Friday, 12 December 2014
Thursday, 20 November 2014
Everyday Is A Second Chance
It would not be a single day in our lives that we would never encounter conflict. But somehow the conflict occured drain us mentally and perhaps also physically. The magnitude of the impact could varies but in worst case scenario, it impacted us till we feel like running away from it. Avoiding the conflict at all cost. But, could the approach able to resolve it? Could the method bring us peace?
If we avoid it, we are merely delaying it. Face the conflict. Accept whatever end result it would be even if it might not be positive ones. If it's due to our mistakes, ask for forgiveness. Move on from there. Learn and grow from the conflicts as "Every day is a second chance".
If we avoid it, we are merely delaying it. Face the conflict. Accept whatever end result it would be even if it might not be positive ones. If it's due to our mistakes, ask for forgiveness. Move on from there. Learn and grow from the conflicts as "Every day is a second chance".
Friday, 12 September 2014
What are the Habits of Systems Thinker? by Daniel Goleman
Innate systems intelligence is present from our very early years. If nurtured, it can develop to surprising scope and depth in older students.
But the key to this progression is offering developmentally appropriate tools that enable students to articulate and hone their systems intelligence – whether through simple visual tools like a reinforcing feedback loop or software to build dynamic simulation models.
There is a natural interplay between tools and skills. As the old saying goes, “You need hammers to build houses but also to build carpenters.” Without usable tools, this innate systems intelligence lays fallow, much like our innate musical intelligence would if children were never given musical instruments.
Of course, it is actually worse because by the second or third grade, children would otherwise be immersed in the traditional academic process of separate, disconnected subjects and the pressure of performing on assignments given by the teacher, rather than understanding the challenges of real life.
Like all intelligence, systems intelligence must be developed or it will atrophy. So, it is little wonder that, for most children, there would be less and less evidence of this innate systems intelligence the further students go through traditional schooling.
This is why one of the major breakthroughs of the last twenty years is the development of a whole suite of these basic tools, created by innovative teachers across the pre-K-12 curriculum. Recently, educators have been recognizing tools for developing each habit. Here are some examples:
Habits of a Systems Thinker
- Recognizes the importance of time delays when exploring cause and effect relationships
- Finds where unintended consequences emerge
- Changes perspectives to increase understanding
- Identifies the circular nature of complex cause and effect relationships
- Recognizes that a system’s structure generates its behavior
- Uses understanding of system structure to identify higher leverage actions
- Surfaces and tests assumptions
- Checks results and changers actions if needed: successive approximation
- Seeks to understand the big picture
The habits of a systems thinker are helping educators bring a coherent overall framework to a field that has had many pioneers in various school settings. We are now witnessing that seeing the big picture, identifying circles of causality, understanding how the structure of a system produces its behavior, and recognizing the benefits of looking at problems from different perspectives can help educators focus on deeper thinking skills across virtually all curricula and ages.
Thursday, 11 September 2014
How Succesful People Stay Calm By Dr. Travis Bradberry
The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.
If you follow our newsletter, you’ve read some startling research summaries that explore the havoc stress can wreak on one’s physical and mental health (such as the Yale study, which found that prolonged stress causes degeneration in the area of the brain responsible for self-control). The tricky thing about stress (and the anxiety that comes with it) is that it’s an absolutely necessary emotion. Our brains are wired such that it’s difficult to take action until we feel at least some level of this emotional state. In fact, performance peaks under the heightened activation that comes with moderate levels of stress. As long as the stress isn’t prolonged, it’s harmless.
Research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals an upside to experiencing moderate levels of stress. But it also reinforces how important it is to keep stress under control. The study, led by post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, found that the onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory. However, this effect is only seen when stress is intermittent. As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.
“I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,” Kirby says. For animals, intermittent stress is the bulk of what they experience, in the form of physical threats in their immediate environment. Long ago, this was also the case for humans. As the human brain evolved and increased in complexity, we’ve developed the ability to worry and perseverate on events, which creates frequent experiences of prolonged stress.
Besides increasing your risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity, stress decreases your cognitive performance. Fortunately, though, unless a lion is chasing you, the bulk of your stress is subjective and under your control. Top performers have well-honed coping strategies that they employ under stressful circumstances. This lowers their stress levels regardless of what’s happening in their environment, ensuring that the stress they experience is intermittent and not prolonged.
