Travel Safety Tips for Women Alone on Business Trip

Every year women are travelling abroad alone on business trip, family visits and adventurous vacations, in such cases they experience problems especially when they have to interact in male dominated cultures. During such times, travelling safety tips help you deal with outside world.

Each country has its own laws and customs and it is necessary for women travelling alone to followtravelling safety tips. These travel tips can help make your trip safer and more rewarding.

The travel guide women, suggest that make sure your passport is still valid, and if it’s not apply for a new one 3-4 months before you plan to travel. Make sure you have any other necessary travel documents or visas for the countries you plan to visit.

According to thus travel idea for women suggest that when you leave, leave your detailed itinerary, including names, addresses and telephone numbers of every place where you would be staying. Also include photocopies of your passport identification page, your flight and ticket information

The travel tip says don’t carry valuables and leave all valuables, such as extra credit cards and jewellery, at home. Thetravel idea for women suggests that make sure you have adequate health insurance coverage for your trip abroad and that your coverage includes medical evacuations.

Similarly, if you have travel ideas for women, make sure you have enough medications to last the length of your trip, also bring along your prescription information and the names of the generic equivalents in case you need them.

This travelling safety tip says stay alert, use common sense, and be aware of your surroundings. The travel tip suggests that before you set out from your hotel, ask the concierge or other hotel staff for directions to the places you plan to visit each day. Also choose a hotel where security is good and public transportation or taxis are readily available and close by.

The travelling safety tip suggests that you dress conservatively and unnoticeably when travelling.

Follow the Plans and Get Accountability

Have you ever noticed that the hardest part about working out is actually getting yourself to do it?  You want to work out, you like working out, it makes you feel like a million bucks once you’ve finished exercising, but for some reason you can’t seem to stick to it, you can’t make it a habit.

It makes you wonder:  why am I not motivated to do it?

Here is the problem:  You aren’t putting your workout into existence.  You have only made an intention.

The solution: Create a follow-through workout plan.                 

First and foremost, you must decide the whens, whats and hows to your planned workouts:

• Decide how many times per week you want to work out .
• What kind of workout (weights, cardio, Pilates, yoga, a dance class, a run, etc)
• When exactly you want to do each workout. Be specific!

Next, do these 5 Steps to ensure you follow-through.

Schedule It 

If it is not scheduled, it doesn’t exist.  Write it in your agenda or input into your mobile calendar.  Seriously, do not skip this step.  Do it now.

Clear the to-do list in your mind

At the beginning of each week it is easy to feel overwhelmed with all of the crap we need to get done – but usually it isn’t as bad as it seems.  Every Sunday night, write down all of the things you need/want to do that week, including all the little things.  During that week, if you get into mental overwhelm, just refer to your list.  You’ll likely realize that you have less to do then it seems and won’t have a reason to create an excuse to skip your workout.

Learn to say no 

This one is the toughest.  You girlfriend wants to go out for coffee tonight?  Consult your schedule, if there is a workout planned say NO.  You haven’t seen her is a while?  The answer is still NO.  Skipping a workout is like skipping class.  Don’t you know how hard it is to get a job without a university degree?

Get some accountability 

Find a workout partner, ideally someone who is more serious about working out then you and make sure you meet them every time.  Can’t find anyone?  The day of your workout, tell as many people as you can that you are going to do it.  The embarrassment of not doing should be enough to get you in gear.

Just do it

As soon as you hear mental chatter coming in with excuses.  Say out loud, “No, I’m going to work out.”   Say it until you get the mental chatter to shut-up.  I don’t care how many times you need to say it, repeat until you are moving your body.

So that is it.  That is all the keys to following through with your workouts like a champ.  Use them, do them now, bring those workouts into existence.

5 Step Office Setup Tips

Is Finding Important Paperwork Impossible?

One of the main functions of your office space is to provide an environment that inspires both productive work and creativity. If your office space is part of your home environment, then you not only have a messy office but you have a messy house when paperwork gets out of control. As you work in your office, there is an inevitable influx of endless paperwork. An office space can become messy and out of order in a heartbeat just because of piles of papers. When you need to file those all important legal documents, a messy office environment may make it impossible to find the papers you need.

