Page Personnel: 八月 2011

2011年8月14日星期日

Want Higher Profits? Smash the Glass Ceiling - Jobs

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According to a near two-decade research study of Fortune 500 companies (from 1980–1998) by Roy Adler, a Fulbright scholar and Professor of Marketing at Pepperdine University and one of a very select few awarded the distinction of Designated Fellow by the Academy of Marketing Science, there is a strong correlation between women in the executive suite and high profitability. In fact, within the 25 Fortune 500 companies with the best record of promoting women into high positions, profits were higher by an astounding 18-69% when compared to the median Fortune 500 firms within their same industry!

And to be sure, since different industries use different measures of profitability, the study included three measures of profitability to evaluate each of the firms – profits as a percent of:

RevenuesAssetsStockholders' equity.

Revenues

On the measure of profits as a percent of revenues, the 25 firms outperformed the corresponding industry medians by 34%. The women-friendly firms averaged 6.4% while the average of their industry medians was 4.8%.

When taken individually, almost two-thirds of the subject firms outperformed their median counterparts.

Assets

On the measure of profits as a percent of assets, the 25 firms outperformed the industry medians by 18%. The women-friendly firms averaged 6.5 percent while the average of their industry medians was 5.5%.

When taken individually, 62% of the firms outperformed their median counterparts.

Stockholders’ equity

On the measure of profits as a percent of stockholders' equity, the 25 firms outperformed the industry medians by 69%. The women-friendly firms averaged 26.5% while the average of their industry medians was 15.7%.

When taken individually, 68% of the firms outperformed their median counterparts.

Slicing the data

In fact, these results are even more interesting when the "slice of data" is modified from the top 25 firms as shown in the table below:

Percent by which companies exceed the industry median in terms of ...

Profit as a % of >>> Revenue Assets EquityTop 10 firms 46 41116Top 15 firms 35 2585Top 20 firms 34 19 78Top 25 firms 34 18 69

In other words, the results of the "top 25 firms" featured in this study are quite conservative. The results are even more dramatic when a smaller “slice” of only the most friendly firms for women are highlighted.

Of course, it should be pointed out that "correlation" does not indicate or prove "causality." There may be any number of reasons why the study results are as indicated.

However, despite the interpretation of the data, there is no denying that there is a positive correlation between the existence of larger numbers of women in the executive suite and higher than normal profitability within an industry.

Source: Women in the Executive Suite Correlate to High Profits by Roy D. Adler, Ph.D., Pepperdine University.

Nina nets it out: When you’re ready to earn higher profits and out-compete your industry colleagues, you know what to do!! For an interesting take on this from Inc. Magazine, click here. Nina Simosko's personal blog can be found at www.ninasimosko.com.

WALL E, Steve Jobs, Pixar and Optimism - Jobs

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WALL E. Have you seen it? What did you think? I loved it.

I want to discuss WALL E, the latest release from Pixar, not because of the quality of the movie, but because of the Pixar story, and what it has to say about self confidence. As I mention in “Straight Talk for Success,” Successful people are self confident. Self confident people have three things in common. If you want to build your self confidence, become optimistic. Face your fears and act. Surround yourself with positive people.

Steve Jobs, the man who brought you the Mac and iPod, was the optimist who realized the potential of Pixar early on. In his New York Times Book Review review of “The Pixar Touch” Michael Hirschorn says, “Without Jobs’ relentless drive, Pixar would have been an inferior and probably bankrupt competitor to Sun Microsystems, not the most important movie studio in our era.”

That’s what optimists do. As The Optimist Creed says, they “think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best.” Steve Jobs vision, belief and self confidence did a lot to make Pixar what it is today. In the process, he and the incredibly creative people at Pixar brought us not only WALL E, but Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

If you’ve seen these movies, you know just how creative they are. If you haven’t, I suggest you go to see WALL E in the theater, and rent the others.

The common sense point here is simple. Self confidence is the platform on which all success is built. If you want to become self confident, you need to be optimistic. You need to clearly see where you want to go, and believe in your heart you can get there. WALL E was optimistic enough to hitch a ride on a spaceship in order to be with his one true love. In the end, he and she save the world – but that’s a story better told by the optimists at Pixar.