While I’ve run across numerous effective strategies that successful people employ when faced with stress, what follows are ten of the best. Some of these strategies may seem obvious, but the real challenge lies in recognizing when you need to use them and having the wherewithal to actually do so in spite of your stress.
They Appreciate What They Have
Taking time to contemplate what you’re grateful for isn’t merely the “right” thing to do. It also improves your mood, because it reduces the stress hormone cortisol by 23%. Research conducted at the University of California, Davis found that people who worked daily to cultivate an attitude of gratitude experienced improved mood, energy, and physical well-being. It’s likely that lower levels of cortisol played a major role in this.
They Avoid Asking “What If?”
“What if?” statements throw fuel on the fire of stress and worry. Things can go in a million different directions, and the more time you spend worrying about the possibilities, the less time you’ll spend focusing on taking action that will calm you down and keep your stress under control. Calm people know that asking “what if? will only take them to a place they don’t want—or need—to go.
They Stay Positive
Positive thoughts help make stress intermittent by focusing your brain’s attention onto something that is completely stress-free. You have to give your wandering brain a little help by consciously selecting something positive to think about. Any positive thought will do to refocus your attention. When things are going well, and your mood is good, this is relatively easy. When things are going poorly, and your mind is flooded with negative thoughts, this can be a challenge. In these moments, think about your day and identify one positive thing that happened, no matter how small. If you can't think of something from the current day, reflect on the previous day or even the previous week. Or perhaps you’re looking forward to an exciting event that you can focus your attention on. The point here is that you must have something positive that you're ready to shift your attention to when your thoughts turn negative.
They Disconnect
Given the importance of keeping stress intermittent, it’s easy to see how taking regular time off the grid can help keep your stress under control. When you make yourself available to your work 24/7, you expose yourself to a constant barrage of stressors. Forcing yourself offline and even—gulp!—turning off your phone gives your body a break from a constant source of stress. Studies have shown that something as simple as an email break can lower stress levels.
Technology enables constant communication and the expectation that you should be available 24/7. It is extremely difficult to enjoy a stress-free moment outside of work when an email that will change your train of thought and get you thinking (read: stressing) about work can drop onto your phone at any moment. If detaching yourself from work-related communication on weekday evenings is too big a challenge, then how about the weekend? Choose blocks of time where you cut the cord and go offline. You’ll be amazed at how refreshing these breaks are and how they reduce stress by putting a mental recharge into your weekly schedule. If you’re worried about the negative repercussions of taking this step, first try doing it at times when you’re unlikely to be contacted—maybe Sunday morning. As you grow more comfortable with it, and as your coworkers begin to accept the time you spend offline, gradually expand the amount of time you spend away from technology.
They Limit Their Caffeine Intake
Drinking caffeine triggers the release of adrenaline. Adrenaline is the source of the “fight-or-flight” response, a survival mechanism that forces you to stand up and fight or run for the hills when faced with a threat. The fight-or-flight mechanism sidesteps rational thinking in favor of a faster response. This is great when a bear is chasing you, but not so great when you’re responding to a curt email. When caffeine puts your brain and body into this hyperaroused state of stress, your emotions overrun your behavior. The stress that caffeine creates is far from intermittent, as its long half-life ensures that it takes its sweet time working its way out of your body.
They Sleep
I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to increasing your emotional intelligence and managing your stress levels. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, shuffling through the day’s memories and storing or discarding them (which causes dreams), so that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your self-control, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough—or the right kind—of sleep. Sleep deprivation raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Stressful projects often make you feel as if you have no time to sleep, but taking the time to get a decent night’s sleep is often the one thing keeping you from getting things under control.
They Squash Negative Self-Talk
A big step in managing stress involves stopping negative self-talk in its tracks. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that—thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things, your inner voice says, “It's time to stop and write them down.” Literally stop what you're doing and write down what you're thinking. Once you've taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you will be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.
You can bet that your statements aren’t true any time you use words like “never,” “worst,” “ever,” etc. If your statements still look like facts once they’re on paper, take them to a friend or colleague you trust and see if he or she agrees with you. Then the truth will surely come out. When it feels like something always or never happens, this is just your brain’s natural threat tendency inflating the perceived frequency or severity of an event. Identifying and labeling your thoughts as thoughts by separating them from the facts will help you escape the cycle of negativity and move toward a positive new outlook.
