Office Culture Archives - Page 7 of 7

September 14, 2016September 10, 2016

News You Can Use: 9/14/2016

5 Tips For Sourcing Success When Your Employer Brand Is Poor

Instead of: providing a generic pitch to candidates of what a great employer you are, what great benefits you have, how much people enjoy working there, when you know you can’t do so with any real enthusiasm,

You may try to: accentuate the positive aspects by speaking glowingly of the hiring manager and how dedicated he is to mentoring his direct reports. Also, you may try to highlight how much the specific division the job sits in has been outperforming the rest of the company, the unique culture of this particular team, division, and office, and how much this specific position, with this specific hiring manager, in this specific division, in this specific office, presents an exclusive opportunity for the right candidate to advance his career.

http://www.eremedia.com/sourcecon/5-tips-for-sourcing-success-when-your-employer-brand-is-poor/
The jobs we’ll lose to machines — and the ones we won’t
To avoid supplier disputes, VW reconsiders procurement strategy

The Irish Times explained that it is a popular practice within the auto industry to try and steer clear of relying too heavily on a single supplier. This decision, the source noted, is fueled primarily by the dispute that occurred between VW and Prevent – the parent company of the car maker’s two suppliers, Car Trim and ES Automobiluss – when Prevent licensed Car Trim to manufacture parts for luxury brands of vehicles. People familiar with the matter, the source explained, said that Prevent “retaliated by moving some of Car Trim’s financial claims against VW to Automobilguss.”

http://www.strategicsourceror.com/2016/08/to-avoid-supplier-disputes-vw.html
GE buys supply chain software provider ShipXpress

ShipXpress provides cloud-based software solutions, which allow transportation, industrial, and commodities businesses to effectively operate and collaborate with their supply chain partners.

The deal is said to expand GE Transportation’s portfolio of solutions into the logistics value chain, helping to deliver information and transaction services for railroad customers across the globe.

http://supplychain.logistics-business-review.com/news/ge-buys-supply-chain-software-provider-shipxpress-310816-4992923
If You Work From Home, Do This Every Day

The art of not working requires discipline of a different sort than working. You have to discard the entrenched belief that being present at a desk is the same as being productive. And you have to become intimately acquainted with your mental needs. When it’s time to rest, you need to learn to do so without guilt. As a native New Englander raised with the classic Puritan work ethic, I can attest that this is harder to do than it looks.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/280641

Photo: Ian Schneider

June 8, 2016June 3, 2016

News You Can Use: 6/8/2016

3 Unrealistic Career Goals You Need To Abandon

Creating career deadlines is all about balance. Planning ahead is a solid way to visualize what you want to achieve, but it can lose value if you only see those deadlines in black and white. Often times, new opportunities and unique ideas come from the gray areas, and strict schedules don’t always encourage that creativity. If you have a milestone you keep missing, remind yourself that it may not really exist and consider taking it off the list.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3060096/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/3-unrealistic-career-goals-you-need-to-abandon
IT career roadmap: Technology evangelist

“You’re drawing on aspects of a bunch of different fields, technology, sales, marketing, psychology, even acting. You not only have to have technical depth and credibility, but also polished sales and marketing skills so that you can handle objections, you can promote messaging in a non-threatening way. And you have to know a lot about the business climate you’re operating in — what’s the market like? What are the circumstances that have brought a company to where it is?” Sage says.

http://www.cio.com/article/3075440/it-skills-training/it-career-roadmap-technology-evangelist.html
Operating with Empathy: How to Build Organizations for Real People
Is Workplace Culture Overrated? (Infographic)

Culture often influences an employee’s decision to join a company, and small perks go a long way. Two-thirds of employees with access to free food say they’re very happy at their current jobs, and workers who have strong relationships with their colleagues feel 50 percent more satisfied than those who don’t.

