Thursday, April 30, 2015

Iran Boarded Cargo Ship Inside Own Waters, Pentagon Says

Pentagon: Ship Seized By Iran Not U.S.-Flagged

Iranian forces boarded a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. said, denying an earlier report that the seized vessel was American.
The MV Maersk Tigris was fired at by patrol boats and boarded at about 9 a.m. GMT on Tuesday, after the captain refused an order to move deeper into Iranian waters, Army Colonel Steve Warren told reporters at the Pentagon. The U.S. has sent a destroyer and aircraft to monitor the ship, he said, adding that no Americans were on board.
The ship was on an “internationally recognized maritime route” when it was intercepted by the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps naval force, State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters in Washington. Cor Radings, an external spokesman for Rickmers Ship Management, the vessel’s manager, said it was in international waters and it wasn’t clear why it had been halted.
Iran’s Fars news agency said the vessel was seized by the navy, which was acting on a court order for its confiscation due to a financial dispute between the Iranian ports authority and the ship’s owners. The 34-member crew includes European nationals, Fars said.

Oil Surge

Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television earlier said that the Iranians had seized an American ship, prompting a surge in oil prices. Brent crude rose as much as 1 percent, before paring most of the gains as it emerged that the report was inaccurate. It traded at $64.87 a barrel at 1:45 p.m. in New York, up 0.1 percent from the previous day’s close.
The waterways of the Persian Gulf, a region that holds about half the world’s oil, remain a potential flash point even as ties between the U.S. and Iran improve.
The two countries have cited progress in recent months in talks on a nuclear accord. They’re still opposed on many Middle Eastern issues, including the escalating war in Yemen where the U.S. supports the Saudi-backed government and Iran has ties with Shiite rebels.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

We're Just Learning the True Cost of China's Debt (BusinessWeek)

The true cost of the debt that China’s real estate developers peddled to eager international investors during a five-year property boom is now becoming clear.
Having found themselves shut out of local bond and loan markets seven years ago, a band of developers began looking elsewhere for funds. First an initial public offering, and then a dollar bond sale. It became a well-trodden path. By 2010, a core group of four -- Kaisa Group Holdings Ltd., Fantasia Holdings Group Co., Renhe Commercial Holdings Co., Glorious Property Holdings Ltd. -- raised a total of $5.6 billion. On Monday, Kaisa buckled under $10.5 billion of debt and defaulted.
China’s home builders became the single biggest source of dollar junk debt in Asia amid government measures to prevent a property bubble. Developers already funneled $78.8 billion from international equity and bond markets into an industry that’s grown to account for one third of the world’s second-biggest economy. Most of the first rush of dollar offerings, in 2010, falls due in the next two years.
“It was an unintended consequence of the Chinese government that property developers are selling equity and debt to offshore investors,” said Ben Sy, a Hong Kong-based managing director in JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s private banking division. “There happened to be huge demand from international investors in the past few years driven by the intense search for yield.”

High Yields

Kaisa was the first to debut in the dollar note market in 2010, selling $650 million of five-year bonds that April. The securities paid a 13.5 percent coupon, more than twice the 6.3 percent average yield for Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s U.S. Real Estate index at the time.
The Shenzhen-based developer was among nine real estate companies that raised $4 billion selling offshore bonds that year, a record at the time and fourfold the previous high. Six of the nine had listed their shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange in the previous 24 months.
Chinese developers’ move into the international capital markets started in earnest in 2007. From January to December, as the rest of the world slid deeper into recession, homebuilders raised $7.2 billion. Since 2008, another $11.5 billion has been raised via IPOs in Hong Kong.
Investor interest was, for the main part, strong. The retail portion of Glorious’s IPO was 51.4 times oversubscribed. Fantasia received orders from individual investors for 160 times the number of the shares it was selling, triggering a claw back mechanism that allowed it to allocate more stock. The retail component of Renhe’s share sale was undersubscribed with investors only applying for 7.25 percent of the shares offered to them, leaving institutional investors to take up the slack.

Borrowed Money

The shift offshore was precipitated to a large degree by happenings within China. In July 2008, the China Banking Regulatory Commission had issuedcircular 214 banning the use of borrowed money to buy land in an effort to stem rising property prices. The year prior, the China Securities Regulatory Commission had begun turning down IPO and bond issue requests for the same reason.
Having tapped equity investors, most developers followed up with a dollar bond sale.
Developers weren’t “allowed to pay for land purchases with borrowed money from PRC banks,” said Cheong Yin Chin, a Singapore-based analyst at independent research firm CreditSights Inc. “They raised money offshore, the proceeds were remitted to China as shareholders’ equity to the onshore subsidiaries, so it becomes a form of equity and you can use equity to buy land.”

