Career Archives - Page 18 of 24

November 9, 2016October 28, 2016

News You Can Use: 11/9/2016

Why CIOs should take mentor programs seriously

Wood takes a structured approach to mentoring. He and his senior team meet regularly to identify high potential people who, with the right coaching, could advance to the next stage in their careers. “Whether they are on a technical or a management track, we identify those people who are doing well in their current jobs, but could also do a job one or even two levels up,” says Wood. “We put those people into a formal mentoring program, but we also make it clear that if anyone else wants to be a part of the mentoring program, all they have to do is raise their hand.”

http://www.cio.com/article/3132019/careers-staffing/why-cios-should-take-mentor-programs-seriously.html
What is takes to be a great boss

The point is, you can be the nicest guy in the world who treats his employees like gold. But, if you and your team are not cutting it in the eyes of your company and its stakeholders, I don’t care how likable, friendly, giving, sharing, approachable, communicative or empathetic toward your employees you are, you’re still a lousy boss.

If, on the other hand, you challenge your employees to excel at their jobs and lead your team to exceed expectations on a consistent basis, you’re probably well on your way to becoming a great boss.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/284153
3 Steps to a Well-Structured Presentation

We ourselves have written thousands of presentations and business documents in our careers. And, in our experience, the most important step is what we call “hanging the document.” In simple terms, you need an outline. However, this can’t be just a list of random points. The document has to have a structure. It has to hang together in a way that makes your point as clearly as possible.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282260
4 reasons why nobody is looking at your presentation

When you deliver a presentation in the form of a story, it becomes more relatable and helps your audience develop an emotional connection with the material. This in turn coaxes memory into action. What’s more, using images to metaphorically support the story you’re telling can reinforce that effect even further. When your listeners feel connected, they’re not only more likely to remember, they’re more likely to take action.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3064802/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/four-reasons-why-nobodys-paying-attention-to-your-presenta
Why Visionary CEOs Never Have Visionary Successors

After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000. Ballmer went on to run Microsoft for the next 14 years. If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. The launch of the Xbox and Kinect, and the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer happened on his shift. If the Microsoft board was managing for quarter-to-quarter or even year-to year-revenue growth, Ballmer was as good as it gets as a CEO. But if the purpose of the company is its long-term survival, then one could make the argument that he was a failure as CEO, as he optimized short-term gains by squandering long-term opportunities.

https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-visionary-ceos-never-have-visionary-successors

Photo: Vincent Guth

November 2, 2016October 18, 2016

News You Can Use: 11/2/2016

New Comcast data caps spotlight disturbing trend

Data caps are becoming the norm, and that’s very bad news for consumers, who increasingly choose to stream video instead of paying exorbitant fees for pay TV. No other reason exists to impose such caps than the desire to increase profits. Here’s how Comcast justifies its data caps: “Our data plans are based on a principle of fairness. Those who use more Internet data, pay more. And those who use less Internet data, pay less.”

Sounds fair … except it isn’t true. Unlike wireless providers, broadband ISPs have capacity to spare, and Comcast admits as much. In a memo leaked last year, Comcast told its sales people that data caps were not related to network congestion.

http://www.cio.com/article/3128922/internet-service-providers/new-comcast-data-caps-spotlight-disturbing-trend.html
How a 100TB hard drive works:
How To Tell Your Boss You’re Completely Overwhelmed

Feeling like you’re personally contributing, connecting with others, leveraging your creativity—or whatever your role means to you—is an anchor for the work you do. It’s why you do what you do. Without personal meaning, you’ll start to wear down from relentlessly throwing yourself into the churn and pulse of things. You can’t sustain this kind of disconnected, meaningless work for very long.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3064498/work-smart/how-to-tell-your-boss-youre-completely-overwhelmed
Are We Solving the Right Problem with Supplier Risk Management?

An agile supply chain means that you can be reliable even though an increasing number of things are going wrong. You can only do this if you can avoid those things in the first place or recover from them when they happen. Either way, this requires supply chain risk management, not just supplier risk management, and certainly not just supplier viability management via financial statement monitoring.

http://spendmatters.com/2016/10/10/solving-right-problem-with-supplier-risk-management/
A Tour of WeWork’s New Coworking Space in Philadelphia

The office space is just minutes away from the Old City District, the home of Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and many other historical landmarks. The Market-Frankford Line has a stop on Girard Avenue, a five-minute walk from the office. There’s also a parking lot located diagonally across the street. Attracting a wide range of businesses, this Philadelphia office space is a great option for artists, designers, and other young entrepreneurs, as well as corporations looking for a local base of operations”, says WeWork

http://www.officelovin.com/2016/10/10/tour-weworks-new-philadelphia-coworking-space/
Philly getting some co-lo love…

