Many property management companies are small and are situated in a certain area while others have properties in many states. A good way to find an apartment management job is to call the local property management companies. Some companies like to hire married couples to split the work between administrative and maintenance duties. With some couples, it is a great way to work together.

On-site management is a must with some companies and they will usually provide a free apartment and free utilities. Another pro to this career is that supervisors will not visit the apartment complex every day and the apartment managers will have the opportunity to work while not having a superior breathing down their neck. By living on the premises, the manager can be home with his or her kids while at work.

Among the duties of an apartment manager is a lot of paperwork, taking care of rents and other monies, and enforcing the leases. Leases for low-income housing are often a lot more strict than at a regular basic rent apartment complex. Maintaining the apartment units is also an important part of the job. A person in charge of maintenance will have to keep track of contractors and make sure that tenants are not causing damage to their residences. When a tenant moves out, the maintenance person is in charge of fixing the apartment so it is again rentable. Low income apartment complexes also have strict safety standards that have to be regarded at all times.

There are not many cons to this career. However, enforcing the law and constantly being aware of the tenants is an integral part to this job. Statistically, there are more drug-related and violent crimes in low-income housing than at other apartment complexes. If the job requires on-site management, don't be alarmed if someone knocks at the door at two in the morning because they have lost their keys and need to get into their homes.

A beginning salary for management can be low. However, it does help if living on-site is available. The starting salary is usually between $12,000 and $20,000 per year. Yet, if the apartment manager can prove that he or she can maintain a small apartment complex, they could transfer to a larger complex making a larger salary. An experienced apartment manager can make between $35,000 to $50,000 per year.

For young people starting out, to families with children, to semi-retired couples, a low-income apartment management career can be rewarding and a great way to spend more time with each other while having a worthwhile career.

The calamity in the use of buzzwords is that they lack universal meaning (definition) and are seldom defined when first used. A manager uses them so that he will sound like his director who used them. A supervisor feels obligated to follow the example. Everyone may eventually be saying the same words but with different buzzword definitions. Hence, communication is greatly hampered.

Here is the seventh twenty-five of at least 200 contemporary buzzwords. Each is used in a sentence or followed by descriptive dialogue.

1. Menu items - Condense our various department processes into a list of menu items
2. Methodologies - Go find out what methodologies they're using
3. Metric-driven behaviors - Metric-driven behaviors are those most readily noticed by management
4. Mission-driven individual - A mission-driven individual exemplifies the company mission statement in everything he does
5. Morale adjustment - Bring him in for a one-on-one where I will give him a morale adjustment
6. Multi-tasker - Bethany has demonstrated her capability as a multi-tasker
7. My admin. (administrative assistant) - See my admin about setting up that meeting.
8. Near-term (acute sense) - His acute sense makes him a near-term asset
9. Negativity - Don't bring your negativity to the brainstorming meeting
10. No-brainer - The need to attend college is a no-brainer
11. No, no and no - Saying “no, no and no” is my way of telling you that I will no longer listen to your comments
12. Non-value-added work - Taking minutes in the pre-drive meeting is non-value-added work
13. Nudge the boulder - It may require our director's influence to nudge the boulder in our favor
14. Non-event - That assignment is so simple that it is a non-event
15. Okay? (forced conclusion)- We're not going to do that again, Okay?
16. On the other end of the (phone) line - Be careful what you say during conference calls because you never know who might be on the other end of the line
17. On the same page - Can we all get on the same page before the review?
18. One-on-ones - The director is scheduling skip-level one-on-ones (interviews) with the engineers
19. Organizational shake-up - The incentive separation offers will result in an organizational shake-up
20. Our low-hanging fruit are gone - Grammatically speaking, the sentence should be “Our low-hanging fruit is gone.” Since management used the word “are” the phrase stuck as first spoken.
21. Perpetuity - Our annual budget assumes certain items in perpetuity
22. P.I.C.N.I.C. error (problem in chair, not in computer) - Almost every computer user will eventually make a picnic error.
23. Paint with a broad brush - Should we paint with a broad brush and label the entire focus group as deadwood?
24. Play the devil's advocate - Let me play the devil's advocate and ask some embarrassing questions about your proposal. (Does the devil really need more advocates?)
25. Plug me in - I don't know what's going on in the Wednesday meeting. Please plug me in.

