SourceCast: Episode 51: Watching your health
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: 10/28/2015
- Millennials: Entitled or Just Ambitious?
As they come into their own professionally, millennials are shifting corporate culture and the way companies are organized. In this video, Jamie Notter, co-author of “When Millennials Take Over” digs deeply into common millennial values and how they’re changing the ways top companies compete for premium talent. Unlike previous generations, millennials aren’t satisfied with years of “paying their dues” in positions of low responsibility. They want autonomy, transparency, and a sense of mission. Expect to see the tides continue to shift in this direction as the emerging generation takes the reins in the coming decade.
- Your Best Ally For A Big Data Budget
Under pressure to provide better information on their businesses, CFOs are beginning to latch onto the possibilities that big data and analytics offer for their own financial reporting. A survey by Ernst & Young found that 90% of the 500 responding CFOs and others with financial titles expect to be reporting on forecasting, sustainability, and corporate social responsibility within three years. That effort will take some investment, and CPOs can perhaps make a case that with their management of the supply chain they can help, if they have the resources.
- Why Dell acquisitions strategy beats the industry’s Frankenstein approach
Dell’s method was developed initially at IBM to preserve the value of the acquisition. It does that by shifting the focus from conformance to focusing on the value of the company acquired. The first step is to identify and protect the assets that were acquired and then not doing anything to damage what was purchased. In general the firms culture, process, compensation plan, span of control, executive team, hiring process, and even location remain intact.
What gets changed are things that can be done behind the scenes to cut costs and increase execution. For instance, it is common to use Dell’s advanced supply chain to increase the speed of the acquired firm’s execution and reduce its costs. If the change makes financial sense and doesn’t put the identified assets at risk then it is put into the plan, if it doesn’t it isn’t.
- How to cure the Sunday night blues
I am definitely someone who suffers from Sunday night blues and of all their suggestions, this is the one that I deploy to keep it in check…While it’s tempting to dash out the door on Friday evening, you might be doing yourself a big favor if you take a bit of time to organize the following week first, O’Brien says. Or, take a few minutes on Saturday morning to plan what will need to be done on Monday, ensure you have the information and resources you need to complete those tasks, and identify any obstacles or challenges so they don’t catch you by surprise.
- CIOs turn to cloud-based analytics to manage IT asset costs
I want to know more about this Apptio services to see if it is legit…LaPlaine says he started off with rudimentary calculations, using Apptio to figure out total IT costs divided by total IT assets. This revealed data duplications in the general ledger, missing lease costs and other bad data. “We spent a ton of time cleaning up data … now we have a very rich model,” LaPlaine says. He counts 25 IT services in AOL’s service catalog, which produce 70 invoices every month to run and support IT services, including public cloud software from Amazon Web Services and Salesforce.com, as well as kilowatt power costs its IT systems generate. LaPlaine, who sends the corporate finance department a file with the costs every month, says he’s also using a new planning tool from Apptio to build his IT budget for 2016
- More on Apptio… (from 2009 and not directly published from the company)
Here is something from the company…
- Make Your Company More Like a Family to Attract Talent
This is easier said than done with HR policy and in companies with a downsize requirement. That being said… I lean more towards this style than not (and did so when I had my store)Beyond earning insight into a company’s operating information, employees need to feel like they’re given ample opportunity for personal development and that the company is invested in making that development happen. Sixty-one percent of highly talented managers work to leverage and develop employee strengths and attributes,according to Gallup. I’ve prioritized investments into a leadership development program that teaches basic management skills to current and future managers. Better leaders help motivate and inspire employees. In turn, those new leaders will live up to a company’s values and reinforce its culture.
News You Can Use: 9/16/2015
- Strategic Or Tactical: Time To Decide And Act
If you have been reading this blog for the last two years, I have been shouting this. This short post sums up my views on strategic sourcing.IT could well be an ally too, particularly in efforts to ensure cyber security and take advantage of the analytics possibilities with big data. And engineering could learn to appreciate procurement’s value too. While engineers may think they know the capabilities of some part suppliers, they may not know of the capacity constraints those suppliers have that can prevent them from delivering on time. Procurement should know about those constraints through its studies of the suppliers’ markets and industries.
- Screwing up the Screw-Ups in BI
Right! Except that the Holy Grail of trying to extend a “centralized” database umbrella over completely disparate systems is both incredibly expensive and nearly impossible. Baseline suggests “[partnering] with a reputable systems integrator.” Good for them — at least they dodge this bullet rather than getting the answer completely wrong. The right answer is that business analysts should be able to construct BI datasets on their own, as needed, from whatever data sources are useful/appropriate, and it shouldn’t be difficult for them to do so. Concentrating all of the information under one umbrella isn’t necessary; many umbrellas can do the job, and if they’re easy to deploy, they’re both inexpensive and provide a better and more flexible answer.
http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2015/09/03/screwing-up-the-screw-ups-in-bi-repost/
- 4 Ways to Construct a ‘Data-Innovation’ Map for Your Business
A data-innovation map can give you a bird’s-eye view of your customers’ experience and show you how you can be more innovative with data — not to mention save time and drive revenue. Without a data-innovation map, you’re likely missing out on places in your strategy where you could more effectively use data and inadvertently give your competition a leg up.
- The journey from good to great
Shrinking the pie also requires procurement professionals to hone and broaden their skill set. I think that one of the best characteristics for someone in procurement is ‘being nosey’ (or to say this more politely, ‘being curious’). This needs to extend and broaden if you are to shrink the pie. You need to be curious not only about the business need, the supply market and the total cost, but also about the interfaces between the supplier and the customer and the supplier and its suppliers.
http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–caroline-booth/the-journey-from-good-to-great-565670
- Why You Should Not Build Your Own Contract Management System
Interesting to see them list the core “must have features”
http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2015/09/07/why-you-should-not-build-your-own-contract-management-system/
Photo: Skitter Photo, StockSnap