Tag: GE

Posted on

News You Can Use: 10/30/2019


Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

  • Why you should ditch team building activities and just let people get to work

    Forget the rock-climbing excursions; instead, give team members meaty tasks to accomplish together (and I’m talking about real work, not fake tasks here). The most effective way to strengthen team bonds is by having people work together and accomplish results as a group. Winning the three-legged race may be exhilarating (or embarrassing for those who don’t love the cheesy), but overcoming a work challenge or solving a thorny problem is a much more effective way to get your team closer together.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90408773/4-things-you-should-do-instead-of-team-building-activities

  • The Phone Call Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving

    Talking was the most popular way to communicate via cellphone in the fall of 2012, with 94% of survey respondents having done so in the prior week, according to consumer-research firm MRI-Simmons. By the spring of 2019, talking had fallen to least popular, behind texting, emailing, posting to social media and using chat apps, with just 45% reporting doing it in the prior week. In other words, less than half had used their phone for an actual phone call.

    Multiple people I interviewed said when the phone rings unexpectedly, they assume someone has died. But some app developers and investors think voice communication over the phone isn’t the problem, just the act of making a phone call itself. Between the rise of smart speakers and Apple’s wireless AirPod earbuds, and the ubiquity of group messaging and video chat, they’re betting now might be the time for voice to make a comeback.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-phone-call-isnt-dead-its-evolving-11571457605

  • What causes an economic recession?
  • Zuckerberg defends Facebook as bastion of ‘free expression’ in speech

    Zuckerberg defended the company’s decision to allow misinformation in political advertising on the platform, despite high-profile pushback against the policy.

    “Given the sensitivity around political ads, I’ve considered whether we should stop allowing them altogether,” Zuckerberg said. “But political ads are an important part of voice – especially for local candidates, up-and-coming challengers and advocacy groups that may not get much media attention otherwise. Banning political ads favors incumbents and whoever the media covers.”

    And he also seemed to brazenly rewrite the site’s beginnings, which were reportedly as a “hot or not” game for Harvard students to play, as a platform to share perspectives after the beginning of the Iraq war.

    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/17/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-free-expression-speech

  • Debt-ridden GE abruptly freezes pensions on 20,000 employees

    The company announced today that it was going to pre-fund about $4-5 billion of estimated minimum ERISA funding requirements for 2021 and 2022 and offer a limited time lump-sum payment option to approximately 100,000 eligible former employees who have not started getting their monthly pension payments yet.

    According to GE, these moves will cut its pension deficit by about $5-$8 billion and its industrial net debt by approximately $4-$6 billion.

    Wall Street seemed to like the decision. GE’s stock was $8.63, up 6 cents or 0.70%, in pre-market trading.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90414035/debt-ridden-ge-abruptly-freezes-20000-employee-pensions

Posted on

News You Can Use: 4/5/2017

  • Why Office Perks Aren’t Enough to Attract and Retain Millennials

    Take GE as an example. The erstwhile General Electric was founded before some millennials’ great-grandparents were born, but it’s doing a true job of remaining relevant for a new generation. In 2015 the company rolled out its “What’s the Matter With Owen” ad campaign aimed at potential millennial candidates. After its release, GE saw an 800 percent increase in applications and a 66 percent increase in traffic to the career site. GE surprised more than a few people by showing a sense of humor about its somewhat old-fashioned reputation. More importantly, the company highlighted some of the innovative work that goes on behind the scenes there, showing that it recognized the importance millennials place on being part of an organization with a well-defined mission. GE’s new look is more than skin deep: Moving its headquarters from suburban Connecticut to downtown Boston is a sign that the company is willing to adapt to how (and where) young employees want to work.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290980

  • Senate votes to allow ISPs to collect personal data without permission

    The Senate voted 50-48 in favor of S.J. 34, which would remove the rules and, under the authority of the Congressional Review Act, prevent similar rules from being enacted. It now heads to the House for approval.

