News You Can Use: 9/28/2016
- Indian workers staged one of the largest strikes in human history and no one in the USA noticed
The strike came after Modi began a push for increased foreign investment and privatization of some state-run industries. Unions fear these policies will undermine both wages and employment.
The size of the strike alone forced the government to offer concessions prior to Friday in an attempt to avert it, offering a boost in the minimum wage for some non-skilled workers and the unfreezing of some public employee bonuses.
The unions were not persuaded by this offer. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his fight is with poverty, but it seems his fight is with the poor in this country,” Indian National Trade Union Congress Vice President Ashok Singh said prior to the strike.
http://boingboing.net/2016/09/08/indian-workers-staged-one-of-t.html
- Three Helpful Techniques to Ease You Into Talking With Strangers
Use “triangulation”: Triangulation is the process of talking about something in the environment that both you and the other person can see. The book they’re reading, a street performer playing a song, or even a beautiful sunset can be a great opener.
http://lifehacker.com/three-helpful-techniques-to-ease-you-into-talking-with-1786019077
- Gartner study highlights disparity between supply chain leaders and staff
Ken Chadwick, Research Director at Gartner, said: “To adapt and response on the fly to challenges their organisation faces, supply chain leaders must develop the organisation’s change capabilities. Being ‘change agile’, having the ability to design and adopt new ideas and changes quickly and completely should be the goal of supply chain leaders in the digital era.
- Eight Proven Strategies for Better Remote Work
One way to measure your progress is by using the X-card technique. (Some people call this the “Seinfeld Technique,” named after comedian Jerry Seinfeld who committed to working every day to hone his craft, without breaking the chain.)
The technique is simple enough: start by creating an “X-Card,” an index card divided into a 7×7 grid of 49 boxes. You could also use a dedicated app like 7 weeks or a good old-fashioned calendar.
On top of each card, write the habit you want to stick with. Every time you stick to that habit, you mark it with a big X in one of the boxes.
http://lifehacker.com/eight-proven-strategies-for-better-remote-work-1786346960
- Coupa IPO: Is The Unicorn Dead?
However, with yesterday’s announcement that Coupa has filed the preliminary paperwork to take the company public by way of a $75 million IPO, the purpose of this post is to help you to avoid getting caught up in the usual analyst speak and blogger assessments.
In the new age of the commoditized cloud – where technological differences between one provider and the next are becoming increasingly indistinguishable, it is the people behind the company that matter the most. In particular, those in positions of leadership.
https://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2016/09/09/coupa-ipo-is-the-unicorn-dead/
Photo: Joey Kyber
News You Can Use: 6/1/2016
- Gartner names this year’s Supply Chain Top 25
For the first time ever, Unilever topped the list — followed by McDonald’s, Amazon, Intel and top-five newcomer H&M. Five new companies also made the Top 25, including: BASF, BMW and Schneider Electric.
- Stressed? Use This Breathing Technique to Improve Your Attention and Memory
- What millennials really think of open office spaces
Exposed offices also make it difficult to concentrate, especially with work that requires intense focus, or speaking to others on the phone. This was the case for Laura Munoz in her inside sales job at Groupon after college. “I loved feeling part of that community but as an inside sales rep I hated having people listen to all of my conversations,” she says. “It was to an extent nice to pick up sales tips from listening to others, but it really made me act differently—either carefree or totally nervous. And of course there was the occasional private conversation that you wish you didn’t hear.”
http://www.monster.com/career-start/a/what-millennials-think-open-office-spaces
- Big Data Analytics and the Evolution of the Supply Chain
A recent Accenture study of more than 1,000 senior global executives found that, while 97 percent understood how Big Data could benefit their supply chain, only 17 percent reported implementing any of the findings. Here are some of the ways that Big Data can identify opportunities and revolutionize supply chain management in nearly any organization.
http://tech.co/big-data-analytics-evolution-supply-chain-2016-05
- Coupa Turns Big Data Into Actionable Insights for Finance and Supply Chain
Coupa Analytics enhances the Coupa unified spend platform and rolls up data across applications from procurement, e-invoicing, contracts, travel and expenses, and more. The common data layer across all Coupa applications makes it easy to aggregate data so organizations can make intelligent decisions faster than ever. Customers benefit through consumerized data science, embedded naturally throughout analytics, so they can become spend analytic experts without having to go to extensive training or have data engineers standing by to help.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/coupa-turns-big-data-actionable-153000925.html
- The Career Limitations Of Emotional Intelligence
Sharma also adds that when the concept of emotional intelligence debuted over 20 years ago, diversity issues simply “weren’t as much a part of that conversation at the time.” There’s now evidence to suggest that the ability to navigate culturally diverse working environments may trump generaland emotional intelligence for certain “cross-border” managers. As Sharma puts it, “culture and complex emotions now interact when we talk about globalization,” which in his view is transforming the workplace in ways we’re only beginning to realize. “If you’re working across global teams, as a lot of managers do today, it takes more than EI to be successful, like knowledge of places and people and local cultures.”
Photo: Vladimir Chuchadeev