Tag: Disney

Posted on

News You Can Use: 3/23/2016

sn_bridge_Simon Stratford

  • Why 2016 Is The Year Of The Hybrid Job

    The 21st-century workplace demands versatility. Big data, for example, is becoming increasingly important to the success of businesses, and every industry is making considerable investments. “Not surprisingly, occupations pertaining to data analysis are the fastest growing today across multiple industries,” says Brennan. “The ability to compile, analyze, and apply big data to everyday business decisions is driving major change. In the IT space, big data roles have seen a nearly 4,000% jump in demand. But with the availability of data comes the requirement to analyze and visualize data.”

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3057619/the-future-of-work/why-2016-is-the-year-of-the-hybrid-job

  • An interesting post on the history of Amazon Web Services (AWS)

    At the same time, Bezos became enamored with a book called Creation, by Steve Grand, the developer of a 1990s video game called Creatures that allowed players to guide and nurture a seemingly intelligent organism on their computer screens. Grand wrote that his approach to creating intelligent life was to focus on designing simple computational building blocks, called primitives, and then sit back and watch surprising behaviors emerge.

    The book…helped to crystallize the debate over the problems with the company’s own infrastructure. If Amazon wanted to stimulate creativity among its developers, it shouldn’t try to guess what kind of services they might want; such guesses would be based on patterns of the past. Instead, it should be creating primitives — the building blocks of computing — and then getting out of the way. In other words, it needed to break its infrastructure down into the smallest, simplest atomic components and allow developers to freely access them with as much flexibility as possible.

    https://stratechery.com/2016/the-amazon-tax/

  • Rebranding The American Man

    According to research from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, single, unmarried women under 30 are now out-earning single, unmarried men across the country. In New York City, Los Angeles, and San Diego, women make 17%, 12%, and 15% more than their male peers, respectively. A big part of this shift has to do with the fact that women now earn 60% of higher education degrees, so this trend is likely to continue. And women are the primary jobholders in 13 out of the 15 job categories projected to grow in the United States over the next 10 years.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3057609/rebranding-the-american-man

  • The Air You Breathe at Work May Be Slowing You Down

    The culprit is carbon dioxide, according to a series of studies since 2012. The most recent research, led by Joseph Allen, who teaches at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, analyzed the performance of knowledge workers, including engineers, programmers, creative marketing professionals and managers. For several hours each day, unbeknownst to those employees, the researchers raised and lowered the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, and then tested everyone on nine different kinds of cognitive ability, like responding to a crisis, strategic thinking and applying their knowledge to a practical task.

    The higher the concentration of CO2, the lower the test scores. Even allowing for uncontrolled factors such as diet, previous night sleep quality and mood, employees’ overall sharpness fell by an average of 15 percent when CO2 levels reached “moderate” levels of about 945 parts per million (ppm). In modern office buildings, designed to maximize energy efficiency by letting in as little outside air as possible, CO2 levels around 1,000 ppm are common.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/272519

  • IT workers dispute Disney rehiring claims

    “This is nothing more than corporate speak intended to muddy the waters,” Perrero said. “New more exciting jobs were promised by Disney that acted as a carrot to keep us around just long enough to have us Americans be the trainers and the foreign workers as the trainees.”

    http://www.cio.com/article/3044098/outsourcing/it-workers-dispute-disney-rehiring-claims.html#tk.rss_all

  • John Oliver on Encryption (NSFW language… don’t watch this in the office!)

    Related:
    WhatsApp’s Other Encryption Dilemma

    The messaging app has made clear it hopes to sell businesses on using WhatsApp as a way to communicate with consumers. Tests of WhatsApp business accounts are expected to start by the end of this year, Facebook has said. But WhatsApp has told potential clients that one of its biggest challenges is how to roll out a customer service application for businesses without giving up end-to-end encryption protecting messages on the app, according to a person briefed by WhatsApp.

    https://www.theinformation.com/whatsapps-other-encryption-dilemma

  •  D.C., San Francisco tech leaders aim for ‘future-proof’ procurement

    The idea of future-proofing procurement, Vemulapalli said, is to make it easier for city governments to procure technology from a diverse group of vendors — from massive international companies to local startups in the civic innovation space.

    http://statescoop.com/d-c-san-francisco-tech-leaders-aim-for-future-proof-procurement 

Photo: Simon Stratford

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: 7/8/2015

sn_baddata

  • Enterprises Don’t Have Big Data, They Just Have Bad Data

    The truth is, most of them suffer from one of the old adages in computing: garbage in, garbage out. Not only do most of them actually not have Big Data in terms of data complexity or volume, but most of them actually have Crappy Data, and it’s probably hurting their business. According to Experian Data Quality, inaccurate data affects the bottom line of 88 percent of organizations and impacts up to 12 percent of revenues.

    http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/01/enterprises-dont-have-big-data-they-just-have-bad-data/

  • Procter & Gamble’s Futuristic Control Tower Environment

    Another partner for the P&G Business Sphere solution is SAP.  Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, SAP begun talking about their new supply chain control tower solution last year.   Their control tower incorporates the idea of reacting to alerts with prebuilt playbooks that allow an organization to react quickly and with agility to unexpected situations.  (See The New SAP Supply Chain Control Tower for a description of playbooks and their control tower solution stack).

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2015/07/01/procter-gambles-futuristic-control-tower-environment/

  • 6 Best Practices for Managing Unhappy Employees

    If the issue stems from something within your company, gather as much information as you can before deciding how to act. But even if it’s a lifestyle factor influencing your employee’s behavior, don’t ignore it just because it comes from outside your four walls. Use it as an opportunity to show them that they’re more than just a name on an HR folder. Offering assistance, whether through a formal employee assistance program or other means, will build their loyalty to your company.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247595

  • The Hidden Cost of a Summer Slump

    “Satisfied and engaged employees are less likely to abuse the company’s sick policy,” he says. But it’s not enough to just do a head count. Schwarz says managers should compare absenteeism between different teams, departments, locations, and performance levels to determine whether there are more people taking leave during the summer months. Then, he recommends looking to see if one manager has a larger degree of absenteeism than another.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3048157/the-future-of-work/the-hidden-costs-of-the-summer-slump?partner=rss

  • The Secret To Walt Disney’s Corporate Strategy
    Hint: It is a massive feedback loop…
    sn_disneystrategy
    http://www.fastcodesign.com/3048046/infographic-of-the-day/the-secret-to-walt-disneys-corporate-strategy?partner=rss