    “If signed by the President, this law would repeal the FCC’s widely-supported broadband privacy framework, and eliminate the requirement that cable and broadband providers offer customers a choice before selling their sensitive, personal information,” said FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn and FTC Commissioner Terrell McSweeny in a joint statement.

    https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/23/senate-votes-to-allow-isps-to-collect-personal-data-without-permission/?ncid=rss

  • America’s Next Moonshot: Cut Poverty 50% by 2030
  • How to stop taking useless notes at work

    Students who wrote longhand notes outperformed laptop note takers in recalling information to pass the quiz. And when the researchers examined the students’ notes, they found a clue as to why: The laptop notes tended to include a lot of verbatim transcription of the video, whereas handwritten notes couldn’t be written fast enough to do the same. If we can type fast enough to transcribe information verbatim, we can get away with writing notes without engaging our minds too much—we don’t have to think critically or even pay too much attention to simply write down exactly what someone’s saying.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3069147/how-to-finally-stop-taking-useless-notes-at-work

  • Avoid the Telecommuting Reboot

    When you get to the size of a remote workforce that IBM and Yahoo were faced with, the ability to recycle and refresh the tools supporting remote workers almost certainly becomes a management nightmare for IT staff. What likely happened was that rollouts of new tools took place, but the remote workers clung to the legacy tools they knew best.

    As IT decision makers, it’s important to look at all aspects of telecommuting policy reversals. Yes, there likely were political and philosophical reasons behind IBM and Yahoo’s reversal on remote work policy. But technology may have also played a role. From an IT perspective, you should perhaps reevaluate your own telecommute processes and tools to make sure they are where they need to be.

    http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/avoid-the-telecommuting-reboot/d/d-id/1328514?_mc=RSS_IWK_EDT

Photo: Ciprian Boiciuc

Posted on

News You Can Use: 12/14/2016

  • The Best Music for Productivity? Silence

    When silence and music were put head to head in more cognitively complex tests, people did better in silence. In a study from the 1980s, researchers gave subjects the option to listen to either upbeat or soft music of their preferred genre, or nothing, while counting backward. The people who listened to their favorite, upbeat tunes did worst of all, and those who heard silence did best.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/12/the-best-music-for-productivity-silence/509948/?utm_source=feed

  • How FedEx is shaving millions from its IT costs

    Apptio’s software also uncovered a glaring inefficiency in FedEx’ aircraft maintenance operations. For years, engineers inspected aircraft by climbing up and down the planes and then driving a golf cart to a shack, where they would enter data into an inventory management system, which costed $10 million annually. To streamline the process, the IT team created Workbench, which enables engineers to inspect aircraft and input data via tablets and smartphones. The software costs $2 million a year.

    “We are several hundred million dollars cheaper because we keep finding unique ways to drive value,” Carter says. FedEx is applying some of the savings to emerging technologies such as TRON, a Bluetooth-enabled sensor that offers a lower cost way of tracking packages.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3144504/software/how-fedex-is-shaving-millions-from-its-it-costs.html

  • An island no more: Inside the business of the podcasting boom

    “The interesting thing is that, in this last six to nine months, I feel like we actually turned the corner,” observes Bryan Moffett, who heads ad sales for NPM, NPR’s sale arm. NPR — the leader in podcast audience — earns more than $10 million in podcast revenue and owns a double-digit share of the market. “We’re getting in business from Wells Fargo and Dell and Target — big Fortune 100 brands.”

    http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/09/an-island-no-more-inside-the-business-of-the-podcasting-boom/

  • Apple Grabs Wearables Lead with Holiday Sales
    A follow-up to SourceCast Episode 51

    For all the skepticism about the Apple Watch’s prospects, the new version appears to be selling better than the first one. Apple raked in nearly half of the revenue generated online in the U.S. wearables market in the monthlong lead-up to Cyber Monday, new data shows, a big increase on last year. Meanwhile, Fitbit lost ground—and the data shows that its expected purchase of competitor Pebble won’t help much.

    https://www.theinformation.com/apple-grabs-wearables-lead-with-holiday-sales

  • What this GE Exec is hiring for in 2017 (and why)

    Not everybody is a software engineer, but every single person at Global Operations understands their part in GE’s transformation into a digital industrial company. Whether you’re in HR, accounting, or operations, being able to analyze and understand data is critical. We produce massive amounts of data every day and need to use it as efficiently as we can.

    So even if you don’t have a degree in engineering or your job description doesn’t include data processing, we want to see how you use data every day. I look for candidates who can explain how they turn their work into actionable insights—or who can tell us how they think data might help them do their jobs better. Data is the most valuable language you can speak today.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3066215/pov/what-this-ge-exec-is-hiring-for-in-2017-and-why

Photo: wu yi

Posted on

News You Can Use: 5/4/2016

sn_rooftop_Tom Sodoge

  • How a giant like GE found home in the cloud

    Embracing a cloud-first mentality across the organization required adjustments internally, too. Drumgoole arrived at GE two years ago to find the traditional angst between software developers and infrastructure operators. Devs can’t get the infrastructure they need; ops folks don’t know what the software teams need. Cloud seemed like the natural answer to this problem.

