Salam alaykum ,
Its a great pleasure to announce that I am now a PMP
You can verify that by going to the PMI registry and check for Last Name Shaikh and country as United Arab Emirates
https://www.pmi.org/CertApp/Registry.aspx
I would not say the exam was a cakewalk but sure not something beyond the realm of possibility.
Success is where hardwork meets opportunity.
Now the next project after getting the credential is to explore the market…….
Filed under Uncategorized
Alhamdolillah I passed the Six Sigma Green Belt Exam. Will shortly receive the certificate and card from ASQ (American Society for Quality). A big thanks to my elder brother Sajid who guided me with his experience and notes. He gave the exam with me and finished the 4 hour exam in 2 hours. Obviously he too cleared.
Filed under Uncategorized
Davos the largest ski resort town of Switzerland and the highest city in Europe was once again host to the World Economic Forum. The political and business elite from all over the world gathered there to discuss social development and economic progress.
Shadow of the Global Financial Crisis
This year the Forum was expectedly dominated by the devastating global financial crisis; although the organizers wished to have other topics like the environment and poverty to be on the agenda. For 5 days more than 2000 business and political leaders discussed ways to rebuild the shattered economic system. The Forum’s official theme “Shaping the Post-Crisis World” did not resonate with the speakers who seemed to be unsure about the depth and scale of the crisis and the time frame required for the world to come out of it. The Blame Game Business and government leaders blamed the United States for starting the financial crisis that is turning into a global recession. Stephen Roach, chairman of investment bank Morgan Stanley in Asia remarked “Davos just sort of encapsulates the broader global debate. We’re now moving into the ugliest phase of every crisis, the blame game. Wall Street made mistakes. Regulators made mistakes. Rating agencies made mistakes. Central banks made mistakes. Politicians made mistakes we all did it,” Roach added “So let’s be careful that we don’t let this blame game get out of hand.” Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, was diplomatic when he blamed the crisis for “inappropriate macroeconomic policies of some economies and “prolonged low savings and high consumption” and “excessive expansion of financial institutions in blind pursuit of profit and the lack of self-discipline among financial institutions and ratings agencies”. High profile global financer George Soros laid into the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve for triggering meltdown by failing to save Lehman Brothers. “How could Lehman have been left to go under?” he railed. “The responsibility lies squarely with the financial authorities, notably the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. The claim that they lacked the necessary legal powers is a lame excuse. In an emergency they could and should have done whatever was necessary to prevent the system from collapsing. That is what they have done on other occasions. The fact is, they allowed it to happen.”
Groping in the Dark
“Everybody’s lost in Davos,” said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. “No one seems to have a clear understanding of how big this crisis is and what we need to do to get out of it.” he told AP. “My own view is that you really need to do a fundamental re-examination of the whole global system to see what went wrong, and nobody here is yet ready to ask these kinds of fundamental questions in Davos.” Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum called for a redesign of the global systems of banking, financial regulation and corporate governance. Terming it the “Global Redesign Initiative” Schwab indicated that there is a continuing mismatch between 20th century institutions and 21st century challenges and hence the international system needs to intensify collaboration and develop innovative solutions” South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu summed it beautifully when he said “we worshipped in the temple of cutthroat competition, and so some cooked the books, because the treasure is so great. We spend billions on banks when we know that a fraction of this money could save all the children in the world.”
Shying away from the Truth
Having realized a fundamental flaw in their economic system, the experts are aware that going back to the same ways of running the economy is bound to make the problem worse and only a complete diversion and search for an alternate system will yield dividends. Yet they continue to examine only man made theories and ideas and are trying to get quick fixes without going back to the basics. Using words like fundamental re-examination and global redesign and calls for the creation of an international economic body, similar to the United Nations Security Council, to help avert the wrenching financial crisis currently engulfing the world seems a half hearted attempt and may prove to be too little and too late.
The Unambiguous Basics
a) Focus on the distribution of wealth and not just produce more and more for people to consume. Exerting all efforts in increasing the size of the cake, believing that it will somehow trickle down into the bellies of the hungry, is now a well established fallacy.
b) Basic needs like food, healthcare, education and employment must be guaranteed
c) No hoarding or monopolizing to control market prices.
d) Investment should be equity based where the risk is shared and not ‘interest’ based where the risk is solely held by the entrepreneur and not the bank that finances the capital.
e) ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy) to assure market liquidity.
f) Focus on the real economy and not allow speculative financial instruments to trade without regulation, thereby expanding the economy virtually without any relationship to the market basics. The size of the world’s stock markets are estimated at $51 trillion, the world derivative markets are valued at $480 trillion, 30 times the size of the US economy and 12 times the size of the world economy. This bubble economy had to burst sometime or the other.
g) All types of short selling and forward trading needs to be cut down as people should not sell something they don’t own.
h) Currency must be backed by real gold or silver and no more fiat currency. Winston Churchill once famously remarked that “Capitalism is the worst system except for all those others that have been tried.”
After Reverend Archbishop Desmond Tutu we hope next year the Davos organizers invite noted Islamic scholars like Yousuf al Qardhawi and Dr Nejatullah Siddiqui.
Filed under Current Affairs, Economy
On BBC’s refusal to air the charity appeal by DEC during the on going massacre in Gaza under alleged pressure from Israel purportedly to maintain impartiality in news reporting. I composed an image to voice my symbolic outrage:-
Filed under Current Affairs
Salam alaykum
It has always been my dream to be able to have some real multimedia presence (audio & or video); something that enables lesser mortals like me to compete with those gigantic media behemoths that have monopolized the information domain.
As a first step I have uploaded some personal comments on my earlier post ” Who cleans the Mess” via audio.
To listen to my podcast click on this icon –> 
The next step is to try and simulate a group discussion. The idea is to ask some questions to a target audience (my immediate friends and relatives) and request them to answer those questions in audio and mail their audio files back to me. I will then InshaAllah try to edit and mix them up; and it should sound like a live debate.
For now please comment on the podcast and suggest some ways to improve.
Filed under Uncategorized
The noose of the global financial crisis has slowly begun to throttle the economies of the world with disastrous consequences. The American economy which is at the epicenter of the crisis is failing rapidly, necessitating comparisons with the Great Depression of 1929.
America lost 2.6 million jobs last year and manufacturing is at its lowest since the Second World War. Consumer spending is declining and investor confidence waning quickly. Europe and Asia are badly hit and the Middle East is facing its biggest economic challenge with the oil barrel hitting lows of $ 36 from an all time peak of $ 147 just six months back.
Stimulus Plans
In an attempt to put the economy on track, 20 different countries are pumping money to the tune of $ 1.243 trillion. If we include the $ 700 billion for the Troubles Assets Relief Program (passed under ex President Bush) and the current stimulus package the American Reinvestment and Recovery Plan of President Barack Obama, then the total figure climbs to almost $ 3 trillion.
Uncomfortable Questions
Although the aim of the stimulus package is to jumpstart the economy and create new jobs by investing in clean energy, health care, education and infrastructure, there are some tough questions that beg to be answered.
1) Is the money being talked of real new money or which was already envisaged in previous budgets?
2) Will the money be sensibly directed to achieve speedy results? Past experience shows that infrastructure projects produced little results beyond the construction costs and salaries.
3) What will be the long term financial impact of so much government spending?
4) And finally who is going to pay for these enormous sums of money?
Convoluted Logic
It is a well known fact that this economic crisis was triggered by reckless and unregulated sub-prime mortgage lending by banks and financial institutions. The unprecedented number of foreclosures and the fall of the real estate market rendered millions homeless and shattered the great American dream. Credit crunch and lack of market liquidity brought industrial and manufacturing growth at a standstill with the stock market indices all over the world nose diving to all time historic lows. Yet the biggest chunk of the bailout pie goes to these very banks which created this gigantic financial mess. Normally a thief is punished when caught red handed, not rewarded with more than what he stole; but this is exactly what we are doing to banks. Helping them out financially when they declare that we have stolen enough and are now bankrupt and filling their coffers with bailout plans to be paid by the hard earned taxpayer’s money.
Method behind the Madness
John Maynard Keynes the most influential economist of the last century proposed that the state should stimulate economic growth and improve stability in the private sector through interest rates, taxation and public projects. Keynes argued that the solution to depression was to stimulate the economy through a combination of two approaches: a reduction in interest rates and government investment in infrastructure. The injection of income results in more spending in the general economy, which in turn stimulates more production and investment involving still more income and spending and so forth. The initial stimulation starts a cascade of events leading to an increase in economic activity as a multiple of the original investment. President Obama’s stimulation package is more or less on the same lines.
The Government’s broke, No Problem!
This huge injection of funds through bailouts and stimulus packages is however only possible through deficit financing whereby the government borrows through the loanable funds market. As governments finance these deficits (called national debt or public debt) through Treasury securities or government bonds, the ultimate beneficiaries are again big banks and the ultimate loser is the hard working tax payer. The United States national debt stands at a phenomenal $ 10.6 trillion and with a population of around 300 million, the debt share per citizen is around $ 34,000. The American national debt is rising at a rate of around $ 3.34 billion per day. The paradoxical part is that almost 25 % of the national debt is bankrolled by China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and other countries.
No Hope till we go Back to the Basics
These mind numbing figures erase all hope of recovery. We continue to inflate the debt bubble and live out our time on borrowed money, burdening ourselves with more and more interest payments than we can sustain. Is there a way out of this mess? The first step is to acknowledge that the system has failed us; blaming it on greed and lack of regulation will not allow us to search for an alternative. Islamic economics seeks an economic system based on uplifting the deprived masses and recommends a proactive role for the state in matters such as circulation and equitable distribution of wealth. It ensures that participants in the marketplace are rewarded for being exposed to risk and/or liability. The success of Islamic Banking amid the global meltdown should be seen as a proof of the potential of Islamic economics. The Islamic Sukuk market is $ 100 billion strong and growing at a rate of 10 % all over the world. Zero Rate Interest Policy (ZIRP) has already adopted by the FED and Japan to boost market liquidity and encourage investment throughout the economy. Move over Casino economics, Islamic economics is here to stay.
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Filed under Economy
Leadership is an important topic in management studies. One of the many approaches towards understanding leadership is the “trait theory”. This theory assumes that certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. Some view these “leadership characteristics” as innate, and accordingly label some people as “born leaders” due to their psychological makeup. Let us apply this theory on the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) who undoubtedly was the greatest leader of all time.
The ‘trait’ theory suggests the following qualities associated with leadership:
A) Guiding others through modeling: - providing a role model and thorough willingness to serve others first. Thus a positive role model carries out a role demonstrating values, ways of thinking and acting, which are considered good in that role for others to emulate. Prophet (pbuh) was an embodiment of the Quranic tenet “why say ye that which ye do not”. There are many incidents in the life of the Prophet (pbuh) which personify this quality. One of which occurred during the Battle of the Trench (Al Khandaq). It so happened that on the advice of one of the companions of the Prophet (pbuh) it was decided that a huge trench be dug up around the city of Medina to protect itself from a frontal attack by the enemy. Each Companion was allocated a certain length to cover. The Prophet (pbuh) did not remain an onlooker and merely supervise operations. He (pbuh) himself took up spade and shovel and was in the thick of day to day work. When some of the Companions came to him for assistance, they could observe that he too had tied stones to his stomach like them to reduce the intensity of hunger as food and other resources were running scarce.
B) Talent and technical/specific skill at some task at hand: Although this quality may apply and understood more easily with relation to leadership in business or sports etc, one may appreciate such even in the context of the Prophet (pbuh). One singular talent which the Prophet (pbuh) displayed in ample measure was to remain firm and patient in the face of mounting adversity. His entire life stands testimony to the Quranic precept “those who say “Our Lord is Allah” and further stand straight and steadfast”. Once, the Prophet (pbuh) visited the city of Taif for preaching the message of Islam. He was ill-treated and some mischievous people even set up hooligans after him, who pelted him with stones, so much so that his shoes were soaked with blood. God sent his angels to destroy the people of Taif. In spite of receiving such horrendous treatment Prophet (pbuh) still appealed for mercy and their forgiveness. Such clemency and patience has no parallel.
C) Initiative and drive: After the Prophet (pbuh) migrated to Medina he immediately convened a general meeting of the population both Muslim and non-Muslim and formulated a written constitution that banned internecine feuds and called for mutual cooperation in the face of external aggression. This initiative paved the way for internal consolidation and the much required impetus to tackle external dangers and threats.
D) Charismatic inspiration – attractiveness to others and the ability to leverage this esteem to motivate others. The Prophet (pbuh) was immensely loved by his Companions so much so that they were ready to sacrifice their very lives at his command. They would always gather around him and try to learn whatever they could. A man once asked the Prophet (pbuh) “When will the Hour (i.e. the Day of Resurrection) be established, O Allah’s Apostle?” The Prophet (pbuh) said, “What have you prepared for it?” The man said, “I haven’t prepared for it much of prayers or fast or alms, but I love Allah and His Apostle.” The Prophet said, “You will be with those whom you love.”
E) Preoccupation with a role - dedication that consumes much of leaders’ life – service to a cause. The entire life of the Prophet (pbuh) was dedicated towards fulfilling the Prophetic mission. He wanted to establish the religion of Truth and convey the message of God to his people. This preoccupation and sense of responsibility can be seen in his address during the Farewell Pilgrimage when he asked his Companions what they felt about him. They all replied in one voice that “We bear witness that you have conveyed the message and discharged your ministry”. The Prophet (pbuh) then raised his forefinger three times towards the sky saying “O Lord Bear witness”
F) A clear sense of purpose (or mission) – having clear goals, focus and commitment. This is exemplified in the reply that the Prophet (pbuh) gave when his uncle Abu Talib came to him on behalf of the unbelieving Quraish clan requesting a compromise or dilution of his message. The Prophet’s (pbuh) reply “If they place the sun in my right hand and moon in the left, even then I won’t change an iota of what God has charged me to preach.”
G) Results-orientation- directing every action towards a mission – prioritizing activities to spend time where results most accrue. Thus propagation in the initial stages (during the Meccan stage) was confined to mere verbal preaching and there was no retaliation whatsoever in the face of the worst kind of physical persecution and verbal provocation.
H) Cooperation-work well with others. The personal disposition and personality of the Prophet (pbuh) was loving, caring and forgiving. He extended his cooperation to one and all. Before the advent of Islam the Prophet (pbuh) was part of a confederation in Mecca that was made to suppress violence, injustice and vindicating the rights of the weak and destitute. It was called Al-Fudoul confederacy. Prophet (pbuh) once remarked “I witnessed a confederacy in the house of Abdullah bin Jada’an. It was more appealing to me than herds of cattle.Even now in the period of Islam I would respond positively to attend such a meeting if I were invited”
I ) Ability to encourage and nurture those that report to them – delegate in such a way as people will grow. There are many instances of the Prophet (pbuh) encouraging and blessing his Companions to motivate them. Allah’s Apostle once remarked “Every nation has an extremely trustworthy man, and the trustworthy man of this nation is Abu ‘Ubaida bin Al-Jarrah.”
J) Being optimistic – pessimists are rarely winners. The optimism and confidence of the Prophet (pbuh) can be gauged by the famous incident of Hijrat (Migration).The Quraish in hot pursuit of the Prophet (pbuh) had almost caught up even as he lay hidden in the cave of Thaur along with his Companion Abu Baqr. Narrated Abu Bakr: I was with the Prophet in the Cave. When I raised my head, I saw the feet of the people. I said, “O Allah’s Apostle! If some of them should look down, they will see us.” The Prophet said, “O Abu Bakr, be quiet! (For we are) two and Allah is the Third of us”
The leadership qualities that Prophet (pbuh) displayed should be studied in greater detail by all those interested. We are bound to reap rich rewards.
Filed under Religious
