Industry News Archives - Page 39 of 51

May 25, 2016May 12, 2016

News You Can Use: 5/25/2016

The Future Of HR And Why Startups Shouldn’t Reject It

A recent Motherboard piece took a look at the impact of no HR on company culture. It found that women are more often than not the most vulnerable employees due to startups’ lack of HR and general anti-harassment procedures. The article states, “Ultimately, these structural issues contribute to one of the greatest systemic problems facing working women today: barriers to advancement, known to many as the glass ceiling.” And over the years some of the biggest tech startups have had accusations of harassment levied at them.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3059673/the-future-of-hr-and-why-startups-shouldnt-reject-it
Go Deep and Go Wide with Procurement Analytics

Data unification is a two-step process that catalogs all data sources and uses that information about data to build a global reference that shows how all of the data relates to the questions at hand. This resource is typically built through a combination of machine learning and smart sourcing of human experts, and provides three clear benefits: making exponentially more data available for analysis, eliminating the biggest contributor to analysis time overhead – data preparation, and building in repeatability so any analysis that has been done can be rerun at anytime with no repeat of the data preparation.

http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–guest-blog/go-deep-and-go-wide-with-procurement-analytics-617110
A 40 Hour Work Week . . . Really?

Of course, I’m being a fit facetious here but I don’t think it’s all that far from the truth. Here’s a shocking business statistic: if you or anybody on your team wastes just one hour per day — and please understand that I’m also guilty of this — it equates to six weeks of wasted time per year! Isn’t that incredible? That’s a lot of vacation time. My advice: just work hard when you are at work. Of course, we all need some down time to handle personal matters but do so sparingly because you can’t get those hours back.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272480
Call me crazy (regarding conference calls)

A conference call is over when someone uses one of the many conversational gaps, false starts, or “No, you go” truces to suggest that perhaps for clarity we should put our ideas in writing. As if to say, “Yeah, I guess flip-flops weren’t a good choice for this 5K run.” Acknowledging that we’ve engaged in the discourse equivalent of a toddler’s squiggle drawing. Hinting that next time we play Marco Polo we could try a swimming pool instead of the Indian Ocean.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/05/16/hang-up-the-conference-call
Want to Improve Your Decision-Making? Shut up for 10 days.

Insight meditation, also known as vipassana, is a method handed down by Gautama Buddha himself to his followers. Insight meditation focuses on maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations, without judgment. Students first take a vow of silence. They then enter into a daily routine of sitting for as many as 11 hours per day, renouncing all other religious or ritualistic practices, eating only vegetarian fare and not speaking except during a short Q&A session with the teacher.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275536
How AI And Crowdsourcing Are Remaking The Legal Profession

“If you were to download everything in the PACER system, it would cost you hundreds of millions, if not more,” says Lewis of Ravel Law, which has found an alternative by partnering with Harvard Law School to digitize its archive. “They’ve made an effort to collect every … court decision from every state and federal court over the last 200 years,” Lewis says. Ravel collects new information in real time. “The courts themselves are doing a much better job of pushing out today’s law,” he adds. Ravel has published the complete case law for California and New York. It aims to offer all U.S. federal and state law online by mid 2017, for free.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3059725/how-ai-and-crowdsourcing-are-remaking-the-legal-profession
The Chinese Millennials

We have heard the stories of changing and increasing wages. The migrant workforce in China’s eastern coastal cities is also changing. Today, young people coming to the factory towns from rural China are less open to the long working hours, constant overtime and poor working conditions. Today’s Chinese Millennials stand apart from their parents and grandparents. They have many new economic opportunities, they are focused on the present, they are interested in more work/life balance, and they have become conspicuous consumers.

http://www.scmr.com/article/the_chinese_millennials

Photo: Benjamin Child

May 18, 2016May 10, 2016

News You Can Use: 5/18/2016

After 20 Years, It’s Harder to Ignore the Digital Economy’s Dark Side

The ongoing abuse of trust by office holders is not simply a series of isolated incidents; it is the manifestation of a deep and widespread rot. And people have had it. During the past 20 years, voter turnout has dropped in most western democracies, particularly among young people, who are looking for alternative ways to bring about social change.