They Reframe Their Perspective
Stress and worry are fueled by our own skewed perception of events. It’s easy to think that unrealistic deadlines, unforgiving bosses, and out-of-control traffic are the reasons we’re so stressed all the time. You can’t control your circumstances, but you can control how you respond to them. So before you spend too much time dwelling on something, take a minute to put the situation in perspective. If you aren’t sure when you need to do this, try looking for clues that your anxiety may not be proportional to the stressor. If you’re thinking in broad, sweeping statements such as “Everything is going wrong” or “Nothing will work out,” then you need to reframe the situation. A great way to correct this unproductive thought pattern is to list the specific things that actually are going wrong or not working out. Most likely you will come up with just some things—not everything—and the scope of these stressors will look much more limited than it initially appeared.
They Breathe
The easiest way to make stress intermittent lies in something that you have to do everyday anyway: breathing. The practice of being in the moment with your breathing will begin to train your brain to focus solely on the task at hand and get the stress monkey off your back. When you’re feeling stressed, take a couple of minutes to focus on your breathing. Close the door, put away all other distractions, and just sit in a chair and breathe. The goal is to spend the entire time focused only on your breathing, which will prevent your mind from wandering. Think about how it feels to breathe in and out. This sounds simple, but it’s hard to do for more than a minute or two. It’s all right if you get side-tracked by another thought; this is sure to happen at the beginning, and you just need to bring your focus back to your breathing. If staying focused on your breathing proves to be a real struggle, try counting each breath in and out until you get to 20, and then start again from 1. Don’t worry if you lose count; you can always just start over.
This task may seem too easy or even a little silly, but you’ll be surprised by how calm you feel afterward and how much easier it is to let go of distracting thoughts that otherwise seem to have lodged permanently inside your brain.
They Use Their Support System
It’s tempting, yet entirely ineffective, to attempt tackling everything by yourself. To be calm and productive, you need to recognize your weaknesses and ask for help when you need it. This means tapping into your support system when a situation is challenging enough for you to feel overwhelmed. Everyone has someone at work and/or outside work who is on their team, rooting for them, and ready to help them get the best from a difficult situation. Identify these individuals in your life and make an effort to seek their insight and assistance when you need it. Something as simple as talking about your worries will provide an outlet for your anxiety and stress and supply you with a new perspective on the situation. Most of the time, other people can see a solution that you can’t because they are not as emotionally invested in the situation. Asking for help will mitigate your stress and strengthen your relationships with those you rely upon.
The Evolution of Product Quality Approach
The emphasis of quality has evolved through four distinct stages since World War II - from “fix-it-in” to inspect-it-in to built-it-in to design-it-in. But what are the key differences of each stages?
Here are the key differences :
• The fix-it-in approach to quality - Rework any defective products identified by quality inspectors at the end of the production process.
• The inspect-it-in approach to quality - Have quality inspectors sample work in process and prescribe machine adjustment to avoid substandard output.
• The built-it-in approach to quality - Make everyone who touches the product responsible for spotting and correcting defects. Emphasis is on identifying and eliminating causes of quality problem
• The design-it-in approach to quality - Intense customer and employee involvement drives the entire design-production cycle. Emphasis is on continuous improvement of personnel, processes and product.
Progressive managers are moving away from the first two approaches to built-it-in and design-it-in approaches. A popular label for the built it in design and design it in approaches to quality is total quality management (TQM)
Wednesday, 10 September 2014
A Glimpse of Corporate Social Responsibility Frameworks
A quick preview on the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Frameworks/ Guiding Principles for food orientated organization around the world.
- Keystone Foods
- The Coca Cola Company
- McDonald's
- Unilever
- Nestle
"No" is the New "Yes": Four Practices to Reprioritize Your Life by Tony Schwartz
I was sitting with the CEO and senior team of a well-respected organization. One at a time, they told me they spend their long days either in back-to-back meetings, responding to email, or putting out fires. They also readily acknowledged this way of working wasn't serving them well — personally or professionally.
It's a conundrum they couldn't seem to solve. It's also a theme on which I hear variations every day. Think of it as a madness loop — a vicious cycle. We react to what's in front of us, whether it truly matters or not. More than ever, we're prisoners of the urgent.
Prioritizing requires reflection, reflection takes time, and many of the executives I meet are so busy racing just to keep up they don't believe they have time to stop and think about much of anything.
Too often — and masochistically — they default to "yes." Saying yes to requests feels safer, avoids conflict and takes less time than pausing to decide whether or not the request is truly important.
Truth be told, there's also an adrenaline rush in saying yes. Many of us have become addicted, unwittingly, to the speed of our lives — the adrenalin high of constant busyness. We mistake activity for productivity, more for better, and we ask ourselves "What's next?" far more often than we do "Why this?" But as Gandhi put it, "A 'no' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."
Saying no, thoughtfully, may be the most undervalued capacity of our times. In a world of relentless demands and infinite options, it behooves us to prioritize the tasks that add the most value. That also means deciding what to do less of, or to stop doing altogether.
Making these choices requires that we regularly step back from the madding crowd. It's only when we pause — when we say no to the next urgent demand or seductive source of instant gratification — that we give ourselves the space to reflect on, metabolize, assess, and make sense of what we've just experienced.
Taking time also allows us to collect ourselves, refuel and renew, and make conscious course corrections that ultimately save us time when we plunge back into the fray.
What follows are four simple practices that serve a better prioritized and more intentional life:
1. Schedule in your calendar anything that feels important but not urgent — to borrow Steven Covey's phrase. If it feels urgent, you're likely going to get it done. If it's something you can put off, you likely will — especially if it's challenging.
The key to success is building rituals — highly specific practices that you commit to doing at precise times, so that over time they become automatic, and no longer require much conscious intention or energy. One example is scheduling regular time in your calendar for brainstorming, or for more strategic and longer term thinking.
The most recent ritual I added to my life is getting entirely offline after dinner each evening, and on the weekends. I'm only two weeks into the practice, but I know it's already created space in my mind to think and imagine.
2. As your final activity before leaving work in the evening, set aside sufficient time — at least 15 to 20 minutes — to take stock of what's happened that day. and to decide the most important tasks you want to accomplish the next day.
Clarifying and defining your priorities — what the researcher Peter Gollwitzer calls "implementation intentions" — will help you to stay focused on your priorities in the face of all the distractions you'll inevitably face the following day.
3. Do the most important thing on your list first when you get to work in the morning, for up to 90 minutes. If possible, keep your door closed, your email turned off and your phone on silent. The more singularly absorbed your focus, the more you'll get accomplished, and the higher the quality of the work is likely to be. When you finish, take a break to renew and refuel.
Most of us have the highest level of energy and the fewest distractions in the morning. If you can't begin the day that way, schedule the most important activity as early as possible. If you're one of the rare people who feels more energy later in the day, designate that time instead to do your most important activity.
4. Take at least one scheduled break in the morning, one in the afternoon, and leave your desk for lunch. These are each important opportunities to renew yourself so that your energy doesn't run down as the day wears on. They're also opportunities to briefly take stock.
Here are two questions you may want to ask yourself during these breaks:
1. Did I get done what I intended to get done since my last break and if not, why not?
2. What do I want to accomplish between now and my next break, and what do I have to say "no" to, in order to make that possible?
Wanna know more about the Power Of "No"?
Would like to recommend the book below:
The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes by William Ury
It's a conundrum they couldn't seem to solve. It's also a theme on which I hear variations every day. Think of it as a madness loop — a vicious cycle. We react to what's in front of us, whether it truly matters or not. More than ever, we're prisoners of the urgent.
Prioritizing requires reflection, reflection takes time, and many of the executives I meet are so busy racing just to keep up they don't believe they have time to stop and think about much of anything.
Too often — and masochistically — they default to "yes." Saying yes to requests feels safer, avoids conflict and takes less time than pausing to decide whether or not the request is truly important.
Truth be told, there's also an adrenaline rush in saying yes. Many of us have become addicted, unwittingly, to the speed of our lives — the adrenalin high of constant busyness. We mistake activity for productivity, more for better, and we ask ourselves "What's next?" far more often than we do "Why this?" But as Gandhi put it, "A 'no' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."
