Negotiation Tips for Independent Consultants | Management Consulting Connection

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Negotiating is typically hard for everyone, but it’s especially tough for consultants. It’s our nature to make the client happy, so negotiating for a higher rate feels awkward. But when you’re self-employed, even the smallest increase in your rate can translate to big bucks, particularly if the rate is for a long project, or if you’re working with an ongoing client.

I recently discovered a series of practical tips on Instagram, of all places, by following Johanna Voss, owner of a boutique talent agency for female influencers and keynote speakers. With her permission, here are her three essential negotiation tips that every consultant should know.

Read More

Better Managers Isn’t Enough for Higher Engagement | Markovitz Consulting

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Walker cites research by Gallup showing that the quality of middle managers determines 70% of the variance between high-performing and low-performing companies. Because managers can instill (or at least heighten) a sense of purpose and meaning in employees’ work, they drive the critical measure of employee engagement, which Gallup defines as a belief among employees that they’re doing meaningful work in a climate that supports personal growth. And that in turn leads to lower turnover, higher productivity and better profits.

This isn’t really an earth-shattering insight (even if the high level of correlation is eye-opening). We’ve all heard the maxim that workers don’t leave companies; they leave their managers. So this makes sense.

But what’s most dangerous in Walker’s prescription is that companies simply need to hire (or train) better managers, and everything will be right with the world. He places the burden for increasing engagement on the individual manager.

That seems risky to me. There’s so much variability in people and environments that a “good” manager in one situation might not be a good manager in another.

Read More

Women Drop These 5 Behaviors to Get Ahead at Work | Business

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The advancement of female talent is a multi-faceted, many-phased journey. While much attention is rightfully placed on changing corporate culture, attacking unconscious bias and moving away from the “old boy network” paradigm, there’s comparatively little focus on the needed shifts in attitudes and behavior by women themselves.

In our decades of working with major corporations in developing their female talent, we have pinpointed five career-thwarting behaviors women need to jettison. While women themselves must choose to shed these behaviors, success depends on the help and support of their managers, mentors and organizational leaders. Women have to do it themselves, but they can’t do it alone.

Read More

The next clash of Silicon Valley titans will take place in space | Digital Trends

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Like one of those comic book supervillain crossovers where The Joker meets Lex Luthor or Doctor Doom takes on Magneto, the world’s biggest tech companies are battling one another — with Earth as their ultimate prize.

That might sound a bit melodramatic, but it also sums up a recent trend by Silicon Valley companies looking to bring the internet to our planet’s furthest reaches by launching their very own internet satellites into orbit. Far from some obscure skunkworks project from companies with way too much money, however, these launches have the possibility to finally make the world the hyper-connected place that tech giants dream of. At stake? The chance to connect every last person on the planet to the internet. Oh, and many, many billions of dollars, too.

Read More

Sam Mustafa’s Tips for Obtaining “Regulars” in the Restaurant Business | The Startup Magazine

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The regular customer is the backbone of every restaurant’s business. Regulars fill seats and they are more likely to recommend their favorite restaurants to their friends and families. Experienced restaurateur Sam Mustafa from Charleston, South Carolina shares his tips and tricks for new restaurant owners who want to attract regular customers.

Remember their Names

In a larger restaurant, this may be difficult, but make sure that your manager and your most loyal wait staff know the names and families of the regulars. Nothing makes a customer feel more special than walking into a restaurant and being recognized as a regular. It is an ego boost to the customer and creates instant goodwill.

Read More

4 Things To Know About Property Valuation In Real Estate | The Startup Magazine

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The value of a property can best be described as its current worth that relates to the future benefits that will be drawn from it by its rightful owners. Real estate property isn’t quickly consumed as compared to other goods. As such, the benefits of it are always seen after long time periods.

The estimate of the value of real estate property takes into consideration factors such as social and economic trends, environmental conditions, and government regulations that have been set, all of which go a long way in influencing the property valuation.

Read More

How TerraCycle Persuaded Unilever, Nestle, and Procter & Gamble to Redesign Their Product Packaging | Inc.com

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Take a look at your pantry or maybe the cupboard where you keep the cleaning supplies. Chances are, most of the household products you buy are packaged in plastic. About one-third of the world’s plastic winds up in the ocean, according to the World Economic Forum–that amounts to a garbage truck’s worth of plastic dumped into the sea every minute. Meanwhile, only 14 percent of it is collected to be recycled.

A New Jersey company called TerraCycle thinks it’s time for a better, more radical solution: zero waste. Under the company’s Loop system, which launches in April, containers are designed to be reused. As in: You’ll be using the same bottle that someone–or a lot of people–has already used.

Read More

The government is about to permanently bar the IRS from creating a free electronic filing system | TechCrunch

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to pressure from tax preparation industry, Congress is getting ready to ban the Internal Revenue Service from ever building a free electronic tax filing system.

As ProPublica reports, the effort is a bipartisan one. The House Ways and Means Committee, led by Massachusetts Democrat, Richard Neal, passed the Taxpayer First Act.

The bill would make changes to the IRS and is sponsored by Georgia Democratic Congressman John Lewis and Mike Kelly, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

One of its stipulations would make it illegal for the IRS to create its own online system for tax filing. That’s right, members of Congress are prohibiting a branch of the federal government from providing a much-needed service that would make the lives of all of their constituents much easier.

Read More

A New Breed of ATM Hackers Gets in Through a Bank’s Network | WIRED

~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

OVER THE PAST few years, scammers have increasingly siphoned cash off of digital payment networks, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars so far. Not only is the problem hard to contain; new findings show that it’s evolving and maturing, with new types of ATM malware on the rise.

Researchers at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit in Singapore are presenting findings on Wednesday about a new wave of payment system scams. Beyond so-called jackpotting attacks, which cause individual ATMs to spit out money, hackers are manipulating ATM networks and the digital authentication checks in the machines to cash out fraudulent transfers they initiate around the globe.

Read More