To restore legitimacy and trust, we need to do what The Digital Economy advised two decades ago: build a second era of democracy based on integrity and accountability, with stronger, more open institutions, active citizenship, and a culture of public discourse and participation.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/after-20-years-its-harder-ignore-digital-economys-dark-don-tapscott?trk=hp-feed-article-title-ppl-follow
Asking for What You Need at Work
5 Critical Supply Risk Mitigation Principles for Your Sourcing Process

Many organizations try to deal with this through point-based supply risk management solutions centered around supply chain visibility, corporate social responsibility or supplier management, trying to implement the top-down “program du jour.” But what usually happens is a solution is acquired, key strategic suppliers are vetted once in a “check-the-box” compliance initiative and that’s it. Supply chain risk means managing the entire supply chain, not just tier 1 suppliers. All tiers, distributors, carriers, ports, transportation hubs, warehouses — a delay or disruption can start anywhere.

Additionally:

Supplier Risk is Only One Aspect of Supply Chain Risk
When organizations consider supply risk within the sourcing process, they tend to focus on supplier-specific risks rather than the broader supply risks that get “inherited” from the nature of the items being sourced, the countries they originate from or flow through, the modes of transport and handling, the logistical hubs (or any location-specific asset), the sensitivity of the intellectual property of the items and the nature of customer-specific requirements passed back to you.

http://spendmatters.com/2016/05/09/5-critical-supply-risk-mitigation-principles-for-your-sourcing-process/
Target Tells Suppliers To Shape Up Or Pay Up

Target has little leash left to give to suppliers that can’t meet deadlines. With between 8 billion and 9 billion items circulating in brick-and-mortar stores during 2015, dips of small percentages can have big impacts when even a few shelves run dry. According to the new rules, gone are grace periods that allowed suppliers to deliver shipments within two to 12 days of expressed deadlines — in their place are fines totaling 5 percent of order costs and between $5,000 and $10,000 for suppliers who fail to include proper product information with their orders.

http://www.pymnts.com/news/merchant-innovation/2016/supply-chain-target-inventory-delivery-deadline/
The Uber-effect: The rise of and risks for travel spend

Saying all this though, Uber is such a popular service among the general public that it is certain to filter over into business use even if that comes outside of pre-arranged travel contracts. To get on top of that potential area of maverick spend, procurement must address this issue right away.

Indeed, a recent study by Certify, a software analysis company, found that in the first quarter of 2016, 46% of all ground transportation transactions for business travellers were for ride-hailing services, compared with 40% for car rentals and 14% for taxis. A clear indication of just how popular companies like Uber and their rivals are becoming in the corporate travel space.

http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–sophie-dyer/the-uber-effect-the-rise-of-and-risks-for-travel-spend-616211
Tableau Fundamentals: An Intro into Aggregation

Perhaps the most important lesson from this post is a line I hear myself saying almost every day: there is always more than one way to do something in Tableau. You will find your own techniques, form your own habits, and hear different opinions – and they likely will all have merit. You truly can take multiple paths to get to the same end result in Tableau. We are about to discuss five different ways to create a bar chart, and it’s not even a comprehensive list!

http://www.evolytics.com/blog/tableau-fundamentals-5-ways-make-bar-chart-intro-aggregation/

Photo: Matthias Zomer

May 11, 2016April 30, 2016

News You Can Use: 5/11/2016

Chris Sacca says there’s “a greed case for diversity”

There’s a very strong business case for diversity that can affect a company’s bottom line. If you have a gender-diverse company, it can result in a 15 percent greater financial performance compared to a company that is not diverse, according to McKinsey. Meanwhile, ethnic and racial diversity at the leadership and board level leads to a 35 percent greater financial performance. In Silicon Valley specifically, the tech-dominant area could gain $25 billion (a 9% increase) in gross domestic product by 2025.

http://techcrunch.com/2016/04/29/chris-sacca-says-theres-a-greed-case-for-diversity/
Why outsourcing customers are terminating their call center deals

What’s going on, say Everest’s analysts, is that buyers have greater expectations from their call center providers today. No longer content with simply lower costs, they are looking for vendors that can partner will them to deliver improved business outcomes. They are seeking engagements that incorporate emerging technologies, automation, and big data analytics. And they’re showing the vendors who can’t meet these increased demands the door.

http://www.cio.com/article/3060817/outsourcing/why-outsourcing-customers-are-terminating-their-call-center-deals.html
How Men’s Changing Friendships Might Reshape The Workplace

There are lots of reasons why we think friendship and work don’t mix, aside from hyper-competitiveness. First, there’s longevity: gone are the days when, like my grandfather, you spent your entire working life at one company with the same colleagues, until death or retirement, whichever came first. Now our colleagues are unlikely to be around in five or six years.

There’s also hierarchy to consider. What if you get promoted—or your friends do—and you suddenly aren’t “peers” but supervisors and supervised? And besides, social media can keep us connected to older friends, no matter how far-flung.

It’s hard to say whether the evolving workplace is changing male friendships or vice versa; probably it’s a mix of the two. But what’s clear is that at the same time that corporate hierarchies are flattening and employee tenures shortening, men are steadily growing closer.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3059354/the-future-of-work/how-mens-changing-friendships-might-reshape-the-workplace
Supply Chain Managers Put on High Alert Against “Ransomware”

Ransomware uses special encryption software to lock up the targeted data, so that it is irrecoverable until the hackers release the key. The malware is typically spread via phishing emails, infected websites and other means (portable media, vendor networks, ‘botnets,’ etc.) – and all it takes is one infected computer to put a company’s entire network at risk.

Any supply chain is potentially vulnerable, unless it’s completely air-gapped and undiscoverable from a public-facing web server. However, this is unlikely – it is exceedingly difficult to silo networks and data in such a way that malware can’t get through and still be able to manage them easily.

http://www.scmr.com/article/supply_chain_managers_put_on_high_alert_against_ransomware#When:12:50:33Z
Technological Sustentation 90: Open Source

Open Source brings unique advantages, but it also brings unique risk. Who is going to support the platform day to day? Maintain it and fix the bugs? Add new functionality and integration capability as the organizational platforms change? And how can you be sure someone didn’t sneak something proprietary in there, either on purpose or by accident, and you won’t be accused of IP theft or a license infringement and have to tack legal costs onto the bill (as there is no provider to indemnify you)? All of this is addressable, and controllable, but you need to be aware of all the risks, and have a game plan to mitigate them up front, or getting any open source project approved in an organization that still wants a one vendor platform and “one neck to choke” (that is outside the organization) will be an uphill battle.

http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2016/04/27/technological-sustentation-90-open-source/
Why analytics is eating the supply chain

“It’s about agreeing on forecasts and collaborating on inventory throughout the supply chain,” Myerson said. “It really improves efficiency, cost and quality, and not just for manufacturers.”

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3063541/big-data/why-analytics-is-eating-the-supply-chain.html

May 4, 2016April 23, 2016

News You Can Use: 5/4/2016

sn_rooftop_Tom Sodoge

How a giant like GE found home in the cloud

Embracing a cloud-first mentality across the organization required adjustments internally, too. Drumgoole arrived at GE two years ago to find the traditional angst between software developers and infrastructure operators. Devs can’t get the infrastructure they need; ops folks don’t know what the software teams need. Cloud seemed like the natural answer to this problem.

GE invested in building tools, creating systems and processes for managing it and ensuring regulatory compliance. When GE’s IT team introduced the cloud services, some of those software developers and ops teams didn’t want to use it. “Some of the legacy, single-technology developers struggled with deploying and moving apps when we took away the support envelope of a traditional infrastructure team,” he says, adding that the challenge has largely been overcome, though it required a shift in mindset.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/3056755/cloud-computing/how-a-giant-like-ge-found-home-in-the-cloud.html
No lawyer? This online tool uses AI to review your contracts
This seems like a major privacy concern, but intriguing none the less…

Next, LawGeex uses its array of technologies to compare the contract against a database of thousands of similar ones. It flags anything that needs extra attention and also provides statistics and benchmarks.

Explained in simple terms, its final analysis — delivered within 24 hours, or on the next business day — aims to ensure that users know exactly what they’re agreeing to. Included in that report are a summary, a contract score, and information such as clause explanations, negotiating tips, and sample language for missing clauses.

http://www.cio.com/article/3058698/no-lawyer-this-online-tool-uses-ai-to-review-your-contracts.html
How To Take Back Control Of A Negotiation

1. Establish that you’re there because they need you. If you’re a finalist, they must already have a very positive perception of what you can do for them.

2. Look for small ways to gain leverage. Moving the meeting to be last in the day is one example. Being last helps because the client learns from earlier presenters—and often shares that with you directly, like revealing that others had accepted an offer of $25,000.

3. Radiate confidence when you’re in the room. You must believe deeply in yourself; otherwise it’ll show. Remember, they can only get what you do from you.

4. Use your vulnerability. I knew that I’d feel anxious as soon as I first accepted the challenge of going after this project. The way to deal with those fears is by talking with your team and deciding what to do about them collectively. When I discovered who we were up against, that fear helped me realize how their size might actually be a weakness—which turned my own sense of vulnerability on its head. If nothing else, it encouraged the competition to underestimate us.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3058768/how-to-take-back-control-of-a-negotiation
These Are The Ages When We Do Our Best Work

Some, like professional athletes and CEOS, tend to cluster especially tightly around certain age ranges (because of constraints like physical prowess and work experience, respectively). However, in each of these fields, people tend to do great work at all sorts of ages. Though Adele pulled the Grammy Album of the Year down from an average of around 40 by winning at age 23, Ray Charles yanked it up by winning his Grammy at 74.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3058870/your-most-productive-self/these-are-the-ages-when-we-do-our-best-work
Intel axes 12,000 jobs as it looks to break away from PCs

Intel is cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide as the company restructures operations to diversify from PCs into growth areas of IoT and servers.

The layoffs account for about 11 percent of employees worldwide. Intel is also consolidating work locations worldwide in a move the company hopes will save it US $750 million this year.

http://www.cio.com/article/3058610/intel-axes-12000-jobs-as-it-looks-to-break-away-from-pcs.html
Verizon is offshoring jobs, records say

For instance, in Lake Mary, Florida, employees wrote on their TAA application: “Verizon has been in the process of moving all production for all products off shore for the last few years. We were notified in April [2015] that all the remaining VOIP Order Management was being moved to Manila. Two VOIP order managers had been sent to Manila to train the new group. … My group also had to train the offshore group to take over our job function. HR told me this was a massive layoff!”

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3058708/it-outsourcing/verizon-is-offshoring-jobs-records-say.html

Photo: Tom Sodoge

April 27, 2016April 23, 2016

News You Can Use: 4/27/2016

Stop Treating Your Employees Like Mushrooms
What is a “mushroom”?

You’ve probably heard the expression “feeling like a mushroom,” which is to say feeling kept in the dark, left uninformed and fed a bunch of sh–. Think shittake mushrooms.

