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Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Multitasking? Time to apply the brakes.
The Side effects of doing multiple tasks at one time have
life coaches worried
Curtain Raiser
Blue Ocean organizes Second International Conference on
Global Supply Chain & Procurement
The region’s leading knowledge empowerment enterprise is set
organize its second international conference titled “Staying Ahead with
Procurement Trends for Expo 20-20” on September 20, 2014 at the iconic Atlantis
Hotel in Dubai, UAE.
The one-day conference will get together heads of Supply
Chain and Procurement and important policy-makers from this region (who have
played a crucial role in transforming UAE into the leading supply Chain hub
that it is today) to analyse contemporary trends and pave the foundation for
future innovation in the procurement industry.
Marketplaces worldwide are witnessing an unprecedented pace
of change. As a result, businesses are rapidly re-evaluating their operating
models and market strategies not just to withstand these market forces, but
also to capitalize on them. The conference will focus on challenges and the
missing links in the international supply chain as the world shrinks into a
global marketplace.
Competent procurement professionals have stepped-up their
game, fundamentally changing the way they work with the business and – as a
result – are increasingly taking a leadership role in helping drive growth and
reduce costs across the organizations.
The upcoming conference, a sequel to the First Blue Ocean
International Conference on Procurement held in Qatar earlier this year, will
feature eminent speakers drawn from different areas of specializations in
global supply chain. There will also be an active participation from Blue Ocean
Procurement and Supply Chain Forums.
The conference will help to create a “think tank” composed
of industry specialists from all sectors, who will provide smart solutions to
existing issues while determining the way forward.
“We are at a crossroads – it is important for us to look
back at the country’s successes and not lose track of the concepts that made
Dubai and the UAE into an international trading and logistic hub,” explained
Mr. Abdul Azeez, Regional Director, Blue Ocean Academy.
Panel discussions will shed light on “Why benchmarking is
important to Supply Chain” with speakers like Sara Lee from Weatherford
Drilling International, Engineer Moustafa Ahmad Helmy, Head of Systems Support,
Business Support Department, Procurement Directorate, Qatar Foundation, Ali
Mohammed Saleh Al-Hussaini, Section Head – Procurement and Supply, Ma’aden
Phosphate Company, Benu Chatterjee, General Manager – Purchase (International
Operations), Sterling & Wilson, Rajesh M. Bhandari, Director, Arihant
Education Foundation and Percy Jal Engineer, Regional Head, Corporate
Relations, Blue Ocean Academy.
The speakers will focus on how companies need to make use of
the latest technologies and the skills of empowered professionals to push
profits in a resurgent Middle East economy. To improve their supply chain performance,
companies are adopting new best practices. This session will highlight the ones
that are making the greatest impact.
The second panel discussion will showcase international best
practices in supply chain. The supply chain is everything between Supply and
Demand and is effectively all of the “Buy-Make-Move-Sell-Stock” processes. Here
we look at varied definitions and explain how the supply chain is involved (but
is often not recognized) in the business practices of every organization.
Companies report that their top concern is the continued
lack of supply chain visibility due to manually-driven processes. The
second-highest concern is the uncoordinated nature of global supply chain
processes across all the parties involved. Challenges with aligning multi-party
actions and poor supply chain visibility result in an imbalance of supply and
demand across tiers, leading to stock-outs, significant “just in case”
inventory carrying costs, high transportation costs, and extended cycle times.
The panelists include Dr. Sathya Menon, Executive Director,
Academics, Blue Ocean Academy, AmrTawfik, Region Logistics Manager, Weatherford
Oil Tool Middle East, Ismail Hussain Al-Askar, Sr-Procurement Materials
Specialist, Saudi Aramco, R. V. SrinivasRao, Manager Procurement &
Logistics, Qatar Airways, VP Menon, General Manager, Career Institute, Dubai.
As Dubai readies itself to greet 25 million visitors for
Dubai Expo 2020, the spotlight is on the new trends in international
procurement and supply chain that will define its future. The Dubai World
Central Logistics Park and the Maktoum International Airport has truly turned
Dubai into an international trading hub. New jobs are being created every year
in the UAE and in other Middle East countries. Challenging opportunities await
those who can captain the industry in the future.
Monday, September 1, 2014
Multi-tasking is High-Risk
By Debasree Banerjee
All working professionals, winning awards for versatility,
beware! All that multi-tasking might be doing you more harm than good.
In today’s world of spiraling competition, lay-offs and
mergers, serious side-effects of multi-tasking have had life coach experts more
than worried.
Emerging studies are pointing to some well-observed truths:
multi-taskers are prone to making mistakes, more likely to miss important
information and cues and less capable of retaining information in their working
memory. In a nutshell, attention deficit disorders are spreading like fire at
the workplace. It’s time to apply the breaks.
Over the past decade, advances in neuroimaging have been
revealing how the brain focuses, what impairs focus — and how easily the brain
is distracted. It has also been discovered that the brain can be trained to
ignore distractions.
The most important step to develop high-quality focus is to
curb emotional frenzy. It is a feeling of being a little out of control, often
underpinned by anxiety, sadness, anger, and related emotions. Emotions are
processed by the amygdala, a small, almond-shaped brain structure. It responds
powerfully to negative emotions, which are regarded as signals of threat.
Negative emotions interfere with the brain’s ability to
solve problems or do other cognitive work. Positive emotions and thoughts do
the opposite — they improve the brain’s executive function, and so help open
the door to creative and strategic thinking.
The challenge is to improve the balance of positive and
negative emotions by taming negative emotional frenzy by exercising, meditating
and sleeping well.
It is also important to learn to apply the brakes.
Distractions are always lurking: wayward thoughts, emotions, sounds, or
interruptions. Fortunately, the brain is designed to instantly stop a random
thought or an unnecessary action. Become aware of your options, you can stop
what you are doing and address the distraction, or you can let it go. At the
workplace ensure that meetings are distraction free and employees are giving
undivided attention.
When you turn your attention to a new task, shift your focus
from your mind to your body. Go for a walk, climb stairs, do some deep
breathing or stretches. Even if you aren’t aware of it, when you are doing this
your brain continues working on your past tasks. Sometimes new ideas emerge
during such physical breaks.
Handy Hints
- Over achievers tend to multi-task
- Multi-tasking leads to attention deficit disorder
- Train your brain to avoid distractions
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