Needless to say, your first step is towards an organized home office is to find a unique solution to the problem of your office space and excessive hoarding. It used to be that the only effective method of organizing paperwork was endless manila file folders in numerous file cabinets. No matter how hard you try, keeping these file drawers and folders in perfect order is both laborious and time consuming.

Digital Paperwork 

The advent of the computer and the digital world makes it very possible, and almost a necessity, to have a paperless office. There are websites dedicated to storing your digitally scanned information, or you may prefer scanning documents to disk for safe keeping. By scanning your documents, you will have instant access to any document any time you are connected to the internet or when you load your disk.

Most of your paperwork can be scanned and stored digitally without the need to store heaps of hard copies. This way, if a legal document does go missing, you will have the scanned digital copy ready to print if needed.

Step 1—Frequently Used Office Forms

Office forms that you use frequently like fax cover sheets and invoices can be scanned into your PC and turned into PDFs. This way, they can be easily filed out, emailed, printed or faxed and then stored in easy to locate files.

Step 2—Piles of Receipts

Receipts can be a real nuisance and add quickly to clutter as almost every function of the office will result in some sort of receipt. Receipts are important little bits of paper that must be kept but can be easily lost in the shuffle. When receipts begin to pile up, scan them into the computer and keep them organized so when it is time for filing your tax return or compiling your expense report, they are safe and sound and easy to assess. The small investment in a sheet-fed scanner will be more than worthwhile. If you feel you need the hard copies, you can store them away in labeled envelopes. The receipts can be saved as PDFs, images or stored by type or date to make access easier.

Step 3—Handling Volumes of Incoming Mail

When your mail comes in, deal with it right away and scan any important pieces directly into your computer. You can even scan postcards, brochures or any other kind of pertinent information you would like to be able to reference at some point. Take a "one-touch" policy with mail. Promise yourself to only deal with mail once. Scan it, shred it, or recycle it the same day you get it.

Step 4—Replace Your Dusty Rolodex

Business cards are small but really important bits of paper that need to be keep handy. Scanning them into your computer will insure that you can find them easily when needed and that they will not get lost or misplaced. Most email programs have information tabs for each contact where you can add all the information from a business card. Using a ready made system like this will make it easier to organize and find contacts.

Step 5—Switch to a Digital Organizer

Using a Pocket PC or digital organizer will not only allow you to keep your appointments organized, but will also allow you access to information you need plus pictures, games and more while you are away from the office. You can keep your notes and thoughts in one place and then transfer your personal data to your office computer for safe keeping and instant access. There are as many models to choose from as their are types of users, so do a little research to find out what it right for your needs.

As you can see, your office space and excess hoarding of paperwork can be easily handled by using digital document management software. You probably already have all the software you need on your computer. All of your important papers will be safe, secure and easy to access at any time they are needed. Today's office can now consist of a small amount of hard copy paperwork, a good computer system, a scanner, and a mobile organizer. Once you have all these tools in place, make sure to use them on a daily basis to conquer office clutter.

Setting Business at Home

For many of us, being able to work from home would seem like an ideal solution for our hectic lives. Whether we are telecommuting to our workplace, starting our own business or freelancing, working from home could be an ideal thing. But there can be work at home pitfalls. Prepare yourself for the work at home transition with our handy guide.

Organization Methods 

It may seem like a great thing to be able to work from home, but if you're not careful you can fall into work at home pitfalls. Some of these pitfalls are cunningly disguised as work at home benefits. For example, there is the freedom. It may seem like one of the benefits, but when you have a job out in the real world you have a structured schedule. When you are working from home, a structured schedule can sometimes go out the door if you're not careful. We can allow ourselves to think we don't have a certain time that we need to start work, that we don't have to get dressed to go to work, that we can allow ourselves to get distracted by different things, all because we are at home. But nothing could be further from the truth. Working from home has to be treated as work, otherwise you can face work at home pitfalls.

The first thing to do is take the time for scheduling work from home. Have a schedule that you follow each day unless there is an important reason why you can't keep the schedule. For example, a doctor's appointment or a family emergency. These types of reasons can also disrupt your work in the actual work environment, so working from home should be no different. Second always dress for work. Some of us might think that getting dressed in a nice outfit is pointless when working from home, but getting dressed will help you to feel like you're heading into the workday, not just lounging around the house.