Check out the infographic in the link to learn more about the benefits of fostering a healthy company culture.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/276152
U.S. CIO aims to cut legacy spending, proposes IT modernization

The administration’s proposed solution is an IT modernization fund (ITMF) that would be subject to oversight of an independent panel that would help prioritize the most pressing technology projects while also evaluating the business case that the agency makes in pitching a project. And, crucially, agencies that dip into the $3.1 billion fund would be expected to repay the initial outlay for the IT project back into the fund over time, as operating savings materialize.

http://www.cio.com/article/3075842/government-use-of-it/u-s-cio-aims-to-cut-legacy-spending-proposes-it-modernization.html
When This Boss Walks 10 Miles a Day, She Leads a Much Healthier Team

A study by the University of Minnesota showed treadmill desks boost job performance, and we who work and walk are a testament to that fact. We not only feel great, we’re knocking it out of the park, with creative and innovative design ideas that come to us while walking/working. Leading by example is important for every business owner looking to improve his or her team’s health. Being fit and happy is contagious.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/275036

Photo: Will van Wingerden

April 27, 2016April 23, 2016

News You Can Use: 4/27/2016

Stop Treating Your Employees Like Mushrooms
What is a “mushroom”?

You’ve probably heard the expression “feeling like a mushroom,” which is to say feeling kept in the dark, left uninformed and fed a bunch of sh–. Think shittake mushrooms.

Why is it bad:
1. 1 in 4 employees surveyed has quit, or knows someone who has quit, due to a lack of transparency and communication in the workplace
2. Only 10 percent of employees surveyed were aware of their company’s progress in real time.
3. More than 4 out of 5 employees surveyed wanted to hear more frequently from their bosses about how their company was doing.
4. More than 90 percent of employees surveyed said they would rather hear bad news than no news.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274279
Apple’s organizational cross roads

Apple employs what is known as a “unitary organizational form” — U-form for short — which is also known as a “functional organization.” In broad strokes, a U-form organization is organized around expertise, not products: in the case of Apple, that means design is one group (under Ive), product marketing is another (under Schiller), and operations a third (under Williams, who is also Chief Operating Officer). Other areas of expertise represented by the members of Apple’s executive team include Software Engineering (Craig Federighi), Hardware Engineering (Dan Riccio), and Hardware Technologies (Johny Srouji).

What is most striking about that list is what it does not include: the words iPhone, iPad, Mac, orWatch. Apple’s products instead cut across the organization in a way that enforces coordination amongst the various teams.

https://stratechery.com/2016/apples-organizational-crossroads/
Future trends of procurement every customer-centric industry should know

2) Adopt a Nimble Approach to Strategic Decision Making

The past complexities of supply chain management resulted in rigid contracts and raised the cost of switching vendors. This concept needs to be replaced with a flexible yet dependable sourcing model that focuses on reducing supplier proximity for enhanced visibility. This less extended approach will condense the product lifecycle and bring the vendors closer to the companies.

http://www.sourcingfocus.com/site/opinionsitem/future_trends_of_procurement_every_customer-centric_industry_should_kn/
Your Office Has Its Own Microbiome, And It Comes From Your Coworkers’ Skin

The people who inhabit an office have some influence, too. Across all nine offices, human skin bacterial communities “were the largest identifiable source” in the samples. About 25% to 30% of office microbes come from human skin. Even grosser? “The human nasal microbiome also appeared to be a small but consistent source of office surface microbial communities.” (Memo to staff: Stop picking your nose.)

http://www.fastcoexist.com/3059111/your-office-has-its-own-microbiome-and-it-comes-from-your-coworkers-skin
4 ways to apply SLAs to shadow IT

By creating specific SLAs for shadow IT and including these non-IT delivered capabilities in operating level standards, IT can align overall goals and targets with shared objectives, such as 100 percent compliance with change and release management procedures. “For external functions (to the extent possible) align SLAs within underpinning contracts to defined outcomes compatible with SLAs,” advises Wright. “And where SLAs are non-negotiable establish responsibilities and supporting organization objectives or OLAs for shadow and core IT to provide an effective bridge from the non-negotiable SLA to the required outcome.”