That’s my take on the importance of optimism to self confidence and success. What’s yours? As always, I’m interested in your perspective on these thoughts. I welcome and appreciate your comments. Thanks for reading.

Bud

Wall Street and the New Startup Economy - Jobs

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Why venture-backed tech hopefuls may be a haven amid the financial storm. Related Contentslideshow10 Web 2.0 Failuresrelated articleWhat the Wall Street Crisis Means for Big Techrelated articleHow Wall Street's Meltdown Will Affect Your Careerrelated articleFrom Wall Street to Dubai

The vocabulary of this month's financial news has been dismal, with words like slumping, collapsing, and failure dominating the media lexicon. While the tumult has prompted credit scarcity, layoffs, and write-downs for many companies, the market for tech startups has remained a small and viable haven.

It may seem sanguine to use the word "haven," since no corner of the economy is impervious to larger trends. But because venture capitalists work on long fundraising timetables and deal in liquid money, faltering banks and crises of credit don't effect VC funds as acutely as they do other institutions. That means startups can continue be free to innovate and grow, with money in the bank.

According to Eric Litman, a serial entrepreneur and former head of the incubator WashingtonVC, negative economic conditions trickle down to venture capitalists slowly, leaving them somewhat resistant to macroeconomic trends. "Much like entrepreneurs, VCs typically go on fundraising road shows lasting anywhere between four months and a year to acquire all of the capital they'll need for the five- to seven-year life of the fund," he says. Once that cash is collected, they usually spend it according to plan, regardless of what's happening in the markets.

That squirrel-like mentality continues to be evident among Silicon Valley startups, even as each week brings more woeful economic news. David Rusenko, co-founder of the website-creation tool Weebly.com, says that venture capitalists will definitely revise their methodology in light of the bear market, but that the flow of money isn't being affected. "We continue to get offers every week for more funding," he says, "but we're turning them down since we've become profitable."

Venture funds rely on liquid money to capitalize companies, not credit. Often, they round up cash from well-capitalized institutions like hedge funds or universities looking for risky investments. Market corrections may even help venture funds, as they did in 2006-7; when interest rates are kept high to curb inflation, heavyweight investors may look to venture funds as a place for their alternative assets, instead of engaging in buyouts or other private equity activities.

If they need even more money, venture partners usually take on a limited partner, or LP, who makes a legally-binding commitment to bring more capital to the table, regardless of whether their confidence in the fund -- or the economy -- wavers. The fund, in turn, gives a company of their choice a lump sum up front. And while they may choose not to invest in a company twice, one massive cash infusion is often enough to keep most tech startups sailing, no matter what havoc is being wreaked in the economy.

What makes tech startups so lucky? While it's true that bearish trends can make for great investment opportunities in many markets, small technology companies are particularly deft at taking advantage of a bad economy. As Litman explains, a bear market can cut the costs of starting and running a business, particularly the costs of real estate and salaries.

But he notes that tech startups have especially low startup and operating costs, perhaps because many of their products -- like web services or software -- are intangible. The Y-Combinator fund, for example, gives its seedlings a total of just $20,000 for a three-month incubation period, often for a company with two or three founders. Try starting almost any other business with that, and you'll see why tech startups remain such attractive investments in lean times.

Faced with a worsening market, venture capitalists will indeed be changing their strategies, however. Since they have to think long-term, they know that this market contraction will hurt their ability to raise funds later. Michael Siebel is a co-founder of Justin.tv, another Y-Combinator company which was later funded by New Enterprise Associates and Alsop Louie Partners. He has watched the current crop of Valley startups make the rounds looking for mid-stage funding.

"When the venture funds know money will be tight, they want either amazingly disruptive ideas, or ideas with sound business fundamentals," he says. "They're becoming more focused, and playing their cards closer to the chest."

Rusenko predicts that for some venture capitalists, the funding focus will shift to later-stage startups who have more proven popularity or more developed business plans. "The earlier ones will still get off the ground," he adds, "but they won't get, say, six million bucks up front. They'll have to slog through the beginning." On a small number of game-changing ideas will get plucked from the early-stage field.