Photo: Chirobocea Nicu

October 26, 2016October 15, 2016

News You Can Use: 10/26/2016

The Sobering Stats You Need to Know When Seeking Your Next Job

Don’t be discouraged by the “one-in-100” stat. According to Lever’s breakdown, your best bet is to be referred to a new company. Referred candidates have a one-in-16 chance of getting hired. Using a third-party agency can also better your odds — those submitted by an agency have a one-in-22 chance of being placed. Whatever you do though, forget about applying through a company’s careers site: only one in 152 candidates gets hired this way.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283338
Applying Deep Machine Learning to Spend Analysis

Not only can its deep machine learning identify tail spend suppliers, company specific categories, and even individual items coded in obscure ways, but it can learn over time and adapt to different data models, especially since it can use evolving knowledge bases. Whereas the majority of first generation classifiers used naive statistical classification that could not learn and had to map to a fixed (UNSPSC) model, Spend360′s uses deep machine learning (based on LSTM and encoder/decoder technology) that maps to custom data models using extensible knowledge bases (which can be created and maintained by the organization) that can encode organization and industry specific knowledge (and negate the need for custom mappings or override rules).

http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2016/10/14/spend360-applying-deep-machine-learning-to-spend-analysis/
In buyers’ market, acquirers look to lock in management teams longer

Steve Fletcher, a managing director at the global investment bank GCA, notes that it’s “hard to say” whether it’s universally the case that management teams are getting locked into longer contracts with acquirers in this market. “I don’t think anyone has a large enough sample size to say that,” he notes. But he adds that of the deals he is seeing, there is a move to sign on incoming talent for a longer period, sometimes “three or four years as opposed to [the previous standard of] 18 to 24 months.”

https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/06/in-buyers-market-acquirers-look-to-lock-in-management-teams-longer/?ncid=rss
A Reminder From Mark Zuckerberg: ‘Put People First’

Zuckerberg explained that the way in which tech tools are structured today — as suites of apps — will not last long into the future. When a group of people is communicating or working together, they often toggle between a chat app, a video call and a shared document interface, for instance. The need to switch from one app to another doesn’t produce a seamless experience, and it makes each interface the focus, as opposed to the people working within it.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283433
IT moves to open workspaces, but not everyone is happy

What’s needed, both sides agree, is a range of workspace options that address organizational goals while still meeting employees’ needs — meaning physical space that allows for private meetings and quiet concentration in addition to community seating. Even more important: Corporate culture likewise has to value collaboration and innovation if IT organizations are to truly reap the benefits of open space.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3127789/it-management/it-moves-to-open-workspaces-but-not-everyone-is-happy.html

Photo: Paul Gilmore

October 12, 2016September 28, 2016

News You Can Use: 10/12/2016

Is Job Hopping Really Just A Basic Human Need?

The idea that you learn quickly at the beginning and your progress slows later on is what we call the learning curve, and it’s real. It’s also motivating at first; it feels great to know that your skills are growing so fast that you can see a difference from week to week. It can be much more frustrating to be stuck in a rut later on, feeling like you’re making incremental gains at best.

One thing that job switching provides is lots of opportunities to pull yourself up the steep part of the learning curve. It can actually be addicting to continually place yourself in situations that force you to rise to new challenges. You might like that experience so much that you find yourself job hopping over and over again as a result.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3063817/is-job-hopping-really-just-a-basic-human-need
Here’s what makes IBM, McKinsey, and 12 other big companies some of the best places for moms to work

Working Mother magazine just identified the 100 best companies for working moms to honor those organizations that are setting the standard for work-life practices in the US.

To compile the list, which is now in its 31st year, Working Mother surveyed hundreds of companies with more than 400 questions about their paid time off and leave policies, workforce profile, benefits, women’s issues and advancement, flexibility policies, and company culture, among other things.

http://nordic.businessinsider.com/best-companies-for-working-moms-2016-9/
I actually wrote an article about IBM’s pro-mother position over at BabyCenter:
http://blogs.babycenter.com/mom_stories/03072016-would-you-take-your-baby-to-work/
How to pull workers back from the brink of burnout

Unfortunately, simply working longer hours doesn’t lead to better work. As CNBC recently reported, a Stanford University study found that employee productivity falls off a cliff after 55 hours per week. After 20 years of working in Silicon Valley, I understand that this can be hard to accept. I didn’t accept it myself until recently, when, for the first time in my career, I took a position where I am not expected to be always-on. In fact, I’m encouraged to be off, and I’ve never been more productive. But I struggled with the shift. I pushed back hard. It took time for me to assimilate to this “new normal.”