    GE invested in building tools, creating systems and processes for managing it and ensuring regulatory compliance. When GE’s IT team introduced the cloud services, some of those software developers and ops teams didn’t want to use it. “Some of the legacy, single-technology developers struggled with deploying and moving apps when we took away the support envelope of a traditional infrastructure team,” he says, adding that the challenge has largely been overcome, though it required a shift in mindset.

    http://www.networkworld.com/article/3056755/cloud-computing/how-a-giant-like-ge-found-home-in-the-cloud.html

  • No lawyer? This online tool uses AI to review your contracts
    This seems like a major privacy concern, but intriguing none the less…

    Next, LawGeex uses its array of technologies to compare the contract against a database of thousands of similar ones. It flags anything that needs extra attention and also provides statistics and benchmarks.

    Explained in simple terms, its final analysis — delivered within 24 hours, or on the next business day — aims to ensure that users know exactly what they’re agreeing to. Included in that report are a summary, a contract score, and information such as clause explanations, negotiating tips, and sample language for missing clauses.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3058698/no-lawyer-this-online-tool-uses-ai-to-review-your-contracts.html

  • How To Take Back Control Of A Negotiation

    1. Establish that you’re there because they need you. If you’re a finalist, they must already have a very positive perception of what you can do for them.

    2. Look for small ways to gain leverage. Moving the meeting to be last in the day is one example. Being last helps because the client learns from earlier presenters—and often shares that with you directly, like revealing that others had accepted an offer of $25,000.

    3. Radiate confidence when you’re in the room. You must believe deeply in yourself; otherwise it’ll show. Remember, they can only get what you do from you.

    4. Use your vulnerability. I knew that I’d feel anxious as soon as I first accepted the challenge of going after this project. The way to deal with those fears is by talking with your team and deciding what to do about them collectively. When I discovered who we were up against, that fear helped me realize how their size might actually be a weakness—which turned my own sense of vulnerability on its head. If nothing else, it encouraged the competition to underestimate us.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3058768/how-to-take-back-control-of-a-negotiation

  • These Are The Ages When We Do Our Best Work
    sn_achievement_fastcompany

    Some, like professional athletes and CEOS, tend to cluster especially tightly around certain age ranges (because of constraints like physical prowess and work experience, respectively). However, in each of these fields, people tend to do great work at all sorts of ages. Though Adele pulled the Grammy Album of the Year down from an average of around 40 by winning at age 23, Ray Charles yanked it up by winning his Grammy at 74.

    http://www.fastcompany.com/3058870/your-most-productive-self/these-are-the-ages-when-we-do-our-best-work

  • Intel axes 12,000 jobs as it looks to break away from PCs

    Intel is cutting 12,000 jobs worldwide as the company restructures operations to diversify from PCs into growth areas of IoT and servers.

    The layoffs account for about 11 percent of employees worldwide. Intel is also consolidating work locations worldwide in a move the company hopes will save it US $750 million this year.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3058610/intel-axes-12000-jobs-as-it-looks-to-break-away-from-pcs.html

  • Verizon is offshoring jobs, records say

    For instance, in Lake Mary, Florida, employees wrote on their TAA application: “Verizon has been in the process of moving all production for all products off shore for the last few years. We were notified in April [2015] that all the remaining VOIP Order Management was being moved to Manila. Two VOIP order managers had been sent to Manila to train the new group. … My group also had to train the offshore group to take over our job function. HR told me this was a massive layoff!”

    http://www.computerworld.com/article/3058708/it-outsourcing/verizon-is-offshoring-jobs-records-say.html

Photo: Tom Sodoge

Posted on

News You Can Use: 2/10/2016

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  • Opportunities In The Risk Business Abound As Insurance Is Ready For Disruption
    sn_insurance_techcrunch

    Timing is everything and the industry is finally on the brink of transformative change, driven by strong secular trends. The world is online and connected — creating new distribution channels but also new risk (e.g., cybersecurity). Additionally, explosion of the shared economy and 1099 workers has created fractional ownership — and with it, uncertainty around who bears the risk.

    http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/02/opportunities-in-the-risk-business-abound-as-insurance-is-ready-for-disruption/

  • WHY USING YOUR POWER IN A NEGOTIATION ISN’T ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA

    For example, in 2007, Wal-Mart used its power as the largest retailer of consumer goods in the United States to require the makers of liquid detergents to compact their formulas. Making detergents more concentrated was valuable to Wal-Mart, because it would save shelf space, but it would also decrease shipping costs across the supply chain. Indeed, they announced this initiative for the first time at the Clinton Global Initiative. They achieved their goal of selling only concentrated detergents by 2008.

