribution of products between the poor and rich countries. They developed countries contributed more in terms of technology and consumed more than what is required. Green 2 was more even in their distribution of the worlds wealth. Rogers viewed population growth would not be a significant factor in environmental degradation. Many Malthus believers thought that population would be the failure of that era. In fact it was institutional rules that initiated the failure and created poverty and imbalances in income not the population growth.

Thomas Woodfin is an expert article writer. Achieving sustainability [http://www.triplebottomlineapproach.com] occurs through the process of sustainable development – discovering, adopting, implementing, establishing, and adjusting appropriate institutions, policies, strategies, and technologies to produce a just transition that moves society toward the envisioned idealized state of existence. Democracy [] is often viewed in the same way, as a process of working toward the ideal.

When it comes to hardwood floors, nowadays there is a great variety of woods, finishes and colours available on the market. You can easily get overwhelmed when searching for the perfect floor for your home.

As you evaluate your options, you have to consider what the wood material brings in the form of benefits for your home. Hardwood floors are convenient and durable, but above all else, they add warmth and character to the room. Not every type of wood is equal, so you will do good to consider the following things:

Type of wood – generally, there are two types of wood – engineered and solid hardwood. The latter is formed by milling solid logs and consists of groove and tongue parts along the short and long edges. The solid type comes in pre-finished and unfinished options, planks or strips of variable thickness. As for engineered hardwood, it is comprised of a few layers of plywood and composite, with a layer of solid hardwood on top. The major difference comes in floor composition. Solid wood is likely to expand/contract with different humidity levels, which means it is best to install it on the ground floor. On the other hand, engineered flooring is more stable and therefore can be installed on all levels.

Wood species – wood flooring can be made of many different kinds of wood. The main thing to consider is durability. Some woods are harder and endure everyday wear and tear better than others. Red oak is one of the most popular options, for example; however maple and hickory are more durable. The harder the wood, the better it is to have it installed in high-traffic areas in your home.

Appearance, grain colour and grain – due to the variety of wood species such flooring comes in, you can easily select a colour that matches your décor. For example, if your home leans towards the country-style, wide plank floors and defined grains with distressed appearance are perhaps the best options. As for the contemporary setting, you can use any wood, based on the stain and finish. Whitewash, pewter and charcoal finishes have the potential to transform wood species into a great masterpiece.
Finish – finish plays a key role in what the floor looks like. You will find that the same wood species seem quite different with clear gloss and wire-brush finish. The effect is due to different gloss levels and techniques used. Keep in mind that hardwood flooring comes either pre-finished or unfinished. The former has the finish applied in a controlled factory environment, while unfinished flooring is done on-site.

Installation – all types of hardwood are installed by nailing, glueing or stapling planks to a subfloor. While it is true you can do this one your own; it is best to consider professional help, to minimise the risk of mistakes.

Factors That May Have an Im

Breweries can be found in all sizes, from small micro-units or large commercial units. Therefore, these systems use a diversity of processes based on the degree of automation and type of beer. For instance, in large breweries, the making process is divided into multiple sections. In this article, we are going to talk about the cost of brewery equipment. Read on.

Factors that may have an impact on the brewery equipment costs

All breweries should figure out the equipment cost based on the beer volume they want to produce. There are three factors that have an impact on the cost: material, new/used equipment and size of the brewhouse.

Brewery Equipment Material

Typically, the equipment is made of different types of materials. However, the most common materials are stainless steel and copper.

Brewery Equipment Condition

Apart from the size, the equipment cost may vary based on whether it’s new or used. Often, new business owners have a limited budget to work with. Therefore, they opt for used equipment. Given below are the most common equipment required for the business:

• Kegs
• Storage tanks
• Fermentation tanks
• Kettles
• Boilers

Aside from these, cleaning tools, refrigerators, bottlers, cooling equipment, and filters are also on the list of essential equipment irrespective of the brewery size.

Size of the Brewhouse

A brewhouse has a lot of components like a whirlpool, boil kettle, hot liquor tank, lauter tun and mash mixer. Larger units may make use of a 5-vessel brewhouse where each component is a separate vessel. Based on the size, the cost of equipment will vary.

