Tag: executives

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Skip Level Meetings – Updated Advice!

The Skip Level Advice video that I published two years ago became very popular! I really appreciate the audience feedback and engagement. However, over the last two years there are some elements of the video that I felt needed correction and additional context.

Part of that new content is an easy template to help organize updates for senior executives that I am happy to share with you.

If you like these Rethinking Data concepts, you can book your own class at Avail Advisors.

FYI – I am not affiliated with Avail (nor am I getting paid to mention them) but I was a student and the class was really good!

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News You Can Use: 5/16/2018

  • At Nike, Revolt Led by Women Leads to Exodus of Male Executives

    On March 5, the packet of completed questionnaires landed on the desk of Mark Parker, Nike’s chief executive. Over the next several weeks, at least six top male executives left or said they were planning to leave the company, including Trevor Edwards, president of the Nike brand, who was widely viewed as a leading candidate to succeed Mr. Parker, and Jayme Martin, Mr. Edwards’s lieutenant, who oversaw much of Nike’s global business.

    Others who have departed include the head of diversity and inclusion, a vice president in footwear and a senior director for Nike’s basketball division.

    It is a humbling setback for a company that is famous worldwide and has built its brand around the inspirational slogan “Just Do It.” While the #MeToo movement has led to the downfall of individual men, the kind of sweeping overhaul that is occurring at Nike is rare in the corporate world, and illustrates how internal pressure from employees is forcing even huge companies to quickly address workplace problems.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/28/business/nike-women.html

  • Here’s why Gibson is bankrupt—no, it’s not because rock is dead

    So far, so good, but Gibson also sells studio monitors, headphones, turntables, and other musical instruments, and that’s where the problems started:

    1. In 2012, it bought a stake in consumer audio company Onkyo.
    2. In 2013, it purchased stereo maker TEAC in 2013 for $53 million.
    3. The spending spree continued in 2014, when Gibson paid $135 million to acquire Royal Phillips’s home-entertainment systems, in a bid to become “the largest music and sound technology company in the world,” per its CEO. That acquisition put the company in a lot of debt

    https://www.fastcompany.com/40566146/heres-why-gibson-is-bankrupt-no-its-not-because-rock-is-dead

  • Is Airbnb ruining cities?
  • Why Social Media Discretion Is Increasingly Important to Your Brand

    A majority of the estimated 80 percent of small-business owners using Facebook are posting every day. According to CareerBuilder, “70 percent of employers use social media to screen candidates” prior to hiring. It’s wise to assume potential clients are exercising the same due diligence when they consider doing business with you.

    Trying to maintain a separation between personal and business is fruitless. Social media has connected us all to each other. Friends read your business posts and clients follow your personal posts, which means your business brand is your personal brand. It’s what you signed up for when you became an entrepreneur.

    As you post, you should assume that every bit of information you put out adds to, or takes from, the value of your personal brand. The temptation is in volunteering too much information. Nobody wants to know about your ingrown toenail.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/312814

  • Here’s how we plan to be GDPR compliant

    However, we do use some of Google’s tools for analysis purposes which, in turn, might mean Google is hoovering up personal data for its purposes. I say ‘might’ because Google hasn’t exactly been as transparent as everyone would like. Indeed, media groups have been sharply critical of Google’s approach to this thorny problem.

    Google’s problems can quickly become our problem so we’re monitoring the situation and will tweak what we do as events unfold.

    https://diginomica.com/2018/05/07/plan-gdpr-compliant/
    This topic continues to confuse me on a personal live since I don’t advertise but I do use mail lists. More to come…

Photo by Rapha Alves on Unsplash

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News You Can Use: 10/5/2016

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  • Here’s What It Takes For Your Company’s Culture To Survive An Acquisition

    Start small. Talk to your employees to identify their top concerns over an acquisition. Brainstorm some ways to keep the best aspects of both cultures intact, always looking for points of commonality. And over-communicate—every employee needs to understand what goes into an acquisition and what they should expect, and as those details change, team members need to know how and why.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3063644/heres-what-it-takes-for-your-companys-culture-to-surive-an-acquisition?partner=rss

  • Why healthcare needs to care about Google’s acquisition of Apigee

    Healthcare has been relatively slow to adopt open API standards. Unlike social media and e-commerce, healthcare is mostly a closed ecosystem of proprietary software, notably electronic health record (EHR) systems that do not permit the free exchange of data. This has been the subject of much discussion and debate and has drawn the attention of the Office of the National Coordinator of Healthcare IT (ONC). The ONC has been pushing for more open standards to unlock the value of digitized medical records sitting in proprietary systems that can unleash innovation in healthcare and positively impact costs, quality and experience (the triple aim) in healthcare.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3120434/healthcare/why-healthcare-needs-to-care-about-googles-acquisition-of-apigee.html

  • How To Manage Technical Teams When You Don’t Share Their Credentials

    Whenever you lay out a plan that affects the work that technical team members will have to do, figure out what’s most important to you and do that first. You may find that the things others push back about aren’t especially critical to you, and that you can satisfy everyone’s interests without too much pain.

    But that means you need to distill whatever the ultimate goal is in your mind beforehand. Decide what’s absolutely crucial, and what’s negotiable will be come clearer. This way you can also give technical employees as much leeway as they need to figure out the “how,” which they’ll likely appreciate.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3063554/lessons-learned/how-to-manage-technical-teams-when-you-dont-have-their-tech-credentials?partner=rss
    sn_spacedog

  • HPE Aruba Unveils Flexible Network Procurement Models Enabling Enterprises to Innovate at the Rapid Pace of Mobile and IoT

    To remove unpredictability in IT operations and spending, Aruba is taking a software-based approach with its Mobile First Platform, enabling IT organizations to quickly respond to new requirements as they emerge, minimize capital expenditures, and maintain a competitive edge. Customers benefit from customized options for obtaining and managing their networks with Aruba’s portfolio of programmable IT networking products for Wi-Fi, BLE, wired and wide area network (WAN) connectivity, and consulting, support and technology services from its key alliances.

    http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160912005258/en/HPE-Aruba-Unveils-Flexible-Network-Procurement-Models
    Worst.Headline.Ever

  • How to Strengthen Your Personal and Executive Presence

    Here’s an example: Martha is the CIO of a large financial services firm. After discussing her personal brand and talking to some of her colleagues, boss and staff, it became clear she was respected by the people she worked with. However, her current executive presence wasn’t sufficient for her mandate to transform the way technology was implemented and used within the business.

    In short, Martha’s current brand was seen as being “a manager who effectively problem solves and is known for hands-on implementation.” Not a bad brand, but insufficient for the task entrusted to her.

    How did Martha change her brand?

    One of the projects involved a series of town hall meetings designed to get her team excited about the IT transformation and buy in to supporting it. In alignment with her goal, Martha created a fun and inclusive agenda for the meeting and a highly visual presentation — the opposite of the usual boring, text-oriented presentation staff were used to.

    So… a “fun” meeting got the job done? No.
    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278159
    sn_unacceptable

Photo: Finn Hackshaw

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News You Can Use: 10/21/2015

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  • A FORMER GOOGLE RECRUITER REVEALS THE BIGGEST RESUME MISTAKES
    I will point out this one since I get into a disagreement almost every time I mention removing it…

    OBJECTIVE STATEMENTS ARE OBJECTIVELY BAD
    “These are a bit old school and are generally pretty generic,” Bacon explains. He believes they’re also typically too focused on what the candidate wants for themselves instead of what they can do for the company to which they’re applying.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3052371/hit-the-ground-running/a-former-google-recruiter-reveals-the-biggest-resume-mistakes

  • Should Vendor Executives Be Held Personally Liable For Failed Implementations?

    What if company executives had to personally guarantee that they had performed a “capability audit” before entering into a contract, verifying that they could indeed deliver a working solution within the appointed time and for the agreed upon cost. This capability audit would then become the basis to hold not only the company, but the executives themselves, personally liable if said implementation did not occur has promised.

    https://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/should-vendor-executives-be-held-personally-liable-for-failed-implementations-by-jon-hansen/

  • China to consume nearly 30% of the world’s flash, 21% of DRAM

    “Increasing shipments of Chinese-branded PCs and smartphones in recent years have contributed to the overall DRAM demand,” said Avril Wu, assistant vice president at DRAMeXchange. “China’s top PC maker Lenovo and the global PC market leader HP are neck on neck on shipments, and this is an indication that the Chinese brand vendors’ purchasing power in the DRAM market is getting stronger every year.”

    http://www.cio.com/article/2994112/data-management/china-to-consume-nearly-30-of-the-worlds-flash-21-of-dram.html#tk.rss_all

  • Why You Might Want to Hold Your Next Business Meeting on a Boat
    Somebody needs to share this with the big boss… officially a trend setter.

    “It’s a perfect place to close a deal,” says Adrian Gradinaru, co-founder of Sailo, an online peer-to-peer boat rental marketplace where you can compare and book a boat for a day or even part of a day. “You tend to be a bit more open to things when you are really happy, so people tend to be happy on the water, looking at New York. You tend to be a little bit more cooperative when you are on the water.”

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/video/249693

  • 3 Tips to Develop a Balanced Supplier-Vendor Relationship

    While there is always room for caution, never approach a new partnership as if you are going to be cheated. Instead, remember that a bit of humility and humanity can go a long way. Even when negotiations do not go as well as expected, remaining positive can preserve partnerships for long-term success.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/251578

  • Office “treehouses”…
    I am not big on the “resting places in the office” fad, be it a cocoon or a tree house or even a heavily pillowed area.  I don’t care how “cool” the work place environment is, if an owner or executive walks by and sees someone taking a powder… game over.  (But they are kinda cool)
    http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051747/open-office-getting-you-down-maybe-you-need-an-office-treehouse