The calamity in the use of buzzwords is that they lack universal meaning (definition) and are seldom defined when first used. A manager uses them so that he will sound like his director who used them. A supervisor feels obligated to follow the example. Everyone may eventually be saying the same words but with different buzzword definitions. Hence, communication is greatly hampered.

Here is the sixth twenty-five of at least 200 contemporary buzzwords. Each is used in a sentence or followed by descriptive dialogue.

1. Incentivize - Incentivize your workers by giving public verbal praise
2. Inoculate the user body - Inoculate the user body by anticipating all possible complaints about the software
3. Issues - His work output and attitude are littered with issues
4. I stepped up to the challenge - Our director hasn't called yet so I stepped up to the challenge in anticipation of his needs
5. Just-in-time - Just-in-time assembly processes reduce component inventory costs
6. Keep our collective eye on the ball - As the launch date approaches; we'll keep our collective eye on the ball
7. Key enablers - What are the key enablers for completing the proposal successfully?
8. Kludge (computer system component mismatch) - He is an expert in kludge resolution
9. Knee-mail distribution (religion-inclined email) - Pray that the boss doesn't catch you distributing knee-mail
10. Knowledge-based decision making - We use the technique of knowledge-based decision making (what would the alternative be?)
11. Largely a result of … - Our low profits are largely a result of declining sales
12. Laser-light focus - The town hall meeting placed a laser-light focus on our department's shortcomings
13. Laundry list - Does your project description have a laundry list for the engineers?
14. Lean concepts - Lean concepts develop into lean practices
15. Lean practices - Lean practices include doing more with fewer resources
16. Learning curve - How steep is the learning curve with that new software?
17. Let's dissect this - You've brought a new issue to the table. Let's dissect this.
18. Let's study that - Some say our output is always late. Let's study that.
19. Let's talk off-line - Let's talk off-line in a side-bar
20. Like (goes well with “you know?”) - It's like, you know, complicated
21. Like I say - “Like I say” is my technique for repeating my point and ignoring yours
22. Looking beyond the mark - Don't make it more complex than necessary by looking beyond the mark
23. Low-hanging fruit - When it comes to cost savings, we've already picked the low-hanging fruit
24. Make sure it boxes - Review your new proposal to make sure it boxes with our traditional presentation style
25. Managing expectations - I'm rarely disappointed because I'm very good at managing expectations

The calamity in the use of buzzwords is that they lack universal meaning (definition) and are seldom defined when first used. A manager uses them so that he will sound like his director who used them. A supervisor feels obligated to follow the example. Everyone may eventually be saying the same words but with different buzzword definitions. Hence, communication is greatly hampered.

Here is the fifth twenty-five of at least 200 contemporary buzzwords. Each is used in a sentence or followed by descriptive dialogue.

