Wednesday, April 25, 2012

KCB and VISA INTERNATIONAL in Financial Literacy Deal


KCB Foundation has partnered with VISA International and the world’s largest student organization, AIESEC to run a financial literacy project dubbed ‘Minding Your Money’, aimed at giving youth an opportunity to learn how to effectively manage their money.
Speaking to journalists at the launch KCB Group Chief Executive Martin Oduor-Otieno said the bank’s role in this partnership, apart from the shared financial responsibility of supporting logistics and hospitality, would also include providing facilitators for training sessions from among its employees, setting up sales and information tents at the venues to provide valuable tips to the youth, as well as meeting the costs of merchandizing and publicity.
“This is a very important initiative because the youth of this country form about 60% of the entire population and by educating them we are creating future stewards of this economy. This group has distinctive consumer preferences and spending habits.  KCB, through the KCB Foundation, is committed to supporting the development of entrepreneurship among our people and will spend over Ksh13 million to support this area across the region,” said Oduor-Otieno.
The Chief Executive noted that as widely recognized brands in the financial services sector, touching the lives of millions of people in Africa and the world, both directly and indirectly, KCB and VISA International have a big role to play in financial education in the country and the region. 
A past study by Consumer Insight showed that young people in Kenya spend more than nine billion shillings a year, which is mostly spent on snacks, beverages, educational materials and mobile phone airtime.
However, according to an American Consumers for Education and Competition report, nearly 90 percent of high school students graduate without knowledge of basic financial literacy. The program is designed to teach financial literacy skills not taught in typical school curriculums.
“As key players in the financial services sector, it is our responsibility to take the lead in creating awareness and providing education to the youth on the value of financial services and products as well as the importance of cultivating a responsible financial management culture among themselves. Earnings start while many of these youth are in University – with their allowances, bursaries, research, and part-time jobs. However, ideal management of these resources is lacking and often at this stage a foundation is laid for poor resource management practices in the future,” said the Chief Executive.
Together with VISA, KCB will jointly sponsor a series of one-day financial literacy workshops to be conducted at three universities at a cost of Ksh440, 000. The workshops aim at empowering the youth to make appropriate decisions regarding their personal finances. This being a pilot project, the workshops will be conducted at - University of Nairobi, Strathmore University and Daystar University and will target a maximum of 200 students in each University. Each workshop will run for a maximum of 2 hours with presentations being conducted by financial experts from both KCB and Visa.
http://www.kcbbankgroup.com/ke/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=507&Itemid=264

Financial Literacy


Definition of 'Financial Literacy '
The possession of knowledge and understanding of financial matters. Financial literacy is mainly used in connection with personal finance matters. Financial literacy often entails the knowledge of properly making decisions pertaining to certain personal finance areas like real estate, insurance, investing, saving (especially for college), tax planning and retirement. It also involves intimate knowledge of financial concepts like compound interest, financial planning, the mechanics of a credit card, advantageous savings methods, consumer rights, time value of money, etc.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financial-literacy.asp#ixzz1t2wIDS95
Investopedia explains 'Financial Literacy '
The absence of financial literacy can lead to making poor financial decisions that can have adverse effects on the financial health of an individual. The advantages or disadvantages of variable or fixed rates is an example of an issue that will be easier to understand if an individual is financially literate. In 2003, the U.S government launched the Financial Literacy and Education Commission. The office is responsible for having resources available for individuals who want to be financially literate.


Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financial-literacy.asp#ixzz1t2wWkOor

