In This Issue:
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Wow, here it is, our last newsletter for 2008! What a year it's been – there have been heaps of changes here at Randall & Associates – enough to make you feel dizzy! Selection for & participation in the Vision Manawatu Smart Business Acceleration programme, new premises, bright new branding with our wonderful logos, new company cars, staff changes, finalist in the Manawatu Business Awards, and the first of our (hopefully) many seminars. There's an exciting year ahead in 2009 - can't wait to get it started!
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THE FUTUREIts been a year of change for many people – the elections both here and in the USA have and will bring about a profound change – we're already seeing evidence of that! And the current financial crisis is set to make life interesting in 2009. Some good friends of ours, Maggie & Jeff Vickers, run a business designed to encourage people to focus on mindset, belief & success (visit their website). They put out a weekly newsletter & it just so happens that it arrived in my mailbox as I was poised to type something inspiration. They have allowed me to poach one of their thoughts: “With a New Year upon us, with constant changes in technology, and with the current global financial situation, we are going to have to step outside our comfort zones and embrace the changes that we can make to survive and improve. It doesn't matter if you are in business, or if you are an employee, we all have to accept that change is necessary to continue growing and improving - a business doing the same thing it has always done probably won't survive, and it doesn't matter if you are in retail, manufacturing, the service industry, hospitality, or if you have a property business or a multi level marketing business - you will need to make the necessary changes to be the business (or employee) that stands out, or has a point of difference that attracts customers (and income) to you. Keep thinking outside the square, work on improvement (not just survival), offer the best service or product that you can, make the necessary changes - embrace them, and lean into them”
With that in mind, we are offering the chance for you all to be part of our focus groups & seminars planned for 2009. We hope to offer the first one in either February or March – more details will be posted on our website, or you are welcome to register your interest in attending them by either phoning us (0800 762 763) or registering online or emailing us. We plan to have action strategies, brilliant idea brainstorming, guest speakers, information, and a jolly nice feed & a few drinks afterwards. AND, at this stage, we can't forsee there being any costs to you! |
Aren't they right!! And here at Randall & Associates Ltd we have plans & ideas in place that have us totally buzzing. We ARE going to be one of the businesses that stand out and has that point of difference, and we want our clients to come with us on that journey. A chemist , an electrical engineer , and a software engineer are riding in a car together. All of a sudden and without any apparent explanation, the car comes to a stop.
The electrical engineer says, "There must be a problem with the electronics ," and starts to open up the fuse panel.
The chemist says, "No, no, there must be a problem with the fuel line."
At this point, the software engineer starts to get out of the car. "Where are you going?" ask the other two.
The software engineer gives them a puzzled look and says, "Well, all we have to do is get out and get back in."
There is nothing in machinery, there is nothing in embankments, & railways, & iron bridges, and engineering devices To oblige them to be ugly. Ugliness is the measure of imperfection. H.G. WELLS |
CHRISTMAS BREAK WORK EXPERIENCE FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
We've been inundated with mechanical engineering students wanting work experience over the holidays. Unfortunately, we just haven't been able to accommodate them due to the lack of warning we had meaning it was too late to re-arrange our workload to fit them in. If you have any update of drawings needed, or anything that you'd like to let an (well supervised) engineering student loose on for a greatly reduced fee, please let us know asap. We won't be caught short again & will have a plan in place ready for next uni holidays as we are passionate about making sure the up-and-comings have support and experience that will make them successful in their future careers.
CHRISTMAS FUNCTION/SEMINAR.
We hope you a) came to and b) enjoyed our Christmas function/seminar. It was great to meet everyone and to share a great evening with you all. There's a full report of it (and photos too) on the website www.randall.co.nz/seminars.php
FEEDBACK FORMS
Have you given us your feedback form? If not, we have a form on the website you can fill in & it will be sent to us
Astronaut Anxiety
An astronaut in space in 1970 was asked by a reporter, “How do you feel?”
“How would you feel,” the astronaut replied, “if you were stuck here, on top of 20,000 parts each one supplied by the lowest engineering bidder?”
