Tag: Career

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News You Can Use: 5/18/2016

sn_car_Matthias Zomer

  • 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

Posted on

News You Can Use: 5/11/2016

sn_sadman_Tom Sodoge

  • 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

Posted on

News You Can Use: 3/30/2016

sn_leaves_Scott Webb

  • Design for the Supply Chain Pt 5: Understandable

    I think it’s obvious to all of us that supply chains are continuing to become more and more complex. This is due in part to the ever changing number of nodes/links in the supply chain as companies become more global. That in turn impacts processes (internal and external), interactions with suppliers and customers, focus on metrics and risk analysis, etc. The volume of data necessary to manage these interactions from end-to-end is staggering. We generally create all kinds of reports and applications to sit on top of databases, ERP systems, and spreadsheets to capture the data. The challenge though is not so much how to capture the data but how to get our arms around it in a meaningful way. The goal is to help the supply chain professional understand the situation quicker so they can make better decisions.

    http://blog.kinaxis.com/2016/03/design-for-the-supply-chain-pt-5-understandable/

  • Is It Okay to Cry at Work?

    Personal opinion: Nope nope nope
    http://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/474195/is-it-okay-to-cry-at-work/
  • Rewiring the Supply Chain to Improve Results

    Alignment plagues the functional organization with large gaps between operations and commercial teams. Closing this gap is paramount to start the journey for supply chain excellence. As long as we hire consultants that advocate harvesting the “low-hanging fruit” in operations and driving growth in commercial teams, we perpetuate the gap. Instead, we must build operational competency cross-functionally with a focus on market sensing, shaping and customer satisfaction. The supply chain needs to be redefined outside-in with a focus on the customer. Pitting operations and commercial teams against each other is detrimental to driving business results.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/loracecere/2016/03/18/rewiring-the-supply-chain-to-improve-results/#42498dc1c568

  • Four Things To Do When Your Team Is Smarter Than You
    I would think any manager would WANT this…

    PRESENT OBJECTIVES, NOT STRATEGIES
    Throughout his 21-year career, Siegel has managed teams that were filled with smart people. Recently, he managed a computer engineering team from Israel who were working to complete high-level systems architecture programming for ZipRecruiter. “Many had come out of the Israeli military and were beyond elite,” he says. “They had been writing code to save lives. They were the best of the best—off-the-charts smart.”

    Instead of being intimidated, Siegel tapped into their motivation and changed the way he delivered his tasks. “I would start each project with the mission,” he says. “I would say, ‘This is the goal. This is the strategy. This is what success looks like.’”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3058080/lessons-learned/four-things-to-do-when-your-teams-smarter-than-you

  • Why Dropbox dropped Amazon’s cloud

    Not every company has the scale Dropbox operates at. And most companies would not see a huge benefit from customizing infrastructure to tailor it to their specific needs, Gupta says. Dropbox’s journey took two and a half years and required investments in personnel to figure out how infrastructure should be customized and other workers to manage their data centers.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3045641/cloud-computing/why-dropbox-dropped-amazons-cloud.html#tk.rss_all

  • People Want Power Because They Want Autonomy

    That people would value autonomy over influence jives with self-determination theory, a psychological theory that suggests autonomy is one of humans’ basic psychological needs, along with relatedness and competence. Influence is not aneed under this theory. Another study suggests that while striving for power lowers people’s well-being, once they have power, they really are happier, because they feel more authentic—the power makes them feel like the circumstances of their lives are more in line with who they feel they are inside. That may be because the power gives them the freedom to make their own decisions, and their sense of well-being grows when they do what they want.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/people-want-power-because-they-want-autonomy/474669/

  • Why Your Next Procurement Vehicle Should Be a Bus

    In San Francisco, under our Startup In Residence program, we’re experimenting with how to remove the friction associated with RFPs for both government staff and startups. For government staff, that means publishing an RFP in days, not months. For startups, it means responding to an RFP in hours not weeks.