Maturing Debt

2010’s roll call included Renhe, which raised $900 million via two dollar bonds, Kaisa, Glorious with $300 million and Fantasia with $120 million. The first of Renhe’s notes, a $300 million issue, comes due in May. The $78.7 million of notes still outstanding, sold at 99.08 cents on the dollar, are trading at 95.2 cents. Renhe had 884.5 million yuan ($143 million) of cash on its balance sheet as at the end of December.
Officials in Renhe’s investor relations department didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail seeking comment. An earlier telephone call was answered by a person who declined to be identified and who requested an e-mail.
Glorious, which was downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service by two levels to Ca on Monday, one score above default, has its $300 million of bonds maturing in October. It had cash and cash equivalents, including restricted cash, equivalent to about $226 million as at the end of 2014, its financial accounts show. Auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP issued a disclaimer on April 15 that said they have doubts the company can prepare its results on a going-concern basis.

More Defaults

“Given that most of Glorious’s debt is secured, we believe the recovery prospects for offshore bondholders are low and are reflected in its Ca senior unsecured rating,” Gerwin Ho, a Moody’s senior analyst, said.
Doris Chung, a Glorious investor relations official, didn’t immediately reply to an e-mail and telephone call seeking comment. Fantasia media relations official Zheng Jingya said the company can pay its offshore debt.
Kaisa, which failed to pay $52 million of interest on two of its dollar bonds after a 30-day grace period expired over the weekend, has said that in a liquidation, overseas creditors may get as little as 2.4 percent of their money back.
Standard & Poor’s said in a report last week that the earnings and profitability of some Chinese property developers may deteriorate further in 2015, and more defaults can’t be ruled out.

Record Sales

Still, it’s not as if the investors who bought developers’ debt have all had a bad run. Kaisa 2018 notes, now trading at 57.4 cents on the dollar, were as high as 104.7 cents on the dollar in August 2014. Debentures of Country Garden Holdings Co. sold at 99.05 cents on the dollar in August 2010 with a 10.5 percent coupon are at 102 cents.
Investors’ insatiable demand for yield also helped fuel sales. Since 2011, offshore bond sales have increased consistently, peaking last year when developers sold $15.7 billion of debt, bringing the total outstanding amount to $41 billion. That’s 30 percent of all junk-rated debt in Asia, according to Clement Chong, a senior credit analyst at NN Investment Partners BV, which had 186 billion euros ($199 billion) under management as of Dec. 31.

Creditor Rights

“Issuances from Chinese property companies will continue to dominate U.S. dollar bond supply in the Asian high-yield market given the large investment needs of this sector coupled with the funding limitations onshore,” Chong said. “Whilst the government has relaxed onshore funding restrictions for the sector, to date, only a small number of larger property companies have been able to tap the onshore capital markets.”
Chong said international investors should understand their rights as creditors in the event of default. “In almost all cases, onshore creditors will get their claims to assets first before offshore creditors, so the position of offshore creditors is deeply subordinated,” he said.
Since Kaisa’s troubles unspooled, developer bond sales have slowed. Dollar offerings totaled $3.5 billion in the first quarter, half the amount sold in the same period of 2014. Of the seven bonds sold so far this year, only two -- from Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd. and Times Property Holdings Ltd. -- are rated single B, showing investor appetite for lower-rated junk debt from the sector remains weak.
The yield on Renhe’s CCC rated bonds due next month meanwhile has soared 24 percentage points in the past two days. Yields on Agile Property Holdings Ltd.’s perpetual notes rose 3 percentage points in five weeks late last year after its chairman Chen Zhuo Lin was temporarily arrested.
“I think the recent defaults only reflect the risks that have always been there and highlight why investors should demand higher yields in the space,” said Benjamin Cryer, a Singapore-based portfolio manager for the Franklin Asia Credit Fund of Franklin Templeton Investments, a unit of Franklin Resources Inc. “Given the amount of leverage in some of these companies, combined with consistently negative free cash flows, a certain level of defaults should be expected.”

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Six Net neutrality lawsuits: What are the complaints about?

The lawsuits from two ISPs and four trade groups focus on violations of administrative process, constitutional questions

One of the main arguments for the trade groups and ISPs that have filed six -- yes, six -- lawsuits against the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's Net neutrality rules is that the agency violated a 69-year-old administrative procedure law in crafting the new regulations.
The two ISPs and four trade groups filing lawsuits in recent days have challenged the FCC's decision -- as part of the new Net neutrality rules -- to reclassify broadband as a regulated, common-carrier service, instead of its long-standing classification of broadband as a lightly regulated information service. The plaintiffs, in addition to accusing the FCC of violating administrative procedure, will argue the agency violated ISPs' constitutional rights.
The lawsuits come from two ISPs -- AT&T and Alamo Broadband -- and trade groups CTIA, the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom), the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and the American Cable Association. Alamo and USTelecom filed lawsuits in late March, with the trade group refiling its suit on Monday. AT&T and the three other trade groups filed lawsuits on Tuesday.
 
 
The cases are in their infancy. The lawsuits were filed in two U.S. appeals courts, but will likely be combined, and the parties will file dozens of court documents over the coming months. Some plaintiffs may also seek to have the appeals court stay, or put a hold, on the FCC Net neutrality rules.
The plaintiffs will argue, among other things, that the FCC violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a 1946 law that governs the way U.S. administrative agencies can make new regulations. The basic argument is this: The FCC didn't develop a sufficient record to support reclassification, and the agency didn't give adequate notice that it was planning to reclassify the service, said Jonathan Banks, USTelecom's senior vice president for law and policy.
The plaintiffs will note that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's first Net neutrality proposal, last May, would have created new rules without reclassifying broadband under the telephone-focused Title II of the Telecommunications Act. The plaintiff's lawyers will argue that Wheeler didn't change his mind about reclassification until late in the year, and the agency gave no official notice of the change until it voted on the rules on Feb. 26.
FCC lawyers will counter that Wheeler's May notice asked for comments on whether the agency should consider Title II reclassification. As for a sufficient record, they will point to the agency's 400-page order, released after the commission's vote for the rules.
The plaintiffs will likely also argue that the FCC has violated ISPs' constitutional First Amendment free-speech rights by requiring them to provide the same speeds to other Web traffic as their own Web traffic, even though most ISPs have said they have no plans to block or throttle other traffic. The groups suing the FCC may also argue that the agency violated ISPs' Fifth Amendment rights by taking their private property for public use without paying "just compensation."
Many of the court filings include language saying the FCC's Net neutrality order is "arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion." The filings also say the rules violate federal law, including the Constitution, and conflict with "the notice-and-comment rulemaking requirements" of the Administrative Procedure Act.
The original court filings in the six lawsuits are all short, generally running two to three pages, thus providing little more detail about the direction the plaintiffs will take. Longer briefs will be filed in the coming months.
So who's behind these lawsuits? Four of the six lawsuits are filed by trade groups, perhaps an effort to shield ISPs from public backlash. In some cases, however, individual members may not agree with the trade group's decision to file a lawsuit.
AT&T filed its own lawsuit. The company, based in Dallas, has about 16 million wired broadband customers and 121 mobile customers. AT&T is also a member of CTIA and USTelecom, two of the trade groups filing lawsuits against the FCC and the same Washington, D.C., law firm, Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans and Figel, is assisting with all three of those lawsuits.
Alamo Broadband, based in Elmendorf, Texas, offers VoIP and wired broadband for homes and businesses, among other services.
National Cable and Telecommunications Association: High-profile members include Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications, but equipment providers, including Cisco Systems and Alcatel-Lucent, and cable-related services, including Home Box Office, TiVo and the Weather Channel, are also members.
United States Telecom Association: Members include large telecom providers AT&T, Verizon Communications, CenturyLink, Windstream and Frontier Communications.
CTIA represents the mobile industry. Members include AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, U.S. Cellular, along with suppliers including Microsoft, Nokia, Blackberry, Cisco and Ericsson. It's worth noting that Sprint endorsed reclassification of broadband, and T-Mobile said it didn't have strong objections, although it preferred the FCC take a different approach.
American Cable Association: The trade group has about 850 small and mid-size cable providers as its members. The membership list includes Great Plains Communications, based in Blair, Nebraska; Wide Open West (WOW) based in Denver; TDS Telecom, based in Madison, Wisconsin; and CableOne, based in Phoenix.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Elon Musk Had a Deal to Sell Tesla to Google in 2013 (BusinessWeek)

