The Fed is handcuffing itself. Here’s how | Money CNN

September 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Wall Street is in the throes of a wild guessing game. The question on everyone’s minds: September or December?

That’s because the U.S. Federal Reserve has said that its historic rate hike will come this year. And Wall Street has pinned its hopes on exactly those two months.

Few believe it could be October. That’s not because Fed chief Janet Yellen is afraid of Halloween.

It’s entirely because unlike its September and December meetings, the Fed doesn’t hold a press conference following its October meeting. Investors know that these televised events — which occur just four times a year — are the perfect time for Yellen to carefully explain to the world the rationale behind key decisions that could

One Size Fits Few: Artificial Hearts Leave Many Out | Live Science

September 8, 2015September 16, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

When Nemah Kahala, a wife and mother of five, arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center as one of our patients in March, her condition was the definition of critical.

She suffered from inflammatory restrictive heart muscle disease, in which the heart ventricles become stiff and rigid, making it impossible for the these chambers to relax normally and fill with blood. Over time, this reduces blood flow and can lead to heart failure. Her condition was so advanced that repair surgery couldn’t help. It was clear she wouldn’t survive the wait for a heart transplant.

How to Respond to, “Why Should I do Business with You?” | SmallBizTrends

September 8, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The title of the article says it all when it comes to leading effective meetings. As the sales executive, you are the leader when meeting with clientele.

False Start

On occasion you may hear someone say, “I can talk to you now, but I only have a few minutes. In a snapshot, tell me what you’ve got.”

Many people fall for this, and proceed to tell everything they’ve got in a two-minute verbiage vomit. The only thing this produces is a mess, and hearing “not interested.”

A far better approach is to ask to schedule a meeting where you may have a give and take to get to know one another better. This lets the other party know you are serious and potentially trustworthy. This normally promotes a scheduled date.

Amazon Acquires Elemental Technologies For A Reported $500 Million In Cash | TechCrunch

September 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Amazon announced this afternoon that it’s acquiring Elemental Technologies, a backend mobile video service.

It’s paying around $500 million in cash for the company, according to a new report from The Information. (Subscription required.)

Amazon didn’t immediately return a phone call or email request for comment about that figure.

The deal was orchestrated by Amazon’s highly profitable Amazon Web Services unit, which will incorporate Elemental’s technology into its cloud infrastructure services mobile video offering, says The Information.

Elemental, which makes high-speed video encoding and transcoding software to enable multiscreen content delivery across different devices, was founded nine years ago in Portland, Ore., and counts among its many customers ABC, BBC, Comcast, Ericsson, and ESPN.

This Company Offers One-Stop Shopping For Artisanal Food | Entrepreneur

September 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In 2009, three software engineers, a CFO and an HR exec came up with a savory idea: They would create a platform that lets shoppers make purchases from multiple artisan food producers and have everything delivered in a single order, along with certain big-brand staples.

“To be successful, we knew we had to work with artisans in each city and build an online farmers market filled with local products,” explains Lior Lavy, co-founder and COO of Dallas-based Artizone.

Today the company works with hundreds of purveyors who sell everything from pancake mix to sea salt in three markets. We talked to Lavy about how he’s helping small food businesses expand their reach.

How to Market to Gen Z? – The Consumer | THE BETA GENERATION

September 4, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The personal computer (and now the smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, you get the picture) have allowed our generation to look at purchasing in a new light. We no longer only see products on TV, we can find and buy the products we love, the best ones at that, without leaving the comfort of our own home. This makes marketing to Gen Z a different game. We can find any product we need, so having advertisements shoved down our throat is unappealing. Buying the product is no longer the satisfaction of the purchase, but rather finding the product to begin with

Picture this: You’re in a clothing store and the size you try on doesn’t fit right. You give the item to a store clerk and ask them for the next size up. The store is all out of that size so she brings you a similar item in your size. You try it on and it fits like a glove.

Blame Game: Does Firing ‘Bad’ Employees Really Solve the Problem? | Business News Daily

September 3, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Businesses shouldn’t be so quick to assign blame to employees when problems arise, new research finds. Rather than dismissing a problem as the result of one employee’s incompetence, businesses should look deeper to find the root of the problem, according to a study recently published in the Academy of Management Journal.

“Concentrated failures prompt narrower attributions of responsibility, which, whether accurate or not, ultimately lead to less thorough investigations and fewer of the system-wide changes that are typically required to address organizational performance problems,” wrote Vinit Desai, the study’s author and an associate professor of management at the University of Colorado, Denver.

How New Doc “Deep Web” Shines A Light On The Dark Net | Fast Company

September 3, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this year, Ross William Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his involvement with the dark net drug market Silk Road. Ulbricht was slammed with all seven of the charges brought against him, including computer hacking, drug trafficking, money laundering, and even what’s known as the “kingpin” charge, which is more commonly doled out to cartel leaders and mafia members. Serious crimes? Yes. Worth life in prison? Director Alex Winter doesn’t think so.

In his documentary Deep Web, Winter gains exclusive access to Ulbricht’s family and key operators of Silk Road for an engaging breakdown of one of the most seminal cyber cases in recent history. Winter wades into the murky allegations of Ulbricht’s murder-for-hire plots, the mystery of Silk Road ambassador(s) “Dread Pirate Roberts,” and the raging debate over online anonymity and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin to extract a narrative that breathes humanity into the nether regions of the web and challenges how the media covers and the government prosecutes cyber crimes.

Now You Can Buy Stuff Online Without Paying Up Front | WIRED

September 3, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

IN RECENT WEEKS, the online retailer Overstock.com started testing a new checkout service from a Swedish company called Klarna. Through Klarna, people can purchase stuff from Overstock simply by typing their email address, their shipping address, and maybe their phone number—no credit card required. The idea is to streamline e-commerce as much as possible, and according to Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, it works quite well. In testing Klarna’s service, Overstock saw a measurable uptick in sales on mobile devices.

“It saves you from having to key a lot of stuff into your phone,” he says. He estimates that the service will account for $100 million in sales next year for Overstock, a company that reported $1.5 billion in revenue in 2014.

Thinking About Buying a Franchise? Know the Limits! | All Business

September 2, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Starting your own business is both an exciting and terrifying prospect. Many people choose to take a more financially secure path by purchasing a franchise. Purchasing a franchise buys instant brand awareness and a ready-made system of operations that offers real benefits to first time business owners.

But like any business decision, it is important to think about potential problems when you consider buying a franchise. Here are some of the limits of franchising that any potential business owner should consider: