Budgets and Allocations

Years ago, in one of the various roles I served a small company, (to me it was large, but in the bigger scheme of things not as large as it seemed) I was responsible for developing an operating budget for the areas of business for which I was responsible.  It was in a time of rapidly fluctuating input prices -- particularly for fuel -- which were a significant component of our operating costs.  We were challenged to find ways to reduce those expenditures yet, to grow our top line revenue.

Any type of business operation works somewhat like a funnel.  You, hopefully, have a large amount of material going in the top (revenue) and after siphoning off what is necessary to keep the business running and generate that revenue, a steady stream coming out the bottom of the funnel.  The size of the "out" end of the funnel is larger, or smaller, based on the amount siphoned off to cover those operating expenses.  Most people in management focus on the expenses, whereas most leaders focus on the amount going into the funnel at the top.  That is one of the key differences between management and leadership.  One seeks to control activity and the other seeks to stimulate activity.

In a generalized sense, both types of individuals fill crucial roles in an organization and both are constantly thinking about the allocation of resources to meet various needs.  [I didn't intend such a lengthy preamble to what I wanted to say this morning.]

Allocation of resources is a complex problem for most businesses.  It can be complicated for a household dealing with competing needs -- house payment, groceries, fuel, clothing, etc.  If you expand the thinking to a country economy, or even beyond to the world economic situation, the problem becomes almost insolvable.  We depend on the marketplace to allocate resources based on pricing mechanisms that are often manipulated by governments -- such as the tariff "wars" with China, or the product embargoes against Iran.  Ideally a free market allows for efficient allocation of resources.  That free market can mean large price fluctuations based on temporary shortages, or gluts of specific products -- especially applicable to agricultural products -- food.  These can be local, regional, or global in nature.

Is there a better way?  After all, security issues will always come into play in interactions between countries -- or, between companies.  Those issues affect the movement of goods and services around the globe.

I don't think a "One World" government is the answer -- mainly because it concentrates power in too few hands, but I do think better needs-based intelligence could help provide a solution.  The growth of databases and the computing power now available can help us to solve global issues of resource allocation.  Making that "intelligence" available to businesses can provide better decision-making processes based on the dynamics of resource movement.

The problem is an old one; it is simply that of logistics.  When I was in college I took a course in Operations Research which was the mathematics behind solving efficient allocation of resources.  In simplest terms, an example is the best way to describe it.  If you are a large railroad company moving freight around the country, how do you determine the routing of individual rail cars to most efficiently transport them across the country from their point of origin to the nearest point of termination?  If you really think about it, it can become extremely complex.

For many years this type of problem was solved by brute force computation and a few wild guesses.  Today, it can be solved very quickly with computers.  Now expand that thinking to the worldwide allocation of food....

Computer Frustrations

Just when I think I've got this computer figured out, something happens that throws me. I tried adding a 2-line piece of HTML code from a site that I thought was trustworthy, and in the process managed to mess up my Blog title color. No matter what I did, it kept changing back to black -- which couldn't be seen against the photograph in the Header background. I finally edited the photo by adding text for my Blog Title and then having blogger put it in front rather than placing the title text in front. At least you can read the title now. It still isn't right. There has to be an extra piece of code somewhere in there that I can't find.

Then, I went to a site that I had visited before -- a University hosted site that should have been OK -- and it started streaming music to my computer. I didn't mind -- in fact I enjoyed the music. What got me was that the music continued to stream when I moved away from the site. It continued when I closed my Internet browser. It continued until I rebooted my computer. I don't know if it's a sign of my ineptitude, or someone else's!

It amazes me what people can do with software these days. I remember learning to program with punch cards fed into a reader to an IBM 360 (tells you a little of how old I am). I had hands on some of the earliest PC's while in college. An average PC today will do more than the mainframe that I first started learning on. Yet, we are only at the earliest stages of the evolution of computing. What will be next? Probably an organic based chemical computer with a neural network -- wait, that's been done hasn't it?

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." __ Psalm 139:14

On the Line

Have you ever tried helping someone over the telephone to solve a problem that they are having with their computer? My mother does an amazing job getting around her computer but she has only learned to do so in the last ten years or less. Sometimes, when things don't work as they should, she calls me to try and help her over the telephone. It can be a frustrating thing for both of us. For me, because I can't see exactly what she sees so that I will know what to do, and for her because she can describe what she sees to me, but I don't seem to understand. It comes down to terminology usually. The words we use may not have the same meaning to each of us.

I discovered computers my freshman year in college. The very first personal computers were just being introduced, so most of my early exposure was to punch cards. Computers have come a long way since then. The personal computers we have today are very user friendly compared to what we had then. We had to write programs to do the most basic tasks. To add a column of numbers would take a program composed of several punched cards, plus a data deck containing a card for each number that we wanted to add together. If the cards were out of order, or if there was a mistake on a card, you didn't know until you ran the program and got the results stating there was an error. Then you had to sort through the deck until you found the card with the mistake that caused the program to fail, fix it, and then run the program again. The next time, a different error might cause the program to fail. Then you would go back through the process of fixing the error before trying again.

In a way it was a little like helping Mom to fix her computer over the telephone. Sometimes there is trial and error for several iterations before we figure out what to do to resolve the issue. It can be a test of patience for both of us.

I wonder sometimes if that's the way God feels toward us. He tells us what we should do, but we sometimes don't seem to understand. Or, perhaps we don't think that the answer He gives us could be correct, so we do what we think instead. He doesn't give up on us though. He stays on the line listening to us describe what is going on and how we need it fixed. Sometimes I don't think we listen to His answers. Especially when they don't fit our idea of the solution. I'm glad that He hangs in there with us. I know that I couldn't get through without Him.