Jennifer Xue

Nirmal Gyanwali, the founder of a Sydney-based web design agency Nirmal Web Studio, shared with us on how being Nepalese influences his business philosophy. While it may sound more spiritual than business-sounding, it makes much sense. Interestingly, this philosophy is universal and quite a simple concept.

It is common knowledge that most people prefer dealing with honest and ethical businesses. Customers favor kind and attentive service providers with overall positive attitude. Moreover, stakeholders appreciate businesses with clear vision and mission.

In a nutshell, Nepalese culture focuses on humility and doing good to others or —in business— stakeholders. The ultimate premise is “doing good service equals to good karma,” which is translatable into practical business mindsets and strategies.

Cirque du Soleil’s brand is synonymous with professionalism, perfection, magic, and high-performing teams.

With SPARK Sessions and Experiences, the circus now offers more than sparkles in children’s eyes who are mesmerized by their performers, artists, athletes, and technologists.

They offer a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “We like to think of it as Harvard Leadership Institute meets Alice in Wonderland,” says Kris Chanski, Producer of Client Experiences for SPARK.

Storytelling is a great instrument to hack the growth of business with stronger brand awareness, increased traction, and increased revenue.

Many successful entrepreneurs have used it to their advantage. Use it appropriately; a business can expect to see strong growth in multiple directions, because good stories provide content and, more importantly, the substance for marketing activities.

How often do we hear stories about the founder of a business or the inventor of a product because he or she experienced something needing solving?

A true story makes a compelling reason to start something, and it’s basically how the human civilization continues to evolve.

Family businesses in developed and emerging markets are thriving, and many of them have become market leaders. We can expect to see more family businesses leading the market in the future.

Their high performance is just inevitable, thanks to the positive traits of family businesses: resilient, less likely to layoff, long-term strategic plan, higher profitability in the long run, more engaged in community activities, financially conservative, and purposeful in creating a legacy for future generations.

Understanding these impressive winning qualities of family businesses isn’t enough unless we also create and nurture a family business culture that is conducive to growth.

I became a parent overnight when my cousin Tina* was hospitalized for four months. Her daughter, Ella*, was four years old and had no one to care for her. Tina's parents had passed away and her ex-husband wasn't fit to be Ella's guardian. As Tina's next of kin and emergency contact, it was only natural that Ella should come live with me, even though I didn't know much about raising kids at the time.

Unlike state-appointed foster parents, my situation was based on kinship and family ties. Foster parenting expert Dr. Joseph Crumbley calls it "kinship care." Whatever the appropriate term was, I effectively became Ella's de facto "foster mom" as we waited to see if her mom would get better. Tina had been a great mother prior to her hospitalization, so I felt strongly that the only appropriate end goal would be to get Ella back to her. Until then, though, my life would be one big crash-course on parenting.

Startup founders often find themselves overwhelmed. They need workable solutions to their thousands of questions. One of the most important issues that all startups face is how to growth hack the business. In other words, how can a startup start generating revenue as soon as possible.

There is no definite formula, since in the business world, one plus one may not equal two. It can be any number from zero to infinity. You’d need to be aware of all the possibilities, which would affect how you think in the long run. The following eight ways to growth hack can be further elaborated into a book of 400 pages. However, these are the simplified and concise version.

Mark Zuckerberg’s habit for wearing gray T-shirt and denim have been fooling us for years and probably for many more years. How? His modest down-to-earth guy-next-door look creates a false perception that a guy this “regular” can make such a great impact. This can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for us.

Of course, we admire a billionaire who is friendly and not at all pompous. We love the fact that Zuckerberg lives “normally” like us, without partying all the time. He lives with his wife and baby daughter and he doesn’t wear gold shoes. We are infatuated with the idea that a guy this ultra rich still goes to work every single day and doesn’t blink an eye when changing his baby daughter’s diaper.

Most typical teenagers likely have thought about or, even, have tried running away from home. Parents and non-parents alike must take this intention seriously as it is as a very dangerous thing to do. Throughout the United States, 450,000 minors run away from home every year and within 48 hours one out of three will become a human trafficking victim.

Running away from home is oftentimes the gateway to being trafficked into the scary and dark business of selling and buying human beings, such as being sex workers, sex slaves, labor slaves, or other derogatory inhumane positions against their will. Other than being on the streets, other “gateways” include being kidnapped in public places, being lured by a “friend” who works for a trafficker, and being coerced into adopting the lifestyle, oftentimes with violence and intimidation, even murder.