Next, create an office space for you to work in each day, maybe a spare room in your home, or just a corner of the house where you know you can have some peace and quiet. Another suggestion is to have a separate phone number from your home phone. The reason for this is so that you won't be distracted by personal calls. If it makes you feel better, you can give this number to your kid's school so they can contact you if they need to. For the most part, this number should be used for business purposes only. Have a laptop or desktop computer set up that is for business use only. Don't be tempted to surf the net during what should be work time. Also, if there is anyone at home with you, tell them that you're not to be interrupted unless it's important. The next tip is to always keep your work a priority. Don't let being at home distract you from the things you need to do. It takes a lot of discipline, but you've got to stay on task. Remember that you won't have a boss observing your work, so it's up to you to figure out what needs to be done first, and so on.

Another word of advice: know when to stop working. This can be another of the work at home pitfalls. Because you're at home, you may get carried away and keep working well into the late hours. This isn't a good idea. Your work shouldn't be the only thing in your life, especially if you have a family. Once again, keep a set schedule. Even if you feel something needs to get done for your job, there will always be tomorrow to take care of it.

One last piece of advice--remember to get out of the house from time to time. One good thing about working outside the house is that you actually get outside the house. If you need to take a short walk around the neighborhood to sort through your thoughts, go for it without feeling guilty. Remember that in a structured office environment you will always get breaks and a lunch hour. Working from home should be no different, so have a break time and lunchtime and take this time to unwind and maybe even get some air. There can be work at home pitfalls, but there are also benefits to working from home if you just learn the proper balance between your work and your personal life.

Tax Deduction and Home Based Business

Taxes are inevitably one of the things that most people wish didn't exist. Unfortunately they do, and we all have an obligation to pay them at some point. The same is applied if you own your own business. You may want to deduct all your business expenses from your income tax, but knowing how many business tax deductions you can get away with is difficult. Paying taxes for a small business may seem daunting to you, but with the help of tax software, paying taxes can now be done online. This software can help you determine how to calculate your tax deduction for a home business.

Professional Tax Advice Online

Because there are income tax deductions specific for home run businesses, there are certain criteria your business will have to meet before income tax deductions for home businesses will apply. You can only claim the home business tax deduction if your house is your main operating point. This means that everything you do is run from the house. This does not apply if you're running your business from elsewhere or if you only run your business at home part of the time.

Once you fulfill the first requirement, the second thing to do will be to establish a work area dedicated solely to your business. Since you're operating from where you live, your tax deduction would be a percentage of your whole home area. In other words, if you use an office that is 200 square feet and you live in a house that is 2000 square feet, your business takes up 10% of your home. This would be much easier to work out if you are working in one specific room only. All you'de have to do is calculate the entire area of the room and divide it by the total area of the whole house. In order to claim a home business tax credit, you must have an area of the house specifically dedicated to the business and nothing else. A computer desk in the family room doesn't count.

Next, use the percentage of your home used for business to calculate what allowable household expenses are spent maintaining the business. This is done by deducting a part of your house expenses that relate with operating your business directly. This can include heating and cooling, mortgage, electricity, plumbing, etc.

There is online help for business taxes in the form of online tax software. The software comes with the whole package in form of error and deduction texts, online filing, and imports information from popular accounting programs, state forms, and phone contacts with tax preparers and full text IRS publications. This is not all that you can expect from this software. You can also get valuable financial advice such as retirement planning, family tax strategies, and home ownership/rental information and small business advice. This will greatly cut down on the costs of financial consultants when you can purchase such tax software and get that kind of information for free.

One of the things tax software should have is intuitive navigation whereby the user can access the program and move about without getting confused. The program should be as user friendly as possible. Secondly, the software should be easy to install on your business computer. Best of all, the purchase price of tax software for small businesses can also be considered a business expense, and therefore, a tax write off.

Tips to keep in mind for business success for beginners

Business is the activity of making money through selling a product or service. There are specific steps to be taken in this process. There are similar steps taken in spending money to buy a product or service. In essence, they are both an exchange.

Questions you may have include:

• What steps are followed to make money?
• What steps are followed to spend money?
• How to they fit together in a business enterprise?

This lesson will answer those questions. There is a mini-quiz near the end of the lesson.

Making money

Making money is essentially a selling process. The steps involved are:

1. Get a product or service to sell
2. Find prospects
3. Get together for a demonstration
4. Negotiate price
5. Make exchange

Get a product or service to sell

A business may manufacture products, assemble products from purchased parts or resell someone else's product.
People within the company may provide a service or they may contract out for such people.

Find prospects

Marketing is making others aware of the product, service and business, plus letting them know where to buy the goods. It also includes calling on prospective customers.
Just finding where the prospects are and how to reach them is a major business task.

Get together for a demonstration

Although some sales are made over the telephone, though mail or via the Internet, most are still made in person. The individuals who are planning on buying a product or service want to get a demonstration of what the business has to offer them.

Negotiate price

Assuming the product or service has the desired feature, the sale can then be made if the price it right.

Make exchange

The business delivers the product or service and the customer pays to complete the exchange.

Spending money

The process of buying a product or hiring a service is similar to selling. Note that in a business, getting a product or service often involves purchasing goods or hiring people to do some work.
The steps in this process are:

1. Get some money to spend
2. Find prospective sellers
3. Get together for a demonstration
4. Negotiate price
5. Make exchange

Application

In a business enterprise, buying and selling work together:

1. Get a product or service to sell
   1. Have some money to spend
   2. Find prospective sellers
   3. Get together for a demonstration
   4. Negotiate price
   5. Make exchange
2. Find prospects
3. Get together for a demonstration
4. Negotiate price
5. Make exchange

Get product to sell

The steps in buying are needed to get the product.

Have money

In order to get a product to sell, you must have some money to purchase supplies and hire workers.

Find prospects

You find workers by putting out a want ad.
Suppliers or hardware may contact you, or you may have to do research on where to find what you need for your business.

Demonstration

A potential worker will come in for an interview.
You may meet with a salesman to see what his company has to offer.

Find prospects

This step in the process involves marketing and advertising. Note that you also may need to purchase these services.

Get together for demonstration

Once potential buyers are aware of your product or service and know where to buy it, they will either go to the store or call to get information. Once the prospect and your sales representative get together, the product or service can be demonstrated and its features and benefits explained.

Negotiation

The final sales process of getting a commitment to turn the prospect into a customer is a form of negotiation.

Make exchange

After the sale is made, the customer pays and your business delivers the goods. Certainly there are many variations on how and when this exchange is made.

Best places for your to work

Fed up with your job? You’re not the only one. Surveys find fewer than half of workers are satisfied in their current positions. So, as hiring finally picks up, no doubt some of these folks are perusing Fortune’s annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work For, in the February 7 issue, searching for places to send their resumes.

Certainly it’s nice to hear about happy employees. But every year when I read Fortune’s list, and others elsewhere ranking workplaces that are awesome for mothers, minorities, or entry-level workers, I find myself saying yeah…but. There are big problems with using any list like this to plan your next career move.

First, most magazine lists are “opt-in.” To be eligible for a list, you have to fill out whatever paperwork the tabulators require (Fortune’s list, produced in conjunction with the Great Places to Work Institute, involves employee surveys and some open ended questions). This means that not only do you have to be a great place to work, you have to be a company where management cares about being listed in magazines as a great place to work. Only 311 organizations bothered this year, out of thousands of employers in the US. So if you went through the whole process, your odds were pretty good. But that doesn’t means that the 311 employers that did try are better than the thousands that didn’t.

Second, the Fortune list only includes companies with more than 1000 employees that are more than 7 years old. That nixes all start-ups and small businesses (which can be great places to work). As one example, people have been tripping over themselves to work for Facebook these past few years, but given its relatively recent founding, it would only be eligible for such a list right around now.

And finally, the magazine blurbs on all these companies seem a bit obsessed with the perks — as if perks, as opposed to really exciting work, are what make a company a good place to spend part of your career. Some benefits are good (when business slowed, Fortune reports, Marriott International changed how many hours you had to work in order to qualify for insurance). But perhaps to journalists (where the business model is few perks) an onsite car-wash (Mercedes-Benz), Zumba classes (Build-a-Bear Workshop) and “organic vegetables from an on-site garden” (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital) sound really plush.

I guess it’s human nature to like freebies, though whenever I get jealous of a company that gives its employees, say, free M&Ms, I go out and buy M&Ms and relish the fact that here at Vanderkam, Inc., I can leave in the middle of the day to go do so. (We also have a generous “work-in-your-pajamas” policy).

Anyway, it’s strange that a magazine with such great reporters as Fortune relies on such a flimsy methodology for creating their rankings. If you believe this list, then Americans prefer to work atNugget Market (a 9-store supermarket chain) than at McKinsey, at Google vs. Facebook even though some headline-making defections would point otherwise, and we should want to work atAeropostale because, as one young employee put it “Where else can you talk to the boss over pizza?” (Um, where can’t you?)

I’d personally love to see a list that didn’t rely on HR filling out forms, and where Fortune reporters went Woodward & Bernstein on Corporate America and infiltrated enough workplaces (big and small) to find out where truly were the best places to work. And then they should figure out the most awful, too. Because that would be a real journalistic public service to let us know.

People who want to succeed as much as you want

The research is clear: Maintaining strong connections-a close tribe-is vital not only to your health, but your professional success.  A group, or tribe, can have as few members as 20 or as many as 150. What’s critical is the quality of the relationships, not the quantity.

People form tribes without thinking, just as birds flock without being told to do it.  The problem is that 75% of tribes have cultures that allow, or even encourage, defeated and resigned communication.  Only one in four is set up to succeed, and only 2% are capable of changing the world.(Watch BNET’s excellent video summary of this idea.)

Here’s how to upgrade your tribe, and add the connections you need to ensure that 2011 will rock:

1. Identify colleagues who share your values and want the same success.
2. Cultivate relationships with and between these contacts, by pointing out mutual interest and shared commitments.
3. Ask the members of your emerging tribe who else they know who would make good additions to this group.

Want to take tribe-building to the highest level (to get to the top 2%)? Learn about a technique called social fusion.

Quick business tips - Limiting the risk

(11 minutes 58) Businesses face all sorts of risk, but most can be mitigated with the availability of timely information. That’s all well and good, but what information and where do you find it.

The risks of technology are well documented — from viruses to hack attacks. Symantec’s Steve Martin says every business should have a plan to reduce the risk, based on a thorough analysis of technology and operations by an IT professional who can provide the right level of expertise — a bit of money spent now can save you a lot down the track.

Many risks though, are more to do with human nature than technology. Greg Stephens says many processes might have been set up to reduce risk, but standards drop over time and the increased risk goes unnoticed; for example, the bank that accepts a single signature on a cheque because the other signatory has left the company.

Then there’s white collar crime — which can be anything from embezzlement through to the disguising of performance figures to meet corporate bonuses.

Even the behaviour of your CEO, if left unchecked, can be a risk. Is the board really asking the right questions? Anil Makhija from the Ohio State University found a link between how much CEOs borrow on their house and how much they push for leveraging in the business they’re running — now that could be a worry!

Another question the board should be asking is about succession plans. The departure of senior executives can be a huge risk for any business, yet the issue is often ignored until it’s too late. Sue Forrester says the board needs to work with the CEO to make sure plans are in place to avoid such an eventuality.

The biggest risk for many businesses is cash flow. Slow payment by debtors is often a common reason for that. Mike Rich says this can be because of poor visibility of who owes what. A corporate dashboard, showing key information such as debtor days and serial bad debtors, can help free up some working capital. Without that information to hand a business can come unstuck, particularly in the quiet months. Mike Daniels says February and March are a bad time for insolvencies in Australia for companies who failed to consider cash flow over the summer months.

Then there are all the other external risks we have covered in other episodes of our Top 40 business tips — like, failing to understand your customer, ignoring the significance of a possible green revolution, jumping to the wrong conclusion, again by not having all the information to hand.

So risks for a business are many and varied. Feel free to add your own suggestions of what to watch for in the comments section below.

How to hire the best for you?

When most general managers fail to hit their goals, the problem can usually be traced back to hiring the wrong people.

The key is to hire for two factors: competence and values fit.  If the person doesn’t have both of these elements, do not hire them under any circumstances.

Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz has an excellent blog post about how to hire for overall competence, including the following must-read section on the three traps to avoid:

• Hiring on look and feel. It sounds silly that anyone would hire an executive based on the way they look and sound in an interview, but in my experience look and feel is the top criteria for most executive searches. When you combine a CEO that doesn’t know what she wants and a board of directors that hasn’t thought much about the hire, what do you think the criteria are?
• Looking for someone out of central casting. This is the moral equivalent of looking for the Platonic Form of a head of sales. You imagine what the perfect sales executive might be like then you attempt to match real-world candidates to your model. This is a really bad idea for several reasons. First, you are not hiring an abstract executive to work at an arbitrary company. You must hire the right person for your company at this particular point in time. The head of sales at Oracle in 2010 would likely have failed in 1989. The VP of engineering at Apple might be exactly the wrong choice for FourSquare. The details and the specifics matter. Second, your imaginary model is almost certainly wrong. What is your basis for creating this model? Finally, it will be incredibly difficult to educate an interview team on such an abstract set of criteria. As a result, everybody will be looking for something different.
• Valuing lack of weakness rather than strength-The more experience you have, the more you realize that there is something seriously wrong with every employee in your company (including you). Literally, nobody is perfect. As a result, it is imperative that you hire for strength rather than lack of weakness. Everybody has weaknesses; they are just easier to find in some people. Hiring for lack of weakness just means that you’ll optimize for pleasantness. Rather, you must figure out the strengths you require and find someone who is world class in those areas despite their weaknesses in other, less important domains.

Horowitz gives lots of specific steps, including:

• Know what you want.
• Run a process that figures out the right match.
• Make a lonely decision.

I strongly suggest readers take a look at Horowitz’s long list of questions to ask to assess whether the candidate is smart enough, knows how to hire sales people, is systematic and comprehensive on how to think about sales processes, and understands operational excellence.

I would add two points on competence:

• Do not, under any circumstances, hire for untapped potential. Most people develop only a small part of their abilities, and hiring for untapped potential is like buying land in Nevada and waiting for California to fall into the ocean. It’ll probably happen, but not in time to help you now.
• Make sure the person is “scary smart.” People can develop a lot of aspects of themselves, but IQ is not one of them. Unless the person has the mental horsepower, run!

The second key for hiring is, surprisingly, not even mentioned in Horowitz’s post.  It is: Hire for a values fit with the management team you already have.  This key has three steps:

1.     Identify the values the management team already has.  A great way to do this is to run the “mountains and valleys” exercisewith your team.

2.     Get the team’s agreement that the values you identified are, in fact, their values.

3.     In the interview with candidates, ask open-ended questions in follow-up to what the person says.

The hard part of this process is asking open-ended questions.  In general, closed-ended questions will bring up competencies and open-ended will lead you to values.  Note an exchange with a closed-ended question:

Hiring Manager: What steps did you follow to get to that result?

Candidate: First, I knew what I wanted.  Second, I made a two-week plan and ran it past the team.  Third, I was relentless in the follow-up.

You’ve learned slightly more about competencies, but nothing about values.  Contrast that exchange to two back-to-back open-ended questions:

Hiring Manager: Why was that result so important to you?

Candidate: The integrity of the team was on the line.

Hiring Manager: Why was integrity of the team so important?

Candidate: If we lost integrity, we’d lose the trust of senior executives.

This exchange is important for two reasons.  First, you’ve gone off script, so you’re probably asking questions for which the person doesn’t have a prepared answer.  Second, you’re now understanding how the person makes decisions, and what principles are most important.

When you meet with the hiring team to make a decision, you only want to hire people who both have the competencies and share the team values.  If you’re uncertain about either one, keep looking.

Made a hiring mistake?  Made a great hire and have a lesson to share?  If so, I hope you’ll post a comment below.

Is this broken customer service

Do you have a nagging feeling your car really should have passed inspection last time around? Or wonder why your customer service reps treat your most lucrative customers so poorly? Maybe it comes down to an income gap.

Using an in-depth analysis of the pass/fail records of motor vehicle inspectors, Francesca Gino, of the Kenan-Flagler Business School, and Lamar Pierce, of Olin Business School, found that employees are more likely to assist customers that are the most like them, and less likely to help out those who they see as privileged.

