News You Can Use: 7/20/2016
- How To Use A Mass Exodus At Your Company To Advance Your Career
Taking on new or more challenging work. “If there are projects you would like to pitch in on because it would be rewarding or enhance your skill set, this could be a time to do that,” she says. And now you can make a strong case for why you’re up for the task.
After all, you may have some more leverage than you did beforehand—at least of a certain sort. “If people are leaving,” Crawford says, “they kind of need all hands on deck. That would be one more positive way to get your fingers in more areas you may not have otherwise.”
- How To Stop Checking Email On Vacation
If you’re finding it hard to refrain from email, set “unplugging goals,” suggests Gabby Burlacu, human capital management researcher at the software company SAP SuccessFactors. “Learning to completely unplug from work takes time and focus,” she says. “Finding hobbies or activities while you’re on vacation and making a commitment to solely focus on those while you are engaged in them can go a long way.”
It can also be helpful if you sort email, says Webb. He takes 10 minutes a day, while he’s waiting at the airport or riding in a cab, to filter email into the folders he set up before he left: “Action Required,” “File,” and “Read Later.”
“I don’t respond to messages while on vacation, unless I feel it’s imperative,” he says. “I simply process the emails for action upon my return.”
http://www.fastcompany.com/3061451/how-to-stop-checking-email-on-vacation
- Creative Office Design Won’t Make You Better At Your Job, But This Might
Del Toro found this reassuring. The employee hadn’t asked permission to move the furniture, but the fact that she had done so anyway pointed to a feature of ViaSat’s work environment that no designer can account for directly—its culture, which prizes curiosity and the freedom to find alternative ways of doing things on your own initiative. That couch still sits by the window. It’s already the most popular space for people to meet. But del Toro won’t be surprised or perturbed if somebody six or 12 months from now moves it someplace else.
- Tensions rise over LTE using Wi-Fi channels
Unlicensed LTE is designed to give mobile operators more spectrum to work with as they try to serve subscribers in crowded places. Verizon, T-Mobile USA and other carriers have talked about rolling it out as soon as the end of this year.
But some backers of Wi-Fi, including the Alliance, have said LTE-U could make it hard for wireless LAN users to get a packet in edgewise. Fans of the new technology, including Qualcomm, say it won’t add any more interference than a new Wi-Fi access point would.
http://www.cio.com/article/3088987/tensions-rise-over-lte-using-wi-fi-channels.html
- The Skills It Takes To Get Hired At Google, Facebook, Amazon, And More
Four things: General cognitive ability . . . Not just raw [intelligence] but the ability to absorb information. Emergent leadership: The idea there being that when you see a problem, you step in and try to address it. Then you step out when you’re no longer needed. That willingness to give up power is really important. Cultural fit: We call it Googleyness, but it boils down to intellectual humility. You don’t have to be warm or fuzzy. You just have to be somebody who, when the facts show you’re wrong, can say that. Expertise in the job we’re gonna hire you for.
Photo: Martina Misar-Tummeltshammer
News You Can Use: 9/9/2015
- Overcoming IT Budget Planning Obstacles for Risk-minded CIOs
While having access to benchmarks plays a key role in helping CISOs keep the budget in line with peer organizations, leadership will understandably want a clear picture of how the business is investing. This is why it’s crucial that CISOs build an easy to understand investment strategy that outlines exactly where the organization intends to spend its allotment and what the return on that spend will be. The goal here is to first gain an understanding of where the organization falls short today, as well as document and communicate strengths. CISOs need to be able to address how current security investments are performing, not just what the gaps are. This is where having something as simple as a security report card can effectively demonstrate security progress in language and terms that the organization’s leaders can understand. It also helps in building an incremental plan to clearly outline how the organization can improve security.
- Want Early Payment Discounts? It All Starts At The Back
More troublesome still, above all of the influencing factors outside of the buyer’s control, is the need for vigour in the technologies supporting supplier payments. There’s obviously little point negotiating early payment discounts if the purchase-to-pay (P2P) system, whirring away in the back-end is too complex, outmoded or reliant on the rubber stamp – or, in the case of a great many banks, all three, and not so much whirring away as spluttering along – to facilitate such a thing.
- Amazon Launches Amazon Business Marketplace, Will Close AmazonSupply
“For years I’ve been going to procurement software events hosted by vendors,” she said. “Amazon is always the reference point for usability. ‘Why can’t buying for my business be as easy as shopping on Amazon?’ ‘Why doesn’t this procurement system work more like Amazon?’ Now Amazon has a specific marketplace for businesses to buy from Amazon and third parties, just as consumers use Amazon.com to buy from Amazon and used book sellers.”
- Why Millennials’ Amazon Experience Is Shaping Vendor Selection
Bottom line, the future of procurement, is in the hands of people who are used to total buyer control. Depending on how you look at it, platforms like Amazon’s have either spoiled or enlightened them as to what’s possible for purchasing. They’re used to finding complicated commodities (organic, top-rated, fair trade, non-GMO, free shipping, crunchy peanut butter) in 2 minutes online.
- Sourcing Secrets: Web Scraping
- Email is not dead
Also, we spend much time talking about the “right time to send an email,” but the Adobe data shows we are consuming data at all times of the day. If you knew when your customer was in bed or in his “second office,” you could better target delivery when they are reading email.
Productivity Bulletin: 2/20/2015
- Best Practices for email marketing:
Though 73% marketers take email marketing as a key enabler of products and services but majority is concerned about success rate. One of the prime reasons of failure is ‘ill-planned content.’ You need to design a dedicated content strategy for emails, newsletters, and other direct communications with prospects. Content strategy should address What, Why, Where, How, How much, How Often, and Whom. Decide what type of content will be used, in what quantity, and through which medium. In addition, keep “mobile factor” in mind as 68% marketers agree that a responsive design is a key factor in decisions regarding landing page or email template.
http://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/best-practices-email-marketing-2015-01146210
- Master the Concept of Leverage to Get What You Want in Business and Life
Leverage is all about understanding what another party desires and figuring out what you need to fulfill it, then using your position to gain an outcome in your favor. It is important to note, however, that leverage can be used both for good and for bad. Bad leverage results in one person winning and the others losing — typically a consequence of working with bad people — whereas in good leverage situations, all parties can benefit from the outcome of the transaction or deal.
- Keep emails to 300 words of less for better responses:
Concision matters more than almost anything in an email if you aren’t sure it will be read. Even in the case with people you know it can matter. When you want something, keep it brief! Most people can handle a 300 word message that gets right to the point. I’ve yet to meet anyone who prefers longer, detailed emails they didn’t explicitly request or who would rather read longer, flowery sentences over those that get right to the point. You can be short and sweet, after all.
http://awkwardhuman.com/2015/02/12/five-important-questions-i-ask-myself-before-sending-an-email/
- Some of you might remember the story that I told a few years ago about the band Van Halen and the brown M&M (and how it applies to contracting). Here is a short version:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232420