1. Get our foot in the door - Go get out foot in the door with the finance decision-makers
2. Getting push-back - I volunteered to join their focus group but we're getting push-back from the legacy members
3. Grassy knoll - Watch their progress from a grassy knoll so we'll be ready to take action
4. Grow the business - Making our customers in other departments dependent on our output is a part of growing the business
5. Handcuff it - We don't want anything to go wrong so handcuff it for absolute control
6. Handle it in a Sidebar - Don't diffuse this meeting by dealing with topics that you can handle in a sidebar (some other time and place)
7. Handrail it (guide) - Handrail it by providing vital information while letting progress take a natural course
8. Have we finished conversating? - I have another meeting to attend; have we finished conversating? (There is no such word as “conversating” It is a natural outgrowth of “can we conversate.”.
9. Heads up - Why didn't you give me a heads up about her poor work ethic?
10. Held hostage by… - We seem to be held hostage by the misunderstanding you created two years ago
11. Heuristically speaking - Our test programs are evolutionary; heuristically speaking
12. Hit a sweet spot - Your specific praise of the engineer's work hit a sweet spot with his manager
13. Hit all four corners of the box - We hit all four corners of the box. because we had flawless research
14. Holes in the data? - Where are the holes in the data set?
15. Home run - Hit a home run by having all your ducks in a row for the presentation
16. Hotdesking - Acquire additional skill sets and you can do some hotdesking (filling in) when other workers are laid-off
17. How to eat the elephant - If you will each take a small part of the project, I'll show you how to eat the elephant
18. I need the info - I'm the boss, I need the info
19. I.D.I.O.T error - Even the boss can make an IDIOT error.
20. If you're happy with it - If you're happy with it, then go ahead and do it and I can claim it was completely your idea
21. Initiatives - You don't have enough project initiatives to make yourself worthwhile to our organization
22. In no uncertain terms - I told him in no uncertain terms not to cooperate with the cost increases
23. In the driver's seat - As the manager, I'm in the driver's seat
24. In the Zone - You'll understand all of these buzzwords when you get in the zone
25. Incentive compensation (I.C.) employee level - An egalitarian society is not possible in an environment that includes both IC and non-IC employees.

Hedge funds are investment vehicles that pool investors' money and invest in a variety of financial instruments. The principal differences between a hedge fund and a mutual fund are (1) that hedge funds only accept investments from a limited number of investors to avoid being regulated like a mutual fund - this limit is usually 100 investors or less, (2) because of this investor limit, the investors in hedge funds are not public or retail investors but very wealthy individuals or institutional investors like banks, insurance companies, pension funds, and college and university endowment funds, and (3) hedge funds offer a wide spectrum of investments including investments in illiquid securities and interests, sophisticated strategies that capitalize on directional bets on the market or segments of the market (such as capitalizing on a declining market by shorting stocks), and sophisticated and often complex strategies to exploit inefficiencies or perceived inefficiencies in the pricing of securities. Also, unlike open-end mutual funds, investors in hedge funds usually cannot redeem their investments at any time, but must comply with the hedge fund agreements as to when the investors can request liquidity.

During the recent financial crisis, the criticism of hedge funds was principally directed at their leverage, and the effects of their de-leveraging. That is, hedge funds until recently could borrow funds from banks based in the assets in the hedge fund. Thus, a bank might lend a few to several times the actual invested amount in a hedge fund. The hedge fund managers would then invest that borrowed money along with the invested funds to enhance returns. The borrowed money would be paid back to the bank plus a fixed interest rate, and if the hedge fund earned a return in excess of what it had to pay the bank, any excess return over the cost of the bank debt redounded to the hedge fund investors and managers. However, leverage of a few to several times the invested capital can and did lead to swift and dramatic losses if the hedge fund's strategies are wrongly positioned for the moves of the market. In that event, which did occur during the volative market moves of 2008, the banks usually will call in some portion of the loaned funds to reduce the bank's risk of repayment. These call-ins of bank debt are akin to margin calls on a retail investor. The calling in of loans for repayment in the hedge fund industry is usually not a problem unless it is done on a large scale, and then hedge funds are forced to liquidate assets to raise cash to repay the banks. If many hedge funds in the same market niches are required to repay the banks at approximately the same time, then the sudden flood of sell orders on assets in that market niche can quickly become a death spiral on assets values when there are few buyers and lots of sellers.

If major financial institutions are also holding those types of assets on their books at the time of massive selling by hedge funds, then the values of the financial institutions' assets suffers the same precipitous decline as the value of those assets on the books of the hedge funds. That is what happened in the mortgage-backed securities market and the structured products market this year, and caused many large financial institutions to become technically insolvent because their asset values dropped below their aggregate liabilities. Many hedge funds failed during this period of time, leaving their investors with claims of just pennies on the dollar.

Can this leverage risk be attenuated with regulation, and is that beneficial to the economy at large? The risk of over-leveraging could be addressed by the SEC simply prohibiting leverage beyond certain ratios. However, the SEC does not know the optimal level of leverage for any particular assets class. If the SEC regulated in this area, it would be guessing at the right ratios, when the ratios appropriate in any given situation might differ and change over time. For instance, should real estate assets be leveraged at 3-to-1 or 1-to-1, and that might depend on the interest rates in the economy and the general level of financing availability. If the SEC is guessing on real estate assets, what about real estate investment trusts, mortgage-backed securities, or publicly-traded debt instruments on automobile companies? Since no regulator is going to know either what is beneficial to the hedge fund's investors nor what is beneficial for the economy either, it is most likely best for the SEC to not regulate in this area. The SEC or any regulator is likely to do more harm than good and chill or prohibit value-enhancing voluntary transactions among financial actors.

Hedge funds are managed usually under the 2-and-20 rule, which is that hedge fund managers get a 2% management fee each year on committed capital, and they receive 20% of the profits of the fund (known as the “carried interest” or the “carry”) once a certain rate of return has been earned for the investors (known as the “hurdle rate”). Sometimes the management fee is offset against the success fee (the 20%). Aside from Congress considering taxing the 20% carry at ordinary income rates - it is currently taxed at a capital gain rate - does the regulation of fees confer any benefits to investors or to the economy at large? The answer here is clearly no; these sophisticated investors are on an equal footing with the hedge fund managers and can easily protect their own interests. They can ask for that information before investing and do not need the protection of the securities laws to provide an effective mechanism for establishing their rights.

The usual regulator initiative with regard to funds and investment advisors (which many hedge fund managers are anyway) is federal or state mandated disclosure of fees and the nature of the hedge fund's business, who are its principals, and whether they have any criminal convictions or indictments. Would the wealthy and sophisticated investors in hedge funds benefit by greater disclosure of the fund and its activities? That is doubtful, because these investors are so sophisticated that they can usually obtain the information they want by requiring it before investing, and insisting on terms in the hedge fund agreement to provide that information to investors on an ongoing basis. Accordingly, filing disclosure documents with the SEC under the SEC's usual rigid approach to disclosure documents would increase costs on hedge funds and provide little if any benefit to the investors in such funds.

Thus, because of the limited number of sophisticated investors in hedge funds, there is no benefit to those investors to regulation of such funds. Furthermore, there is no discernible benefit to the economy or to financial markets for hedge funds to file disclosure documents about their processes and management with the SEC. Hedge funds, like any other investor, already to file mandated disclosure documents with the SEC if the funds take a greater than 5% position in any publicly-traded company. Other than that requirement, regulating hedge funds will be a costly exercise for all parties to hedge fund transactions and will provide no discernible benefit to any such party or investors at large. Accordingly, regulating hedge funds would result in costs without benefits.

Use the power of your voice effectively. If you have problems with vocal inflection, tone or volume, work on this consciously. One way to sound more authoritative--and calm-- is to lower the pitch of your voice. You can accomplish this with practice and feedback from a friend. Some women have a tendency to talk in a higher-pitched voice when stressed. You need not yell to be authoritative. After you have practiced, try it on your co-workers. At first, they may look at you funny, but they will respond. Use correct diction. Don't succumb to profanity because it seems to be more effective. The shock value is not a positive way to influence behavior, and will have negative consequences on how others perceive you. Get to know the people you work with, their interests, the names of their spouses, children and pets. If you are terrible with names, work on this if you can.

Also, understand what makes each person tick. Are they motivated by praise or money or just getting attention from others? Figure this out and use this information wisely when it comes time to address issues and dispense reprimands. Be clear and concise about what you need from each person, what the business priorities are and who will handle which tasks. Use project management tools to divvy up the work if needed and listen to how people respond to their assignments. Be fair, listen and encourage questions before the group embarks on a project or task. Be positive and self-motivated. There is nothing more authoritative than getting right in and showing you are willing to help or get your hands dirty if needed. Make a point of taking on a task that is seen by the group as undesirable, like spending a few hours doing cold calls or editing tedious reports. Make sure they know you are willing to do whatever it takes for the team to succeed. Don’t back down unless you realize you are wrong. And if you do, admit it and move on to the next thing as soon as possible. Being wishy-washy is the worst thing you can do as a leader or manager. Take control and do what you think is right. Others will follow your example.

Tough or nice, all who aspires wanted to run a company or business or group in a way that it produces quantity and quality while at the same time, the people you are working with feels inspired.

In summary, we all want to be an Effective Manager -- one who manages himself and the people they work with in a way that both the organization and the people profit from their presence.

An effective manager possesses three secrets that allows him to be the "ideal" kind of manager we all want and wanted to be.

The First Secret: Goal Setting

When setting goals, an effective manager write out each goal on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words. He agrees on these goals and sees what good behaviour produces from these. Everytime these goals are read and re-read, it only requires a minute or so to do it. An effective manager then takes a minute every once in a while out of his day to look at his people's performance and see whether or not their behaviour matches the goals being set.

You might be asking as why there is a need to align a goal with that of your people's good behaviour. It is because an effective manager believes that "people who feels good about themselves produce good results".

The Second Secret: Praising

Praising means giving good feedback to people who deserve them. An effective manager monitors his people closely to catch them doing something...right! He praises people up front and immediately by telling them what they did specifically right: straight to the point. He also tells them how good he felt for the positive action they've done and how it has also helped the organization and the other people who worked with them. An effective manager allows his people to "feel" how good he had felt. He encourages them to do more of the same and concretely transmit this good feedback by shaking hands or touching people in a way that makes it clear he supports their success in the organization.

As the saying goes, "actions speak louder than words, but words with actions create a solid communication".

The Third Secret: Reprimand

Nobody wants to get reprimanded, but when situation calls for it, you would want to be reprimanded by no other than the Effective Manager. When an effective manager reprimands his people, he tells them beforehand that he's going to let them know how they're doing, and in no uncertain terms. Just like giving praises, an effective manager reprimands people immediately by telling them what they did specifically wrong and in no uncertain terms. He allows his people to "feel" how bad he had felt. But in so doing, he is not attacking the person himself, but the action that was made. He then reminds his people how much they are valued by shaking hands or touching them in a way that lets them know he is on their side. And most of all, an effective manager knows and allows his people to know that when the reprimand is over, it is really over and done.

The second reason (and probably the most important one) why an applicant approaches a particular company for employment is because of the company's reputation. If a company was able to build a reputation of treating employees well and has a reputation of providing opportunities both for personal and professional development towards their employees, that company will find it increasingly easy to attract talents to accept positions in their organization. This principle is very academic, why would an applicant apply in a company with a reputation of maltreating employees? Employers' good reputation is actually a good selling point when inviting applicants to join their company and candidates usually bite into these feature.

However, companies usually face certain predicaments when too many applicants flock to their premises for employment. One of which is how to turn-down unqualified candidates. Poor handling of these candidates might back-fire on the reputation of the company. Turned-down applicants might bad-mouth the company to other applicants, friends, relatives, or to his existing co-workers. He or she will also stop from patronizing your company's products or services. No individual will look down on himself; rejection from a potential employer will never be taken lightly by the applicant. It will take a long time before he or she forgives the company for rejecting him/her from joining the company.

Given these scenarios, companies must consider the following when handling unqualified applicants:

1. Always respond to applications. Whether an application was received by snail mail or e-mail, the employer must acknowledge the application either by sending a letter or an e-mail. For unqualified curriculum vitae, the content of the “rejection” letter must be polite and should not be “too” direct to the point. Thanking the applicant for considering the company is a must. Responding to applications may entail additional cost to the company in terms of postage, but which is more important? The cost of the stamps or the cost of losing your good reputation?
2. Stop using the phrase “we will call you”. Applicants are so oriented with that phrase. If they hear those words, it means the end of the story. If the interviewer realizes that the applicant he is interviewing is not qualified (or over qualified) for the position, the interviewer should know how to end the interview gracefully. It's like breaking-up, you know someone will be hurt, but the rule is “less pain, the better”.
3. Do not make empty promises. During the interview, the employer must never promise the stars just to attract the applicant to join the organization. Interviews are just the tip of the iceberg, you cannot foretell whether the applicant is 100% qualified or not. Finish the entire recruitment process (including the training process) before promising something like salary increases, bonuses, etc.
4. Put your feet on the ground. Companies overwhelm themselves when they receive tons and tons of applicants on a regular basis. They usually feel proud and superior. These companies tend to developed the “come and catch me” syndrome. They'll hide and you'll seek them. In economics, there is the supply and demand curve, the higher the supply (applicants) the lower the price (salary offer). However, this behavior should not be tolerated and time will come this will back fire on the company's future operations… or reputation.

When recruiting an applicant, companies should look at all candidates as customers. They have needs and wants that you have to satisfy. And once you have satisfied them, you will be assured of loyal, hard-working, and productive employees.

“Market segmentation is the process of splitting customers, or potential customers, in a market into different groups, or segments”

The Process of Market Segmentation:

Mainly there are three steps involve in market segmentation.

Identifying Target Markets:

First, it is necessary to define the markets the organization is in, or wishes to be in, and how these divide into segments of customers with similar needs. The choice of markets will be influenced by the corporate objectives as well as the asset base. Information will be collected about the markets, such as the markets' size and growth, with estimates for the future.

Understanding the Value required by Target Market:

Once each market has been defined, it is necessary to understand what value the customers within each of the segments it divides into are looking for. This value is most simply thought of as the benefits gained from the product or service, but it can also encompass the value to the customer of surrounding services such as maintenance or information. This step also encompasses what the customer is prepared to give in exchange, in terms of price and other criteria, such as loyalty. This step of "Understand value required" also includes predicting the value which will be required in the future.

Understanding Competitor Value Positioning:

'Understand competitor value positioning' refers to the process of establishing how well the organization and its competitors currently deliver the value that the customers seek. Again it involves looking into the future to predict how competitors might improve, clearly a factor in planning how the organization is to respond.

From these three processes, the relative attractiveness of the different markets and, within each of them, their different segments can be evaluated. One tool of relevance here is Porter's five forces model (1985), showing the forces which shape industry competition and hence the attractiveness of a given market, or of a given segment. The output will be some form of analysis, and one way of summing up much of the key information is in a portfolio matrix. Such a matrix provides a sensible basis for prioritization amongst the many possible product/ segment combinations which the organization could address.

Levels and Basis of Market Segmentation

The following is a brief review of the "predetermined" approaches frequently used in market segmentation.

Products and services

The problem with segmenting markets according only to the products or services offered, or the technology type, is that in most markets, many different types of customers buy or use the same products or services. For example, if a mail company organizes itself around express packages, or around mail sorting, it is unlikely that the company will ever get to understand fully the real and different needs of, say, universities, banks, advertising companies, direct mail houses, manufacturing companies, retailers and so on. However, by understanding which particular features of the product or service appeal to different customers, along with features associated with all the other aspects of a purchase, such as the channel, we have a route for understanding the motivations behind the choices that are made. This is because it is through these features that customers seek to attain the benefits they are looking for. Once this is understood, the needs- based propositions required for different segments can be developed.

Demographics

Variables such as sex, age, lifestyle and so on, when used to define segments, are by implication claiming, for example, that every 30-35-year-old will respond to the same proposition.

Just reflect for a moment on the students in my years at school; would I expect them all to be wearing the same clothes, taking the same types of holidays, pursuing the same interests and driving the same cars? When someone wakes up on their birthday, do they become a stereotype associated with that age? For administrative convenience i would like the answer to be "yes", but the answer is "no". In business-to-business markets, customers are frequently segmented around business classification lines, which implies that all the companies in a particular sector, such as financial services, have exactly the same requirements and will respond to a single proposition. This approach could well be ignoring one or more of the following:

• Different divisions and departments existing behind the business descriptor may have different applications for the product or service you supply. For example, would the mail company mentioned earlier find that the advertising and promotions department has the same requirements and specifications for mail services as the sales ledger department?
• The requirements of, say, advertising and promotions departments may well be the same regardless of business type;
• Even within a single division of a company, there may well be different applications for the product or service you supply which, in turn, may have different specifications attached to them;
• Segmentation along business classification lines assumes all the companies within the classification employ identical people with identical values. Businesses, of course, don't buy anything; it's their employees we have to sell to!