    Detergent manufacturers resisted this request at first, because there was a substantial research and development effort required by manufacturers to find a concentrated formula that would work effectively. They only undertook this development work because of the pressure from Wal-Mart, who would no longer carry detergents at their original concentration after a specified date.

    Moral of the story: Walmart got exactly what it wanted… they just made it seem like it was good for everyone
    http://www.fastcompany.com/3056079/hit-the-ground-running/why-using-your-power-in-a-negotiation-its-always-a-good-idea

  • Being a Go-Getter Is No Fun
    The counter-point to this is… go ahead an bury your head in the sand and be like everyone else, you will still be in the same position as them 10 years from now.

    “In the workplace, managers should be careful to give the highest quality work and best opportunities to the most capable employees, and give the lower quality but time consuming work to less capable employees,” says Koval. “If someone is doing more than his fair share, compensate him for it. If not, he may ultimately leave and seek recognition elsewhere. Similarly, in our personal relationships, we should recognize that just because our high-ability partners can do something for us, doesn’t mean that we should let them. And if they do help us, we should recognize it and thank them for it. Otherwise, they too may end up feeling burdened by us, and less satisfied—and that should be the last thing we want to do to a good employee or a good partner.”

    While I disagree somewhat with the premise of the article, the following quote hits home for me:

    A separate experiment found that participants not only assigned more tasks to the go-getters—but underestimated how much work it would take to get the job done. “What looks easy from the outside may not feel that easy on the inside,” says Gráinne Fitzsimons, one of the co-authors of the study.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/being-a-go-getter-is-no-fun/393863/?utm_source=SFFB

  • GE’s Relocation: Great for GE, Not as Great for Boston’s Taxpayers
    This was a savvy move by Boston, regardless of the incentives.

    Unfortunately, that future comes with a stiff price tag. Together, the city and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts offered up an estimated $145 million in business incentives ($120 million in grants and other programs from the state, and another $25 million in property-tax relief from the city) to secure the deal. By my calculations, that means that the city and state are doling out a whopping $181,250 in public subsidies per job, given GE’s own statement that its new headquarters will employ 800 people (200 corporate staff members and another 600 so-called digital industrial product managers, designers, and developers). And that doesn’t even include additional incentives such as grants for workforce training (another $1 million or so), a new “innovation center” designed to better tie GE to local universities and research institutes ($5 million more), assistance for employees to relocate to Boston, and transportation improvements in the Seaport District.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/ge-boston-taxpayers/424938/

  • Does PayStream Report on Coupa Really Matter . . . To Anyone?

    For far too long in this industry, procurement professionals have sought advice from sources who are the least qualified to answer questions. Or let me put it this way . . . the sources can answer them, but the information that is provided does not often reflect what is truly happening in the real world. The reason has nothing to do with IQ – I had to write this in case anyone protested that I was calling analysts and bloggers dumb – which I am not not.

    The reason has more to do with the disconnect between cause and effect. Cause being the advice, and effect being actual client outcomes.

    https://procureinsights.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/does-paystream-report-on-coupa-really-matter-to-anyone/

  • It’s Time to Quit the ‘Motivation Porn’ and Get Serious About Success
    Since this article almost exactly describes my work mentality and how I get thing done, I will share…

    1. Stop watching so much television. Seriously.
    Even if you’re only watching 90 minutes a day before/after work, that’s over 500 hours per year of energy spent on something with literally no return.

    Yes, there are some great shows. I love House of Cards, Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. But if we’re being honest, 99 percent of TV sucks. We just watch it because we need to “relax” and we feel like there’s nothing else to do.

    This philosophy applies to movies, too. Most of the time, we just watch movies because we feel like there’s nothing better to do. I’ve watched hundreds of movies that, after two hours, simply made me go “meh.” What a waste.

    This is empty time when you should be working on your idea. This is the time you have to start plotting your escape.

    If there’s a particular show that you really love, block out time for that particular show every week and when it’s over, turn the TV off. When you want it, make it count. If it’s not a “hell yes!” then forget it.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/269740