Saying no, thoughtfully, may be the most undervalued capacity of our times. In a world of relentless demands and infinite options, it behooves us to prioritize the tasks that add the most value. That also means deciding what to do less of, or to stop doing altogether.
Making these choices requires that we regularly step back from the madding crowd. It's only when we pause — when we say no to the next urgent demand or seductive source of instant gratification — that we give ourselves the space to reflect on, metabolize, assess, and make sense of what we've just experienced.
Taking time also allows us to collect ourselves, refuel and renew, and make conscious course corrections that ultimately save us time when we plunge back into the fray.
What follows are four simple practices that serve a better prioritized and more intentional life:
1. Schedule in your calendar anything that feels important but not urgent — to borrow Steven Covey's phrase. If it feels urgent, you're likely going to get it done. If it's something you can put off, you likely will — especially if it's challenging.
The key to success is building rituals — highly specific practices that you commit to doing at precise times, so that over time they become automatic, and no longer require much conscious intention or energy. One example is scheduling regular time in your calendar for brainstorming, or for more strategic and longer term thinking.
The most recent ritual I added to my life is getting entirely offline after dinner each evening, and on the weekends. I'm only two weeks into the practice, but I know it's already created space in my mind to think and imagine.
2. As your final activity before leaving work in the evening, set aside sufficient time — at least 15 to 20 minutes — to take stock of what's happened that day. and to decide the most important tasks you want to accomplish the next day.
Clarifying and defining your priorities — what the researcher Peter Gollwitzer calls "implementation intentions" — will help you to stay focused on your priorities in the face of all the distractions you'll inevitably face the following day.
3. Do the most important thing on your list first when you get to work in the morning, for up to 90 minutes. If possible, keep your door closed, your email turned off and your phone on silent. The more singularly absorbed your focus, the more you'll get accomplished, and the higher the quality of the work is likely to be. When you finish, take a break to renew and refuel.
Most of us have the highest level of energy and the fewest distractions in the morning. If you can't begin the day that way, schedule the most important activity as early as possible. If you're one of the rare people who feels more energy later in the day, designate that time instead to do your most important activity.
4. Take at least one scheduled break in the morning, one in the afternoon, and leave your desk for lunch. These are each important opportunities to renew yourself so that your energy doesn't run down as the day wears on. They're also opportunities to briefly take stock.
Here are two questions you may want to ask yourself during these breaks:
1. Did I get done what I intended to get done since my last break and if not, why not?
2. What do I want to accomplish between now and my next break, and what do I have to say "no" to, in order to make that possible?
Wanna know more about the Power Of "No"?
Would like to recommend the book below:
The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes by William Ury
Why Are There So Many Crazy People In Charge? by Lynne Viccaro O'Leary
Everyone has a horror story about a manager from hell they were forced to deal with. You cannot be in the working world for any amount of time without running into at least one. This phenomenon has been the basis of some great books, tv shows and movies. But it is not so entertaining when one of these yahoos is in charge of your day to day livelihood. The bigger question is how did they get there? Were they always that way or did the "system" turn them into a power-hungry megalomaniac? Here are some insights and observations as to why this may be:
1. It's not always the cream that rises to the top. The more aggressive personalities always make themselves known and have more than their fair share of ruthlessness about them. They are willing to do things to get ahead that would cost most of us a few nights' sleep. Others are blatant cases of nepotism or knowing someone to get that coveted position. Many times once they get there, they feel overwhelmed, but refuse to admit that they need help. As a friend once told me, "never underestimate someone's insecurity." This is where the micromanagement and bullying comes in -- because if THEY don't fully understand what needs to be done, there is no way that their staff could possibly know. They are also the type of managers who take credit for others' ideas and keep their best people under cover for fear they will outshine them.
1. It's not always the cream that rises to the top. The more aggressive personalities always make themselves known and have more than their fair share of ruthlessness about them. They are willing to do things to get ahead that would cost most of us a few nights' sleep. Others are blatant cases of nepotism or knowing someone to get that coveted position. Many times once they get there, they feel overwhelmed, but refuse to admit that they need help. As a friend once told me, "never underestimate someone's insecurity." This is where the micromanagement and bullying comes in -- because if THEY don't fully understand what needs to be done, there is no way that their staff could possibly know. They are also the type of managers who take credit for others' ideas and keep their best people under cover for fear they will outshine them.
