Tag: Talent Management

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News You Can Use: 12/23/2015

sn_xmastruck_Louis Magnotti

  • What unscrupulous attorneys do to win and how to fight back

    Selectively reading

    This goes to contracts. Taking contract clauses out of context, reading them without punctuation, inserting lines that aren’t in the agreement, and making clauses up are all tactics I’ve seen used in negotiations.   Make sure you read along with the attorney and before entering a negotiation you know every major clause nearly by heart. You need to have a good grasp of the case as well so you understand the core elements of the case otherwise you can get maneuvered into agreeing to items that seem minor, but turn out to be pivotal to your effort.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3016783/legal/what-unscrupulous-attorneys-do-to-win-and-how-to-fight-back.html#tk.rss_all

  • Brevity Is the Secret to Pitches That Nail It Every Time

    We start our pitches with a 30-second introduction that covers who we are and just a couple bullet points why we’re credible. Beyond that, the focus is on delivering a tight, concise presentation about our product. Investors’ eyes glaze over when teams talk too much about themselves. Get to the point quickly.

    Use clean, well-designed slides, and always be prepared with more in-depth financial projections and analytics in case they ask.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253879

  • There’s More Value in Your Attitude Than Your Bank Account

    If you wake up every day intent on being happy and exuding happiness, success will follow. Strahan’s latest book is “Wake Up Happy: The Dream Big, Win Big Guide to Transforming Your Life”
  • MBA grad uses SCM knowledge to combat HIV in Cameroon

    Muffih said his day-to-day duties in the capital city of Cameroon, Yaounde, include improving stock management systems, coordinating with other partners, and capacitating health workers to develop accurate forecasting and efficient supply chain systems for HIV commodities. He said he is still learning a lot on the job, but his experiences at SAU have helped him cope with the demands and responsibilities of his career.

    https://web.saumag.edu/news/2015/12/16/mba-grad-uses-scm-knowledge-to-combat-hiv-in-cameroon/

  • Should You Work From Home?

    The main question to ask yourself is why you want or need office space. How will you weight the pros versus the cons? Which things are more important to you? If there are cons that are important to you, are there ways to mitigate the negatives? For example, if working at home would make you feel isolated, could you deal with this by attending networking events and working at a local coffee shop at least some of the time?

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253932

  • Societal Damnation 50: Talent Tightness

    It’s not all about money, and that goes double for top talent, but that being said, money is a factor, and if your competition is offering 20%, 30%, and even 40% more, that’s a little hard to turn down. Especially if they are also offering flexible hours, training, course reimbursement for any course taken on the employee’s own time where the employee gets a minimum / passing grade, etc. So if your training budget is still 0, your corporate policy still mandates being in the office from 9 to 5 (even though your suppliers are in a time zone 9 hours shifted and this means everyone would be working 11 hours any day a supplier has to be consulted), and there are pay ceilings in effect from 5 years ago, the chances of getting anyone talented to join your Procurement department are slim to none, with an emphasis on none.

    http://sourcinginnovation.com/wordpress/2015/12/15/societal-damnation-50-talent-tightness/

  • Top 5 reasons agile is a good idea

    Perfection is not required to stay on track. As just mentioned, if something is overlooked, it isn’t the end of the world. I ran a $1.2 million software implementation project for a large government entity while at a professional services organization. The dev manager overlooked something very critical which resulted in a large amount of rework which used up all of the budget when we were only 60% through the engagement. It ultimately resulted in the cancellation of the entire engagement. What a waste. This is an extreme example and agile would not have saved that project, but in the agile world, if something is omitted from a sprint, it can go in the next functional rollout. No high costs, no big rework.

    http://www.cio.com/article/3014972/project-management/top-5-reasons-agile-is-a-good-idea.html#tk.rss_all

Photo: Louis Magnotti

Posted on

News You Can Use: 12/9/2015

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  • 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

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News you can use: 7/8/2015

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  • 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
Posted on

News You Can Use: 7/1/2015

sn_sharkwall

  • 6 Life Hacks Learned in Prison That Will Maximize Your Productivity

    I’ve learned to think diligently about my thoughts, and use them to communicate more effectively. Writing can help you organize your thoughts better and actually helps you to be a better verbal communicator. Start with communicating to your team via email, send emails to partners about discussions and/or send emails to your spouse when working through tough decisions.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247779?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • The Rise Of Trust (And Speed) In Supplier Enablement (Coupa’s Adam Alphin to look at the future of supplier enablement.)

    Simply put, it’s injected trust into a conversation that previously felt like buyers were cornering or holding hostage their supply base. This trust has resulted in higher engagement, much higher participation in e-invoicing, and get this…suppliers becoming change agents within our customers organizations! We believe the conversation must change from “Here is a web portal that you’ll be charged to use, you’re now required to use it to be our supplier” to “Here are our business objectives we think are in both of our best interest, here are a series of tools we’re providing (for free!) so we can help each other achieve those objectives.”

    http://www.procurementleaders.com/blog/my-blog–guest-blog/the-rise-of-trust-and-speed-in-supplier-enablement-547830

  • ‘The Irrigation Effect’: Why Your Employees Aren’t Getting the Message

    Many leaders are surprised to learn that they are the barriers.  We assume that we’ve communicated effectively when, in reality, the information we share is sparse, insufficient, infrequent, or simply inaccurate. Keep in mind that between the source of the water and the end of the row, the water may have to pass through multiple channels before it arrives.  If managers don’t make a conscious effort to facilitate the flow of information, rather than obstruct it, vital communication is likely to dissipate before reaching those parts of the field where it is needed most.

    http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/240849?ctp=BizDev&src=Syndication&msc=Feedly

  • Supply Chain Talent Crisis Looms

    Years of headcount reduction, training budget cuts, and the retirement of highly skilled individuals have all contributed to the shortage of supply chain talent. At the same time, a combination of accelerating technology development and widespread experimentation with new operating models are expanding the scope of supply chain operations, creating a demand for new types of supply chain employees—a trend that is only expected to accelerate in the future. “Margins are so thin in many industries that any technology or operational change that can provide a competitive advantage—whether its 3D printing or advanced analytics—is critical. And those capabilities are inherently dependent on talent,” explains Kelly Marchese, a principal and supply chain leader with Deloitte Consulting LLP.

    http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2015/06/25/supply-chain-talent-crisis-looms/
    sn_Supply-Chain-Capabilities-1

  • Are the days of global supply chains numbered?

    In Global Supply Chains: New Directions, the Standard Chartered Bank acknowledges that several macroeconomic trends, such as increasing urbanization, more sophisticated communications technology, and lower oil prices, continue to support the growth of global supply chains. Yet at the same time, other trends are creating a sort of headwind that is slowing the pace of growth. For example, automation and robotics are improving, making it easier for companies to stop chasing low-cost labor abroad and bring their manufacturing operations back to local markets. Increasing concerns about sustainability and the high carbon footprint of global supply chains may also be dampening global supply chain growth. Some companies are interested in shortening their supply chains to avoid the risk of disruptions due to a natural disaster or civil unrest half a world away.

    http://www.supplychainquarterly.com/news/20150624-are-the-days-of-global-supply-chains-numbered/