News You Can Use: 12/23/2015
- What unscrupulous attorneys do to win and how to fight back
Selectively reading
This goes to contracts. Taking contract clauses out of context, reading them without punctuation, inserting lines that aren’t in the agreement, and making clauses up are all tactics I’ve seen used in negotiations. Make sure you read along with the attorney and before entering a negotiation you know every major clause nearly by heart. You need to have a good grasp of the case as well so you understand the core elements of the case otherwise you can get maneuvered into agreeing to items that seem minor, but turn out to be pivotal to your effort.
- Brevity Is the Secret to Pitches That Nail It Every Time
We start our pitches with a 30-second introduction that covers who we are and just a couple bullet points why we’re credible. Beyond that, the focus is on delivering a tight, concise presentation about our product. Investors’ eyes glaze over when teams talk too much about themselves. Get to the point quickly.
Use clean, well-designed slides, and always be prepared with more in-depth financial projections and analytics in case they ask.
- There’s More Value in Your Attitude Than Your Bank Account
If you wake up every day intent on being happy and exuding happiness, success will follow. Strahan’s latest book is “Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life” - MBA grad uses SCM knowledge to combat HIV in Cameroon
Muffih said his day-to-day duties in the capital city of Cameroon, Yaounde, include improving stock management systems, coordinating with other partners, and capacitating health workers to develop accurate forecasting and efficient supply chain systems for HIV commodities. He said he is still learning a lot on the job, but his experiences at SAU have helped him cope with the demands and responsibilities of his career.
https://web.saumag.edu/news/2015/12/16/mba-grad-uses-scm-knowledge-to-combat-hiv-in-cameroon/
- Should You Work From Home?
The main question to ask yourself is why you want or need office space. How will you weight the pros versus the cons? Which things are more important to you? If there are cons that are important to you, are there ways to mitigate the negatives? For example, if working at home would make you feel isolated, could you deal with this by attending networking events and working at a local coffee shop at least some of the time?
- Societal Damnation 50: Talent Tightness
It’s not all about money, and that goes double for top talent, but that being said, money is a factor, and if your competition is offering 20%, 30%, and even 40% more, that’s a little hard to turn down. Especially if they are also offering flexible hours, training, course reimbursement for any course taken on the employee’s own time where the employee gets a minimum / passing grade, etc. So if your training budget is still 0, your corporate policy still mandates being in the office from 9 to 5 (even though your suppliers are in a time zone 9 hours shifted and this means everyone would be working 11 hours any day a supplier has to be consulted), and there are pay ceilings in effect from 5 years ago, the chances of getting anyone talented to join your Procurement department are slim to none, with an emphasis on none.
http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2015/12/15/societal-damnation-50-talent-tightness/
- Top 5 reasons agile is a good idea
Perfection is not required to stay on track. As just mentioned, if something is overlooked, it isn’t the end of the world. I ran a $1.2 million software implementation project for a large government entity while at a professional services organization. The dev manager overlooked something very critical which resulted in a large amount of rework which used up all of the budget when we were only 60% through the engagement. It ultimately resulted in the cancellation of the entire engagement. What a waste. This is an extreme example and agile would not have saved that project, but in the agile world, if something is omitted from a sprint, it can go in the next functional rollout. No high costs, no big rework.
Photo: Louis Magnotti