2. You're looking lovely today Mrs. Cleaver. For years, the traditional hierarchical model has rewarded those who manage up well -- those who kiss up and charm their bosses right into the corner office. There was a great interview in the Corner Office section of the New York Times on April 6 with Kim Bowers, CEO of CST Brands. When asked about leadership lessons she learned, Bowers explained that she puts people in two categories: those who manage up really well and those who manage down really well. To paraphrase, if she finds someone who has a team who will walk across hot coals for them, that's the truly effective leader because they inspire loyalty and respect. She cast a wary eye on those manage up very well because their priority is only impressing those above them, i.e. those who can do something for them career-wise. They usually treat their peers and staff very differently, and rarely cultivate the kind of loyalty base to propel their team forward.
3. We don't need no stinkin' training. Just because someone is great at their particular job does not mean they will be great at managing a team. Traditionally, an employee's potential for a promotion is based on their performance in their current job. Many companies don't invest in management training programs like they used to - the grace period is frighteningly short and one is expected to learn on the job. So by the time it's discovered that the manager lacks the interpersonal and team-building skills required to be effective,they have already been in a position to do some real-time damage.
4. It's like the Roach Motel. Companies are slow to dismiss managers. Once someone is in a position, it takes months or even years to fully appreciate their abilities -- or lack thereof. I've found that it takes 3-5 years before the full effects of someone's poor management becomes a company-wide problem. And by then, the damage is done in the form of lost productivity, lost customers and the loss of your best people, who just couldn't take anymore.
Monday, 8 September 2014
Study: Highest Pathogen Levels on Raw Pet Foods, Jerky Treats
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Veterinary Laboratory Investigation and Response Network (Vet-LIRN), in collaboration with the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) and its Microbiology Cooperative Agreement Program (MCAP) laboratories, has conducted a study to evaluate the prevalence of selected microbial organisms in various types of pet foods.
The goal of this blinded study, published in the September issue of Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, was to help the Center for Veterinary Medicine prioritize potential future pet food testing efforts.The study also increased the FERN laboratories’ screening capabilities for foodborne pathogens in animal feed matrices since such pathogens may also be a significant health risk to consumers who come into contact with pet foods.
Six U.S. Food and Drug Administration FERN MCAP laboratories analyzed approximately 1,056 samples over two years. Laboratories tested for Salmonella, Listeria, E. coli O157:H7, and Shiga toxin-producing strains of E. coli (STEC).
Dry and semi-moist dog and cat foods purchased from local stores were tested during Phase 1 (October 2010 to September 2011). Canned and wet pet foods were not collected as part of this project. Raw dog and cat foods, exotic animal feed, and jerky-type treats purchased through the Internet were tested in Phase 2 (October 2011 to July 2012).
Raw foods were usually frozen and consisted of ground meat or sausage-type tubes of products made from animals such as rabbits and cows. It is unknown how long frozen samples had been frozen prior to shipping. Dry foods excluded cat and dog foods, but included hamster, gerbil, rabbit, amphibian, or bird food and pellets. Jerky-type treats included chicken jerky products, pig ears, and bully stick types of products. All samples were tested within four months of receipt. Overall, 576 samples were analyzed in Phase 2.
The study was not a regulatory surveillance program, and the manufacture information was blinded, researchers noted. Of the 480 dry and semi-moist samples, only two tested positive: one for Salmonella and one for Listeria greyii. However, of the 576 samples analyzed during Phase 2, 66 samples were positive for Listeria (32 of those were Listeria monocytogenes) and 15 samples tested positive for Salmonella. These pathogens were isolated from raw foods and jerky-type treats, not the exotic animal dry feeds. This was the first report of Listeria monocytogenes contamination of commercial pet foods.
The study showed that raw pet foods may harbor food safety pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella. Consumers should handle these products carefully, being mindful of the potential risks to human and animal health. FDA has been investigating pet jerky treats since 2007 due to thousands of reported pet illnesses and deaths that may be related to their consumption. According to the agency, these reports involve more than 5,600 dogs, 24 cats, three humans and more than 1,000 canine deaths.