On the verge of bankruptcy, the company sought a savior in Larry Page
This story is excerpted and adapted fromElon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, due out May 19 from Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins.
On May 8, 2013, Tesla Motors shocked just about everyone by posting its first-ever quarterly profit, reporting higher-than-expected demand for its Model S electric sedan. That moment marked the beginning of a turnaround for Elon Musk’s tumultuous automaker. The next year would see the Model S win most of the automotive industry’s major awards and Tesla’s share price rise roughly fivefold, to more than $200. The 2013 profit announcement was fortuitous. Just weeks before, Tesla had been on the verge of bankruptcy.
Earlier in 2013 the company was struggling to turn preorders of its vehicles into actual sales. As Musk put his staff on crisis footing to save Tesla, he also began negotiating a deal to sell the company to Google through his friend Larry Page, the search giant’s co-founder and chief executive officer, according to two people with direct knowledge of the deal. Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes and Google spokeswoman Rachel Whetstone declined to comment. “I don’t want to speculate on rumors,” Page said when I asked him if Google had considered buying Tesla, adding that a “car company is pretty far from what Google knows.”
Although Tesla spent several years designing and building its flagship Model S, the car was still missing some features when it went on sale in June 2012. Its safety elements, software, and interior room were better than those of most luxury cars, but it didn’t offer the parking sensors and radar-assisted cruise control of rivals like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Glitches with the 2012 Model S door handle irked early buyers, as did some aesthetic choices such as the car’s sun visors, which had unsightly seams.
A big part of the problem was a lack of resources, says former Tesla engineer Ali Javidan. “It was either hire a team of 50 people right away to make one of these things happen, or implement things as best and as fast as you could.” Musk chose the latter, Javidan says. Tesla also struggled to get top-rate suppliers to take it seriously, says chief designer Franz von Holzhausen. With the sun visors, he says, “We ended up having to go to a third-rate supplier and then work on fixing the situation after the car had already started shipping.”
Tesla’s first customers were proto-typical early adopters who wanted a computer on wheels. By the end of 2012, many were grumbling about the bugs still to be worked out, and sales slowed to a trickle. “The word of mouth on the car sucked,” Musk says. By Valentine’s Day 2013, Tesla was heading toward a death spiral of missed sales targets and falling shares. The company’s executives had also hidden the severity of the problem from the intensely demanding Musk. When he found out, he pulled staff from every department — engineering, design, finance, HR — into a meeting and ordered them to call people who’d reserved Teslas and close those sales. “If we don’t deliver these cars, we are f---ed,” Musk told the employees, according to a person at the meeting. “So I don’t care what job you were doing. Your new job is delivering cars.”
Musk fired senior executives, promoted hungry junior employees, and assigned former Daimler executive Jerome Guillen to fix Tesla’s repair service and get its glitchy cars back on the road. He also proposed what eventually became his public guarantee of the resale price of the Model S: Unsatisfied buyers would get their money back from Musk personally if they couldn’t sell their car at a price comparable to that of another luxury model.
In the first week of March 2013, Musk reached out to Page, say the two people familiar with the talks. By that point, so many customers were deferring orders that Musk had quietly shut down Tesla’s factory. Considering his straits, Musk drove a hard bargain. He proposed that Google buy Tesla outright — with a healthy premium, the company would have cost about $6 billion at the time — and pony up another $5 billion in capital for factory expansions. He also wanted guarantees that Google wouldn’t break up or shut down his company before it produced a third-generation electric car aimed at the mainstream auto market. He insisted that Page let him run a Google-owned Tesla for eight years, or until it began pumping out such a car. Page accepted the overall proposal and shook on the deal.
In the weeks that followed, Musk, Page, and Google’s lawyers negotiated the specific terms of the deal. There were a couple of sticking points around Musk’s financial demands that complicated the talks and kept the two sides apart.
While the two companies were negotiating, Tesla’s frenzy of sales calls began to pay off, and a lot more people started buying the Model S. With its quarter drawing to a close and two weeks worth of cash in its coffers, Tesla began selling thousands of cars, enough to post an $11 million quarterly profit on $562 million in revenue.
Within two weeks of that announcement, the company’s shares had doubled, and Tesla had repaid its $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy early, with interest. Musk broke off his negotiations with Google. He no longer needed a savior.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Comcast Bringing 2Gbps 'Gigabit Pro' Service to California (PCMagazine)

Comcast Gigabit Pro is a fiber-to-the-home service that promises up to 2Gbps Internet service.

Gigabit Internet

Comcast today pledged to bring gigabit Internet service to nearly 3 million California homes starting in June.
The company's Gigabit Pro service, which it announced earlier this month, is a fiber-to-the-home service that promises up to 2Gbps service.
It will be available in Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton, and Visalia metro areas. (But that does not include Arbuckle, Coalinga, Cool, Gustine, Huron, Isleton, Le Grand, Lodi, Maxwell, Planada, Rio Vista, Santa Cruz, Santa Nella, Scotts Valley, or Williams.)
Comcast said it will provide Gigabit Pro to homes within close proximity of its fiber network because it requires "installation of professional-grade equipment."
Gigabit Pro is also coming to Atlanta. Comcast has not announced how much it will charge for the service. Rival Google Fiber costs about $70 per month for 1Gbps. As Ars Technica noted earlier this month, Comcast's existing 505 Mbps residential speed tier costs $399.95 per month, but Comcast told Ars that Gigabit Pro will not be that pricey and 505 customers will get a bump to 2Gbps.
Google Fiber is not yet available in California, but AT&T is rolling out gigabit Internet in Cupertino, home of Apple.
In addition to the California gigabit rollout, meanwhile, Comcast also announced Extreme 250, a new 250 Mbps Internet speed tier for California customers. Starting in May, the ISP will also boost its Performance tier from 50 Mbps to 75 Mbps and its Blast tier from 105 Mbps to 150 Mbps, at no extra cost.
Time Warner Cable, which Comcast is trying to acquire,did something similar recently. The company is rolling out "TWC Maxx," which will provide Internet that's up to six times faster than existing service. Customers who currently have TWC's standard 15 Mbps Internet service or 30 Mbps Extreme service, for example, will be getting up to 200 Mbps. Those on the 50 Mbps Ultimate will be upgraded to 300 Mbps.
That merger, meanwhile, might be in danger. According to Bloomberg, the Justice Department might recommend that the deal be blocked.

Friday, April 17, 2015

En Mi Opinión:(Ricardo Tribin)

"Perdete dinero”, decía mi amigo Byron Calderón cuando de muchachos jugando billar le fallaba una carambola. La frase era muy significativa ya que entonces como era preciso pagarle al establecimiento el tiempo por el alquiler de la mesa, a quien le correspondía el desembolso era a aquel que perdía el partido ( lo llamábamos chico), por lo que un error ponía en riesgo el bolsillo de uno de los contrincantes.


Pero el punto no solo se aplica a ello sino también en múltiples actividades de la vida humana. Un estudiante que no prepara bien su asignatura corre el riesgo de que al final lo "rajen". De otro lado, quien no cuida su trabajo desaprovechando el tiempo o faltando a él, es muy probable que lo despidan del mismo. Y un parejo que no cuida su relación alimentándola con buen comportamiento y bonitos detalles, también correrá el riesgo de perder a su amada.


Por lo anterior es importante traer a colación el valioso refrán que dice " El que tenga tienda que la atienda o si no que la venda" para evitar incurrir innecesariamente en las pérdidas de las que hablaba mi amigo Byron al fallar una tacada, y que son susceptibles de presentarse en diferentes etapas de la existencia de los seres humanos.

Miami, Abril 15 de 2015



Wednesday, April 15, 2015

"El Liderazgo" por Edwin Conrado Rivera, MPH *

Crisis económica y de liderazgo mundial:  “¿Quién dijo eso?”

Somos todos de la misma raza o no?  Todos somos hermanos; por lo tanto no nos tenemos que matar para sobrevivir los retos económicos que confrontamos desde nuestros respectivos países y que afectan tanto al núcleo familiar como a cada uno de sus integrantes en la realización de sueños y metas profesionales.

Ante todo de cualquier tiempo y desasociego deben prevalecer los valores básicos de las relaciones humanas y sobre todo el AMOR al prójimo. Superar con entereza y mantener una elegante verticalidad creativa ante la adversidad nos crece como nación y como ciudadanos responsables.
Haciendo esto nos convertimos en líderes y hasta en líderes que otros desean emular.

La Virtud de Liderazgo, es una virtud que todos debemos alcanzar para sentirnos realizados y por ende, para dirigir personas eficazmente.

Debo recordar que La Virtud de Liderazgo comienza conmigo “en casa”, luego con mi familia, vecinos y amistades antes de salir a tratar de dirigir a otros en nuestras empresas.  Cuando desarrollamos esta Virtud a nivel personal, profesionalmente nos iremos realizando como persona y por ende como potencial Lider a seguir.

Si logramos este cambio, les aseguro que vamos a desarrollar tolerancia social.

La tolerancia social es el respeto hacia las ideas, creencias o prácticas cuando son diferentes o contrarias a las propias y a las reglas morales. Es el aprecio a la diversidad de ideas y de opiniones.  Ese aprecio está ligado al desarrollo de Liderazgo Mundial,

El concepto de Tolerancia Social es el motor que todo dirigente inteligente debe utilizar para anteponer los beneficios del pueblo a sus propios beneficios.  Esto a su vez redunda en beneficio mutuo, ya que cuando el país está bien y se vive en sana convivencia, la sociedad se desarrolla y evoluciona económicamente saludable y sus habitantes viven más felices.

Para que el mundo cambie tenemos que comenzar con nosotros mismos
  
Como yo sé que ustedes quieren ser parte del Nuevo orden mundial, y en función de tener una mejor calidad de vida, quisiera que consideren algunas actitudes que tenemos hacia nosotros y hacia los demás. 

Espero que estas 12 funciones para desarrollar Liderazgo Mundial le sean de utilidad.

  1. Crear una Visión Inspiradora y Compartir los ValoresHellen Keller dijo     “La única cosa peor que ser ciego es tener la vista, pero no tener vision”.             Cuando se desarrolla una visión de vida, al mismo tiempo creamos los valores por los cuales vamos hacer viva nuestra visión.  Siempre le preguntaba a mi hijo, “que te gustaría ser cuando seas grande”? El siempre me contestaba con un,      no se.  Hasta un día que comprendió lo que le preguntaba. Ese día me dijo, “papi, yo quiero ser ingeniero de sonido”.  Como resultado, hoy día es ingeniero de sonido.  Le pregunto, ¿qué usted quiere ser cuando sea grande?
  2. Liderar el CambioEl lider es aquel que aunque tenga miedo al cambio es el que se enfrenta a sus miedos y camina hacia la implementación de dichos cambios.  Alguien tiene que hacerlo, y es el lider el que esta llamado a realizarlo. Solo quisiera que tenga en consideracion que el liderazgo mundial comienza en casa.  Si en su casa no tienes mayordomía, como pretende liderar a los de afuera.
  3. Liderar por el EjemploPara aprender a liderar por ejemplo me gustaría que piense en lo siguiente: Mire a su alrededor y verá muchos llamados lideres pidiendole a la gente que hagan cosas que ellos no estan dispuesto hacer.        Peor aun, en muchas ocasiones se dará cuenta que lo que pide a los demás,    ellos no lo saben hacer, ni quisieran saber.  Por lo tanto para liderar por ejemplo, yo enseño una fórmula infalible que es: Boca + Corazón + Acción = Resultados. Cuando lo que dice sale del corazón y le pone acción para alcanzar los resultados, la gente que siempre esta observando se van a dar cuenta que has ganado el derecho de liderar por el ejemplo. La próxima vez que le pida a alguien que haga algo, piense si usted está dispuesto hacerlo también.
  4. Demostrar Confianza -  Ser indeciso y poco útil al participar en una reunión       o al tomar decisiones le hace ver inseguro. Comprometerse con las decisiones y dirigir a otros lo pone en una situación de liderazgo. Por tanto, demuestre confianza en si mismo y en sus habilidades. Expresa convicción, incluso si no está seguro de los resultados. Hay un dicho en Oratoria que puede ser mal entendido porque puede caer en arrogancia y no en seguridad y confianza.  “Aparenta seguridad y confianza hasta que lo logre”. Al final cuando no le quede mas remedio, aunque tenga miedo, tendrá que hacer el trabajo que la gente espera de usted.
  5. Inspirar & Energizar a la Gente Sabemos por experiencia que nadie motiva a nadie hacer nada.  Si podemos inspirar a la gente a ser mejores y a que se esfuerzen por desarrollar al máximo sus capacidades y talentos.  El lider eficaz es aquel que conoce las debilidades y fortalezas de su gente y las utiliza a su favor para que su gente alzance la excelencia en todo lo que hagan. Le recuerdo que la próxima vez que vaya a inspirar a alguien hacer algo diferente, piense primero cual va a ser el resultado que quiere alcanzar con esa persona.
  6. Empoderar a la GenteHace varios años atrás se hablaba de empoderar a la gente.  Los que promovían esa filosofia administrativa se olvidaban que para empoderar a la gente tiene que darle también algún grado en la toma de decisions; algo que los Dueños, Gerentes, CEO’s y Presidentes se negaban a compartir.  Hoy día no es diferente, con la única excepción que sabemos de una metodología que logra empoderar a la gente, sin que los Dueños, Gerentes, CEO’s y Presidentes pierdan el control de los trabajos y sus resultados.
  7. Comunicación Abierta y SinceraVemos como muchos lideres no son sinceros ni genuinos y menos abiertos cuando esconden sus agendas personales.  Es una pena que quieran llegar a la cima a cuesta de hacerle daño a los demás, sin tener ningún grado de sensibilidad.  Cuando el lider es primeramente sincero y honesto con el mismo, no tiene que preocuparse por lo que piensen los demás, ya que su conciencia esta en paz.  De esta manera las comunicaciones son mas eficientes en todos los niveles administrativos en toda empresa.  Tarde o temprano, la verdad siempre sale a relucir.
  8. Escucha, Apoya, AyudaSolamente cuando el lider aprende a escuchar más que hablar, comienza a conocer cuales son las necesidades de su gente y es cuando puede apoyarlos en sus metas y les ayuda para que alcancen sus propios sueños. Dios fue sabio al darnos dos oidos y una boca, imaginate si fuera lo opuesto, aunque yo se que hay lideres que hablan hasta por los codos.  Al final, se quedan solos por que la gente se cansa de escuchar la misma bobería una y otra vez.     Por lo tanto, si quieres de verdad desarrollar liderazgo mundial, dedíquese de ahora en adelante a escuchar más a la gente y sobre todo a escuchar lo que dice el corazón de la gente y no lo que sale de su boca.
  9. Involucrar a todos, utilizando el enfoque de equipoHasta ahora yo no conozco a nadie que pueda hacer un trabajo solo, excepto sus descargas humanas personales.  Un buen lider involucra a todas las mayores personas que tiene disponible en su empresa, en el gobierno, en sus suplidores inclusive con sus competidores.  Imagine una mesa redonda con 5 personas y todos son especialistas en hacer biscochos y su empresa le ha pedido que desarrolle un plan de negocios para vender mofongo.  Que creen que va a pasar en esa mesa. Lógico, nada.  Se necesita otro tipo de profesional con experiencia en cocina, uno que sepa comprar los platanos en su punto máximo para freir, un distribuidor del mejor aceite de oliva, un representante del mejor chicharrón,  el representante del mejor y más gustoso ajo, y por supuesto un gran chef que sepa armar todos los ingredientes para un mofongo suculento y por supuesto, necesitas al que conoce los trucos finales para la presentación en la mesa.  Por tanto, cuando vayan a crear a su nuevo equipo de trabajo, consideren la experiencia, los talentos y los resultados de su gente.
  10. El Mentor (Coach), saca lo mejor de su genteSer mentor es saber de Sicología, de Emociones, de Sensibilidad, de Amor, de Valores, de Respeto,    de Comunicacion  Eficaz y  Relaciones Humanas, de Liderazgo, de Ventas,  de la Vida, de los Hijos, del Universo y de Dios para mencionar algunos.  Hoy día vemos en las redes sociales que todo el mundo es “Mentor”.  Me acuerdo en un “Networking”, de una persona que estaba a mi lado y le pregunte que hacía y me dijo “Yo soy Coach/Mentora”. Le pregunte cual era su experiencia y me asombre de su contestación. Me dijo que una amiga le recomendo que dijera que era Mentora, porque había dinero en esa actividad comercial.  Quedé anonadado con su respuesta. Lo triste es que este tipo de persona prostituye el mercado con precios y trabajos desastrosamente deficientes.  La próxima vez que una persona le diga que es Mentor, pregúntale cuales son sus cualificaciones y experiencias, así sabra su procedencia.
  11. Fomenta la Decisión de GrupoGanar enemigos es fácil cuando no incluye a todos sus colaboradores en las decisiones de grupo.  Yo se que en algunas ocasiones no puede o debe pedirle a todos su opinión.  Lo que si le recomiendo es que trate de hacerlo mas constante y rote las decisiones grupales para que todos de alguna manera u otra participen.  La gente que mas sabe en una empresa son los que estan directamente trabajando en las operaciones, y muchas veces son los menos que le preguntamos su opinión.  Le recuerdo que la base de la pirámide empresarial siempre es la más solida.
  12. Monitoree el Progreso, pero NO haga MicromanejoLas aves de rapiñas son las expertas haciedo micromanejo, no déjàn a su presa sola hasta que la limpian por completo.  Esto lo vemos en algunos gobiernos alrededor del mundo.             El supuesto lider carece en su mayoría de seguridad y confianza y sobre todo cuando el lider perdió su norte por falta de saberse organizer, ni saber hacer planes de trabajos eficientes, no saber hacer “coaching”, ni lo mas esencial saber delegar eficientemente.  Si a usted no le gusta que su jefe este encima de usted, mirando todo lo que hace constantemente; ¿Por que lo hace con sus empleados?   Si nunca ha asistido a un curso de liderazgo, le recomiendo que lo ponga en sus metas urgentes de este año.
* El autor de este artículo es Contador y tiene más de  25 años de experiencia como Entrenador Internacional y Coach (International Trainer and Coach),  además de ser autor del libro: La Diabetes: El Árbol de las Enfermedades. Lo puede conseguir en:  EdwinConradoRivera@gmail.com


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Want more money and job satisfaction? These are the skills you need (TechRepublic)

A poll of more than 25,000 developers reveals the technology jobs that pay big bucks, that are fun and those that plain suck. 

Finding a role that is both satisfying and well-paid can be challenging, especially in a field as fast moving as software development.
To keep pace, developers typically have to refine their skills and learn new technologies throughout their careers, so knowing where to focus their efforts is important.
The programming Q&A site StackOverflow polled more than 26,000 developers worldwide about which computing roles are financially and intellectually rewarding, and which are less so. The results seem to be weighted towards web technologies but the sample size is large enough to throw up some interesting results.
When it comes to the programming languages most widely used among coders, web favourite JavaScript (JS) is the most common - with the JS framework AngularJS and the server-side JS environment Node.js among the few technologies whose popularity has increased over the past two years.
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The most popular technologies and programming languages in 2015
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The most popular technologies and programming languages in 2013.
As might be expected in a market that relies on supply and demand, the languages most widely used by developers are not those that attract the highest pay and perks. Competency in Objective-C, the language used to code iPhone apps among other things, remains the most highly-rewarded skill among the popular languages, with an ability to work with the relatively new Node.js environment also generously compensated.
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Compensation by technology in the US
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Compensation by technology in western Europe
The truly big bucks are reserved for know-how relating to more niche technologies, generally used in the fields of big-data analytics and cloud computing.
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Top paying technologies
The web appears to provide employment for most respondents - with the most common occupation listed as "full-stack web developer" - a role that requires working knowledge of front-end browser-based technologies, server-side languages and databases. Overall, the proportion who class themselves as web and mobile developers was up, while desktop developers fell.
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Breakdown of occupations in 2015
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Breakdown of occupations in 2013
Somewhat surprisingly, it seems executives are among the most satisfied with their roles, with CTOs, CIOs and the like rating their job the highest on a scale of one to five. Interestingly, being an iOS programmer is not only one of the best-paid jobs, it also scores highly for satisfaction. When it comes to thankless tasks, product managers top the list, with graphics programmers and data warehousing experts also less content than their peers.
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Most satisfying job
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Least satisfying job
The programming languages and technologies that generate the most excitement among developers tend to be the more recent creations, such as Apple's Swift and Mozilla's Rust, although the venerable C++ also scores highly. The cloud-based CRM platform Salesforce is the technology that developers most loathe working with, alongside Microsoft's Visual Basic programming language and the blogging platform WordPress.
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Most-loved technologies
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Most dreaded technologies
There's good news for those who want to work with computers but don't have formal training. Almost half the respondents don't have a degree in computer science. System administrators were the most likely to be self-taught, while machine-learning developers and data scientists are over 10 times more likely than other coders to have a PhD.
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Breakdown of developers by education
All graphs are crops of the originals from the Stack Overflow developer survey and provided under the following Creative Commons licence.