https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/25/how-to-pull-workers-back-from-the-brink-of-burnout/?ncid=rss
How organizations enshrine collective stupidity and employees are rewarded for checking their brains at the office door (thanks for the suggestion KS)

At least $14 billion gets spent every year on leadership development in the US alone yet, according to researchers such as Jeffrey Pfeffer at Stanford, it has virtually no impact on improving the quality of leaders. In our own research, we found that most employees in knowledge-intensive firms didn’t need much leadership. People working at the coalface were self-motivated and often knew their jobs much better than their bosses did. Their superiors’ cack-handed attempts to be leaders were often seen as a pointless distraction from the real work. George, a manager in a high-tech engineering firm, told us he saw himself as a very ‘open’. When we asked his subordinates what he actually did, they told us that he provides breakfast in the morning and runs an annual beer-tasting.

https://aeon.co/essays/you-don-t-have-to-be-stupid-to-work-here-but-it-helps?preview=true
While this article had me shaking my head in agreement a few times, it is lacking in actual facts to back up the perception. But an excellent rant none the less.
Reality check: Philly’s cloud ambitions grind to a halt after transition

Outdated and overly complex IT procurement processes also impact the city’s ability to transform. Rather than trying to outline every possible requirement to squeeze into one enormous procurement for a completely new system, the city should look to more agile development, like its FastFWD program. FastFWD focused on problem-based procurement and tested applicability and feasibility before moving to wide-spread enterprise procurement. Finding more flexible funding options is the key for moving towards more flexible development and deployment models. Tech companies can be advocates for agile development and procurement by being realistic in their proposed solutions with measurable and attainable goals and timelines.

http://statescoop.com/reality-check-phillys-cloud-ambitions-grind-to-a-halt-after-transition

Photo: Noah Siliman

August 31, 2016August 23, 2016

News You Can Use: 8/31/2016

After IBM & GE, even SAP ditches annual reviews

SAP’s human resources head for Germany, Wolfgang Fassnacht, said Europe’s biggest software maker had found the annual review process, with its focus on separating over- from under-performers, was often counter-productive to the goal of constructive dialogue.

“Grading workers did not work. People are open to feedback, also to harsh criticism, until the moment you start giving scores. Then the shutters go down,” he told Reuters.

SAP is testing a new process, which includes more regular check-in talks, on about 8,000 of its workers and aims to implement it for all of its almost 80,000 workforce next year.

“The old system is too static,” said Fassnacht. “It no longer reflects the dynamic circumstances we are operating in.”

http://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/corporate/after-ibm-ge-even-sap-ditches-annual-reviews/53671429
Supply Chain Performance and….. Sleep?

I just finished reading The Sleep Revolution by Arianna Huffington, CEO of theHuffington Post. She makes a great case for how we have become a culture that treats sleep as wasted time and as optional. But more and more professionals are making the connection between sleep and performance. We already know that truck drivers and airline pilots can be dangerous when they don’t get enough sleep. Collegiate and professional athletes and Olympians are now tracking their sleep patterns against improved performance results. Some athletes have recorded as much as 8-10% improved batting averages, basket shots made and race times when they get eight or more hours of sleep. In addition, academic scores improve and in a corporate setting, decisions are better.

http://www.scmr.com/article/supply_chain_performance_and.._sleep#When:13:44:00Z
Laptops most often stolen from most unlikely place

When Kensington asked respondents where company employees had experienced IT theft, the No. 1 response was ‘cars and transportation’ at 25 percent. But the No. 2 response, coming in ahead of ‘airports and hotels’ (15 percent) and ‘restaurants’ (12 percent), was the office (23 percent).

http://www.cio.com/article/3107865/security/laptops-stolen-from-office-more-frequently-than-from-airports-or-restaurants.html<
Supply chain risk hits three-year high

“The UK’s departure from the EU could lead to some of the most dramatic shifts and severe implications for global supply chains in the coming years,” said CIPS economist John Glen. “While the full impact of the leave vote is still unfolding, confusion and uncertainty surrounding the current situation has already driven supply chain risk to a worryingly high level.”

“In the short term, supply chains will be exposed to exchange rate volatility risks which may be difficult to hedge. It may therefore be appropriate to crystallize exchange rate exposure by paying suppliers ahead of contracted payment days.

http://www.cips.org/supply-management/news/2016/august/supply-chain-risk-hits-three-year-high/
How to Think Like an FBI Negotiator?

Former FBI negotiator Chris Voss sheds light on communication and indirect messages, the value of empathy in business and in life, and when and how to walk away from a deal. Chris Voss is the author of “Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as If Your Life Depended on It”

Photo: Nico Beard