I went for a schengen visa interview yesterday and thought I will post some useful info here. Obviously, this info is just for guidance and if you need more details, its best to visit the consultates.
Who is it for?
Among many other reasons – for anyone without EU/UK passport (like me – Indian), who wish to tour EU.
What are Schengen countries?
There are quite a few EU countries that you can visit with this one visa. The 15 Schengen countries are: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. All these countries except Norway and Iceland are European Union members.
Where do you apply?
Any of the embassies of Schengen countries. I am in London and I visited the French consultate.
How do you make an appointment?
While the usual process takes a few weeks, the consultate refreshes the cancelled slots every Thursday 4pm. So go to this link (http://www.consulfrance-londres.org/spip.php?article320), and keep pressing refresh.You will see slots for the next week. Book them and attend within a week.
How does the process work?
You book your tour or flight/hotel and get travel insurance. Then, you make an appointment with the embassy. Then, download the application form, fill it, take it to the embassy – it takes around 4 hours in total on the appointment day. They give you the stamped passport back the same day.
More details here: http://www.consulfrance-londres.org/spip.php?article324
What documents?
More details here: http://www.visafrance.co.uk/reqTourist.php
For me - I am here in HSMP Work permit:
• Application form
• Passport and work permit documents
• Employee reference letter (certifies employement, salary, address and grade)
• Pay slips – 3 months
• Bank statements – 3 months
• Tour itinerary, or flight ticket and hotel booking in france
• Proof of insurance (you can get it quick from many providers – I did it here www.insureandgo.com)
• Embassy insurance declaration form (http://www.visafrance.co.uk/schenFrInsAssur.pdf)
• 1 photocopy of all documents listed above -- very important
• 1 passport size photo
For my wife – she is a dependent:
• Application form
• Passport
• Sponsor passport (my passport) and work permit documents
• Tour itinerary, or flight ticket and hotel booking in france
• Proof of insurance
• Marriage certificate in English
• Embassy insurance declaration form (http://www.visafrance.co.uk/schenFrInsAssur.pdf)
• 1 photocopy of all documents listed above -- very important
• 1 passport size photo
How was the day?
The people all over in the embassy are quite nice and helpful. My wifes appointment was at 8:30am and mine was at 10am.We were allowed to go together without any fuss.
Four stages – security, cashier, passport check and visa officer meeting. First 3 stages are real fast and takes 30 minutes. Then we were put to wait for 1.5 hours for the 4th stage. Take some good books to read.
The visa officer asked some Qs and indicated that she will give the visa for 6months. After 30 minutes the passport with the stamp was ready for collection.
There are a few good museums around. If you have time, plan to get to those – we were so hungry we didn’t.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Monday, June 09, 2008
Books on Balanced Scorecard
I was planning to read and refresh my memory on Balanced scorecard for a while now. This weekend, while looking at many books, I was quite confused which one to buy. Here are a few helpful hints I picked from Amazon.
Kaplan and Norton co-authored an article which was published in the Harvard Business Review (January/February 1992). In it they introduce an exciting new concept: the balanced scorecard. They have since published four books:
(1). The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action (1996)
(2). The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment (2000).
(3). Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes (2004)
(4). Alignment: How to Apply the Balanced Scorecard to Corporate Strategy (2006)
In The Balanced Scorecard, as Kaplan and Norton explain in their Preface, "the Balanced Scorecard evolved from an improved measurement system to an improved management system." The distinction is critically important to understanding this book. Senior executives in various companies have used the Balanced Scorecard as the central organizing framework for important managerial processes such as individual and team goal setting, compensation, resource allocation, budgeting and planning, and strategic feedback and learning. When writing this book, it was the authors' hope that the observations they share would help more executives to launch and implement Balanced Scorecard programs in their organizations.
Then in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton observed five common principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:
1. Translate the strategy to operational terms
2. Align the organization to the strategy
3. Make strategy everyone's job
4. Make strategy a continual process
5. Mobilize change through executive leadership
The first four principles focus on the the Balanced Scorecard tool, framework, and supporting resources; the importance of the fifth principle is self-evident. "With a Balanced Scorecard that tells the story of the strategy, we now have a reliable foundation for the design of a management system to create Strategy-Focused Organizations."
What we have in Strategy Maps are two separate but related components: Further development and refinement of core concepts introduced in the earlier two books, and, a rigorous examination of new ideas and new applications by which to convert intangible assets into tangible outcomes. In the Introduction, Kaplan and Norton explain that their direct involvement with more than 300 organizations provided them with an extensive database of strategies, strategy maps, and balanced scorecards. This abundance of material has revealed a number of strategies and tactics by which literally any organization (regardless of size or nature) can create and then increase value. The strategies and tactics are embraced within three targeted approaches for aligning intangible assets to strategy:
1. Strategic job families that align human capital to the strategic themes
2. The strategic IT portfolio that aligns information capital to the strategic themes
3. An organization change agenda that integrates and aligns organizational capital for continued learning and improvement in the strategic themes."
What we have in this Alignment is a brilliant analysis of how to use the Balanced Scorecard to create corporate synergies. As they observe in the Preface, they have identified five key principles "for aligning an organization's management and measurement systems to strategy":
1. Mobilize change through executive leadership.
2. Translate strategy into operational terms.
3. Align the organization to the strategy.
4. Motivate to make strategy everyone's job.
5. Govern to make strategy a continual process.
Further reads?
f you're interested in Balanced Scorecard, you could read a very capable book by the Swedes Olve et al (2003) - "Making Scorecards Actionable: Balancing Strategy and Control" - that even includes some thinking on why balanced scorecards go wrong - and what to do about it. Paul Niven (2005) does the same in his "Balanced scorecard diagnostics".
If you have any reviews or recommendations, do drop a comment.
Kaplan and Norton co-authored an article which was published in the Harvard Business Review (January/February 1992). In it they introduce an exciting new concept: the balanced scorecard. They have since published four books:
(1). The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action (1996)
(2). The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment (2000).
(3). Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes (2004)
(4). Alignment: How to Apply the Balanced Scorecard to Corporate Strategy (2006)
In The Balanced Scorecard, as Kaplan and Norton explain in their Preface, "the Balanced Scorecard evolved from an improved measurement system to an improved management system." The distinction is critically important to understanding this book. Senior executives in various companies have used the Balanced Scorecard as the central organizing framework for important managerial processes such as individual and team goal setting, compensation, resource allocation, budgeting and planning, and strategic feedback and learning. When writing this book, it was the authors' hope that the observations they share would help more executives to launch and implement Balanced Scorecard programs in their organizations.
Then in The Strategy-Focused Organization, Kaplan and Norton observed five common principles of a Strategy-Focused Organization:
1. Translate the strategy to operational terms
2. Align the organization to the strategy
3. Make strategy everyone's job
4. Make strategy a continual process
5. Mobilize change through executive leadership
The first four principles focus on the the Balanced Scorecard tool, framework, and supporting resources; the importance of the fifth principle is self-evident. "With a Balanced Scorecard that tells the story of the strategy, we now have a reliable foundation for the design of a management system to create Strategy-Focused Organizations."
What we have in Strategy Maps are two separate but related components: Further development and refinement of core concepts introduced in the earlier two books, and, a rigorous examination of new ideas and new applications by which to convert intangible assets into tangible outcomes. In the Introduction, Kaplan and Norton explain that their direct involvement with more than 300 organizations provided them with an extensive database of strategies, strategy maps, and balanced scorecards. This abundance of material has revealed a number of strategies and tactics by which literally any organization (regardless of size or nature) can create and then increase value. The strategies and tactics are embraced within three targeted approaches for aligning intangible assets to strategy:
1. Strategic job families that align human capital to the strategic themes
2. The strategic IT portfolio that aligns information capital to the strategic themes
3. An organization change agenda that integrates and aligns organizational capital for continued learning and improvement in the strategic themes."
What we have in this Alignment is a brilliant analysis of how to use the Balanced Scorecard to create corporate synergies. As they observe in the Preface, they have identified five key principles "for aligning an organization's management and measurement systems to strategy":
1. Mobilize change through executive leadership.
2. Translate strategy into operational terms.
3. Align the organization to the strategy.
4. Motivate to make strategy everyone's job.
5. Govern to make strategy a continual process.
Further reads?
f you're interested in Balanced Scorecard, you could read a very capable book by the Swedes Olve et al (2003) - "Making Scorecards Actionable: Balancing Strategy and Control" - that even includes some thinking on why balanced scorecards go wrong - and what to do about it. Paul Niven (2005) does the same in his "Balanced scorecard diagnostics".
If you have any reviews or recommendations, do drop a comment.
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