    So what did we learn from our experience with the airport? We combined 17 RFPs into one; utilized general “challenge statements” in place of highly detailed project specifications; leveraged modern technology; and created a simple guide to navigating the process.

    http://www.techwire.net/news/why-your-next-procurement-vehicle-should-be-a-bus.html
    Copy of the procurement guide:
    https://startupinresidenceorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/stircontractingguideocareviewed1-28-2016-docx.pdf

Photo: Scott Web

Posted on

News You Can Use: 3/2/2016

sn_glasses_Dmitry Ratushny

  • How To Keep Your Cool When Your Friends’ Careers Are Moving Faster Than Yours

    Instead of moping, view the success of your friends as an opportunity, says Michael Kaminowitz, creator of New York City-based Welli, a mental well-being app. “Ask yourself how they got ahead faster than you,” he says. “Did they work harder? Learn faster? Play the office politics game better?”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3056793/hit-the-ground-running/how-to-keep-your-cool-when-your-friends-careers-are-moving-faster-tha

  • Overcoming 5 major supply chain challenges with big data analytics

    Sixty-one percent of companies regarded as leaders in supply chain management consider supply chain risk management very important. Those same leaders also recognize the need for capabilities that provide greater visibility and predictability across their supply chains (Source: Accenture). Big data can help assess the likelihood of a problem and its potential impact, and support techniques to identify supply chain risk. Combining the analysis of historical data, risk mapping, and scenario planning can enable a risk management approach for early warning.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3035655/data-center/overcoming-5-major-supply-chain-challenges-with-big-data-analytics.html#tk.rss_all

  • What To Say When You’re Stuck In The Elevator With Your Boss’s Boss

    Offer your congratulations. You can also congratulate your boss’s boss on an achievement, either his own, his department’s, or the company’s. If you saw him give a talk recently, don’t just say you liked it, explain why. If his department received an honor, mention that. If Q4 results were impressive, comment on that. People love to be recognized for success, and if you stay current with this sort of information—as you should—you’ll put a glow on the executive’s face.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3056838/what-to-say-when-youre-stuck-in-the-elevator-with-your-bosss-boss

  • Pirates: a cyber threat to supply chains

    Among the central features of this new cyber-supported piracy, and certainly the feature which most proliferates media representations of the problem, is the vision of navigation systems attacks- pirates successfully diverting vessels with false GPS and Automatic Identification System data.

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–alex-johnston/pirates-a-cyber-threat-to-supply-chains-602484

  • Former Disney IT worker to Congress: How can you allow this?

    An internal meeting was called and Perrero gathered with co-workers, expecting good news of some sort. Instead, they were notified that had 90 days remaining at Disney and would be laid off on Jan. 30, 2015. But before that happened, they would be training their foreign replacements.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3038414/careers-staffing/former-disney-it-worker-to-congress-how-can-you-allow-this.html#tk.rss_all

  • Bill Gates “Blindsided” By Report That He Sides With FBI In Apple Dispute

    In an interview with Bloomberg TV this morning, Bill Gates said he was “blindsided” by and “disappointed” with reports that he sides with the FBI in its dispute with Apple over unlocking an iPhone connected to the San Bernardino killings. He said: “That doesn’t state my view on this. I do believe that with the right safeguards, there are cases where the government, on our behalf—like stopping terrorism, which could get worse in the future— …that is valuable.” He called for a healthy debate on the issue and said that we should strike a balance between privacy rights and legitimate security concerns. Gates also noted that the government has historically abused its powers, citing the case of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3057046/fast-feed/bill-gates-sides-with-fbi-says-apple-should-unlock-that-iphone

Photo: Dmitry Ratushny

Posted on

News You Can Use: 2/24/2016

sn_iPhone_Luis Llerena

  • 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.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3034229/ios/why-the-fbis-request-to-apple-will-affect-civil-rights-for-a-generation.html#tk.rss_all

    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.

    http://www.ibtimes.com/microsoft-facebook-twitter-yahoo-quietly-add-their-support-apples-fight-against-fbi-2312503

  • 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.

    http://www.strategy-business.com/article/Siemens-CEO-Joe-Kaeser-on-the-Next-Industrial-Revolution?gko=efd41

  • 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.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/270764

  • 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.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3033809/leadership-management/getting-the-most-out-of-conferences.html#tk.rss_all

  • The Most Innovative Companies of 2016
    Buzzfeed… Really?
    http://www.fastcompany.com/most-innovative-companies