Whether or not they can secure funding, the new crop of tech hopefuls will also have to deal with more reticent advertisers, and consumers less willing to spend money online. In short, the next round of startups won't be the "as much of a glitzy, rockstar process" as it was earlier this year, Rusenko predicts.

But that, he says, isn't necessarily a bad thing. "Companies started during a downturn are the ones that have proven themselves and developed great products," he says. "And ultimately, those are the businesses that sell."

WALL E, Courtney and Interpersonal Competence - Jobs

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A couple of weeks ago, I did a post on the Pixar movie WALL E. Have you seen it? What do you think? I loved it.

And so did Courtney, one of the readers of this blog. She left a comment on my post on WALL E. She included a link to a blog post she did on WALL E and the folks at Pixar. You can check it out here.

Not to steal her thunder, but when Courtney, saw the early trailer for WALL E, way back in October of 2007, she couldn’t help but cry when she heard EVA say “WALL E”. She was so moved by the voice, that she uploaded a video of herself watching the trailer to YouTube. You can check it out here.

Let me know what you think after you watch the video. Leave a comment for Courtney if you’re so moved.

Courtney’s YouTube video developed a cult following at Pixar. So much so, that she was invited to the Pixar wrap party for WALL E. Great story – and it makes a point about the importance of emotions and interpersonal competence.

Interpersonal competence is one of the five keys to career and life success that I discuss in my book “Straight Talk for Success.” Often I hear people say, “This is business, let’s keep emotions out of it.” Unfortunately, we are all human beings, and as such, emotions can’t be kept out of it, because they are always there.

Interpersonally competent people are willing to share their emotions with the people around them. When you do this, you become more human. And being human is the best way to build relationships and resolve conflict positively – two important aspects of interpersonal competence.

Courtney shared her emotions with the world on her WALL E YouTube video. And, she was rewarded for it. As it turns out, her YouTube post came at a crucial and difficult time in WALL E production, and helped give the crew a much needed lift.

I’m not suggesting that you should upload YouTube videos of yourself anytime you are happy, sad, angry or frustrated. However, telling the people around you how you are feeling at times when you experience strong emotions is a good way to build strong relationships and become interpersonally competent.

The common sense point here is simple. If you want to succeed in your life and career, you must become interpersonally competent. Interpersonally competent people understand themselves, build strong relationships with the important people in their lives and resolve conflict in a productive manner. When you share your emotions – how you are feeling – you are taking positive steps to build relationships and resolve conflict positively.

That’s my take on Courtney’s WALL E video, Pixar’s reaction, the importance of sharing your emotions and interpersonal competence. What’s yours? As I always, I thank you for reading and encourage you to share your ideas by commenting on this and other of my posts.

Bud

Voyage of Discovery - Jobs

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Discovery Communications (DCI) which airs Dirty Jobs has more than 100 TV networks reaching 1.5 billion subscribers. Here are four of DCI's key properties. The Dirtiest Mind in BusinessHow filth met opportunity and created a franchise.Seven Dirty Habits of Highly Effluent PeopleMike Rowe’s seven rules for job satisfaction.Video: Mike Rowe 'Bears' All for Fast Company Get an exclusive behind the scenes peek at Dirty Jobs star Mike Rowe, getting good and dirty for Fast Company while romping with a bear.

"We're about satisfying curiosity about the world," says David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications (DCI), which airs Dirty Jobs and has more than 100 TV networks reaching 1.5 billion subscribers. Zaslav, who arrived in early 2007, overhauled management, eliminated some 1,200 jobs, and ditched the 120 tanking retail stores to focus on e-commerce. "We're not just a cable company anymore," he says. But while cyber is cool--and DCI saw profits rise to $246 million in his first nine months, up nearly 50% from a year ago--cable is still king. Here are four of DCI's key properties:

Planet GreenStarting in 2008, Discovery Home will be recycled into Planet Green, a 24-hour channel dedicated to eco-everything. Expect blockbuster specials mixed with lifestyle series; Leonardo DiCaprio takes a turn as the producer of Eco-Town, a chronicle of the rebirth of a tornado-devastated Kansas town into a fully green community.Animal PlanetFrom meerkats to orangutans, the critters of Animal Planet have provided at least as much drama as human-based reality TV (the stars can actually die). Jeff Corwin, the Emmy-winning host of several Animal Planet series, recently collaborated with CNN on Planet in Peril, a four-hour miniseries, which aired on both networks.TLCMakeover-ista Stacy London's show What Not to Wear is a big part of TLC's solid showing. (She also hosts the channel's first talk show, which premiered last November.) TLC saw its 2007 prime-time audience rise to 933,000, up from 816,000 last year.Discovery ChannelPlanet Earth, Discovery's return to the blockbuster miniseries, won an Emmy in 2007, but grit is the channel's daily fare. Dirty Jobs, Deadliest Catch, and Man vs. Wild, among others, give regular viewers their he-man fix. The channel has 95 million subscribers; their average viewership is up 18% from this time last year.
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Vote for Fast Cities 2009 - Jobs

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Chicago and London topped our 2008 Cities of the Year list. This year we're asking for your help in choosing the most exuberant, diverse and growing city to top the list of Fast Cities for 2009. Click here to submit your nomination.

Viva la Freedom of Music - Jobs

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If the music industry can't figure out how to make a profit, they might as well just give their music away for free. The major labels have done little to innovate the industry. One innovation, however, that just might work (and one which I benefitted from) is free concerts. BIG free concerts.

Coldplay held three free concerts (London, Barcelona and New York City), and I was a lucky winner of two tickets to Madison Square Garden on June 23. Fans (and anyone else) could sign up on the band's official website earlier this spring, with hopes of winning a pair of tickets. The British band will commence their regular North American tour in Los Angeles on July 14. Sadly, you will have to pay for these.

Going to see Coldplay for free isn't like going to see some rising Indie band at a club. This is a band that came in at sold within the first week of its release. Going to see one of the biggest bands at one of the largest music venues in the U.S. is hardly a token event. It's a promotional extravaganza. The event was so huge that the 19,763 capacity arena was at least 75 percent filled, with a quarter blocked off by the stage.

The concert itself was close to spectacular. Not skimping on any stage production elements since it was a free show, but also not over-the-top, the English quartet performed their hearts out. While there were a few technical glitches here and there, the band members were never fazed, laughed it off and the audience laughed with them.

Now, who else in the music industry will be as kind (brave, foolish, insert adjective here) as Coldplay to hold giant free concerts for their fans? It could turn into a small trend, but I don't see free concerts at Madison Square Garden becoming a regular promotional technique. More than likely, smaller venues will play host to free concerts, like Wyclef Jean performing at the Apple Store in Manhattan's Soho district on June 9.

What also remains to be seen is what kind of benefits such a promotion can reap. After all, the album debuted at #1 in the United States before the free concert, so its hard to tell if the spectacle really helped Coldplay's album sales or not. Judging by the audience's enthusiasm, I'd guess that the majority of those in attendance would have thrown down big bucks to see them anyway. I know I was planning to buy tickets until I found out the concert was a free lottery.

However, there is something to be said for anything free: it is still advertising, whether you realize it or not. Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine, wrote a piece, "The Long Tail" about the future of entertainment markets and the premium of free. Essentially, "free has a cost: the psychological value of convenience."For those in the audience who weren't big fans before and happened to win tickets or were brought along by a friend, a huge entertaining performance can influence album sales.

So I ask you, can the industry save itself this way and boost album sales, or is it just throwing away money on big-budget productions?

Visualizing Facebookers' Comments on Privacy Tweaks: Dislike Not an Option - Jobs

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Oh Facebook, when are you going to learn? When you've got over a third of a billion people using your site to basically fritter the day away, any tweaks are going to stir up your population. What are Facebookers saying about these new ones, then?

Mark Zuckerberg is obviously sensitive to the controversies that Facebook's previous attempts to adjust its terms and conditions and privacy settings stirred up, so he chose to announce the news in an open letter posted on the site, with an alert at the top of everyone's landing page today that links to the letter. In the few hours since the letter launched, there have been over 16,000 comments--a huge number, considering that the U.S. hasn't really woken up yet.

But before we get to the user comments--what's Facebook done now? On the face of it, not a lot, actually. The core decision the company has made is to demolish the "networks" feature of the site. As Zuckerberg notes, it made sense in the early days when the site was popular among school and college students, often keen to share or learn information only with people from their academic establishment. As Facebook's exploded, networks have grown to include businesses, esoteric groupings and even whole countries--essentially eroding the usefulness of sharing with a particular network. Mark puts a positive spin on the decision to abolish them by remarking "If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information."

The solution is to have a much simpler privacy control: You can now share information with only your friends, friends of friends, or everybody. And there's a new, and extremely powerful, system--you can now decide on an individual update basis who gets to see your data. That's going to be very useful, though no doubt will quickly be abused by the kind of "Sarah said this dumb thing at school yesterday" comment, which "Sarah" won't get to see.

So. We know Facebookers are incredibly sensitive to tweaks made to how the site works, and we know they all tend to reveal their online personality pretty openly. How do they respond to this one? We took the most recent 10% of comments, and did some analysis--the text is shown in that stark word cloud up there. And the upshot? Facebookers seem to generally like this improvement. There are 133 uses of the word "love" in this comment sample, 83 "greats" versus only 8 "hates" and just 17 discrete uses of the word "no", though of course these could be being used in a different context.

While positive, this data doesn't sound like too much of a resounding thumbs-up though, especially since there's very little discussion about privacy concerns or the loss of networks. What then, among the spam adverts and side-arguments in the comments, are Facebookers really talking about? It's obvious, when you look at the wordcloud: They all want a "dislike" button. Yes, in the face of a potentially significant tweak to Facebook's privacy settings, the biggest response is to ask for a totally different and rather trivial service. Has Facebook's community suddenly gone all shallow and careless with their online data, trusting the site's decisions more than before? You certainly could argue that. You may even suggest that that's what the whole site is about anyway.

Losing the ability to form networks will certainly irritate some Facebook users, but it would seem a small price to pay to gain the enhanced privacy settings the site's now offering. But what we really need to watch for in the coming hours or days, is whether Zuckerberg really cares about what his community wants, versus what he thinks it wants: Will Facebook get a dislike button?

[Facebook]

Visual CV and Your On Line Presence - Jobs

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Successful people create positive personal impact. You create positive personal impact by building and nurturing your personal brand, dressing for success and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette.

You can use the internet to build and nurture your personal brand. Last week I did a blog post in which I mentioned Visual CV. Have you had a chance to visit there yet? If you haven’t, I suggest that you do. While you’re there create a Visual CV for yourself.

A Visual CV is like a small website. It guarantees that when someone Googles you, they will find you on the World Wide Web.

I had never heard of Visual CV until a few days before I wrote that post. But, as often happens when something hits my radar screen, I begin to see references to it in several places. I picked up a copy of Laptop Magazine at the airport on Friday, and in an article entitled “Tech Up Your Resume,” I found this statement: “Visual CV will Webify your resume for you, free of charge.”

After reading the article, I made some additions to my Visual CV. The biggest one was adding images of the covers of my books and a video I’ve done on career and life success. You can find it at www.visualcv.com/bilanich. I’d appreciate it if you would take a look and let me know what you think.

Next, because of the advice in the article, I am going to add a talking head video to my Visual CV. I will be following the tips in the article when I produce my short video:

Don’t just recite your resume. Speak to the camera as if it were another person with whom you are in a conversation.Prepare, rehearse and reshoot. I’ve often said that preparation makes up for a lack of talent. This piece of advice is especially relevant here.Dress yourself and your surroundings professionally. Keep the space around you clean and the décor minimal. I was going to do my shoot in front of my books, but I’ve changed my mind.Keep it short and simple. I agree with Eva Meszaros, the author of article, when she says that one of two minutes is about as much attention as employers will give your video resume.

The common sense point here is simple. Successful people create positive personal impact. They do this by building and nurturing their personal brand, dressing for success and knowing and following the basic rules of etiquette. An online resume is a great way to build and nurture your personal brand. Visual CV provides easy to use software that you can use to create a resume that will get you noticed.

That’s what I think about using an on line resume to build and nurture your personal brand. What do you think? Please leave a comment – especially if you’ve created a Visual CV. Share it here. You never know what might come of it. As always, I appreciate and value your comments. Thanks for reading – and writing.

Bud

Want to Be Fast Company's New Art Intern? - Jobs

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FastCompany.com is accepting applications for a paid web photo/art intern.

Responsibilities:

-Research and acquire photos using the most cost-efficient means possible. Sources include stock sites, photo agencies, and individual photographers. Knowledge of rights and use laws (including creative commons) is essential.

-Resize, retouch, and enhance artwork for articles and blog posts throughout the day.

-Create montages, infographics, photo-composites, and illustrations, and layout on pages.

-Add images and text using HTML and content management system.

-Conceive projects and articles, especially slideshows. Some writing is necessary, and editorial experience is preferred.

Send a brief note about why you're right for the job, along with a resume in the body text of the email (no attachments) to krockwood (at) fastcompany.com by October 9.

2011年8月9日星期二

Nonsense At Work - Jobs

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Expressing gratitude breeds optimists

Children don’t seem to say ‘thank you’ any more in public. This worries me. Not because I worry about ‘values’, but because I worry about ‘expectations’.

Let me explain. There are two meanings to the word ‘expectations’. It can mean ‘looking forward to’ and it can mean ‘it is my due’.

Saying ‘thank you’ is a simple way of expressing gratitude. If you are often grateful, then you will develop the habit of looking forward to the next good thing to come to you so that you can express your thanks again.

But every time you don’t say ‘thank you’, you break the link between receiving and acknowledging. Soon you will have the habit of believing that receiving is your due. And then, when you don’t receive as expected, you feel resentment.

The one habit breeds optimists and the other breeds pessimists. I wonder, what habit have you developed? More importantly, what habit are you passing on to your children?

I’m James McIntosh at nonsenseatwork.com

Nonprofits? Not a Recessionary Refuge for Job Seekers - Jobs

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Job-seeking refugees from the for-profit world shouldn't go running to the not-for-profit sector. EnlargeIllustration by Mr. Bingo Related Contentrelated linkTop Jobs 2009related linkThe Top Jobs for 2009related linkWhat Should I Do with My Life, Now?related linkTen Best Green Jobs for the Next Decaderelated link7 Essential Steps to Surviving a Post-Layoff Existencerelated linkWhere in the World to Find a Jobrelated linkCareer Advice from Jeff Hicks and Alex Boguskyrelated linkCareer Advice from Rick Webbrelated linkCareer Advice from Carisa Bianchirelated linkCareer Advice from Jack Kramerrelated linkCareer Advice from Eric Fengrelated linkCareer Advice from Fokko Wientjesrelated linkCareer Advice from Chuck Jonesrelated linkCareer Advice from Gary Flakerelated linkNext-gen Job Sitesrelated linkSalary Wizard

Applying to business school. Eating comfort foods like mac and cheese. Wearing red lipstick. Regifting. These are some of the more well-known trends during economic recessions. Another one? A flood of people deciding to make career changes, choosing occupations with meaning.

Recently, I have been deluged with no fewer than a dozen emails and calls each week from friends, friends of friends, and strangers wanting to talk to me about "breaking into the sector." The gal who blew out my hair the other day friended me on Facebook; now her cousin keeps sending me messages asking about openings. (I'm not even counting the ridiculous number of LinkedIn requests I've been fielding.)

I take these meetings out of the goodness of my unnaturally large heart, which should be considered a handicap. People start saying my office is "charming." I ask, "What kind of thing are you looking to do?" They reply, "Oh, anything in the not-for-profit sector. I just want to make the world a better place." This is like me by saying, "Oh, anything in the for-profit world would be fine. I just want to make money."

News flash: We're not a bunch of dummies in Birkenstocks who sit around watching Oprah all day. Your résumé's expensive paper stock does not tell me anything about your office abilities. Your matchy-matchy suit and accessories don't tell me that you understand our business model. Your Harvard MBA won't make me drool. Twenty percent of my staff graduated from Ivies -- and we're not the smartest people on the team.

I understand that you're used to working long hours at Lehman Brothers. Not-for-profit people work crazy hours too -- without the promise of overtime pay or the possibility of a car service to take us home at 10 p.m. when we finally turn the lights off. (FYI: We turn those lights off by ourselves.)

Your years of running award-winning campaigns for major brands while you were a top ad exec are impressive ... if I wanted to create a Super Bowl ad. But when was the last time you built a brand with a budget of zero? That pro bono campaign you did on domestic violence tells us you have a heart, but says nothing about your ability to survive in a sector without B-list celebs dying to work with us, or vendors who owe us favors, or new hires cutting their teeth on PSA campaigns.

Please stop thinking that "we'd be lucky to have you" when you have no experience in our world. I had braces, I brush my teeth every day, and (sometimes) I floss. This doesn't mean I can perform root canals. (That analogy assumes you've even spent time doing work related to our space. I'm shocked by how many people wanting to "make the switch" have never even volunteered anywhere.) Over the last few years, several major not-for-profits have hired executives from top corporations like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs -- and those executives have failed miserably and sometimes quite publicly.

Working in the not-for-profit sector is a career. It isn't a sabbatical from your "real" job. We have skills. We require training. (There are master's-degree programs dedicated to this work.) We know how to scrimp, land barter deals, and cut waste. Plus, we're used to being paid less than we're worth.

It's not news that the downturn has hurt the charitable world. Chicken dinners are sparsely attended. Mergers and bankruptcies affect corporate giving. Hiring is in a deep freeze, as witnessed by the lack of listings on Idealist.org, the main source of not-for-profit openings. (Please write that address down, people. I am not a one-woman referral agency.)

The real story in this economy? Consider yourselves lucky if you're able to nab a not-for-profit executive for your for-profit business.

Nancy Lublin founded Dress for Success and is CEO of the not-for-profit Do Something.

No One Cares, You Are Doing It Wrong, And That Is Awesome - Jobs

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Marketers are confused these days. The things that have worked for decades aren’t working anymore. Can you imagine if you worked for 30 years in your given vocation and then, almost over night, all the rules changed?

In truth, marketing is only now becoming what it truly should havebeen - a conversation. Less lies, less spin. Marketers have beenshoveling marshmallow fluff down the mouths of Americans and tellingthem it’s broccoli. And suddenly, as quick as you can confusemetaphors, we find that the emperor has no clothes.

I admit I’ve been frustrated with the old-school marketers. “What iswith these guys, and why can’t they get it together?” But that’s notfair. Their whole world has shifted beneath them. Icame to a better understanding watching a recent Robert Scobleinterview with IBM engineer Mike Moran. (I highly encourage you tocheck it out: Robert Scoble’s interview with Mike Moran. It’s only 12 minutes long and well worth your time.)

Moran gives a cogent explanation of why marketers are having such adifficult time in the new web 2.0 environment. Here is a small sample:

“The change that’s really happening is you have to learnhow to attract people to your message rather than pushing it at them.You have to figure out how you’re going to listen when they talk back.And you also have to watch what they do. Those three things are reallycritical because once you do them, you have to figure out how torespond.

Those three things are really critical because once you do them, youhave to figure out how to respond. When I say ‘Do it wrong quickly,’it’s not you trying to do it wrong, it’s that you kind of admit thatwhat you’re doing is probably wrong because it usually is. And then youhave to look back at the feedback from your target market to see howfar off it is so that you know what to do next. And that’s really atough change for a lot of marketers.

That seems really simple, but think of it: a whole industry haschanged in a matter of what, less than a decade? That is prettyoutstanding. It’s going from monologue to dialogue, from lecture toconversation, from directing to caring, from crossed fingers to metrics.

Continue reading No One Cares, You Are Doing It Wrong, And That Is Awesome

No One Can See Your Corporate Recruitment Branding - Jobs

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I have been spending a lot of time recently viewing corporate recruiting video for our worklife.tvplatform and I have been noticing a lot of companies don’t really doanything to get their brand out there. I’m not talking about theircorporate branding as far as who they are and what they do or whattypes of products and services they offer, but more importantly who thecompany is from the inside, how they tick, what they can offer to theirhuman capital, and what makes them different from other companies.

I believe a lot of companies don’t do this task very well,especially the small ones, or the ones that have to. There are a lot ofgood companies out there doing remarkable things. However, if you don’tknow or hear about them, you’r not going to recruit the best talent totake you to the next level. These companies may not have the bestinsurance, compensation, or benefit plans however, there is usually agreat story that is told but if you have no ears, you can’t tell thestory.

Here are a couple of bad examples, specifically within therecruitment videos. This is a recruitment video I came across by justsearching Google that was produced by Washington Mutual, and here isthe url: http://videos.wamumedia.com/tv/careers/ Thefirst problem with this video is there is no interactiveness. There isno wrapper around the video if someone wants to learn more, click onthe link to applyto jobs, and more importantly, the video can’t be distributed. Thevideo is very well produced and I believe they just filmed this, threwit up on the net and let it sit. Here are a couple of things I wouldhave done withthe video.

? Put the video in the middle of the page and have employee testimonialsall around the video.? Make it easy for viewers to view “hot jobs” and apply to them easily.? Have the video easily distributed to multiple sites. As the video standsit can’t be placed anywhere. Most videos can be embedded to other sitesor shared via diggit and other social networking sites.

Another bad example is the recruitment video by Hormel foods located here: http://www.hormelfoods.com/careers/why/recruitmentVideo.aspxThey do a better job than Washington Mutual in they do have sometestimonials on the page, but they have executives on the page. I wouldtake lower level positions and place them on the site because it’s veryeasy for executives to tell why people should work for the company.They also have more links to other portions of their site but onceagain, I would force feed a prospective employee something, as when youhave stickyness or eyeballs on your site, you want them to take action.

One good example of getting the word out about your corporaterecruiting brand, is one I saw on a newsgroup from a Walmart recruiter.For those of you who don’t know, Walmart has a very difficult timerecruiting because their headquarters is located in BentonvilleArkansas. Here is the email signature that this recruiter uses.

Sr. Management RecruiterHuman Resource DivisionWal-Mart Stores, Inc.http://www.walmartstores.com/careers/http://www.walmartfacts.comhttp://www.nwark.orghttp://www.arkansasbusiness.com/default.asphttp://www.rogerslowell.com/relocation/video.asp

This is a great example of links of well rounded information, notonly about Walmart and what they are recruiting for, but what thelocation and city has to offer. What the recruiter gives is Walmartfacts, why work for Walmart, how to relocate to Arkansas, what thebenefits of relocation to Arkansas, is and how the economy is doing inArkansas. Email signatures are very easy to create and get out to theworld, and think how many emails you send out daily?

Kudos to Walmart for putting all this information together, andgetting it out to prospective employees. Everyone knows who Walmart isbut they have taken the extra step to engage people.

What are you doing to increase your Corporate Recruitment Branding?

Now It's Your Turn to Rank the Most Innovative Companies - Jobs

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In the March issue of Fast Company--careful, it's hot off the press--we unveil the new and improved Fast 50, aka the Fast Company 50. This year's list is our first-ever ranking of the most innovative companies in the world. But wait, you say, that's impossible. Can't be done. The world's too big! There's too much innovation out there to keep track of! Sloooow down, Fast Company!

Well, that's what you pay us for. To take journalistic chances. To venture where others fear to tread. Besides, the ranking felt like a natural for us given that we write about, talk about, and obsess about innovation all day. It's in our blood, people. We've been chronicling innovators large and small from the beginning, back when the Internet really was "a series of tubes," as Senator Stevens so eloquently put.

Take a gander at our list and let us know what you think. Who'd we leave off who belonged on there? And who should we have left off? Who did we rank too high? Too low? Here's where you can make your case. Let's hear it.

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