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
(UBI), also called Universal
Guaranteed or Guaranteed Income, has lately been a topic of discussion. The concept is that
all citizens as individuals (rather
than households) would receive
a guaranteed minimum income
from the government. They would receive their UBI regardless of their employment status and irrespective of their net worth—making it very different from “welfare programs” where the recipients must pass the poverty or hardship tests.

There are pros and cons surrounding this issue. While
it may sound like a typical leftist welfare program, more conservatives and economists find it a good idea to boost
the economy. It’s even considered a crucial part of saving capitalism. U.S. economists argued that UBI is the “fourth method” of stimulating demand, which is also preferable due to its low economic, social and political risks. The other three with “higher risks” are global warfare, rising wages and increasing consumer debts.

Management gurus make a good living trying to postulate what is “the future of management.” My
answer? Managers must get used to managing “talents,”
instead of “employees.” In the coming decade, this approach going to change from the exception to the norm. In the future, “management” will mean getting things done
by managing people with specialized talents working together with various resources. The manager will evolve to
become like a conductor leading an orchestra in a symphony.
The definition of staff will also change, from full-time employees spending years at one company, to a spectrum of staff, including short-term, temporary, contract, freelance, and part-time employees.

A new category is the super specialist. What is a “super specialist”? Someone who excels in one specialization. And let’s not forget robots, automation and intelligent systems, which are increasingly playing a role to supplement the work of human staff. How people get hired is changing too. Multiple Internet sites such as oDesk, eLance and Freelancer can provide talent on demand. Getting staff this way has become common in Silicon Valley and is spreading across America. Thus, a large project can be completed in a shorter time because so many are working on it.

Raising children is about shaping traits and instilling values, not merely about fixing behaviors. Teaching children how to flourish should start with focusing on their strengths, not their weaknesses. By focusing on their strengths, parents and children are more motivated to work together as a team. But teaching positivity isn’t synonymous with using positive reinforcements all the time. It’s a tricky balance of reframing.

Every child is born with his own level of so-called “natural” happiness. Some were born with over-the-top cheerfulness, while others are born with less. This explains why some children are fussier, while others keep grinning from ear to ear, regardless of the mood of the surrounding environment. Happy kids tend to respond differently to failure than not-too-happy kids. Their strengths, however, should be distinguished from their natural level of happiness.

Almost four years since the beginning of the Great Recession, signified by the implosion of the financial industry and the fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the United States is recovering. In fact, some sectors have grown to new heights. Thus, a “declining USA” is no more than a myth.

This myth is likely to continue for a while despite the recession officially ending in June 2009 as the high unemployment and on-going foreclosure crisis have cloaked significant economic improvements. In the last four years, declinism and declinists have been spreading paralyzing dystopian analyses. Combine this with Nouriel “Dr. Doom” Roubini’s “the perfect storm” forecast in 2013 and you probably would become even more paralyzed.

n 2011, the UN declared Oct. 11 as International Day of the Girl Child. Why do we need to pay attention to girl children? What can we do to ensure better lives for girls and women now and in the future?

The UN'€™s Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ) program began in 2000, thus girl babies who were born that year will turn 15 this year. The world expects girls in countries that adopted the MDGs to grow healthier, more secure, more equal alongside boy children and lead more meaningful lives than before.

However, the male culture of sexualizing underage girls still occurs worldwide. Beauty is clearly the most important commodity that makes the world go round. Capitalism relies heavily on sexualized girl images to make money. It'€™s as if a woman'€™s value depends on how good she looks, her age and her ability to bear children.

From time to time, we “break” the code of mannerism, despite what our mothers taught us. Sometimes we have to “fake” out, to make things look more “acceptable.” With today’s world of gadgets, we can easily “fake” things out by focusing on our little virtual world. Common courtesy, thus, is a rarity. Let’s remind ourselves that we are courteous and modern lifestyle doesn’t change us into “uncivilized” beasts.

How often do you see someone who isn’t paying attention to his or her surroundings because of being too busy with a cellphone, tablet computer, or laptop? Whenever we are sitting in a round dinner table, we can clearly notice who are making eye contact with the diners and who aren’t.

Whenever you go home for the holidays, a family conflict would usually follow. Now, how can running a family business, which requires you to meet family members every single day be conflict-free? While conflicts can’t be completely eliminated, unnecessary frictions —albeit small ones— do hamper growth and progress.

According to a non-profit organization Family Firm Institute based in Los Angeles, family businesses comprise 80 percent of all business enterprises in USA, which contribute to 60 percent of the country’s employment. The US economy depends on family businesses to thrive and be prosperous.