Saturday, March 15, 2014

3 Sentences That Can Basically Destroy You - TIME

3 Sentences That Can Basically Destroy You

http://time.com/10335/3-sentences-that-can-basically-destroy-you/

Inc. / Geoffrey James

Feb. 27, 2014

Paul Bradbury—Getty Images/OJO Images

When these utterances start to become commonplace around the office, it just might be the beginning of the end.

This post is in partnership with Inc., which offers useful advice, resources, and insights to entrepreneurs and business owners. The article below was originally published at Inc.com.

If you hear any of these three sentences at work more than once or twice, you can be certain that your company is heading down a dead-end path:

1. “We’ve always done it this way.”

If there’s anything true in the business world, it’s that what worked in the past isn’t going to work in the future. Clinging to what’s “tried and true” leads to pursuing wooden-headed strategies long after it’s clear that those strategies aren’t working.

A perfect example of this is Microsoft’s belief in the concept of “Windows Everywhere.” The company keeps trying to launch tablets and phones with Windows on them, even thoughthe market has repeatedly made it clear that nobody wants the darn things.

In smaller companies, “we’ve always done it this way” manifests itself in an unwillingness to build process and structure as the company grows. A freewheeling approach to doing business works inside startups but is toxic inside a larger firm.

The Cure: “What worked in the past won’t work in the future.”

2. “But that can’t be true!”

Human beings have an innate tendency towards what psychologists call “confirmation bias.” This consists of sorting incoming information as being true/untrue and relevant/irrelevant based on how well that data fits with previously-held opinions.

Here’s an example from my own experience. Back in the 1980s, I gave a presentation to the C-level executives in a minicomputer firm which showed that PC sales were growing exponentially while minicomputer sales were flat. Even though the data came from SEC filings, the executives simply refused to believe that the data was true.

Similarly, entrepreneurs often believe so strongly in their company and product that they miss trends that are changing their industry and making their “vision” no longer valid.

The Cure: “Let’s not throw good money after bad.”

3. “We’ll make it happen… somehow.”

While there’s value in thinking positively, expecting something miraculous to happen sets you up to fail. Success in business is about assessing reality and taking appropriate action. It’s not about waiting for the magic fairy of profitability to fly in the window.

This type of wishful thinking results, for instance, in sales forecasts that crutch on winning huge amounts of business in the last two weeks of the fourth quarter. Which ain’t gonna happen.

Similarly, it turns up in implementations plans that walk backwards from an unrealistic release date. Healthcare.gov is a perfect example, but I’ve seen the same thing in small organizations, when managers grossly underestimate the amount of time and work it takes to create a truly great product.

The Cure: “Don’t hope and pray. Plan then act.”

Friday, March 14, 2014

Samsung’s Secret Weapon Isn’t the Galaxy S5 - TIME

Samsung’s Secret Weapon Isn’t the Galaxy S5

http://business.time.com/2014/02/26/samsung-gear-fit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

It's this innovative wrist band

By Victor Luckerson @VLuckFeb. 26, 20141 Comment

Samsung’s upcoming high-end smartphone, the Galaxy S5, was supposed to be the company’s marquee announcement at this week’s Mobile World Congress, but another new device ended up stealing the show. Samsung’s new fitness-focused smartwatch, the Gear Fit, may be one of the first wearable gadgets people are actually excited to use.

Samsung more or less struck out with its first smartwatch last fall, the Galaxy Gear, which people complained was cumbersome and expensive at $299.99. While the company is offering improved iterations of the device with its Gear 2 and Gear Neo, the Gear Fit will have a narrower purpose as a fitness band targeted at health nuts instead of gadget geeks. With a curved 1.84-inch color screen, the Gear Fit should be sleeker and cheaper than its bulkier cousins. While lacking the bevy of apps available on the main Galaxy Gear line, the Gear Fit will still be able to display email and text notifications when synched up with a smartphone and even control a phone’s music. The device also has a heart rate monitor and can sync up with a health app on the Galaxy S5 phone. The Gear Fit’s simplicity could ultimately be its advantage as it tries to straddle the line between full-featured smartwatches and fitness bands like the Fitbit.

With so many watches, Samsung is obviously very bullish on the wearables market. That’s for good reason. Research firm Juniper estimates that 13 million wearable smart devices were sold in 2013, and that number will balloon to 130 million by 2018, creating a $19 billion industry. To claim dominance in this market Samsung will have to contend with startups like Pebble, whose smartwatch generated $10 million on Kickstarter, as well as tech giants like Sony. And of course, rumors persist that Apple will enter the wearables sector with an iWatch all its own.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

5 Ways to Not Get Rejected on LinkedIn - TIME

5 Ways to Not Get Rejected on LinkedIn

http://time.com/12131/5-ways-to-not-get-rejected-on-linkedin/

Martha C. White

March 12, 2014

By now, most of the Internet has heard about (and commented on) the bizarreresponse a self-professed “passionate advocate” for people looking for work gave a young job-seeker who had the nerve to contact her on LinkedIn.

8 Ways to Say No Without Killing Your Reputation The Five Paths To Being the Best at Anything Here's An Updated Tally Of All The People Who Have Ever Died From A Marijuana Overdose Huffington Post These Disturbing Fast Food Truths Will Make You Reconsider Your Lunch Huffington Post See Inside Sarah Jessica Parker's NYC Brownstone! People

“Your invite to connect is inappropriate, beneficial only to you, and tacky,” Kelly Blazek wrote, blasting what she called Diana Mekota’s “sense of entitlement” and noting that the “green” 26-year-old job-seeker “has nothing to offer me.”

While it’s stunning in its nastiness as well as its stupidity (apparently it never occurred to Blazek, who bragged about her “960+… top-tier marketing connections,” that Mekota might share her tirade with the entire Internet), there’s a lesson for the rest of us here.

No, you’ll probably never receiving a scathing reply that goes viral in response to a LinkedIn request — you’ll just be ignored. If you’re looking for a job, you can’t afford to shoot yourself in the foot when it comes to cultivating your LinkedIn network: Recruiting software company Jobvite found in a recent survey that 94% of recruiters use the site to search for candidates. So, here’s what career experts say you should do to get potential connections to hit “reply” instead of “delete.”

(MORE: 5 Reasons Your Job Is Making You Miserable)

Keep it short. “Be conscientious of their time,” says Jobvite CMO Kimberley Kasper. “If you’re going to send an email for advice, don’t send 20 paragraphs. Be quick and to the point. The more succinct you are, the more likely the person is to respond.”

Play up mutual connections. If you’re looking for a job and you have a good sense of what title would be responsible for hiring someone in your position, do an advanced search for that title within a 50-mile radius, advises social media expert Patrick O’Malley. “The ones that show up at the top are second-level connections,” he says, which means you have a point of common ground. “Use the name of the common connection in your subject line and you’re more likely to get the attention of that person,” O’Malley says.

Don’t ask for a job. “No job seeker should ever reach out to a connection for the first time for the purpose of asking for a job. That comes after the relationship is established,” Lauren Milligan, CEO of resume and job coaching company ResuMAYDAY. What do you say instead? “The truth is that I connect and engage with people much quicker when they tell me they read an article in which I was quoted, or that I had recently helped one of their associates with a job search dilemma,” Milligan says. “If nothing else, tell me what jumped out at you in my LinkedIn profile.”

(MORE: 7 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job)

Make yourself useful. “Follow them on LinkedIn to see the status updates they post,” O’Malley says. “If they ever ask a question or they’re particularly interested in something, see if you can find the solution to their problem.” Send them the answer or some useful resources in a connection request, he says. “Now, all of a sudden, they look at you as a valuable resource.” Again, don’t fish for a job, but O’Malley says it’s OK to say something like, “I’d like to connect with you in case you’re ever looking for someone with my skills in the future.”

Don’t drag out the exchange. “Understand that if you’re a job seeker and asking for help, the person may respond maybe once or twice and will not go back and forth 10 different times and respond to the question several times over,” Kasper says. “Know when enough is enough.”

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

China Premier Promises to Advance Economy Reforms - TIME

China Premier Promises to Advance Economy Reforms

http://business.time.com/2014/03/04/china-sets-7-5-percent-growth-target/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

By AP / Joe McDonaldMarch 04, 20141 Comment

(BEIJING) — China’s government promised sweeping reforms Wednesday to promote sustainable growth in its slowing economy by opening state-dominated industries to private investment, making its banks more market-oriented and encouraging consumer spending.

In his first annual policy speech as China’s top economic official, Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing will encourage competition, ease exchange rate controls and improve access to credit for productive businesses.

Li’s pledges were in line with Communist Party plans issued in November that call for promoting market forces and domestic consumption to replace a model based on exports and investment that delivered three decades of explosive growth but has run out of steam.

“We need to make sure the market plays a decisive role,” said Li in a nationally televised speech to China’s ceremonial legislature. He promised to “break mental shackles and vested interests” — a reference to possible resistance from state companies that might lose subsidies and monopolies.

Entrepreneurs and investors are watching the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress for details of how the party will carry out its November pledge. Beijing has issued a flurry of minor changes such as simplifying processes for registering new businesses but has yet to take action on major tasks such as overhauling the state-run banking system.

Despite pledges of reform, the ruling party made clear the limits to possible change in its November plan by declaring that state ownership will remain the core of the economy.

The changes come as the ruling party tries to steer China to cleaner, more energy-efficient growth based on service industries and technology following the past decade’s blistering expansion.

Growth last year tumbled to a two-decade low of 7.7 percent, due largely to government curbs imposed to cool a lending and investment boom. It was barely half of 2007′s explosive 14.2 percent rate.

Li announced an official growth target of 7.5 percent for this year. That was unchanged from last year’s target and in line with growth forecasts by the International Monetary Fund and private sector analysts.

Li promised an array of changes in banking and finance that reform advocates say are essential to making the economy more efficient and productive.

Banks will be given more control over lending and interest rates, the premier said. That would allow profitable companies to compete for credit by paying higher rates, possibly channeling more money to entrepreneurs who generate most of China’s new jobs and wealth but are mostly unable to get loans from the state-run system. It also might boost rates paid on savings, putting more money in the pockets of Chinese families and encouraging consumer spending.

The premier also threw the government’s support behind the growth of popular new Internet-based banking services, promising to promote their “healthy development.”

Services such as one launched by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group have drawn billions of dollars in deposits from small savers by paying higher rates than state banks. Critics see them as a threat to the government-run financial system that supports politically favored companies. A commentator for state television last month called them “financial parasites.”

Li promised to open state-controlled industries such as banking, oil, power generation, railways and telecommunications to private investment. He pledged to “level the playing field” for Chinese and foreign companies to promote competition.

The premier gave no details about key issues such as whether private investors would gain any management control in state-run industries. That is in line with China’s time-tested reform strategy under which the government experiments with reforms in a single city or province and studies the results before crafting detailed rules for rolling out changes nationwide.

Beijing will make domestic demand “the main engine driving growth,” Li said. He promised to promote consumer spending by raising incomes and encourage growth of service industries such as education, tourism and care for the elderly, the premier said.

“We will enhance people’s ability to consume,” said Li.

In a separate report, the Cabinet planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, promised to experiment with a change sought by business groups to simplify investment — a “negative list” of fields that are off-limits, leaving all others open. That would overturn a system under which investors must wait for each industry or line of business to be declared open to private competition, which companies say fails to keep pace with changes in technology and markets.

The premier also promised to make progress in the ruling party’s marathon campaign to reduce excess production capacity in industries including steel, cement and solar panel manufacturing.

That glut has led to price-cutting wars and bankruptcies. But efforts to scrap excess capacity face resistance from politically influential companies and local leaders who want the jobs and tax revenue brought by new factories.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Why China Is a Nightmare for American Internet Companies - TIME

Why China Is a Nightmare for American Internet Companies

http://time.com/10178/why-china-is-a-nightmare-for-american-internet-companies/

Saturday, March 8, 2014

What the World’s Richest 5 Could Buy

http://business.time.com/2014/03/03/what-the-worlds-richest-5-people-could-buy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+timeblogs%2Fcurious_capitalist+%28TIME%3A+Business%29

You know that private island you've always dreamed of? These guys own them.

By Harry SwartoutMarch 03, 201418 Comments

Bill Gates regains his title as “World’s Richest Person” in the new Forbes’ Billionaire list for 2014. Gates spends so much of his money on charity that for four years, he was not listed as the richest of the rich.

But let’s face it: Every person on the Forbes list has a mind-boggling amount of money. Big ticket items like diamonds and houses represent incidental splurges for this group. What would it look like if these moneybags decided to drop some serious coin? What can that kind of money buy?

We decided to take a look at what this year’s top 5 could buy if they decided to blow it all in one glorious spending spree.

by Taboola

Friday, March 7, 2014

How Much of Your Success Is Due to Dumb Luck? - TIME

How Much of Your Success Is Due to Dumb Luck?

http://time.com/12803/how-much-of-your-success-is-due-to-dumb-luck/

How Much of Your Success Is Due to Dumb Luck?

The Drucker Exchange @DruckerInst

March 5, 2014

Jonathan Kitchen—Getty Images

WATCH

Jodi Arias Asks For Death Penalty

30-Second Tech Trick: How to Unsend Email

Hannah Teter Sells Underwear For Haiti

by Taboola

Would you like the Mona Lisa if others didn’t? Would you still think Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony was good? Would you still think the songs of the Beatles were superior to those of, say, Justin Bieber?

5 Ways to Not Get Rejected on LinkedIn 7 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job Here's An Updated Tally Of All The People Who Have Ever Died From A Marijuana Overdose Huffington Post These Disturbing Fast Food Truths Will Make You Reconsider Your Lunch Huffington Post American Idol Sends Home a Top 12 Contestant People

In a report last week on NPR’sMorning Edition, Alix Spiegel raised the question of whether our collective aesthetic judgments are due more to chance than we think. She reported that a Princeton professor named Matthew Salganik has run an experiment addressing precisely this issue.

The test went as follows: Some 30,000 teenagers recruited online were separated into nine groups and exposed to a collection of 48 songs from emerging recording artists. They could download the ones they liked best for free. The findings? If they could see a history of what their peers in their group had already picked, the teens often joined the crowd, giving certain songs momentum. But the songs that emerged as leaders differed from group to group. A song that came in first in one group came in 40th in another.

“There were differences in the beginnings, and then the process of social influence and cumulative advantage sort of magnified those small, random initial differences,” Salganik told Spiegel.

The takeaway, in Salganik’s view, goes beyond music: “I think that if you believe that there’s a large role for chance in the outcomes that people have and the kinds of success that people have and also the kinds of failures that people have, it changes how you treat other people,” he said.

In other words, we ought to be a bit humbler about our success and recognize the role of luck.

As far as Peter Drucker was concerned, he maintained that some works of art have inherent qualities that elevate them into the realm of the sublime—regardless of audience differences. For instance, in the case of Dante’s Divina Commedia, it is the “multiplicity of levels on which this book can be read, from being a fairy tale to being a grand synthesis of metaphysics, that makes it the overpowering work of art that it is,” Drucker wrote in a 1969 essay on communication.

But not even the greatest art can be counted on to promote itself, and even Dante required sales and distribution. As Drucker wrote in Post-Capitalist Society, “Even the most solitary artists, writers or paintersdepend on others for their work to become effective—the writer on an editor, a printer, a bookshop; the painter on a gallery.”

And while luck has a big role in our lives, and many things are a matter of chance, long-term success tends not to be. “‘Opportunity is where you find it,’ says an old proverb. It does not say: ‘ . . . where it finds you,’” Drucker noted in Managing for Results. “Luck, chance and catastrophe affect business as they do all human endeavors. But luck never built a business. Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential.”

JKHC FORUM

Saturday, March 15, 2014