Although demographics on their own cannot define a segment because they do not define the proposition a segment requires, they have an important role to play in a segmentation project. This background information about customers can be used to identify the particular profiling characteristics associated with the customers found in each segment. In other words, demographics helps identify who is found in each segment which, in turn, will help you determine how to reach them.

Geography

Rather like demographics, segments based on geographic areas, however tightly defined, assume that everyone in a predetermined area can be expected to react to a particular offer in exactly the same way. Even at the postcode level this does not appear to work; simply if we look along our own street. Has everyone got the same furniture, do they buy from the same shops, eat the same food? Once again, however, although geographic areas on their own cannot define the propositions required by segments and, therefore, cannot define segments, they, too, have a useful role to play in a segmentation project. This particular type of background information about customers can be used to identify the most likely locations the customers in each of the segments may be found and, therefore, further help you determine how to reach them. A further consideration with respect to "geography" is its use in international market segmentation.

Channel

Routes to market are becoming more sophisticated and complex, and are also becoming an increasingly important component of many winning customer propositions. Channels in themselves, however, do not define segments as they are simply the means by which customers and companies connect with each other. It is only when you understand the motives behind the channel choices made by customers that the channel component of a needs-based proposition can be developed. However, even if channel does not feature as a key component of a winning proposition, it is, along with demographics and geography, background information about customers that should be tracked during a segmentation project. It could well be that some segments can be associated with particular routes to market; therefore it is the channel(s) they use that provides the means for reaching them with their specific proposition.

Psychographics

Here we have another customer insight that can contribute to a segmentation project but, on its own, cannot define the entirety of a winning customer proposition. However, by identifying internal drivers of customer behavior that can be associated with specific segments, psychographics can help define the most appropriate promotional stance to take. This not only provides the means of catching the attention of target groups in an ever cluttered world of communication, it can also provide the means by which you isolate and reach particular segments.

• Executive sponsorship: A senior manager or executive who's willing to go on record to say, “Disaster recovery planning is so important that we need to complete it by this date.” In other words, you need to find someone who's willing to put their money where their mouth is!
• Budget: In the early stages of a DR project, you need money for a project manager, technology experts, process experts, or supplemental help for departments as they divert resources away from their usual business to the DR project. In the later stages of the project, you spend money on technology improvements that you need to support recovery objectives.
• Project manager: You need a strong project manager for a multidisciplinary project that can involve dozens of people or more, such as disaster recovery planning. You can have a part-time or full-time project manager, depending on the number of people and activities involved.
• Subject matter experts: You need experts in the business processes that the organization has in play, particularly those processes that earn revenue or service customers. You also need technology experts who understand the IT applications and infrastructure that support those processes.
• People with writing skills: Later phases of DR projects require people who can write processes and procedures in a way that anyone can understand. You never know who might end up on a disaster response team.

A typical DR project can take anywhere from three months (for the smallest organization) to well over a year to complete. How quickly you get a DR plan in place depends on how high a priority you need to make it and how much extra money you have available for outside help. If you really don't have a good handle on the amount of resources that you may need for your project, here are a couple of suggestions:

• Hire a consultant. Bring in an experienced DR consultant, just for a short term engagement (no more than a few days), to have a look around and give you some thumbnail estimates on project sizing. A consultant who says he or she needs a month to give you these estimates either doesn't understand that you want only rough estimates or just wants the billable hours.
• Develop an interim DR plan. You should develop an interim DR plan, anyway, but by writing this plan, you can get additional exposure on the number of critical processes, systems, suppliers, and so on in your business. That information can help you estimate the size and scope of the real DR plan.