http://www.cio.com/article/3059270/it-industry/4-ways-to-apply-slas-to-shadow-it.html
6 Prophetic Supply Chain Quotable Quotes

“If you had to wait a week for Google to respond, would you use it?” Dominic Thomas, VP Business Consulting, Kinaxis and Supply & Demand Chain Executive magazine 2016 Provider ‘Pro to Know’

I was fortunate enough to hear Dominic present and when this line came out I committed it to memory. My immediate thought was the supply chain planning community is either extremely patient or has surrendered to Excel and legacy planning systems. This gets back to starting your supply chain conversation. Today asking a supply chain question like, ‘what’s the impact of a 20% demand increase?’ could mean another meeting while those who have to answer try and piece the response together. I didn’t include it as one of the quotes but I once heard a supply chain executive say, “It takes me three weeks to get the wrong answer.” Future supply chain planning processes should no longer include ‘waiting’ as one of the squares on the Visio flowchart.

http://blog.kinaxis.com/2016/04/6-prophetic-supply-chain-quotable-quotes/
How Do Con Artists Fool People? They Listen.

We tend to think con artists are smooth talkers and persuasive sellers, but listening is their most essential quality, says Maria Konnikova, who has written a new book on con artistry. Here she discusses the case of Victor Lustig, a Frenchman who sold the Eiffel Tower twice for scrap metal to two different buyers. Too embarrassed at being taken in, the buyers never reported Lustig.

February 7, 2016November 14, 2022

All Things Must Pass (Tower Records Documentary)

This will come as a surprise to those of you that know me, but I sat still and watched a movie over the weekend (thanks to a busted foot).

I came across All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records. As you could guess, the documentary tells the tale of Tower Records as it grew from a drug store add-on in the 1940’s into a global corporation.

What does a documentary about a record store that died in 2001 have to do with the businesses typically discussed on this blog? There are actually great lessons about the culture they developed that made them successful and ultimately the decisions that led to their demise.

What they did right:

The company built an extremely loyal employee base over the years. The earliest employees went on to become the leadership of the company and fuel their growth.
Drilling down further into their employee base… they gave them autonomy. Stores were left to develop their own culture and methods. Leadership (Russ Solomon) had the luxury of cherry-picking the best ideas and implementing them across the growing franchise.
Employees had direct access to the top leadership – Russ Solomon and Bud Martin. Good ideas were acted upon quickly.
The stores attracted musicians and fans, establishing a community and a means of product discovery which resulted in more sales.
Everything that you saw in the stores was mostly created by employees: the murals, the displays, the art work (which eventually led to in-house print shops creating art that was distributed throughout the entire chain).

What they did wrong:

They expanded too quickly and borrowed too much money.
They expanded into markets that they didn’t understand (South America, Thailand, basically any Asian country that wasn’t Japan).
During the area of compact disk (CD), they killed the singles market, forcing customers to pay for full albums. Customers started to become weary of paying $20 for an album.
Big Box retailers like Walmart started selling CDs for cost and killed Tower’s community and walk-in business.
They didn’t adapt to changing technology and they failed to establish an online portal.
When they were failing, they eliminated all of the leadership that brought them to the dance (under duress from the banks) and had no plan to pull out of the death spiral.

Everyone assumes music piracy killed Tower, but that technology only broke an already weakened company. Tower over-expanded internationally and lost money. During this time, big box retail stores sold music at cost to improve their own walk-in traffic. Customers stopped going into Tower and it impacted their ability to help (up-sell) customers other music when they were in the store.

In their hubris, Tower also had a direct hand in eliminating the singles market. This forced customers to buy full albums at high prices. When peer-to-peer file sharing appeared, customers who felt that they were over-paying for their music embraced the new technology.

But did file sharing kill Tower Records? Japan provides us with an answer to that question.

The first international expansion (before Tower even expanded into the Eastern US) was Japan. The stores were massively successful (the records were direct US imports. which Japan had demand for). At the start company’s financial troubles, the Japanese stores were sold off entirely. They are still in business today and thriving.