RANDALL & ASSOCIATES LTD KARTING CHALLENGE
We have a challenge! The younger guys here at Randall & Associates Ltd have been given the task to organise a Karting Challenge. We are still working out the details, but it looks like there will be teams of 3-5 drivers (and as many supporters as you can muster) who compete in a Grand Prix at the kart track. We will have more details in our next newsletter, but you might like to float it around at your work smoko breaks & see if you can get together a team to race against us. We hope to have HEAPS of businesses participating and can imagine it will lead to much hilarity, competitiveness, team-building, and possibly a few broken bones. Watch this space….
It's not that I pass on gossip or anything, but at our staff meeting when the said Karting Challenge was suggested, a team member expressed concern that it wouldn't work cos there weren't any hills in Palmy to race the karts down. Think he watches too many episodes of the Simpsons on TV.
Check out our BLOG pages
One engineer was walking out to the plant when another pulled up in front of him riding a brand new mountain bike. He was surprised at the new toy, and asked how the first engineer got it. "Well, it was the strangest thing," he said. "I was just walking along the street and this beautiful redhead rode it right in front of me, stripped off all her clothes and told me I could have anything I wanted." "Good choice!" said the first engineer. "The clothes probably wouldn't have fit." |
DESIGN & PRODUCTION OPTIMISATION
Nobody can deny that these days a business has to really have their finger on the pulse in order to survive. When you read the statistics that say since the beginning of 2008 USA businesses doled out 1.2 million redundancies—with October 2008 having 250,000 alone! WOW, its time to take stock & make sure our businesses are in a fit and ready state to cope with the tidal wave that's heading our way.
Our Hayden had a great idea. He's suggested we offer a service providing basically a health check of your designs and processes. We know those designs you've been using have worked well for years—but now's the time to make sure they are providing the optimum in terms of strength, safety and good looks versus cost effectiveness.
Let us come in and see what you're doing—and let us offer you some advice on how to do it better, cos let's face it, every dollar is going to count in the months ahead.
Unlike your own health check, we won't just do the ‘cough twice', we'll inspect everything, do a couple of calcs, some analysis if needed and then we'll suggest ways in which to fine tune what you're doing so that it complies with requirements both legislative and financial!
As an example, we've saved one client a whole heap of money by showing him that the material he had been making his trailers from was actually much more substantial than was required—HUGE savings—we're talking thousands of dollars here!!
Phases of a Project |
Why we employ realistic engineers!!...
Common Sense
During the heat of the space race in the 1960's, NASA decided it needed a ball point pen to write in the zero gravity confines of its space capsules.
After considerable research and development, the Astronaut Pen was developed at a cost of $1 million. The pen worked and also enjoyed some modest success as a novelty item back here on earth.
The Soviet Union, when faced with the same problem, used a pencil.
Red Rubber Ball A mathematician, a physicist and an engineer were all given a red rubber ball and told to find the volume. The mathematician carefully measured the diameter and evaluated a triple integral. The physicist filled a beaker with water, put the ball in the water, and measured the total displacement. The engineer looked up the model and serial numbers in his “Red-Rubber-Ball” table. |
Half Glass of Scotch There is a half glass of scotch on a table. |
Four surgeons were taking a coffee break and were discussing their work.
The first said, "I think accountants are the easiest to operate on. You open them up and everything inside is numbered."
The second said, "I think librarians are the easiest to operate on. You open them up and everything inside is in alphabetical order."
The third said, "I like to operate on electricians. You open them up and everything inside is colour-coded."
The fifth surgeon says "I like engineers . They always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end."
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Our offices will be closed from some respectable hour on the 19th until the 5th January, 2009. If you have an emergency, please feel free to contact Nigel on 0275 543 820 or Bev on 0275 541 874.
The staff at Randall & Associates Ltd would like to wish you and yours a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS (none of that political correctness reducing things to ‘happy holidays' rubbish here) and a wonderful, successful and happy New Year.