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Importance of Integrity

Do you show leadership or financial cancer?
In 1979, I learned an important lesson about the importance of integrity. At that time, my first business was failing. Many of our account receivables were out past 90 days, I owed money to our distributors and back taxes, and I was in danger of not being able to pay my employees.
Still, I was trying to hold on.
Rather than be honest with myself, I kept making excuses. And as rich dad said, “Excuses are simply lies you tell yourself.”
At this time, I sat down with rich dad and he looked over my books. After some tense silence, rich dad looked up, shook his head, and said, "Your company has financial cancer, and I'm afraid it's terminal. You boys have mismanaged what could have grown into a rich and powerful company.”
He went on to say, “You and the three clowns you call partners have mismanaged your business. You don't know what you're doing, you're incompetent. And worst of all, you don't have the guts to admit it. You guys are pretending to be businesspeople but when I look at your financials, you boys are either crooks or clowns. I hope you're clowns, but if you don't make some changes, you clowns will become crooks.”
It was a hard truth to hear, but thankfully I listened to my rich dad, liquidated my business, paid my employees and back taxes, and started over with nothing in my pocket. I wasn’t rich in terms of money, but I had gained a wealth of knowledge and retained my integrity, which is one of the most important things a person can have.
The Age of Integrity
One of the many lessons I learned from my failure was that it's not the lack of money that kills a business. It's more the lack of business experience and lack of personal integrity.
Around that time, I started learning from Dr. Buckminster Fuller, who was considered one of the smartest men of our age.
Dr. Fuller taught that we were entering the age of integrity. Integrity simply means whole or complete. That means that your thoughts, your words, and your actions need to be the same. If you will do that, the future is yours.
If you don’t, you can cause incredible damage in our increasingly connected world.
The power of integrity
This last week, the power of integrity was on display in a negative and massive way when Greg Smith, an executive at Goldman Sachs quit through an Op Ed in The New York Times.
According to Smith, “To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.”
Central to what the firm used to stand for was “teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients,” the “secret sauce” according to Smith that allowed the firm to enjoy success for over 143 years.
Living out of integrity
Among 14 values listed on Goldman Sachs website are two important ones:
OUR CLIENTS’ INTERESTS ALWAYS COME FIRST.
INTEGRITY AND HONESTY ARE AT THE HEART OF OUR BUSINESS.
Goldman has a problem today because a high level leader is questioning their integrity. They say one thing but do another. They live out of integrity.
As Smith writes,
How did we get here? The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence.
What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.
Those actions couldn’t be more opposite than Goldman’s stated values.
How’s your integrity?
As I said, integrity is one of the most important things you can have and control. Each day, you make a decision whether you’ll walk in integrity or not. And in the Age of Integrity, our actions affect others in untold ways.
For instance, Goldman was a major contributor to the financial crisis because they pawned off toxic assets to clients, causing massive financial damage. Their lack of integrity cost investors billions if not trillions of dollars.
Conversely, Greg Smith’s open letter last week caused Goldman Sachs to lose $2.5 billion in market value.
Only time will tell how truthful Smith’s letter was, but I’m inclined to believe an individual who puts his reputation on the line over a firm that settles antitrust lawsuits with the SEC to the tune of $550 million and has a host of other public integrity issues.
But one thing remains true, the Smith/Goldman debacle shows that integrity is massively important in today’s world of business.
While your integrity or lack thereof may not cost people billions of dollars, it is still massively important to your success and the success of others.
A lack of integrity results in broken relationships, lost deals, and a bleak future. A life of integrity results in a multitude of friendships, new opportunities, and a bright future.
So, how’s your integrity?
For more information about building your leadership, integrity and success, see our free, financial education resources here.

