Land Rover design chief: Car industry needs more female designers | Money CNN

January 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The mastermind behind one of the world’s most distinctive SUV brands says gender imbalance is hurting the automotive industry.

Land Rover design director Gerry McGovern, who works on the luxury brand’s newest models, said the industry needs more women.

“I think for a long time we’ve suffered [from] not having enough automotive female designers,” he said.

According to EY, women comprise only a quarter of the auto industry workforce. But they influence almost 80% of decisions to buy a car, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan.

4 Mistakes That Ruin Business Meetings | Business News Daily

January 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Business meetings have a longstanding reputation for being unexciting, boring and a waste of time. Entertainment and stock photos characterize meetings with scenes of bored employees watching the clock, rolling their eyes and falling asleep while the presenter seems to drone on interminably.

Though the representations on TV and photos seem overdone, they’re true to life. According to a recent survey by enterprise intranet company Igloo Software, about half of all employees find meetings to be unproductive. More specifically, employees are annoyed with unnecessary meetings (76 percent), meetings going off-topic (59 percent) and people repeating one another (58 percent).

Nemonic is like Post-It notes with IoT smarts | TechCrunch

January 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Mangoslab, a company spun out from Samsung’s innovation division back in June 2016, showed off its first product today. Nemonic is a $120 thermal printer that prints on sticky notes from your phone. That’s right – everyone’s favorite tool for passive-aggressively leaving notes on a colleague’s computer monitor is now weaponized with all the powers of IoT combined. Ladies and gentlemen, the future of office warfare is here.

Volvo wants you to never miss a meeting again. Thanks so much, really | Mashable

January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The best thing about being out of the office is being unavailable for certain meetings.

Evil geniuses Volvo and Microsoft are about to end all that. The two companies have collaborated on an in-car solution to this office absentee problem: integrating Skype for Business in a Volvo car.

Maybe Volvo should take most of the blame… er… credit since it’s the one integrating existing business communication technology in its 90 Series cars.

Millennials 10 Things Old Farts Won’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship (Number 8): Who Is More Important Than Where | Peter Mehit

January 3, 2017January 10, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What is the right channel for my product? Where is the best place for my ads? Should I be mostly on Facebook? There are a million questions for which you will get an equal number of answers. You will get advice on which channels are hot. People will try to sell you programs and services to reach your customer. In fact, when talking marketing tactics, you’ll get so much input it’s almost useless.

If you ask people starting businesses where they think they will be successful in finding new customers, most will say social media, but ad spending was only 23% of all ad dollars spent in 2015. Television is still the dominant media platform with 39% of the dollars. What about print, radio and billboards? This is another 26% of ad spend. If the SEO and AdWords were enough, you wouldn’t hear or see ads for websites and mobile apps in these other channels, but you do.

This explosion of channels has fragmented the marketplace by income, race, educational experience, sports, personal interests, politics and marital status. The list goes on and gets more granular. What can someone looking to launch into this environment do to have a chance at success? Hint: “If you build it, they will come” is not one of the options.

Continue reading “Millennials 10 Things Old Farts Won’t Tell You About Entrepreneurship (Number 8): Who Is More Important Than Where | Peter Mehit” →

Why Businesses are Abandoning Travel and Turning to Video | Getentrepreneurial.com

January 3, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Reduced travel is one of the biggest benefits of video conferencing. Less travel to conferences means that businesses do not have to spend enormous amounts of time and money on travel. However, less travel is not the only advantage of using a video conferencing app to speak to your colleagues, clients and partners.

There are a number of benefits of speaking virtually to your coworkers, including increased productivity and efficiency, better communications, enhanced business opportunities and advantage over your competitors. Read on to learn more about the advantages of turning to video for your business needs.

Ford Cancels Plans for New $1.6 Billion Mexico Plant | Bloomberg

January 3, 2017January 3, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ford Motor Co. will scrap plans to build a $1.6 billion plant in Mexico, after coming under criticism by President-elect Donald Trump for shifting small-car production south of the border.

The next-generation Focus compact car will be built at an existing factory in Hermosillo, Mexico, and Ford will cancel plans to build a plant in San Luis Potosi, Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields said Tuesday. The second-largest U.S. automaker will build two products at a factory in Wayne, Michigan, where it assembles the Focus now, protecting about 3,500 jobs.

The Secrets To Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions | Fast Company

December 30, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you’re like the majority of Americans, you’re probably thinking about making a New Year’s resolution. From losing weight to getting organized, spending less/saving more, and enjoying life to the fullest (last year’s top four resolutions), we often make grand plans every January.

Unfortunately, just 8% of us will be successful, according to Statistic Brain. But your odds don’t have to be so disheartening. We’ve compiled the best advice that can put you in the 8% that make it happen. Good luck!

China is behind the latest bitcoin craze | Business Insider

December 30, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Bitcoin had a great 2016. The cryptocurrency rallied 120% to $952, threatening to break the $1,000 mark for the first time. While bitcoin has seen a consistent bid throughout the year, its 57% gain (in US dollar terms) over the past three months has been particularly impressive.

So what’s behind the move?

China.

In his latest edition of “Greed & Fear,” CLSA’s Christopher Wood notes, “Daily turnover in Shanghai-based BTC China, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume, has risen from around Rmb1bn in late September to a peak of Rmb27.8bn on 22 December and Rmb16.4bn on Wednesday (see Figure 11) while the Bitcoin price has risen by 70% over the past three months to Rmb6,927.”

Getting Off The Fence: Hobby vs. Business | marketingforhippies.com

December 30, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Is what you do a hobby or is it a business?

This is an important question to answer because most entrepreneurs I know are on the fence about it.

There’s no right or wrong answer to it. But I know a lot of people who say it’s one and do it like the other.

My friend Theo drives for UPS. He loves his job. It’s his meditation. He offers massage for free on the side as his gift to the community. It’s a hobby for him.

But I know a lot of people who are baffled by why their business isn’t growing and, when I look at it, it’s clear. They aren’t treating it like a business. They don’t invest in it. They don’t work on it as well as in it. They don’t make systems. They do everything on their own. They haven’t sorted out their niche. None of which would matter if it were a hobby.

If you treat it like a hobby, it will never grow like a business might (and, to be frank, even if you treat it like a business, there are no guarantees it will grow at all).