News You Can Use: 7/17/2019
Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash
- How U.S. Tech Giants Are Helping to Build China’s Surveillance State
The OpenPower Foundation — a nonprofit led by Google and IBM executives with the aim of trying to “drive innovation” — has set up a collaboration between IBM, Chinese company Semptian, and U.S. chip manufacturer Xilinx. Together, they have worked to advance a breed of microprocessors that enable computers to analyze vast amounts of data more efficiently.
Shenzhen-based Semptian is using the devices to enhance the capabilities of internet surveillance and censorship technology it provides to human rights-abusing security agencies in China, according to sources and documents. A company employee said that its technology is being used to covertly monitor the internet activity of 200 million people.
https://theintercept.com/2019/07/11/china-surveillance-google-ibm-semptian/
- These Tech Companies Are Giving Millions To Politicians Who Vote Against LGBTQ People
The group, Zero for Zeros, analyzed the contribution data between 2010 and 2019 of the top-scoring companies on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. It found 49 corporate PACs that gave a combined $5,837,331 to members of Congress who had received ratings of zero on the HRC’s legislative scorecard. These elected officials include Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, who introduced legislation in 2018 that would make it legal for businesses and nonprofits to discriminate against same-sex couples, unmarried couples, and single parents.
Companies like Google, through their corporate PACs, gave a combined $178,500 to politicians who scored zeros on the HRC legislative scorecard. Google, which has faced scrutiny for refusing to crack down on anti-LGBTQ speech, donated $10,000 to Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee. In 2014, Lee said that the progressive agenda “rejects the enviable right to life according to one’s religious convictions, and is utterly blind to the moral and economic consequences of our nation’s growing marriage crisis.”
- Why aren’t Millennials buying homes?
- The 3 Essential Negotiation Tactics According to Researchers
The guilt and petty politics of socials debt can be a nightmare. But when it comes to negotiations, reciprocity can be used to give yourself some serious leverage, especially if you’re smart about it. Marketing and persuasion expert Robert Cialidini found that waiters offering their patrons an after dinner mint increased tips by 3%. For wait staff who added, “for you nice people, here’s an extra mint,” tips jumped by a whopping 23%.
This isn’t just for beguiling the other side, but for guilting them as well. Katherine Shonk, editor of Harvard Business School’s Negotiation blog, asserts that you should be specific about the things you’re giving up. Why? Well, in spite of people’s instinct to be even, you can’t always count the opposing side recognizing when you’re making a compromise or how important of a point you’re folding on. Getting a fair deal means making people understand exactly what you’re exchanging. As strong as reciprocity is, to really make it work for you, you need to make the exchange felt for it to have any effect.
https://www.primermagazine.com/2019/earn/negotiation-tactics
- Workers waste half their time as they struggle with data
Organizations are suffering from inefficiencies and ineffectiveness as they turn to data as the lifeblood of their digital transformation — and the workforce is struggling.
About 54M data workers around the world face challenges associated with the complexity, diversity and scale of their company’s data. These data workers represent a quarter of knowledge workers around the world.
Four out of five (80%) of organizations take advantage of data across multiple organizational processes, but despite increases in innovation, workers waste 44% of their time each week due to unsuccessful activities because of lack of collaboration, existence of knowledge gaps and resistance to change.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/workers-waste-half-their-time-as-they-struggle-with-data/
News You Can Use: 2/24/2016
- Why the FBI’s request to Apple will affect civil rights for a generation
Apple is being asked to specifically create new software to circumvent their security controls. They aren’t being asked to use existing capabilities, since those no longer work. The FBI wants a new version of the operating system designed to allow the FBI to brute force attack the phone.
The FBI is using a highly emotional, nationally infamous terrorism case as justification for the request.
Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter And Yahoo Quietly Add Their Support To Apple’s Fight Against FBI
The statement from RGS says: “It is extremely important to deter terrorists and criminals and to help law enforcement by processing legal orders for information in order to keep us all safe. But technology companies should not be required to build in backdoors to the technologies that keep their users’ information secure. RGS companies remain committed to providing law enforcement with the help it needs while protecting the security of their customers and their customers’ information.”
The RGS coalition is made up of 10 major U.S. technology companies: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Dropbox, Evernote, LinkedIn and AOL.
- Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser on the Next Industrial Revolution
S+B: What does it mean to have every product you make incorporate sensors and be connected in the cloud? Is this your way of approaching manufacturing in every one of your diverse businesses?
KAESER: That’s exactly what it is. We’ve got energy generation. We’ve got energy management. We’ve got automation for manufacturing, and products for industries like oil and gas, food and beverage, mining, all that good stuff. And there are vertical software applications for certain industries. Those applications are all based on hardware that provides data through sensors. We look at that data, analyze it, and then make applications out of it. Think about turbines for a utility. We help the utility company analyze how much service its power plants need based on fuel consumption, the utilization rates, and the maintenance data.
- How to Motivate Millennials, By Millennials
1. Be liberal with trust, autonomy and creative freedom.
Millennials seek job environments where they are trusted by their supervisors and given the creative freedom and flexibility to make decisions and find their own path to success. Millennials are not drawn to instructions like those found with Ikea furniture — just give them the plywood, glue, a vision and a due date.Also, one myth that should be dispelled about millennials is that they hop from job to job, because they are aimless or disloyal. Indeed, they do change jobs more often than most, but in most cases, it is because they are impatient with systems that stifle their ability to innovate, be empowered and ultimately stay happy. Gottstein attributes the fact that she has stayed with The Go Game for almost six years (a long time by millennial standards) because her bosses trust and provide her with a space to be creative and grow.
- Cover Letters Are Dead: Do This Instead
Most companies today recruit online and receive applications through software systems that often don’t include a section for a cover letter,” she says. “Some industries, particularly those in Silicon Valley, receive a large amount of applications. The pace at which companies need talent has also grown exponentially, so finding the right person quickly is very important
They are suggesting adding a summary to your resume and highlight accomplishments.
http://www.fastcompany.com/3056444/the-future-of-work/cover-letters-are-dead-do-this-instead - Getting the most out of conferences
I see conferences as an important mechanism for expanding the universe of smart people you can have conversations with. In fact, most conference organizers have their value proposition all wrong. The primary benefit of attendance lies not in listening to best-selling keynoters. Does one really have to fly eight hours and spend thousands of dollars for information that could be collected simply by reading a book, listening to a podcast or watching a YouTube video? No, but by attending a conference, you gain the benefit of those outside-the-lecture-hall conversations with smart people working hard on the same kinds of problems you are.
Unfortunately, the way most conferences are designed today, the only places you can meet your peers are in the bathroom or during the overly compressed “feeding times.” Neither is the optimal venue for meaningful experience exchange or executive development.
- The Most Innovative Companies of 2016
Buzzfeed… Really?
http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies
News You Can Use: 2/3/2016
- C-suite career advice: Werner Knoblich, Red Hat
Actually, there are three great pieces of advice that I’ve really taken note of and I’d find it hard to choose between them:
i) Always strive to make sure that your ego doesn’t get in the way of making the right decision. Successful people always question themselves and continually seek new approaches to problem solving.
ii) Take the time to make sure you have the right people in the right roles and don’t be afraid to move people around, if you can see a better fit for the team.
iii) Never take short-cuts when hiring, it can take time to find the right person – but it’s worth the wait.http://www.idgconnect.com/abstract/11922/c-suite-career-advice-werner-knoblich-red-hat
- Why 47 Percent of Your Best People Are Ready to Leave — and What You Can Do About It
This is an alarmist headline, but the post goes on to discuss communicating with your employees and what you think may be positive feedback, might not register with them that way.According to Gallup’s research, 47 percent of your best employees are looking to leave you right now! Furthermore, during the course of surveying over 1.4 million employees, Gallup found that “65 percent of American employees said they had received no recognition from their manager in the last year.” Sixty-five percent is a staggeringly high number — but what if it’s actually incorrect?
- Data Breach Response Planning Part II
Procurement will need to support supplier selection, contracting, engagement, and performance management of all necessary outsourced response services. Procurement will be managing different priorities and requirements from various stakeholders involved in a breach, i.e. all of the departments above, and will be expected to act as a cornerstone in ensuring that different requirements are met and balanced when and where they need to be.
http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2016/01/28/data-breach-response-planning-part-ii/
- You Can Become a Data Scientist. Yes, You.
You can stay in tune with your business by identifying a handful of key statistics, such as average sales price or revenue per customer, and forcing yourself to track them over time. Soon you will see patterns in the data and identify trends much earlier. Trends that don’t seem to change much week over week may change significantly in the course of three to six months. Tracking over time gives you powerful insights that will help you to improve your business, making you an invaluable asset to your company.
- SCMR Columnist Co-Authors New Book on Supply Chain Disputes
Squire Patton Boggs partner Sarah K. Rathke has published a comprehensive legal and operational guide to successfully managing supply chain relationships. The book, Legal Blacksmith: How to Avoid and Defend Supply Chain Disputes, is co-authored with Rosemary Coates, President of Blue Silk Consulting and Executive Director of the Reshoring Institute.
The first book of its kind, Legal Blacksmith explains how to optimize supply chain relationships, starting with the first stages of supplier-buyer relationships through handling legal disputes when supply chain relationships fail.
- Here’s Why Every Employee Should Have Unlimited Vacation Days
It’s sad that we’re still compensated according to an assembly-line mentality. We work from whenever and wherever necessary to get results, so it only makes sense that our compensation and benefits reflect that shift.
- Which disruptions lose you more money: Black swans or routine risks?
Dwelling over past risks which have altered the course of business, images of the September 11th attacks, or the 2013 Japanese tsunami or the global financial crisis first spring to mind. Similarly, when managers build their resilience plans, they worry about terrorist attacks or major political events.
Past Procurement Leaders research has found that procurement professionals spend a lot of time worrying about events which have a low probability of occurring. Whereas the more routine risks of poor weather or machine downtown tend to catch out business and cause higher number of incidents.
- HOW THIS WEEK’S TWITTER DEPARTURES REFLECT TECH’S CULTURE WOES
But there’s another question worth asking, too, and it’s bigger than Twitter’s own woes: What message does the company send about what it takes to succeed in the tech world when time off is only “well deserved” by those who’ve failed? One source who spoke to Mashable claimed that the four departing Twitter execs “were not people in whom Jack has the highest faith.”
Photo: Ismael Nieto