Category: Tools and Information

Why Every Business Needs to Focus on Culture | PROFITguide.com

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At Mirego headquarters in Quebec City, employees aren’t tied to their desks. They can choose to work in the company’s lounge, settled around a fireplace or to bring in their families and sit with their children, who can choose from boxes of games and toys.

It’s such a cool vibe that a few months ago, Mirego, which designs technological solutions for clients, produced a 200-page publication—a sort of arty company yearbook—filled with employee images, anecdotes and profiles.

It’s all part of president and CEO Albert Dang-Vu’s mission to soften the distinction between work and home. “We want to create a space that people want to go to every morning,” he says. It has worked: Dang-Vu reports an employee retention rate of close to 100% and says almost all new hires come through word of mouth or staff referrals.

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Why Zero Experience Can Be a Good Thing in a Hire | Inc.com

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How do you get a consumer to stop scrolling through Twitter and click on something your brand created? That was the question Karina Wilsher, global COO of New York City ad agency Anomaly, was faced with answering for her clients. “If you look at the old model of advertising, it has an ascending story arc with a big reveal at the end, whereas in today’s world, with everyone on their phones, you need to deliver the headline first to get their attention,” she says. Rather than train her team to think like journalists, Wilsher went out and hired one–a former digital editor of The Wall Street Journal.

Anomaly hasn’t stopped with journalists. The award-winning agency, whose clients include Beats by Dre and Coca-Cola, has also recruited data scientists and technology- product designers. It turns out Anomaly is hardly, well, anomalous when it comes to companies reaching outside their conventional talent pool for fresh perspective, new ideas, and skepticism about business as usual. “If you want radical innovation, you need to look to unusual suspects,” says Marion Poetz, an innovation professor at Copenhagen Business School. As you find your industry being uprooted by technology, consider turning to outsider talent who can help push your company forward, so you don’t get left behind.

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Is Your Office Dress Code Reasonable? | Business News Daily

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The U.S. has no federal law governing employee dress codes. Because of that, employers are allowed to implement dress code guidelines they feel are appropriate as long as they do not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, religion, disability or any other federally protected status.

“Dress codes across industries have become more casual than ever – and what were once major taboos like jeans, stubble, messy buns, tattoos, have become increasingly commonplace in the modern workplace,” said Rachel Bitte, chief people officer at Jobvite.

Rather than attempting to create a strict atmosphere of fancy blouses tucked into long skirts and dress shirts with ties, many employers are now open to informal attire and personal fashion trends.

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Embracing Digital Disruption in the Business World | The Startup Magazine

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Technology has become so disruptive in the business world that sometimes its exact purpose can be forgotten.

From marketing to product development, to new software tools and communications, the list is almost endless as to the digital transformations taking place.

While disruption can be scary at first, it is absolutely necessary for any entrepreneurial aspiration.

Here’s how these three companies are embracing digital disruption that also satisfy a range of business needs.

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Don’t Do It Alone | Getentrepreneurial.com

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There’s a huge temptation when you have a crazy idea to keep it all to yourself but if you read the stories of those people that truly challenged convention you’ll often find a theme of sharing their idea with others that the mainstream media hasn’t really picked up on.

From Nike to Starbucks, the last 50 years have seen the creation of some huge brands by focused entrepreneurs who stand as figureheads to thousands of employees and billions of annual revenue. Yet despite being vastly different in operation, both of these giants hid a secret in plain sight.

The people behind these conglomerates may have been individually lauded as the men behind their respective brand success, but both openly admit to having shared the responsibility of growing their businesses and wouldn’t have succeeded without having done so.

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Why do airlines overbook their flights? | TechCrunch

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We’ve all been there: You arrive at the gate and it turns out there are more passengers wanting to fly from point A to point B than there are seats on the plane. You wouldn’t be the first person to have thought the thought that, “Well gee, if you only have 200 seats, why would you sell more than 200 tickets?” It turns out, however, that there are a couple of excellent reasons for doing this, powered by money, efficiency and a whole lot of statistical analysis.

Moving 900 million passengers around within the U.S. every year is no mean feat, and people travel for all sorts of different reasons, with leisure and business being the two dominating categories. The thing is, not everybody turns up to every flight. On average, the number of people not turning up to flights is around 5 percent, but, in certain circumstances, that number can be up to 15 percent. Obviously, that puts airlines in an interesting position.

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How Systems Make Your Business More Human | Duct Tape Marketing

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I’m a huge fan of technology. Without it, my business would be in a much different place than it is now. However, over-reliance on it can be a trap that puts you out of touch with your customers and can prevent you from building relationships that will help you get better at what you do and help you build a strong network and community.

To set you and your business up for success, and make sure you don’t fall victim to technology’s downfalls, you’ll need the following traits.

1. Systems to manage technology and chaos

In short, business systems allow your business to run without you. I cannot emphasize enough how important systems are for your organization. Putting systems in place helps you gain more clarity, control, confidence and customers for your business. When you develop systems, start with the outcome in mind and work backwards from there.

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Habitat For Humanity Wants To Make Affordable Housing Part Of The National Conversation | Fast Company

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When Donald Trump released a partial outline of his proposed 2018 budget, sectors across the U.S., from the arts and humanities to low-income community development, watched as critical funding streams were marched to the chopping block.

Habitat for Humanity, the largest nonprofit homebuilder in the world, was already planning its first-ever nationwide campaign to raise money for affordable housing before the budget proposal was released. But after the 2018 proposal–which would cut $6.2 billion (a 13.2% reduction) from the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), as well as numerous local improvement and anti-poverty programs–was released, it lent an extra layer of urgency to the Home is the Key initiative, which launched April 3 and will run for the entire month, Jonathan Reckford, CEO of Habitat for Humanity, tells Fast Company. HUD oversees and administers public housing and rental-assistance programs that millions of low-income Americans rely on; it also provides technical assistance and housing development grants to organizations like Habitat.

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The More We Allow Ourselves To Do Silly Things, The More Confident We Become | Life Hack

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How should a confident person be like?

Someone who does everything well, believes in his competence, and has pride in his achievements? Or someone who does stupid things occasionally in front of others?

The former description might seem to fit the typical definition of confident people. Innumerable articles and discussions tell us that to be more confident, we need to remind ourselves of what we have achieved whenever we doubt ourselves.

But what if the answer is the other way round? In fact, the ones who are more willing to accept their idiocies are more confident.

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