Fermentation Tanks

After the preparation of wrot, the next step in the process is fermentation. This process happens in the fermentation tanks that feature a cone-shaped bottom. The cost of small tanks is around $400, while bigger units may cost as high as $2,500.

Brite Tanks

Beer goes through the filtration process and is pumped into a different tank for secondary fermentation. This tank is called the Brite tank and allows the beer to clarify and carbonate before it’s transferred into kegs, cans or bottles. At time brewpubs, beer is also served from the brite tanks.

So, the non-jacketed brite tanks may cost between $1,400 and $4,600 for a 1-bbl and 7-bbl model respectively. On the other hand, the cost of a 5-bbl tank is around $5,800. If you need large tanks, you can contact the supplier for custom quotes.

Kegs

For beer storage, brewers use kegs even if they store the beer in cans or bottles eventually. Alternatively, they may serve or sell beer to bars and restaurants in kegs. The most common size is a 0.5 bbl keg that sells for $125, give or take.

To protect the taste and prevent spoilage, kegs are also washed. Although small breweries can wash kegs manually, larger units use a keg washer for better efficiency and lower costs.

The Takeaway

The cost of brewery equipment depends upon a lot of factors, such as your location, licensing, building expenses and brewhouse size, just to name a few. So, you may want to consider these factors when making the decision.

In almost all fields, the internet has introduced a lot of opportunities. Today, you don’t have to follow the conventional brick and mortar methods in order to promote your products and services and earn your livelihood. Promoting your business and making a lot of money has never been this convenient. Therefore, it is a good idea that you get the most out of the resources offered by the world wide web. In this article, we are going to talk about dropshipping and how you can do it with great success.

If you have been looking for a web-based money-making opportunity, you may consider dropshipping. At first, it may seem a complicated idea. But in reality, it is not that complicated to start your ecommerce business that can help you to make tons of money.

WHAT IS DROPSHIPPING?

With dropshipping, you can simplify the online marketing process. If you can run a website like Shopify and Amazon but don’t have the essentials such as a warehouse for inventory, then drop-shipping can work for you. As a matter of fact, dropshipping is a great way to run your online businesses.

Dropshipping allows you to promote and sell your products even if you don’t have a warehouse for your goods. All you need to do is be familiar with the supplier that can produce goods and store them for you. On the other hand, you will have to deal with the customers. If something goes wrong, you will be held accountable.

It is true that dropshipping does not offer guaranteed success unless you have proper resources and tools at your disposal. If you want to earn a profit, you need to keep an eye on a lot of variables.

Use the Right Tools

For the success of your dropshipping business, you may want to look for the right methods and tools. You can use this fire tools in order to to keep an eye on the patterns of the market and the moves of your competitors.

It is also important to promote the right products on your webpage store. And don’t forget to do it at the right time. With spy tools, you can find it easier to make the decision and stay tuned to the most recent trends.

Like any other business choosing the right tools and deciding on the best strategies is not easy in case of a dropshipping business. Although trial and error is a proven strategy for any type of business, doing a little bit of research goes a long way.

Nowadays, there are a lot of spy tools that can help you find out about the strategies your competitors are using. Based on your needs and budget, you can buy the right type of software for your dropshipping business.

You may have to be patient as your dropshipping business may take a while to flourish. Keep in mind that you have to sell those products that consumers demand. You can also choose a software program to make it easier for you to understand the demand and supply concept.

So, if you want to achieve success as a drop-shipping business owner, we suggest that you keep these tips in mind and choose the right type of tools.

Stop throwing your money away on marketing that doesn’t work!

Have you ever wondered why your hard-earned marketing dollars fail to get a great return for you?

Have you ever wondered how you might improve your marketing return without spending more money?

Do you want to know why most marketing spending is a waste of time, effort and money?

Stop wasting your valuable time, effort and hard-earned money on marketing that does not work!

Understanding the purpose of marketing is the first step to making your marketing work better for you. By knowing what you are trying to do with your marketing activities and utilisation of those limited resources called dollars, you will dramatically improve the return on investment. So, understanding what marketing is all about is fundamental to getting optimum results and in this article I am going to demonstrate to you just what you need to know.

One of the most common mistakes small business owners make is to spend money on the wrong type of marketing. They spend money on something called tactical marketing. That is, how their marketing dollar will be spent. Things such as, “should we use AdWords or not, how much should we spend, what key words should we target, should we do direct mail or not, is my website due for an upgrade?” In other words, how to spend the advertising dollar as opposed to spending their money firstly on strategic marketing.

Strategic marketing is the message they want to send and who to send the message to. In other words, who is our most likely buyer, what are their pain points, what problem do they want solved, what solution do we have that is unique and what is the decision-making process those prospects are likely to follow.

Marketing is about understanding the needs, wants and desires of a market, how those needs, wants and desires are currently being met by competitors in the market and how you can take advantage of the opportunities that exist in those markets to make a profit.

To make the most profit from any market you want to create a market dominating position. That is a position that once identified can be communicated to your target audience with the clear understanding that you are the obvious choice for selection to solve their pain points.

This is done by focussing your advertising messages clearly to evoke an action from the prospective customer that starts them on the buying journey with you. It is not necessarily a message, in the first instance, to buy now! Unless it is an emergency service that you are offering, Your message should be to engage the prospect in the buying journey you would have developed that takes them through the identified buying process you discovered in your research. This could be a process involving a number of logical steps. You must take prospects on that journey.

Along the journey you will need to maintain some form of communication and contact with the prospect and that is one of the reasons why tactical marketing fails. It tends to focus on, “do it now actions”. Buy now, call now, act now. Most buyers are not ready to, “do it now”. Most buyers, in fact some would say more than 98% of buyers are not ready to buy now. Most buyers are still going along the buying journey. Only as many as 2% of buyers are at the end of that journey and are ready to act now.

If only 2% of buyers are ready to buy now and you have focussed your marketing activities on tactical marketing, i.e. using AdWords and bidding for keywords that get a lot of attention, then you are targeting 2% of the potential buyers for your product or service. The end results are poor returns and a tendency to blame the medium used for the poor results. AdWords works great when done right.

Put another way, tactical marketing means you are financially contributing to the research project of the other 98% of potential buyers who may just end up buying from your competitors. If 98% of buyers today are searching for information, after all we live in the information age, then why would you want to do that and not get to control the rest of the conversation, the education process with those same potential buyers?

Strategic marketing on the other hand identifies how to add to the education process and once a potential buyer engages with you, you want to capture them to be able to control the conversation, with you, AWAY from your competitors. This is what will provide you with the greatest return for your dollar. This is what will turn your business into a profit-making machine.

Focus on strategic marketing activities first. Get your messages right before you spend your hard-earned dollars making advertising platform owners rich. Let other competitors flounder around educating your prospects, but only until you decide to engage them in your conversation. Then keep them under control and watch the results grow.

Every once in a while, you come across a book that really gets you “thinking” and maybe even “changing the way you think”. “Unlocking Leadership Mind Traps: How to Thrive in Complexity” by Jennifer Garvey Berger was that book for me.

My first introduction to Jennifer was through an online course I took recently (The Art of Developmental Coaching). Jennifer was one of the instructors and I found her to be very engaging and very deep in her perspectives and facts regarding adult and leadership development.

To quote Jennifer Garvey Berger:

“We are living in this strange, paradoxical time in our world where the massively increasing complexity around us could lead us to grow faster and more compassionately and more together, or it could lead us to get more defensive, closed, hard, and smaller.”

There is no doubt that the world in which we work and live is complex and becoming increasingly more complex. But just as we must deal with the complexity “out there” or external to our selves, we are challenged to understand and deal with the complexity “in here” and internal to our selves.

In Jennifer’s book, she refers to 5 Mind Traps. The premise is that we act as if the world is simple when in fact the world is quite complex. Recognizing these mind traps within our selves helps us to see things through a broader lens and provides us with greater resources for dealing with the actual complexity.

These are the 5 Mind Traps:

1. Simple Stories – We love our stories. Stories often have a beginning, middle and end and are filled with heroes and villains. Often, we are the hero in the story and the other person is the villain. Our problem-solving nature looks for short cuts and so the story is riddled with our beliefs and bias. But simple stories keep us small and presume a certain outcome based on the past. One way to expand beyond our story is to consider the other person in the story. How might they be considered a hero?

2. Rightness – Our sense of being “right” enables our decisiveness but on the flip side it can kill curiosity and openness. You may even confuse feeling right with being right. Ask yourself “what do I believe and how can I be wrong?” There are always 2 sides to a situation – exploring the other side is good practice. Make sure you listen carefully to learn rather than to win or fix things.

3. Agreement – We are programmed to be connected to other people. Agreement fulfills our desire for belonging and connection. Sometimes, we want so much to belong that we down play our difference of opinion. We are oriented to not be socially disconnected because the pain of being left out is experienced the same way as physical pain in the body. To release this mind trap, consider how conflict could serve to deepen a relationship. Or how disagreeing might lead to expanded thinking and ideas.

4. Control – Our sense of being in control is directly tied to our feeling of being happy. In fact, our being in control and perceived by others as being in control is often equated with good leadership. However, sometimes great leadership requires us to let go of control to enable better outcomes, especially in complexity. Ask yourself: What can I help enable instead of what can I make happen? Or what could enable me/us?

5. Ego – Our sense of who we are helps us function with purpose. The person we are now is a culmination of our thoughts, experiences, beliefs, to this point in our journey. The problem however, is that we are protective of the person we are being now vs the person we are becoming. We believe we have changed in the past but for some reason probably won’t change much moving forward. This leads us to want to protect the person we think we are. For true personal growth to happen, we need to pay attention to the map of our own development and ask ourselves “who would I like to be next?”

Linda Cattelan is an Executive and Career Acceleration Coach. Linda has helped thousands of career professionals alleviate stress, avoid burnout, get their priorities clear, regain control of their career, and heighten their performance, focus and readiness for the next level. If you are looking to get unstuck and make a huge difference in your career, Linda can help you. Sign up for her free eReport: 3 Surprising Reasons Your Career is Stuck in Neutral and What You Can Do About It

Machine vision systems are one of the most definitive technological advance in the recent years. Today it is used to keep track of the machine-related operations and their applications, which can make the consumer experience better. Using this technology, the industries and manufacturing units are collecting data daily and are making their processes more effective in every way.

There are many applications that the machine vision technology has in different fields like:

Inspection

One of the biggest applications of the machine vision systems is inspecting the manufacturing lines and other areas of a unit in all kinds of industries. Starting from the identification of parts until the very last assembly and packaging, any error can cause a major setback for the entire line. However, with these systems, the efficiency has increased many folds as the computer systems can identify the aberrations and faulty products. The images of the defective products are captured, which are then logged into the systems and at the end of the line, they get removed easily.

Maintenance

Predictive maintenance has become a real thing after the machine vision systems have come into view. In an industry, machines are used daily, and they are also prone to getting damaged and faulty. In case the entire machine breaks down it can cause a major financial setback for the unit. However, with machine vision systems, the data is collected to identify signals and notify before any major breakdown.

Assembly

In those manufacturing and assembly units which have a huge capacity and run day and night, it is important to make sure that the final assembled products adhere to the standards. There are many aspects of assembly like printing, sealing of the bottles or packets, the position of the caps, labeling, etc. which need to be taken care of. Machine vision systems are used to get a complete 360-degree view of the process, which will increase the productivity and quality of production.

Barcode reading

In smaller equipment or parts there is always a barcode given which can identify each product separately from the other. Initially reading the bar codes during the final testing was done manually. But this became a time costing process and also came with many human errors. Thus now machine vision systems are used, which read the bar codes automatically saving both time and cost.

3D inspection

In many industries, there are bigger and smaller components that are joined together to get a final product like electronics, automobiles, etc. However to make sure that the connections and assembly are not done in a faulty way, the three-dimensional inspection should take place. Machine vision cameras and computers capture high definition images which can create a 3D image of the components. This will not only help in understanding the parts and their circuitry, it will also help in reducing defects in the product.

These systems are of major importance these days as they have reduced the operation and inspection costs by many folds. Not only they help in fault detection but have also made the units more automated.