While FDA has tested the pet jerky treats for many contaminants and continues to investigate the problem, it has not been able to pinpoint the cause of the illnesses.
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Strategic CSR: Linking Social Responsible Intiatives To Business Objectives by Jeanette Teh
The pervasive use of “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) today is rapidly turning it into a buzzword. While some companies are genuinely interested in helping orphans or reducing their carbon footprint, others are merely engaging in CSR to enhance their corporate image or to appease customers, investors, and other stakeholders.
Despite corporations’ increasing involvement in CSR, however, these initiatives are generally unconnected to their organisational business strategy. This means that companies undertaking CSR activities to improve their corporate image are actually not getting optimal social or financial return on their investment.
A 2013 survey from Bayt.com found that almost 90 per cent of employees in the Middle East felt that corporations have a moral responsibility to engage in CSR. The respondents also believed that the lack of organisational knowledge, top management support, and legal requirements for CSR are impediments to integrating CSR into corporate strategy.
Creating shared value
Strategy guru Michael Porter calls for the creation of shared value — creating value for society by addressing its needs while also improving profits for the company. In other words, CSR should not be a charitable afterthought, a necessary ‘expense’, or be at the fringe of the company’s business. Rather, shared value creation should be at its very core, combining a company’s success with social progress.
How, then, do companies actually go about achieving this paradigm shift?
Professor John Milliman and his colleagues from the University of Colorado developed a five-step process to implement Porter’s proposition.
1. Determining if societal issues in a company’s environment could be turned into a strategic advantage
What are current social trends or issues that are of concern to a company’s stakeholders? With approximately 33 per cent of the population classified as obese, promoting a healthier lifestyle in the UAE could be a popular cause. Similarly, as many locally-based companies view CSR as the corporate form of the Islamic concept of Zakat (one’s personal duty to contribute to charity), many corporate CSR initiatives include charitable donations.
How does the company impact the local community? A manufacturing company in a region with a high carbon footprint could consider using environmentally-friendly technologies.
Are there any opportunities or threats to the corporation’s viability? As a third of the Middle Eastern population is under 30, young people represent both an opportunity (as consumers and employees) and a threat (high unemployment rates could result in disenfranchised youth), regional companies could offer internships to help train the younger generation.
Such analysis should be undertaken by a committee comprising representatives from legal, finance, human resources, operations, health and safety, and sales departments.
2. Brainstorming different ideas to address societal issues
The committee should come up with as many alternatives as possible to either leverage opportunities or reduce threats. For example, in addition to internships, providing training sessions, job shadowing programs, scholarships, and mentorships are other possible solutions to reducing youth unemployment.
3. Analysis of each option
Each alternative should then be analysed to determine which would yield the best impact for the company in terms of financial, human resource, social, and other relevant factors. Employee preferences should also be considered since employees, the most powerful company ambassadors, are a very important and often overlooked stakeholder.
4. Implementation of alternative(s)
Once the best option is selected, the corporation may wish to consult with community members, governmental organisations, and other stakeholders to confirm its selection and to assist in its implementation.
As the 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer indicated that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are the most trusted institutions, particularly in the UAE, engagement and partnerships with NGOs would help businesses become more trustworthy in their stakeholders’ eyes.
5. Measurement and reporting of strategic CSR initiatives
After the programmes are implemented, it is important to measure the outcomes to determine whether objectives have been achieved, issues resolved, and whether stakeholders are satisfied with the accomplishments. These results should be clearly communicated both within the company and externally to the community and other stakeholders.
A 2008 study revealed that Dubai-based companies were generally not effective at communicating their CSR activities to stakeholders. Dr. Suzanne Conner, professor at the American University in Dubai (AUD), also discovered this in her 2012 study of companies listed on the US Dow Jones Sustainability Index. While there was generally greater discussion about compliance-related activities than in 2010, companies tended not to adequately describe their commitment to social responsibility in their annual reports, an incredibly valuable lost opportunity to enhance their corporate image.
Getting to the Triple Bottom Line
While some maintain that the mantra of balancing People, Planet and Profits equally is just a fanciful theory, incredibly difficult to realise in practice, it is perhaps only with thoughtful incorporation of strategic CSR initiatives that the elusive Triple Bottom Line might actually be attained.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)