In a time where even the biggest online retailer in the United States is opening physical book store locations, it is becoming clear that consumers are looking for a more personal shopping experiences and retailers are looking at better ways to understand customer behavior.

Perhaps there is wisdom to be found by looking at how Tower operated in their glory days by encouraging strong employee interactions, developing subject matter expertise, and growing a culture that customers wanted to be a part of.

Photo: Luke Chesser

December 9, 2015January 30, 2016

News You Can Use: 12/9/2015

Why Supply Chain Is Make-or-Break for Groupe Dynamite and Red Wing Shoes

The reality, as those in the trenches know far too well, is exceedingly more complex, with nuanced real-world variables that make certainty a near impossibility. Apparel and footwear companies including Red Wing Shoes and Groupe Dynamite shared their experiences at Logility’s Connections conference in San Diego, revealing how improving their supply chain operations has been essential to international expansion, catering to Millennial tastes and launching new product lines.

http://apparel.edgl.com/news/Why-Supply-Chain-Is-Make-or-Break-for-Groupe-Dynamite-and-Red-Wing-Shoes103625
7 COMMON PUBLIC SPEAKING TIPS YOU SHOULD IGNORE

If you’re a comedian, great. But, says Parker, “telling jokes is an art that few can master. The chances are it will fall flat or lead to an embarrassing silence. This means you have blown the vital opportunity to make a good first impression and will struggle to regain the audience and your confidence. A personal anecdote will be a better opener in most cases.” Bonus: You’ve no doubt been telling your best anecdotes at dinner parties for years, so you’ve got a lot of practice with format and pacing.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3053981/hit-the-ground-running/7-common-public-speaking-tips-you-should-ignore
Black Monday – Supply Chain problems

Both Argos and Tesco Direct have admitted issues in being able to deliver orders on Black Monday on time. Reading through the article there is an important quote from Stuart Higgins, retail partner at LCP Consulting. “Retailers continue to pursue a faster and freer agenda which is simply placing too much pressure on their back end infrastructure and carrier partners to deliver.” Confirms what Temando found about many retailers’ back-end shipping processes not being totally automated.

http://www.it-director.com/blogs/the-holloway-angle/2015/12/black-monday-supply-chain-problems/
OK, So You’re Not Google. You Can Still Compete With It for Top Talent

Working for a startup means that when you have a new idea, you start as small as you can, build smart, prove your concept, then scale it once you have evidence that it works. That continuous feedback loop is part of what draws people to startups in the first place. Engineering talent, for example, usually has a love of problem-solving. It’s why they entered the field in the first place.

Dealing with bureaucracy, paperwork and being required to justify budgets are a lot less interesting, and that’s a built-in advantage for most startups. If you want to test something, you go for it. Once you want it to go live and be in production, or grow on a bigger scale, then you present data and make your case to the team.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252065
Black Swans and the Risks in Supply Chains

Likewise, the ability to quickly identify a disruptive event and to respond immediately is critical to a company’s efforts to keep global operations running and to recover.

Over the last five years the use of sensors that detect threats ranging from tsunamis to suppliers in financial difficulty has become widespread.

A new crop of software applications are able to take such data, along with other information about worldwide events and translate that into recommended actions for a company. Applications can use tailored knowledge of supplier locations, bills of material, and the role certain products and customers play in supply chains to prioritize responses. Such systems are becoming essential to fast detection and efficient response.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/guest-voices-black-swans-and-the-risks-in-supply-chains-1446056584?cb=logged0.2729217391461134
Why Office Singing May Be the Next Yoga
No…just…Hell No.

Andrew McCrea, account executive at the Los Angeles-based public relations firm, PMBC Group, says office karaoke nights have helped the company’s employees bond more deeply. Karaoke nights were originally done when the company brought on new team members as a way to introduce the team to one another but they soon realized singing together helped develop a sense of unity year round. “You learn to be vulnerable around your colleagues and develop a sense of trust,” he says.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253470