Previous research has supported a similar effect when it comes to race, but these new findings instead apply to wealth. In this particular study, the employees-mechanics who made an average of about $15 an hour–actually broke the law to help customers who didn’t seem to be wealthy. It was much rarer for customers driving luxury cars to get that same treatment. As the authors write,

“Employee emotional reactions to customer wealth may lead them to take actions that are costly to the organization, unfair, and explicitly illegal.”

The researchers examined every motor vehicle inspection in “a large Northern state” (the authors don’t identify which one) in 2004. They then followed up with a related questionnaire distributed to 334 individuals, most of whom were students.

Cheating is Easy–and Lucrative

Inspections in the study were done by independent testing facilities, which have an incentive to pass cars that should fail inspection. Cars that pass inspection are likely to stay on the road, and the owners are likely to bring them in for repairs. Cars that fail inspection are more likely to be replaced with new cars, which should need only minimal maintenance.

For inspectors, cheating isn’t hard. A skilled technician can easily manipulate the device used to measure emissions, and some technicians will even measure a different car entirely. If that sounds far-fetched, consider that a 2001 covert audit in Salt Lake City found that nearly 10% of testing facilities would overtly test one car in place of another.

Using inspector identification numbers, the researchers were able to come up with a ‘pass rate’ for each inspector after controlling for time, vehicle, geography, and characteristics of the inspection station itself. Each make and model of car was assigned either a ‘standard’ or ‘luxury’ status, with all cars over 10 years old automatically assigned to the ‘standard’ category.

Inspectors that had systematically high pass rates were considered to be committing at least some fraud, because the researchers believe they were able to control for nearly all factors that might legitimately affect an inspector’s pass rate.

Of the 20 inspectors who had notably high pass rates, the researchers believe 18 illegally passed standard cars and nine illegally passed luxury cars. A very few appeared to have been overly strict when examining luxury cars–in other words, they failed cars that should have passed, most likely because the cars were much more expensive than what the inspectors themselves could have afforded.

IT’S NOT JUST INSPECTORS WHO CHEAT

The researchers then presented their survey respondents with this scenario: While crossing the street in front of a parking lot, you see your classmate, Andy, who can’t find a parking spot. Andy asks to borrow your parking pass for the day, which is against university policy. You know you’ll get the pass back later tonight. The students were also shown a picture of Andy and the car.

The students were then asked how likely they’d be to help out Andy, and whether or not Andy was acting unethically in asking to borrow the pass. They were also asked the minimum amount (in dollars) they would accept to help Andy.

The result? Andy was a whole lot more likely to get a parking pass if he was driving a standard car.

Do you think you treat people differently according to how much money they make? Do you think customer service people are more willing to go out of their way (legally, we hope) for someone who appears to be middle-class?

How to reduce the challenges of overwhelming Data Growth?

Exponentially increasing data growth, extremely competitive global economies, and tightening compliance regulations across all industries made the challenge of data management more overwhelming than ever in 2007. In addition, there is a shift in the type of data being generated. IDC projects by 2010, 80% of storage will be for secondary data' data including backup, archive, and replication copies.

Data de-duplication was a concept relatively unknown at the beginning of 2007, yet ended the year as a $100 million market of its own. Known also as single instant store and duplicate data reduction, de-duplication identifies and stores only unique data at the sub-file level. If a data string or chunk has already been stored in the system, it is referenced by a pointer rather than stored a second time, third, forth and nth time.

Reducing disk capacity needs by 20:1 or more is where de-duplication technology changes the game: all the benefits of disk-based backup and archive can be achieved with significantly less disk capacity and at a cost similar to tape. Also, backups and archives can be retained for longer periods of time at no additional cost to support ever stringent regulatory requirements and eDiscovery needs. By implementing a de-duplication solution, IT organizations can reduce backup windows, RTOs, and have quick and reliable access to archives when needed, while gaining the ability to cost-effectively replicate data offsite for disaster protection, even in bandwidth-constrained environments.

However, there was a lack of education and a lot of hype regarding de-duplication technology in 2007. Storage vendors hyped ever larger 'de-dupe' ratios in an effort to show technological superiority. The danger is that de-dupe ratios alone do not measure or even indicate the final benefits of the solution. IT managers need to look at the larger picture and also evaluate storage systems with de-duplication on protection, performance and scope.