According to the ?mobileherald.com?, as of 2006 the statistical breakdown worldwide, of the percentage of households, by country, that own mobile phones are: Japan at 95%, South Korea at 94%, China at 93%, France at 85%, Germany at 83%, and the UK at 79%. The article also sites a prediction by Nokia, that by 2009, there will be over 3 Billion people using mobile phones worldwide. The 2005 Cell Phone Ownership statistic was 66% of the population, that's a population of 297 million people of which 197 million own cell phones.
According to an article in the MIT Communications Forum, dated November 2005, by Peter Rauch, then the global ownership of cell phones was approximately 2 billion users, and in some countries (he didn't say which), there are more cell phones than people. Oh my.
New York State, effective November 2001, banned the use of hand-held cell phones. Governor George Pataki, was quoted in a June 2001 article posted by CNN, as saying, using a cell phone while driving poses "an enormous threat to public safety." Handheld Cell Phone devices are currently banned in Connecticut, New Jersey DC, and Washington DC. Californians are going to have to go handsfree as well in 2008, according to the Law signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in the fall of 2006.
In Canada, the only province at this time to have a ban on the use of hand-held cell phones while driving, is Newfoundland and Labrador. Other provinces are being pressured into passing similar legislation, and this fall, Quebec may enact a similar law. Part of the hesitation of such laws, is the concern for the lack of precedence and the challenges that ultimately come with new Laws. Collision statistics for Newfoundland from 2003 to 2005 indicate a reduction of accidents by eight percent.
More than 30 countries have outlawed the use of hand-held cellphones while driving, including Australia, Germany and Japan. Here's a very useful web-page, providing a detailed list of Countries that have banned cell phones while driving - A very useful web-page for travelers by car.
Opponents of these bans believe the Law singles out cell phones when there are many other causes for distracted driving. Also, some say banning hand-held cell phones adds little to address the larger problem of distracted driving, and could actually encourage riskier habits, such as BlackBerry usage or text messaging. If you're a stats person, you may find this Paper - - on the ?Effect of Car Phone Usage on Cognitive Ability and Driving Performance?, a very interesting read. Much to the disagreement of the above opponents, the results of this study concluded that ?car phone use is dangerous and caution should be used?. But ?Opponents? don't despair yet! A New Zealand Fact Finding Article entitled ?Cell Phone Use While Driving - Summary of Research and Analysis", studying car accidents and cell phone usage, drew a conclusion at the time the study was compiled, September 2003, that cell phone usage was not a significant factor in car crashes, compared to other distractions. Whether this conclusion for New Zealand today, still stands, probably requires another study.
Well, to sum this up, according to an article in the December 2006 issue of USA Today, entitled, ?Distracted driving big cause of crashes?, ?distracted driving is emerging as nearly as serious a factor as speeding and impaired driving...?, so it would certainly be foolish to leave this article thinking ?it's all the fault of the cell phone?. In fact, in this same article it sites Washington States tracking of 12 specific driver distractions as outlined in a recent study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Cell Phone Usage did rank in first place as the top item causing driver distraction. The other top distractions are DVD Players, Satellite Radios, Hand-Held Organizers, iPods, Global Positioning Systems, Kids, Pets, Fast Food, Hot Beverages, Newspapers, Road Side Accidents, and Signs & Billboards. I think that's 13?
At least that is what Albert Einstein is rumored to have said of compounding. Why would the father of atomic energy, a man who certainly knows something about real power, say that about something so intangible? The power of this mysterious force is best told in the following legend.
Once upon a time a Mogul king wished to reward a local peasant for saving his daughter's life. ?You can have anything you want,? offered the king. The peasant asked merely for one grain of rice to be placed on a chessboard. Courtiers began to laugh at the meagerness of this request, but the suddenly audacious peasant held up his hand for silence. ?I ask for one more thing?, he said. ?Each day the amount of grains will be doubled and placed in the next box, and so on, for all the places on the board.? The king thought this trifle a bit ridiculous, but agreed. The story does not end well, for on the 64th place there was not enough rice in the entire kingdom to satisfy the request. The embarrassed king had the peasant hanged.
This little story illustrates well the effects of sequentially adding, or more accurately, multiplying; the impact of growth on top of some previous impact of growth. Most people think of compounding in relation to compound interest, and consider it, like Einstein, to be the most powerful force in finance.
In business acceleration we think of compounding in altogether different terms, although the effects will once again be felt on your personal finance. We call it the Law of Compounding and use it to describe how a business can grow dramatically by making a series of incremental changes to various elements of that business. This magic works reliably as long as the various elements are interrelated.
For instance, since lead generation and lead conversion are interrelated, an increase in the number of leads your company attracts each month compounds on top of an increase in how well you convert those leads into customers. An increase in your average price compounds on top of that. An increase in the size of your average sales transaction would compound on top of those previous increases, as would an increase in how often the same customer buys a service or product from your company.
To find out how fast your business will grow when you make these types of changes, we'll use something called the Rule of 72. Divide 72 by the number of separate but interrelated elements on hand, to get the amount of change needed to double.
For example, if you have seven elements (lead generation, lead conversion, price, etc.), 72 divided by 7 is approximately 10, (10.28), which means your business will double by increasing each element 10%. Have six elements? You must increase each one by exactly 12%. (72/6 = 12) Five? Doubling will take an increase of around 15% each. (72/5 = 14.4)
How hard do you think it would be to improve just a few aspects of your business by ten, twelve or even fifteen percent? Not that hard, right? If your company generates 25 new leads each month, then a 15% increase means 4 more. And, if your company closes 20 leads out of 200, then a 15% increase means closing 23.
Of course, you don't have to make these changes all at once. You can do them in sequence over time, the effect of one change compounding on top of the previous change. By following the Law of Compounding examples above you can see how relatively small changes in your business can add up to substantial business acceleration; dramatically increasing revenues and profits over a short period of time.
Both Barbara Cipak & Paul Lemberg are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Barbara Cipak has sinced written about articles on various topics from Travel Packages, Computers and The Internet and Employment. Author, Barbara Cipak, Site Owner of My-Telework-Tools featuring Tools such as, , and other Virtual Offic. Barbara Cipak's top article generates over 5400 views. to your Favourites.
Paul Lemberg has sinced written about articles on various topics from Real Estate, Internet Marketing and How to Sell on Ebay. Find out more about how to put the Law of Compounding to work increasing revenues and profits in your business. Contact , CEO of Axcelus:. Paul Lemberg's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.