Why is it bad:
1. 1 in 4 employees surveyed has quit, or knows someone who has quit, due to a lack of transparency and communication in the workplace
2. Only 10 percent of employees surveyed were aware of their company’s progress in real time.
3. More than 4 out of 5 employees surveyed wanted to hear more frequently from their bosses about how their company was doing.
4. More than 90 percent of employees surveyed said they would rather hear bad news than no news.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274279
Apple’s organizational cross roads

Apple employs what is known as a “unitary organizational form” — U-form for short — which is also known as a “functional organization.” In broad strokes, a U-form organization is organized around expertise, not products: in the case of Apple, that means design is one group (under Ive), product marketing is another (under Schiller), and operations a third (under Williams, who is also Chief Operating Officer). Other areas of expertise represented by the members of Apple’s executive team include Software Engineering (Craig Federighi), Hardware Engineering (Dan Riccio), and Hardware Technologies (Johny Srouji).

What is most striking about that list is what it does not include: the words iPhone, iPad, Mac, orWatch. Apple’s products instead cut across the organization in a way that enforces coordination amongst the various teams.

https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/
Future trends of procurement every customer-centric industry should know

2) Adopt a Nimble Approach to Strategic Decision Making

The past complexities of supply chain management resulted in rigid contracts and raised the cost of switching vendors. This concept needs to be replaced with a flexible yet dependable sourcing model that focuses on reducing supplier proximity for enhanced visibility. This less extended approach will condense the product lifecycle and bring the vendors closer to the companies.

http://www.sourcingfocus.com/site/opinionsitem/future_trends_of_procurement_every_customer-centric_industry_should_kn/
Your Office Has Its Own Microbiome, And It Comes From Your Coworkers’ Skin

The people who inhabit an office have some influence, too. Across all nine offices, human skin bacterial communities “were the largest identifiable source” in the samples. About 25% to 30% of office microbes come from human skin. Even grosser? “The human nasal microbiome also appeared to be a small but consistent source of office surface microbial communities.” (Memo to staff: Stop picking your nose.)

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3059111/your-office-has-its-own-microbiome-and-it-comes-from-your-coworkers-skin
4 ways to apply SLAs to shadow IT

By creating specific SLAs for shadow IT and including these non-IT delivered capabilities in operating level standards, IT can align overall goals and targets with shared objectives, such as 100 percent compliance with change and release management procedures. “For external functions (to the extent possible) align SLAs within underpinning contracts to defined outcomes compatible with SLAs,” advises Wright. “And where SLAs are non-negotiable establish responsibilities and supporting organization objectives or OLAs for shadow and core IT to provide an effective bridge from the non-negotiable SLA to the required outcome.”

http://www.cio.com/article/3059270/it-industry/4-ways-to-apply-slas-to-shadow-it.html
6 Prophetic Supply Chain Quotable Quotes

“If you had to wait a week for Google to respond, would you use it?” Dominic Thomas, VP Business Consulting, Kinaxis and Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine 2016 Provider ‘Pro to Know’

I was fortunate enough to hear Dominic present and when this line came out I committed it to memory. My immediate thought was the supply chain planning community is either extremely patient or has surrendered to Excel and legacy planning systems. This gets back to starting your supply chain conversation. Today asking a supply chain question like, ‘what’s the impact of a 20% demand increase?’ could mean another meeting while those who have to answer try and piece the response together. I didn’t include it as one of the quotes but I once heard a supply chain executive say, “It takes me three weeks to get the wrong answer.” Future supply chain planning processes should no longer include ‘waiting’ as one of the squares on the Visio flowchart.

http://blog.kinaxis.com/2016/04/6-prophetic-supply-chain-quotable-quotes/
How Do Con Artists Fool People? They Listen.

We tend to think con artists are smooth talkers and persuasive sellers, but listening is their most essential quality, says Maria Konnikova, who has written a new book on con artistry. Here she discusses the case of Victor Lustig, a Frenchman who sold the Eiffel Tower twice for scrap metal to two different buyers. Too embarrassed at being taken in, the buyers never reported Lustig.