Written by: Robert Kiyosaki

Thursday, March 1, 2012

A LIST OF MANAGEMENT MODELS

MIKE MORISON

1.    Business growth model
2.    Coaching – skill/ will
3.    Technology & people
4.    Urgent –v- Important
5.    Trust –v- Risk
6.    Scenario Analysis
7.    Barriers & Profitability
8.    Support –v- challenge
9.    Purchasing model
10.  Energy –v- Motivation
11.  Leadership – skill –v- will
12.  Ambiguity –v- complexity
13.  Power & Influence
14.  Business strength & Customer Attractiveness
15.  Change magnitude & breadth
16.  The Change Arena
17.  Risk –v- spend effort
18.  Sales – client & organization focus
19.  Assertiveness & emotional response
20.  Attitude & competence
21.  Effectiveness & Morale
22.  Johari Window
23.  Personal competence awareness
24.  Innovation Paradigm
25.  Adizes PAEI management Roles
26.  Topic and attitude
27.  Business Funding streams
28.  Conceptual Model
29.  Boston matrix/ box
30.  Knowledge transfer model
31.  Business Diagnostic Model
32.  Change Quadrants
33.  Managing Risks
34.  Core Quadrants
35.  Business expansion model
36.  Dynamic Coaching model
37.  I’m OK You’re OK
38.  Tuckman Team development model
39.  Personal change model
40.  Personal change model – swing
41.  Personal change model – v2
42.  Variant – Personal change model
43.  Technology Learning Cycle
44.  Pace of adoption model
45.  MBTI – Myers Briggs Type Indicator
46.  Stakeholder mapping
47.  FIRO-B
48.  Price & quality
49.  Developing Consulting skills
50.  Risk assessment
51.  Project cycle
52.  Management cycle
53.  The Deming Cycle
54.  Services management model
55.  Kolb’s learning cycle
56.  Development cycle
57.  Greer – service cycle
58.  Debrief cycle
59.  Growth model
60.  Continuous improvement cycle
61.  Directed creativity Cycle
62.  Learning Model
63.  Performance model
64.  Norman’s Reaction cycle
65.  Honey & Mumford Learning Cycle
66.  GROW coaching cycle
67.  Multiple change model
68.  Consulting Model
69.  Organizational Development Cycle
70.  Development Cycle
71.  Successful Change Model
72.  Risk Assessment guide
73.  Byrd’s drivers for Innovation
74.  16 PF – personality Factors
75.  Berenschot’s Seven Forces
76.  Force Field Analysis
77.  Adair’s Action centred Leadership
78.  Service Delivery Model
79.  Strategic Planning
80.  Presentation planning
81.  Scharmer Change Model
82.  Organizational effectiveness concept
83.  Byrd’s Innovation Equation (Creatrix)
84.  The S-Curve
85.  Business planning Process
86.  McGregor’s Theory X Theory Y
87.  Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
88.  Accident management pyramid
89.  Dilt’s Logical levels
90.  Transactional Analysis – PAC
91.  Growing winners – coaching model
92.  Noelle Neumann
93.  Hertzberg Motivational Theory
94.  Learning Delivery Model
95.  Balances Business Scorecard
96.  Business Excellence Model
97.  Performance management System
98.  Change Equation – Beckhard & Harris
99.  Wilfreid Kruger – Iceberg model
100.               Three levels of culture – Schein
101.               Business maturity Stages
102.               Business Capability Maturity Model
103.               Capability Maturity Model
104.               Training Evaluation model
105.               Team Training Integration
106.               Business Growth Curve
107.               Tannenbaum & Schmidt – leadership Continuum
108.               Entrepreneurs balance
109.               Goal setting model
110.               Change management continuum
111.               Change Curve
112.               Kubler Ross Transition Curve
113.               Change Curve (variant)
114.               PRIMO-F Organizational growth model
115.               McKinsey 7s
116.               Kotter – System Dynamics
117.               Kurt Lewin Change model
118.               The J-Curve Effect
119.               Kotter Change Model
120.               Kotter – 8 Steps model
121.               Dynamics of Flow – Csikszentmihalyi
122.               Map of Everyday experience – Csikszentmihalyi
123.               Talent Management 9 box grid
124.               Talent management 9 box grid version 2
125.               Ansoff’s product/ Market grid
126.               Ansoff’s matrix – 9 box version
127.               Whitelaw’s Circle of evaluation
128.               Employee Engagement Survey
129.               Brainstorming
130.               Change
131.               The transition
132.               Implementing Change
133.               Dimensions of change
134.               Types of change
135.               Balancing Power model
136.               The facilitation process
137.               The change leader
138.               Unconscious Competence
139.               Stu Downes model
140.               Conscious competence – stairs
141.               Knowing & Doing – competence
142.               Knowing & Doing – competence – enhanced
143.               Experience & learning path
144.               Conscious competence ladder
145.               The normal learning curve
146.               Unconscious resistance to learning
147.               Kotter Change – vision& results
148.               Learning Progress Curve
149.               Stress & performance
150.               Results coaching model
151.               Who to coach
152.               Who to coach – 2
153.               ICT learning curve
154.               Performance drop curve
155.               The cycle of resistance to Change
156.               Traditional learning curve
157.               New learning curve
158.               Goal & people grid
159.               Congruence model
160.               The learning curve
161.               Blooms taxonomy
162.               Environmental time & awareness
163.               The Quantum learning Curve
164.               Four level Project Management Learning Curve
165.               Phases of learning
166.               Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
167.               Talent Management matrix v3
168.               Talent management matrix v4
169.               Input process output
170.               SIPOC process mapping
171.               Have do be
172.               Have do be – v2
173.               The Greiner Curve
174.               Change in the Management cycle
175.               Change – order of acceptance
176.               Change management
177.               Ladder of Inference
178.               EQ Self leadership
179.               Business Architecture model
180.               BODCAT management model
181.               Levels of Hierarchy of needs analysis
182.               The assertiveness triangle
183.               The project Management triangle
184.               The Project management Triangle – Variant
185.               The Training Cycle
186.               Four Stress Components
187.               Freud’s mental Iceberg
188.               Iceberg of software costs
189.               Freud – Ego, Superego, ID
190.               Motivation Iceberg
191.               Iceberg model of culture
192.               Change Communication model
193.               Balances Business scorecard – alternative
194.               Four dimensions of Culture
195.               Change and productivity
196.               Key leadership tasks in change
197.               Key leadership tasks in change – 2
198.               Personal Change model
199.               Six competencies that matter most
200.               Accident sequence
201.               Pyramid Model
202.               Measuring performance
203.               Seven Step Social Marketing
204.               Ogdens-Richards Triangle
205.               The Drama Triangle
206.               Consulting Model
207.               Learning Modes
208.               Dynamic Strategic plan
209.               Getting to Talent Management
210.               Job based compensation model
211.               Skills based compensation model
212.               The Flow Model
213.               Four components of coaching
214.               Tuckman team development – v2
215.               Business coaching model
216.               EQ coaching model
217.               Three movements of Theory U
218.               BE Do Culture Matrix
219.               Sales & Influence U Curve
220.               Consulting Model
221.               Change model
222.               Change Cycle
223.               Johari Window – v2
224.               Implementation decision making
225.               Evaluating risk Exposure
226.               LINK networking
227.               Priority mapping
228.               Impact of Risk
229.               Coaching reaction matrix
230.               SQERT Project management
231.               Change Management
232.               Focus of effort during Change management
233.               Focus of effort during change management – pt 2
234.               Group Decision making
235.               Emotional Cycle of change
236.               ADKAR Change model
237.               Lean six Sigma, DMAIC & ADKAR
238.               Wheel of change
239.               Team Performance Curve
240.               ReEngineering & ReOrganization
241.               Situational Based Leadership 3.0
242.               Training Cycle
243.               The Training Cycle
244.               Experiential learning cycle
245.               Accelerated learning
246.               Experiential learning
247.               Learning Cycle
248.               Kolb Learning Cycle
249.               Development & people/ task grid
250.               Waves of change model
251.               Intelligence Pyramid
252.               The Facilitation process
253.               Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence