The Information Age

What will happen to you today if you do not know how to read and write? The same thing may happen to you in the next ten years if you do not know how to use a computer or a smart phone. People who do not understand this or do not know the impact of information technology will be at a disadvantage just like people who do not know how to read and write today. 

Skilled Work, Without the Worker

DRACHTEN, the Netherlands — At the Philips Electronics factory on the coast of China, hundreds of workers use their hands and specialized tools to assemble electric shavers. That is the old way. 

At a sister factory here in the Dutch countryside, 128 robot arms do the same work with yoga-like flexibility. Video cameras guide them through feats(kỳ công) well beyond the capability of the most dexterous(khéo léo)human.

The need for IT workers

Microsoft suggests that the U.S government let companies, including itself, pay higher fees to bring more foreign workers to the U.S. and government can use the proceeds to educate more U.S engineers to solve the country’s technology workers shortage. The company says the plan could produce $500 million annually to help fund U.S. education in science, technology, education and math (STEM), while helping technology companies by letting them bring in more IT workers from overseas.

From Information Management to Knowledge Management: Are You Prepared?

Dr David J. Skyrme

The following is the full text of a paper that was delivered at OnLine '97 (9-11 December 1997). Reproduced with the permission of Learned Information Europe Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)1865 388000. Fax: +44 (0)1865 736354. A follow-on paper Information Managers: Do We Need Them? was presented at Online Information 2004.

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This paper reviews the role of the Internet in the current 'knowledge revolution'. Knowledge has emerged as a current 'hot topic' for many organisations. Many see knowledge management as the next source of competitive advantage.

The paper starts by exploring the momentum in the knowledge agenda and reviews the current state of theory and practice, based on an international study of best practice. It then considers the role of information systems, and especially how the evolution of the Internet and Intranets can contribute to effective knowledge management. These themes are together in frameworks that shape the role of the technological infrastructure in knowledge work. It is concluded that collaborative technologies and information management both have significant contributions to make, but that many organisations have yet to adopt them both systematically and strategically. Implications are developed for online service providers and information professionals in how they might achieve their full potential in moving forward the strategic knowledge agenda.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program is a software product designed to help businesses focuses on the relationships with its customers. CRM software tracks contact with customers, collect sales information, product support data and other issues. All data are analyzed, categorized, and organized into reports to management.

Getting work experience

Today many companies are looking for recent software graduates with some experiences to fill entry-level jobs. Most require at least two years of experience. A company owner explains: “We hired many graduates in the past, since they did not have the skills that we need, we had to train them. After a year or so, they all left for better positions or higher salaries in another companies. Since so many of them keep switching jobs, we do not want to hire recent graduates and train them anymore but prefer workers with at least one or two years of experience because they are trained by somebody else. It is strictly a business decision.” Other industry representative comments: “The frequent switching of job among software workers has left many companies bitter about newly graduates. A trained worker that leaves a company is very costly, especially if it happens within a year or so. It is the workers fault.”

Although the industry blames software workers but I think the main issue is the gap between what school teaches and what the industry needs. According to several reports, many recent graduates do not have the right skills and must be retrained because what they know is not what the industry needs. Unless this gap can be closed, this situation will get worst. Today software companies want their new hires to have both technical skills and soft-skills such as teamwork, problem solving, communication and critical thinking etc.

With this attitude from companies, what should college students do? The solution is to start career planning when you first enter college. You must select schools that have the most up to date curriculum to get the technical skills that the industry wants. You must continue to read more about industry trends to prepare yourself for the future. You must develop the skills that will help you to get into the career that you want. You may need to work in the summer to get some experiences even it may not pay much. In this working place, you will learn about what the company needs, what skills are important as well as develop your soft-skills. A summer job allows you to develop these valuable skills and this is your investment in your future. In this highly competitive world, only the well-prepared will succeed.

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Prof. Vu

Carnegie Mellon University

source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1937

Are You Involved in Every Decision at Your Company?

By JOSH PATRICK

Does every problem still come across your desk? Are you spending too much time in the weeds and not enough thinking about the big picture? Are you feeling burned out? For many business owners I know, the answers to these questions are a resounding “yes.”

One of the best ways I know to create value in a business is for the owner to become operationally irrelevant. That doesn’t mean leaving the business. It means changing your relationship to your business. Instead of being involved in every decision, you build a team and find a way to trust your senior employees to take care of their individual areas of responsibility.

Management: The Central Social Function

Noneconomic institutions need a yardstick that does for them what profitability does for business.

Nonbusiness institutions flock in increasing numbers to business management to learn from it how to manage themselves. The hospital,the armed service, the Catholic diocese, the civil service—all want to go to school for business management.

The Function of Management Is to Produce Results

Above all management is responsible for producing results.

Management has to give direction to the institution it manages. It has to think through the institution’s mission, has to set its objectives, and has to organize resources for the results the institution has to contribute. Management is, indeed, J. B. Say’s “entrepreneur” and responsible for directing vision and resources toward greatest results and contributions.

The Spirit of an Organization

It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.

Two sayings sum up the “spirit of an organization.” One is the inscription on Andrew Carnegie’s tombstone:

Here lies a man

Who knew how to enlist

In his service

Better men than himself

The other is the slogan of the drive to find jobs for the physically handicapped: “It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count.” A good example was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s confidential adviser in World War II, Harry Hopkins. A dying, almost a dead man for whom every step was torment, he could work only a few hours every other day or so. This forced him to cut out everything but truly vital matters. He did not lose effectiveness thereby; on the contrary, he became as Churchill called him once, “Lord Heart of the Matter” and accomplished more than anyone else in wartime Washington. Roosevelt broke every rule in the book to enable the dying Harry Hopkins to make his unique contribution.

Action point: Figure out what each of your employees’ or colleagues’ strengths are and develop these strengths to help people perform better.

The Practice of Management

The Effective Executive

Peter Drucker

inscription: ~write

tombstone: feathering

handicapped: disable

confidential adviser: secret adviser

Business Intelligence

Business Intelligence (BI) can be defined as a strategy that uses information technology to improve business competitiveness. Business Intelligence is often taught in Information System Management program. It focuses on the policies, standards, technology, and processes required allowing a company to get the information needed to support its business strategies and to improve competitive advantage. 

Practice Comes First

Decision makers need to factor into their present decisions the “future that has already happened.”

Decision makers—in government, in the universities, in business, in the labor unions, in churches—need to factor into their present decisions the future that has already happened. For this they need to know what events have already occurred that do not fit into their present-day assumptions, and thereby create new realities.

Intellectuals and scholars tend to believe that ideas come first, which then lead to new political, social, economic, psychological realities. This does happen, but it is the exception. As a rule, theory does not precede practice. Its role is to structure and codify already proven practice. Its role is to convert the isolated and “atypical” from exception to “rule” and “system,” and therefore into something that can be learned and taught and, above all, into something that can be generally applied.

Action point: Are the premises that you base your decisions on obsolete? Do you need a new intellectual framework to win in the market, as it exists today?

The New Realities

Peter Drucker

codify: make rules

premise: factor

The New Corporation’s Persona

In the Next Society’s corporation, top management will be the company. Everything else can be outsourced.

Increasingly, in the Next Society’s corporation, top management will, infact, be the company. This top management’s responsibilities will cover the entire organization’s direction, planning, strategy, values, and principles; its structure and relationships between its various members; its alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures; and its research, design, and innovation.

Knowledge Workers: Asset Not Cost

Management’s duty is to preserve the assets of the institution in its care.

Knowledge workers own the means of production. It is the knowledge between their ears. And it is a totally portable and enormous capital asset. Because knowledge workers own their means of production, they are mobile. Manual workers need the job much more than the job needs them. It may still not be true for all knowledge workers that the organization needs them more than they need the organization. But for most of them it is a symbiotic relationship in which the two need each other in

equal measure.

Autonomy in Knowledge Work

Knowledge work requires both autonomy and accountability.

Demanding of knowledge workers that they define their own task and its results is necessary because knowledge workers must be autonomous. As knowledge varies among different people, even in the same field, each knowledge worker carries his or her own unique set of knowledge. With this specialized, unique knowledge, each worker should know more about his or her specific area than anyone else in the organization. Indeed, knowledge workers must know more about their areas than anyone else; they are paid to be knowledgeable in their fields. What this means is that once each knowledge worker has defined his or her own task and once the work has been appropriately restructured, each worker should be expected to work out his or her own course and to take responsibility for it. Knowledge workers should be asked to think through their own work plans and then to submit them. What am I going to focus on? What results can be expected for which I should be held accountable? By what deadline? Knowledge work requires both autonomy and accountability.

Action point: Write a work plan that includes your focus, desired results, and deadline. Submit it to your boss.

Management Challenges for the 21st Century

Knowledge Worker Productivity (Corpedia Online Program)

Peter Drucker

autonomy: flexible(free) to control

accountability: responsibility, mission, duty

Management Is Indispensable

Whoever makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before deserves better of mankind than any speculative philosopher or metaphysical system builder.

Management will remain a basic and dominant institution perhaps as long as Western civilization itself survives. For management is not only grounded in the nature of the modern industrial system and in the needs of modern business enterprise, to which an industrial system must entrust its productive resources, both human and material. Management also expresses the basic beliefs of modern Western society. It expresses the belief in the possibility of controlling man’s livelihood through the systematic organization of economic resources. It expresses the belief that economic change can be made into the most powerful engine for human betterment and social justice -- that, as Jonathan Swift first overstated it three hundred years ago, whoever makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before deserves better of mankind than any speculative philosopher or metaphysical system builder.

Management—which is the organ of society specifically charged with making resources productive, that is, with the responsibility for organized economic advance—therefore reflects the basic spirit of the modern age. It is, in fact, indispensable, and this explains why, once begotten, it grew so fast and with so little opposition.

Action point: Come up with a few examples of why management, its competence, its integrity, and its performance, is so decisive to the free world.

The Practice of Management

Peter Drucker

survive (v): outlive

Identifying the Future

The important thing is to identify the “future that has already happened.”

Futurists always measure their batting average by counting how many things they have predicted that have come true. They never count how many important things come true that they did not predict. Everything a forecaster predicts may come to pass. Yet, he may not have seen the most meaningful of the emergent realities or, worse still, may not have paid attention to them. There is no way to avoid this irrelevancy in forecasting, for the important and distinctive are always the result of changes in values, perception, and goals, that is, in things that one can divine but not forecast.

On the practice of a weekly review

A weekly review is an excellent idea. Here are some of the reasons why we need do it:

1. Track and celebrate accomplishments. Ever wondered where your days went? Tracking your accomplishments lets you get a handle on what you’ve done. Celebrating what you’ve finished encourages you to do more, too.
2. Deliberately plan the next week. Instead of just reacting to the tasks and interruptions that come up during the week, sit down and plan a few things that you want to do.
3. Follow up on priorities. If a priority task needs more work, having it on your list makes it easy to follow up (or see where you’re procrastinating!).
4. Keep people up to date. If you make it easy for family, friends, and coworkers to keep up with what you’re doing, they’ll know more about interests, resources and opportunities that can help you.
5. Make it easy to review the year. Having a record of your accomplishments and tasks makes those yearly reviews so much easier.
6. Reflect on what worked and what can be better. Reviewing your week and planning the next one nudges you to think about how things can be better.

It doesn’t take a lot of time, and the benefits are tremendous. I can usually do my weekly review in 15-30 minutes.

Here’s what I’ve learned from doing so:

• Bullet lists keep things short and simple. You don’t need to document everything – just enough to help you remember.
• Categories help you keep things balanced. There are lots of different category systems you can use, and you can make up your own. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People recommends thinking in terms of your different roles.Getting Things Done has lots of good pointers for weekly reviews. Play around with the idea.
• There are lots of ways to do a weekly review, so experiment to find what works for you. Some people like asking a set of questions instead. Others like using spreadsheets. Find out what works for you!

If you’re new to blogging, a weekly review helps you ease into the habit of publishing, and it can help you improve your productivity habits too. Give it a try!

source: http://sachachua.com/blog/2010/01/on-the-practice-of-a-weekly-review/

Integrity in Leadership

The spirit of an organization is created from the top.

The proof of the sincerity and seriousness of a management is uncompromising emphasis on integrity of character. This, above all, has to be symbolized in management’s “people” decisions. For it is character through which leadership is exercised; it is character that sets the example and is imitated. Character is not something one can fool people about. The people with whom a person works, and especially subordinates, know in a few weeks whether he or she has integrity or not. They may forgive a person for a great deal: incompetence, ignorance, insecurity, or bad manners. But they will not forgive a lack of integrity in that person. Nor will they forgive higher management for choosing him.

This is particularly true of the people at the head of an enterprise. For the spirit of an organization is created from the top. If an organization is great in spirit, it is because the spirit of its top people is great. If it decays, it does so because the top rots; as the proverb has it, “Trees die from the top.” No one should ever be appointed to a senior position unless top management is willing to have his or her character serve as the model for subordinates.

Action point: Evaluate the character of the CEO and top management when considering a job offer. Align yourself with people who have integrity.

Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices

Peter Drucker

source : The daily Drucker

Top 13 questions to ask yourself

The questions we ask determine the answers we get. And it is from these answers that we create the actions of our day-to-day lives. This simple progression of questions to answers to actions implies that if we want more effective and productive actions, we can start by asking ourselves better questions.

The questions below are meant to help you create the actions you desire, and while you can ask these questions at anytime, the second half of December is a good time to ask, reflect on, and answer these questions.

Will it take some time? Yes it will. But it will be time well-spent. Read the questions now to get them in your sub-conscious mind. Then, schedule a two hour appointment (or schedule 10 minutes each day and do one question a day) with yourself in a quiet place, with your Journal, computer or just a pad of paper and record your answers to these questions.

Software Project planning: The "Ten-Steps" process

Some software project managers (PM) do not know how to develop a project plan. They do not even plan but only use the schedules given to them by customers. They do not develop vision for the project or estimate the project efforts. Their logic is requirements always change, why bother to plan something that will change? They do not understand the purpose or the benefits of a project plan.

Career Goals

Career goals are objectives that you set for yourself on what you want to achieve in your career. It is also a way to evaluate your progress along your career paths toward your goals. Career goals can be short term or long term. Long-term goals are often more general since they may change over time; short-term should be specific because they can be planned accordingly. For example, a student may set a short term goal to be a software developer when graduate. A software developer may set a short term goal to be a software project manager in three years. The long term goals are usually five to ten years in the future. A software worker may set long term goals to be a software director, Chief Information Officer (CIO), or an owner of a software company and measure his achievement along his career paths to determine whether he is making progress or not.

Learning new things

Lifelong learning is much more than just keeps up with technology knowledge. You also learn from experiences and from making mistakes. Many students believe by learning the newest technology would be sufficient but as you grow older and advancing in your career, you will learn more things that may have nothing to do with technology. Basically, you are maturing and becoming wiser.

Reading habit

Today many college students are having difficulty in reading textbooks. Many read pages after pages but do not understand anything so they have to re-read again and again and it consumes a lot of time. The fact is college textbooks are written differently from high-school textbooks as they have more information with complex concepts. The main reason students do not read well because they are not paying attention and have not developed a good reading habit when they were young. 

Project management experience

Dear Professor,

When graduated I always thought that I could write code for the rest of my career. It was until my third year that I realized that I could do more than just writing code and the training in your courses at CMU opened new opportunity for me. When my company had an opening in software project manager, I applied and got it without any difficulty. I have been working as project manager for five years and this short letter is about the things I have learned as project manager. Since you often asked working graduates to share experience with current students, I hope that my letter may benefit some students who someday will manage software project. 

Make a lot money

A software developer wrote to me: “I have software skills and want to start a software company that make a lot of money. My dream is to make million dollars or more. Is it possible? Or am I just dreaming? Please advice. 

Mobile Health

Today mobile phone is the most popular communication device in the world with over 4 billion users. Even at some remote areas in Africa, Asia and South America there are many mobile phone users. Mobile phone offers every country a new opportunity to improve its healthcare services. Mobile-health or mHealth is the utilization of mobile communication technologies to deliver healthcare services. For example, there are mobile applications that remind patients to take their medicine at the appropriate time; mobile applications that conduct examination, diagnosis and even treatment to patients who do not have access to a medical doctor. Telemedicine apps allow doctor to talk to patients and conduct examination remotely. Remote health monitoring apps can track and report patients’ conditions to medical doctors.

The mobile phone war

Few years ago, the biggest mobile devices companies were Nokia, Ericsson, Sony, Samsung, RIM, and Motorola. Today the biggest are Apple and Google. No one could have predicted the rise of these two software companies in the mobile area. This is how a technology strategy is applied to compete and win in this highly global competitive market.

Selecting fields of study

In the past, few college students have to plan for their careers because life is simple. If they go to college and get a degree, they can find a job, then go to work on that job for the rest of their life. Today thing is more complex with globalization, fast changing technologies, economic competition, and more people compete for fewer jobs. Therefore, college students must carefully plan their career, get guidances to select the right field of study, obtain the right skills to find a good job. They will change job several times in their life by continuously learning new skills as demand changes. 

Hot Skills 2012

According to several industry reports, the critical shortage of Information Technology (IT) skills continues with IT salary increases faster than any other skills. The highest demands are in Mobile application development, Cloud computing management, and Database administration. Last few years, web development was hot but with the number of mobile phone, especially smart phone increases, the need to have more mobile apps accelerates the industry demand toward mobile app development. (It is estimated that the world has over 4.5 billion phone users with a third of them are smart phones). These reports analyze growth patterns for technology skills and IT hiring trends in 15 countries, including the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Japan, Finland, China, Norway, Italy, and S. Korea etc. and list the IT skills in greatest demand as: 

1) Mobile application development: - iPhone/iPad, Android, Window 8, HTML 5, JavaScript, and UI design.

2) Cloud Computing management: - Salesforce, Google Apps, Amazon Web services, Azure and Eloqua.

3) Database Administration: - My SQL, Oracle, Cognos, Hbase, and Informatica

Among those skills, iPhone/iPad and Android development skills are among those in greatest demand, as companies are paying the highest salaries to obtain those skills. Companies are also paying top salaries for Cognos and Informatica expertise. HTML 5 and JavaScript skills are next and little higher than people with MySQL skills. 

The reason why so many companies cannot hire workers with these skills is currently no formal training of these skills in any college so most workers are self taught or learn these skills on their own. According to a source from NASSCOM, only India has these skills in their training programs at some universities. That may explain why many companies are looking to India as the main source for their skilled workers today and in the future. One executive said: “On the average it takes about two years for U.S schools to develop new course for a new technology but India can do that in less than a year. Their trainings are flexible and always response to industry needs. That is why they are ready whenever we need skilled workers. That may explain why even in a slow economy, their IT outsourcing industry is still doing well.”

Prof John Vu    

Carnegie Mellon University

Original source: 

Tips for entrepreneurs

One of my role models is leaving IBM to explore the world of entrepreneurship. Jamie Alexander has a lot of development experience. He built a number of sites, including PassItAlong, an internal social learning system we use at IBM. He’d be the first to admit he needs help with the business side, though, and he’s looking forward to learning more about marketing and adoption. He’s applying to the Digital Media Zone incubator at Ryerson University, and will check out the local technology events.

Career advancing

When a person advances, he leaves his current position and moves to better position. For example, a first year college student advances to second year. Each year students advance to the next grade by acquiring certain knowledge and passing exams. The same thing also happens in the industry. Workers advance from entry level to more experience level, a novice advances to a professional etc.

Be prepared

Today we are living in an uncertain time where anything can happen and it may happen very quickly. Perhaps you are lucky to have jobs when other lost theirs but in this changing time, everybody needs a plan for finding job and stay employed. Who would have thought just in the past few months, several million people in the world have lost their jobs? Who would think that even large companies such as Toyota, AIG, IBM, and Microsoft would have to lay off people? Today with globalization, anything can happen so it is important that you must be careful in planning your careers. Students must consider seriously about their knowledge and skills as they are making education choices, university selections, training decisions, and job decisions, etc.

Global management

With globalization, companies are opening offices all other the world to take advantage of skilled workers and lower costs. However, opening offices in foreign countries is easy, managing it effectively and efficiently are much more difficult. This is a major challenge that all global companies are facing because managing people from different cultures, speaking different languages, having different education skill levels is something few people know how. As companies move from national to global with offices and manufacturing facilities around the world, “manage global people” is becoming the critical skills in very high demand.

Global leaders

Globalization means more business opportunities and more competition than ever before. New markets are available to every company but new competitors are emerging from every corners of the world. The most challenging task today is developing leadership to manage this vast and complex global business because the traditional management training does not work anymore. Companies that invest in developing global leadership will find more opportunities and better execution, while companies that do not face more risks and potential failure. To start doing business globally, companies need strong “Brand name” because when people have more choices, they will buy the “Brand name” rather than “Unknown brand”. By having a strong brand name, company can hire top people because highly skilled people want to work for well-respected companies. Companies that invest in developing strong global brands enjoy better chances of hiring top candidates with global experience. For example, companies like Toyota, Honda, IBM, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Nokia or Samsung will not have much problem in developing a global leadership management. With globalization, the world is the market; companies with strong leaders can change the competitive equation toward their direction because highly skilled global leaders not only know the customs and culture of the region in which companies operate, but they also understand the issues of doing business in those areas.

Learning by asking questions

University teachers often ask themselves, "Is my teaching effective?", "What could I do better?", “How can I improve my teaching?” The teaching method that most teachers are taught is based on the tradition that “teachers teach and students learn”. It is a one-way transmitting of knowledge. It is concentrating on the teaching, but not on the learning.

However, learning can happen without teachers. Some students can learn by themselves. We all learn many things by observation, by making mistakes and by actually doing something. These types of learning often stay with us and we call them experience. We may forget what we are taught in school but we never forget our experience. The question is instead of focusing on the teaching, should we place our priority on the student’s learning? The best ways to improve teaching is to focusing on how students are learning and this is the essence of active learning.

Learning "Soft-skills"

A student asked me: “Today many jobs require soft-skills but where do I learn those skills? Do I have to go to special school to learn them?"

Answer: You do not need to go to special school. Most “Soft skills” are often taught in college but you may not pay attention. Of course, there is no class called “Soft- skills” but many classes that you take can help you to develop these skills. For example, some college classes require students to give presentations or participate in group discussions. As presenter you will have to prepare for your talk in front of the class, you have to learn about the topic that you will present so you can talk about it confidentially. You will have to make sure that your presentation match the class level or interest. If it is too complicated, nobody will understand you. If it is too simple, they maybe bore and not pay attention. Basically you have to prepare and practice it several times to make sure that you feel comfortable on giving it. By doing that you are developing your soft-skill in “presentation”.

Chương 1: Hệ thống mới
Câu hỏi 1: Vấn đề là gì? Tác giả định nói đến vấn đề gì?
Tác giả muốn trình bày một hệ thống mới là toàn cầu hóa nhằm thay thế chiến tranh lạnh như một hệ thống định hình thế giới.
Bằng cách so sánh giữa những gì đã xảy ra trong thời kì chiến tranh lạnh với những biểu hiện của thế giới ngày nay, tác giả muốn cố trình bày,làm người đọc mường tượng,hình dung ra một thế giới mới là như thế nào, quy luật hoạt động vận hành của nó ra sao. Nó khác gì với hệ thống cũ.
Cụ thể: Tác giả nêu lên 7 đặc điểm của chiến tranh lạnh
01. Cấu trúc quyền lực riêng
02. Qui luật riêng
03. Hệ tư tưởng riêng
04. Cái nhìn toàn cầu riêng
05. Công nghệ định hình riêng
06. Thước đo riêng
07. Mối lo riêng

Cloud Computing Pattern

Diagram:

Depiction of generic security pattern that indicates the relationship and application of the main NIST control families.OSA is licensed according to Creative Commons Share-alike.Please see:http://www.opensecurityarchitecture.org/cms/community/license-terms.

On-line stores

Information technology (IT) can bring many advantages to businesses. With the Internet people can do business anywhere and anytime. Unlike the physical structure required to do business in the past, with IT business can be done on line. For example, people can do banking and not depend on the location of the bank. They can open an account online to any bank, deposit, and withdraw money from ATM machine anywhere in the world. With on-line stores, people can buy almost anything without have to leave their home. With on-line schools, students can access lectures via their laptops or mobile phones etc.

Mobile apps industry in India

Today, mobile phone is the hottest product in consumer electronic markets. Companies like Apple, Sony, Nokia, Samsung, HTC, and LG are launching new phones every few months and making a lot of money on of this opportunity. About half of the mobile phones in the market today are smart phones and it is predicted that within five years, all mobile phones will be smart phones. As smart phone usage is increasing, smart phone applications are also increasing and demand of smart phone apps developers is also increasing worldwide.

The issues with Outsourcing

In the past twenty years, many manufacturers that wanted to reduce costs would outsource to low-cost countries such as China, Malaysia, or Thailand. Today more companies are realizing that outsource works is not what they think they are getting and doing business overseas is more trouble than it is worth.

A company owner explained: “Many countries are not ready to do business globally. Outsource is a long term business but they only look at it as short term. They promise a lot but never keep their word, most products are low quality, many materials get lost or stolen, the abuse of low labor workers also create bad image for our company, and many government officials demanded a bribe. That is not what we expected.”

The robotic trend

If you visit electronics factories in China today, you will see thousands of workers use their hands and small tools to assemble electronic devices such as TV, DVD players, MP3 Players, and mobile phones etc. Electronic factories are thriving with several million labor workers. 

If you visit new and modernized electronic factories in Europe or the U.S. today, you will see hundreds of robots do the same work but much faster, and with better quality. These robots are equipped with video cameras, laser, sensors to guide them in their works and they work 24hours a day, and 365 days a year without any complain. This is not a futuristic scenario as it already happened. 

The information economy

A student asked me: “It is easy to talk about information age or the transition from the manufacturing economy to the information economy in class but do we have any evidence that it is actually happens? All the economic textbooks are still mentioning that natural resources and capital are the main drivers of a country’s economy.”

I explained: “Today many things change quickly; economic textbooks have not catch up yet. As student, you must read more on recent business articles and follow the global economic news to understand what is happening and from these facts you may draw your own conclusion.” 

Unemployment in Europe

Yesterday there was a documentary on TV about the young and unemployed in Europe. The documentary started with a group of young people sitting in a coffee shop, a typical gathering place for the unemployed youth. According to the TV reporter, they have been doing nothing for years except sat in coffee shop and felt angry. Many of them were college graduates but could not find jobs. One of them talked to the reporter: “My name is Giovanni, I have a degree in literature and wanted to work for a publishing company or government but with the current recession, there is no job.” Another young man added: “We are losing hope; we have been looking for jobs for two years but found nothing. Even people with experience also could not find job so we do not know what to do. There is no future for us.”

Cloud computing

Some of you have asked me about Cloud Computing and where could you learn more about it? Cloud computing is often taught in the Information System Management (ISM) program as it is focusing on the management of Information Technology (IT) infrastructures (hardware, software, network etc). I have also written several articles on Cloud computing previously in this blog.

Basically Cloud Computing is a computing model, not a technology. In this model, all the infrastructures such as servers, networks, applications and other elements related to IT data centers are provided to users via the Internet by an external cloud service company. Instead of having its own IT organization, a company can buy IT services and connect to the "cloud" for infrastructure services (Network, servers etc), platform services (operating system), or software services (Software as a Service application). Cloud computing makes an entire IT infrastructure look like a “Virtual cloud” to users and let them pay exactly the amount of storage, computing power, security and other functions that they need. 

Book Reviews: How to Write Book Reviews

A book review is both a description and an evaluation of a book. It should focus on the book's purpose, contents, and authority.

Scan the Book's Preliminaries

Before beginning to read, consider the following:

1. Title - What does it suggest?
2. Preface - Provides important information on the author's purpose in writing the book and will help you to determine the success of the work.
3. Table of Contents - Tells you how the book is organized and will aid in determining the author's main ideas and how they are developed - chronologically, topically, etc.

Read the Text

Book Reviews

How to write a book review

There are two approaches to book reviewing: 

• Descriptive reviews give the essential information about a book. This is done with description and exposition, by stating the perceived aims and purposes of the author, and by quoting striking passages from the text. 
• Critical reviews describe and evaluate the book, in terms of accepted literary and historical standards, and supports this evaluation with evidence from the text. The following pointers are meant to be suggestions for writing a critical review.

How to Write a Book Review

A book review is a description, critical analysis, and an evaluation on the quality, meaning, and significance of a book, not a retelling. It should focus on the book's purpose, content, and authority. A critical book review is not a book report or a summary. It is a reaction paper in which strengths and weaknesses of the material are analyzed. It should include a statement of what the author has tried to do, evaluates how well (in the opinion of the reviewer) the author has succeeded, and presents evidence to support this evaluation.

Toàn cầu hoá: Thực tiễn tiến hoá của nhân loại

GIỚI THIỆU Toàn cầu hóa (globalization) là một thuật ngữ thường xuyên được nói đến trong kinh tế chính trị và trong cuộc sống hàng ngày. Ở Việt Nam, thuật ngữ này chỉ được đề cập sau thời kỳ thực hiện chính sách Đổi mới năm 1986. Đại hội Đảng Toàn quốc lần thứ 6 năm 1986 đã cho rằng sự đóng cửa hay khép kín nền kinh tế nội địa là nguy cơ gây tụt hậu phát triển kinh tế. Thay vì vậy, Việt Nam phải mở cửa ra thị trường thế giới bên cạnh việc giữ vững độc lập và an ninh lãnh thổ theo định hướng xã hội chủ nghĩa. Trong cuộc họp Thượng đỉnh của khối ASEAN lần thứ 6 tại Hà Nội ngày 15 tháng 12 năm 1998, cựu Thủ tướng Phan Văn Khải nhận định rằng các nước đang phát triển phải đối mặt với những thách thức và cơ hội khi gia nhập nền kinh tế toàn cầu. Việt Nam hay ASEAN, tất nhiên, không phải là những cá nhân duy nhất tham gia vào tiến trình này.

Tóm lược quyển Thế Giới Phẳng[1] (Thomas L. Friedman, NXB Trẻ, 2006)

Thomas L. Friedman, biên tập viên chuyên mục ngoại giao và kinh tế của tạp chí New York Times, viết về đề tài toàn cầu hóa rất thành công, đã gây ra rất nhiều tranh cãi và tạo ra nhiều hướng đi khác nhau trong nghiên cứu học thuật về tác động của toàn cầu hóa. Sau thành công của tác phẩm “Chiếc Lexus và cây Ô-liu” nói về toàn cầu hóa xảy ra ở cấp độ quốc gia và sự ảnh hưởng của các tập đoàn kinh tế và công ty đa quốc gia; trong tác phẩm “Thế giới phẳng” (The World is Flat, 2005) gồm 15 chương được chia ra sáu chủ điểm, Friedman đã tóm lược lịch sử phát triển thế giới dưới tác động của toàn cầu hóa theo ba kỷ nguyên phát triển chủ yếu[2]. Kỷ nguyên thứ nhất (hay toàn cầu hóa 1.0) xảy ra từ năm 1492 đến 1800 khi Columbus tình cờ khám phá ra châu Mỹ, kích thích sự phát triển thương mại giữa Thế giới Cũ và Thế giới Mới kèm theo sự mở rộng của chế độ thực dân và sự tận dụng sức mạnh cơ bắp của con người là động lực chủ yếu. Toàn cầu hóa trong giai đoạn này xảy ra ở cấp độ quốc gia trong quá trình cạnh tranh và sự cố gắng vươn mình ra khỏi phạm vi biên giới lãnh thổ (trang 25). Giai đoạn 2.0 bắt đầu từ 1800 đến khoảng năm 2000 với sự gián đoạn của cuộc Đại Khủng hoảng ở Mỹ vào thập niên 20 của thế kỷ 20 và hai cuộc Chiến tranh Thế giới. Tác nhân chủ yếu của toàn cầu hóa thời gian này là do sự phát triển vượt bậc của thông tin, vận tải, và sự thống trị kinh tế và ảnh hưởng chính trị của các công ty đa quốc gia lên vai trò chính phủ. Vấn đề cốt lõi của toàn cầu hóa của thế kỷ 20 là sự vươn mình của các tập đoàn kinh tế đã phá vỡ các rào cản cho sự hội nhập kinh tế quốc tế (tr. 26).

Writing Template

I. Thesis sentence templates

The introduction for any piece of writing is very important. This is where you establish a relationship with the reader. A thesis sentence is a sentence in the introduction that tells the reader what the topic or argument of the essay is.

1. Comparison/Contrast thesis sentences

These templates can be used for essays where you are instructed to COMPARE or CONTRAST

1.1 Template 01

The differences[similarities] between ______ and _______ are________ , and they______ 

CIO - Sharing experience

Dear professor, I always remember that you asked graduates to share their working experience with current students so here is my story:

“The dream of many Information Technology (IT) graduates is to work for software companies like Microsoft, Google, Apple, IBM or Oracle etc. When graduated, I got job offers from Microsoft, Google and a manufacturing company in New Jersey. I chose the manufacturing because it was located not far from Pennsylvania, where my parents live. To work nearby home instead of moving far away to California was a difficult decision for me. Most professors advised me that working for Software Company would be better for my career with better future and higher salary. You were the only professor who told me that nothing is better than staying close to my family to visit my parents often.”

The career path

Many students go to college to learn higher level of knowledge and skills that will hopefully lead to a better career and better life. However, after graduated many could NOT find good jobs or even any kind of jobs. Many are continue to live with their parents with college degrees that are not valuable in this highly competitive market. Some look at their college education as failure and wasting money of their parents. Some even wonder if their life would have been better had they not gone to college.

IT as a Service (ITaaS)

What is it all about?

For the last 20 years, Information Technology (IT) has gone through a huge evolution. From enormous machines, which were as big as a small house they are now the size of a Blackberry “toy”. Their power has increased significantly. But the number of problems has grown as well. To overcome this , the need to service both the equipment and the software has to be re-evaluated. A new delivery model is required.   “IT as a Service” (ITaaS) keeps all the advantages of a leading edge computer system and at the same time it avoids all the major problems:

10 Global Trends in ICT and Education

The Top 10 Global Trends in ICT and Education are:

1. Mobile Learning. New advances in hardware and software are making mobile “smart phones” indispensible tools. Just as cell phones have leapfrogged fixed line technology in the telecommunications industry, it is likely that mobile devices with internet access and computing capabilities will soon overtake personal computers as the information appliance of choice in the classroom.

2. Cloud computing. Applications are increasingly moving off of the stand alone desk top computer and increasingly onto server farms accessible through the Internet. The implications of this trend for education systems are huge; they will make cheaper information appliances available which do not require the processing power or size of the PC. The challenge will be providing the ubiquitous connectivity to access information sitting in the “cloud”.

TSSR 01- Introduction: A Role for History

How to Win Friends and Influence People

The World is Flat

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

by Thomas S. Kuhn

Outline and Study Guide
prepared by Professor Frank Pajares
Emory University

Chapter I - Introduction: A Role for History.

Kuhn begins by formulating some assumptions that lay the foundation for subsequent discussion and by briefly outlining the key contentions of the book.

1. A scientific community cannot practice its trade without some set of received beliefs (p. 4).
1. These beliefs form the foundation of the "educational initiation that prepares and licenses the student for professional practice" (5).
2. The nature of the "rigorous and rigid" preparation helps ensure that the received beliefs exert a "deep hold" on the student's mind.
2. Normal science "is predicated on the assumption that the scientific community knows what the world is like" (5)—scientists take great pains to defend that assumption.
3. To this end, "normal science often suppresses fundamental novelties because they are necessarily subversive of its basic commitments" (5).
4. Research is "a strenuous and devoted attempt to force nature into the conceptual boxes supplied by professional education" (5).
5. A shift in professional commitments to shared assumptions takes place when an anomaly "subverts the existing tradition of scientific practice" (6). These shifts are what Kuhn describes as scientific revolutions—"the tradition-shattering complements to the tradition-bound activity of normal science" (6).
1. New assumptions (paradigms/theories) require the reconstruction of prior assumptions and the reevaluation of prior facts. This is difficult and time consuming. It is also strongly resisted by the established community.
2. When a shift takes place, "a scientist's world is qualitatively transformed [and] quantitatively enriched by fundamental novelties of either fact or theory" (7).

Career in Information system Management

If you are studying information system management or soon to graduate in this field, you are making the right decision. Even with the global financial crisis, the future continues to look bright for those in the information technology areas and there are many job opportunities for people who can manage information systems. Many of you may ask what kind of jobs that you can do with a degree in Information Systems Management (ISM), the answer is you can work in any businesses, any fields that have information systems. From government systems, banks, financial companies to manufacturing companies and private companies as they all need to use information systems.

Being an entrepreneur

A Computer Science student wrote to me: “I like to start my own software company and be an entrepreneur like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs but all my friends told me that I am dreaming. What do you need to become an entrepreneur? "

Answer: To many people being an entrepreneur is just a dream but there are few people who can make this dream come true. These are people who have an overwhelming desire to start their own company. They have the courage to devote everything to achieve their goal. They are willing to take risks and accept the consequence on what they do. They do it NOT because they want to be rich or famous BUT because they love it. And, through all the ups and downs, good or bad times, they still believe in doing what they love. These are the characteristics of an entrepreneur. In simple word, they do it because they love the challenge.

To be an entrepreneur, you must have knowledge, both technical and business knowledge. You should have a working knowledge about the business that you want to start BEFORE starting it. That means you must learn as much as possible about the business, not just have some ideas but working knowledge of how the business is operated. You must know everything in detail such as identify customers, analyze market, and control your risk by placing a limit on how much you invest in your business. Starting a company requires a lot of preparations.

Operating the “wrong business” is the major mistake that most entrepreneurs make. You should spend time analyze the market before making your decision. You must select the business that is right for you. Preparation takes a lot of planning and complete knowledge to be successful. Do not start something that may be too challenging. Start small then grow rather than start big then get into trouble. Try to find a market that has long-term potential. Go to where the market WILL BE, not to where it is now. Many people start company based on what is fashionable at that time without knowing that a business is not a hobby to do when you have time and money to spend. For example, today building personal computer is not a good business as you are competing with HP, Dell, Lenovo or Apple etc. Even you could do that at lower price but you do not have the capital to stay long and the “brand” to compete with them. You should work “Smart” not work “Hard”. 

Every company needs money to start and to operate. As a businessman, you must learn how to predict cash requirements and cash flow control. Many companies can be started on a very small scale with a small investment. As the business grows and you gain more experience, you can spend more for growth. In the beginning, be very careful with your small capital. You must learn how to be humble and willing to listen to what customer needs. Never assume that you know what the customer wants or what function to build. Remember, it is the customers that make your business success or not.

Prof John Vu    

Carnegie Mellon University

Original source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1689

What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?

I. Introduction

Before we evaluate someone's reasoning, we must first find it. To get started as a critical thinker, you must practice the identification of the issue and the conclusion.

In general, those who create Web pages, editorials, books, magazine articles, or speeches are trying to change your perceptions or beliefs. For you to form a reasonable reaction to their persuasive effort, you must first identify the controversy(tranh cãi) or issue as well as the thesis or conclusion being pushed onto you.

When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to answer the first of our critical questions successfully:

The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions

I. Introduction

Any of us who enjoy movies are curious about the content of the latest films. Should we go see them now, wait for them to show up at our preferred rental location, or avoid them altogether? Lots of film experts are available to advise us. But which of their opinions should we follow? Opinions are cheap; anyone can have one of those. But which film expert possesses the kind of knowledge that

gives us an opinion on which we can rely? Deciding which those are is hard work. To make the task easier, we often use one of our favorite web sites, http://www.rottentomatoes.com

However, one of the most obvious things one learns when reading dozens of reviews of a particular film is the certainty that human judgment will not be identical. Pick any movie you wish; check the reviews. Regardless of how many reviewers hated the movie, some reviewer somewhere will string together a positive review. Similarly, pick the most popular movie in history; go to the reviews. What do you find? Some expert thought it was a dog.

Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking

Chapter 1: The Benefit of Asking the Right Questions
Chapter 2: What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?
Chapter 3: What Are the Reasons?
Chapter 4: Which Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?
Chapter 5: What Are the Value Conflicts and Assumptions?
Chapter 6: What Are the Descriptive Assumptions?
Chapter 7: Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning?
Chapter 8: How Good Is the Evidence: Intuition, Appeals to Authority, and Testimonials?
Chapter 9: How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation, Case Studies, Research Studies, and Analogies?
Chapter 10: Are There Rival Causes?
Chapter 11: Are the Statistics Deceptive?
Chapter 12: What Significant Information is Omitted?
Chapter 13: What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?
Chapter 14: Practice and Review

The new management principle

Last week, during class discussion about the impact of globalization, a student asked: “Most people know that with globalization, things can change very fast and if you do not catch up, you will be left behind. How come many companies and management are still operating the same way like nothing happen?

Service Manager

A person wrote to me: “I graduated in Computer Science but got a job as service manager for a small Cloud Computing service company. The company trained me on technical aspects such as network, storage, and security but not much on service. I want to succeed in this job. Do you have any advices?"

Managing technical people

For many years, the title “manager” is associated with the management of people. The role of a manager is based mostly from an old manufacturing concept that workers cannot do the work by themselves but need supervision, without management the works cannot be accomplished. The responsibility of a manager is giving workers direction, approves their works, controls budget of the group they are managing, and sometime hiring or firing workers.

Future trend

Today new technologies are emerging(mới nổi) but few people understand its impact. As a result, development in technology often appears as unrelated events and few would notice. However people do pay attention to economic changes or market fluctuation but few understand that these changes are caused by technology. To understand future market changes and its economic impact, you must look at the technology first.

Information System Management career

To college students, Information Technology (IT) is a field full of promising. The issue is choosing which area of this vast field to build a career and which program to enroll in. Basically, IT is the common name for several areas including Computer Science (CS), Software Engineering (SWE), Computer Engineering (CE), and Information System Management (ISM). According to the view among college students, Computer Science is focusing mostly on mathematical theories, data structures, algorithms, logic, and programming languages. Software Engineering is more practical and better alignment with the industry than CS as it focuses more on process, methods and tools. Computer Engineering is suitable for students who like to study both hardware and software so they can enter specialization in robotics, automation machinery, electronic devices, and semiconducting area. Information System Management is focusing more on the data, information, storage, network and the management aspect of them.

According to industry report in 2011, roughly 150,000 jobs in IT industry were unfilled in the U.S. This gap may go much higher in the next few years because high demand and less supply. There are high demand for CS and SWE graduates in the IT industry but the largest demand today is in ISM for jobs such as Database Administration, Cloud Computing, Service Management, Network Administration, Web Development, Web management and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Many companies, both large and small are moving into online business or to use the intranet for disseminate internal information, and they urgently need ISM graduates. Today ISM newly graduates can make from $87,000 to $98,000 a year in the U.S and with experience they can get much more as many will be paid according to management level rather than technical level. An ISM senior manager or Chief Information Officer can make from $250,000 to $450,000 a year.

In the past, most Information System Management (ISM) programs were offered in Business School because of the management aspect. Today this field is offered as a cross between Computer Science School and Business School as it requires students to have strong foundation of technical as well. ISM is a combination of both technical and business where students learn the fundamental of technology to build their knowledge but also learn the business and management so they can manage technology effectively. Most students in ISM must have a technical background but also develop their skills in the area of business and management.

Today, many ISM graduates are managing the intranet and Internet of company where they make decision on information and content, as well as business transaction and how this information is communicated in a company. Today most companies have an intranet as well as access to the internet. These systems are easy to set up but difficult to maintain its efficient as technology often changes quickly. Therefore, every company need to hire ISM people to keep their system updated, operate efficiently and secured. There is high demand for ISM graduates and ISM students can look forward to a bright future in the next ten or twenty years.

Finding jobs may be the easiest thing but choosing among many offers may be more difficult because this area is so vast with so many specialties. Today ISM program is experiencing unprecedented growth with students who selected business and finance areas are now switching to ISM due to the decline in business job market. A student explained: “You study business and hope to get job in the banking industry. Today many banks are using ATM machines and they do not need to hire bank tellers or officers anymore. Most banks are using ERP system, so they do not need accountant and finance anymore. To get into bank management, you need 5 to 10 years of banking experience. If you look for job, you have to compete with thousand of unemployed banking people who were laid-off from the financial crisis few years ago. Most of them have more experiences and skills than you. However, if you switch to ISM and know how to manage the web, the intranet and internet, as well as the database then your chance is completely changed. Bank will beg you to work for them. ISM graduates make more money than Business and Finance graduates because of high demand as more bank are getting into on-line and computing automation now.”

As Information Technology is changing many industries, it also creates a huge opportunity for technically trained students who can solve business problems such as control and manage information systems. Today IT is a major expense to the business and executives want to know whether it is being spent wisely. Consequently, ISM graduates must be able to know what IT services are needed and what the cost is. They must understand how IT impacts the business and the value of IT to help business increase profits. They need to determine which IT services deliver the best value and which deliver little or no value and recommend to executives so they can make IT investment decisions. Since business needs high quality and available IT services, ISM graduates must provide support to the business by selecting the best technology possible. Today business people do not understand IT very well, they do not know whether cloud computing is a technical or business solution, or both. This is where ISM graduates can provide training to keep them up to date on technology area that is why ISM students need to have very strong soft-skills, probably more than CS and SWE graduates.

Prof John Vu    

Carnegie Mellon University

Original source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1419

Soft skills part 4

Conflict resolution is an important soft-skill that everybody should learn. Whether you are still in school or already working, conflict can happen and if you cannot resolve it, you will experience stress that can lead to a lot of problems later. There are two types of conflict: External conflict happens between you and others. For example, you do not agree on something with a friend, two of you argue and you are angry. Internal conflict happens within a person. For example, you want to spend more time to study but by doing that you cannot spend time with your girl friend. This situation creates an internal conflict within yourself and makes you very unhappy. The cause of external conflict is the view that you are right and the other is wrong and you blame other for not agreeing with you. The cause of internal conflict is you want both things but do not know how to solve it so you blame yourself.

Resolving conflict requires you to control your emotions and do not react to it by arguing, screaming as it makes the matter worst. I often advise students when conflict happens they must avoid any confrontation by learning to control their emotion. They should say: “I need time to think about it so let us discuss the next time we meet.” or “Let us meet tomorrow to continue since I have another meeting that I must go to.” By avoid reacting and expressing emotion, they have more time to think about the conflict and be able to resolve it.

Most external conflicts start with differences in opinion, goal or view. Sometime it can cause by different in belief and value. The best way to resolve it is to understand these differences and try to get to a mutual agreement or compromise. To do that you must put aside your emotion, your opinion and willing to listen to other’s view without personal feeling or bias. This is not easy but if at least one person remains calm then the conflict can be avoided.

Conflict resolution requires you to practice your listening skill and communication skill. By carefully listen to the other person without bias; you may understand their view better. By clearly explain your view in a calm manner; they may understand you better too. By discuss the differences in calm and un-emotional, both sides may come up with a common understanding or “Middle ground” and continue to work toward a common goal. I often advise students to focus on “Fix the process, not the people.” If you do not agree with someone, both should work on the process that lead to the disagreement NOT the people. Sometime, they should compromise, which means at least one person giving up something to get something in return. For example, you give up your opinion and accept the other person’s view so both of you can work toward a common goal. It is important to recognize that this is NOT about right or wrong BUT about understand and acceptance. You understand the other person’s view and willing to accept it by give up your view. It does not mean you are wrong or you are weak. On the contrary, it means that you want to achieve something bigger than your own view. This act requires a lot of courage and maturity and is a positive strength of a person. It takes a great wisdom to listen to someone’s opposite position and objectively evaluate it without personal bias. For example, in software project, there are more than one solution to a problem but you are willing to accept another person’s solution to get the team moving forward rather than continue to argue on which solution is better. Compromise is the best way to get along and improve relationship. By keeping the project goal in focus rather than your own opinion, you keep the harmony within the team and are a good team member. Too often team members do not agree on something small then find themselves arguing which lead to larger and more controversial issues and wasting time. A team that can solve its own conflict is a great team that will achieve great things.

Many people believe that internal conflict is difficult to solve because it happens within a person. However, it is easier than you thought. In this situation the person is stressed by two things and do not know which one to choose. The first step is to set priority by determine which one is important and urgent. The second step is to list all possible solutions and scenarios. The third step is to balance this list by ask for second opinion to avoid personal bias before select the best solution. Sometime internal conflict is caused by misconception and personal bias rather than the fact.

Few months ago, a student in my class failed an exam. He admitted that he was stressed because he did not know how to divide the time between study for the exam and with his girl friend. He afraid if he studies too much, she could blame him for ignoring her. To him both study and relationship were equally important so he could not prioritize a solution. I told him that good solution did not have to be one or the other but can be both. I suggested that he discuss it with his girl friend to get a second opinion but he hesitated: “I cannot do that, if I told her that, she will be mad.” I explained that the conflict may not come from her but from his mind and his opinion of her. Since he was a good student, I was willing to give him a second chance to retake the exam few weeks later. He agreed to discuss it with his girl friend. To his surprise, the girl was not angry. She said: “I am disappointed that you have a wrong opinion of me. How could I blame you for study hard? If we want to build our future, we must do well in school. What kind of girl do you think I am? I would not want to see you suffer like this. You need to thank the Professor for giving you a second chance.” His conflict was solved in a minute and he admitted: “It was my fault for not explain it clearly but keep it inside based on my wrong view.”

Resolving conflict is an important skill but it requires a lot of time to develop. Sometime, it is necessary to understand that the root of the conflict may not be someone’s fault but you. It is your own ego, your view and your own misconception that cause the conflict. Since prevention is better than treatment, you may need to predict any possible conflict that could happen and try to prevent it rather than let it happen and try to solve it. The best solution is always remain calm in any situation and tries to listen to other. By learning to resolve conflict, you also practice your communication skills and listening skill too.

Prof John Vu    

Carnegie Mellon University

Original source: http://www.segvn.org/forum/mvnforum/viewthread_thread,1410