Having Mom in the Car Changes Teen Driver’s Brain | Live Science

April 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In a bittersweet rite of passage, each year a new crop of parents buckles up for their teens’ first time behind the wheel. Now, a new study suggests that their mother’s watchful eye helps teens learn to make safer decisions while driving.

In the study, researchers designed a driving simulation test that actually encouraged risk-taking behavior, and asked 25 teens to complete the simulation as quickly as possible. At each of the 26 intersections in the simulation, the teens had the option to stop for a yellow light, which would cause a three-second delay, or speed through the light — which was the fastest option — if they didn’t crash. If they did crash, it caused a six-second delay in their total time. The teens went through the course once each on their own, and once under the gaze of mom.

The 3 Skills You Need to Lead Organizational change | Page19

April 28, 2015April 29, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What happens when a culture is wrong? What does it take to change it? One thing’s for sure: you’ll need a deft leader. A new book by Roger Connors and Tom Smith, Change the Culture, Change the Game, tells how to effect cultural change within organizations.

You hear it all the time. Article after article, blog post after blog post talks about company culture or company DNA. These words were chosen because they represent something intrinsic and nigh-unchangeable. But what happens when culture is wrong? What happens when the DNA is bad?

Well, if you’re a species, you probably go extinct. Ouch. Obviously for a business, this is not an ideal result. So let’s say that you’ve identified a feature in your organization’s culture that needs to change. If it’s really in your culture—in your company DNA—it’s going to take more than a memo to change it.

Amazon Launches Amazon Business Marketplace, Will Close AmazonSupply | Forbes

April 28, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In 2012, Amazon.com AMZN -1.01% quietly launched AmazonSupply, the e-commerce company’s foray into the unsexy but hugely lucrative world of B2B wholesale.

By 2014, when Forbes covered the burgeoning business, AmazonSupply was already offering 2.2 million products for sale in 17 categories, from tools and home improvement to janitorial supplies, stocking everything from 12-packs of Hawaiian Punch to schedule-40 stainless steel pipe.

Industry insiders were already concerned about the potential impact of AmazonSupply on America’s 35,000 distribution companies, almost all of which are regional and family-run. Could they compete with AmazonSupply’s infrastructure and deep cache of consumer data?

Now Amazon is taking its quest to win over the $7.2 trillion B2B sector a step further. On Tuesday, the Seattle-based web giant is launching Amazon Business, a new platform aiming to do for business customers what Amazon.com has done for everyday shoppers.

Until We Meet Again part 2 | Peter Mehit

April 27, 2015April 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

You’ve no doubt heard the expression that a person has a ‘hidden agenda’. We’re here to tell you the shocking truth. Everybody has a ‘hidden agenda’ and only a few people have an actual agenda. I know, I was scared too when I first heard this.

Are agendas important? You bet. Without one, meetings are unstructured discussions that will take longer than you expect and won’t deliver the results you want. With one, you’ll make millions and be ecstatically happy every day. Well, maybe not, but you’ll be happier than you would have been without one.

To be successful, agendas need to be:

Realistic – Can you really get to all the items on the agenda in the time you have? This is important because you always have to finish on time (more later).

Continue reading “Until We Meet Again part 2 | Peter Mehit” →

ESPN Sues Verizon Over Its TV Packages Aimed At Cord Cutters | TechCrunch

April 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Verizon has apparently hit a snag with regard to its efforts aimed at cord cutters. The cable TV provider recently introduced a way to purchase TV channel packages via à la carte bundles. But today, ESPN filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against which argues that Verizon’s move to break out ESPN’s channels into a separate sports tier that isn’t a part of the core package is not authorized by existing contracts.

ESPN had previously declared its unhappiness with Verizon’s new channel packages earlier this month, shortly after they went live for Verizon’s cable customers. The network a little over a week ago released a statement which claimed that Verizon didn’t have the right to release packages that removed ESPN from the core lineup.

With its new “cord cutter” bundles, Verizon is offering a $59.99 base package which consumers can add extra content on top of, as they choose.

According to Verizon, these TV packages are aimed at offering traditional cable subscribers more options when it comes to constructing the sort of channel lineup they want. It’s meant to stave off those who would otherwise want to drop their cable TV subscriptions entirely, or drop down to basic cable in an effort to save money.

Success Is Controlling How You Spend Your Time | Inc.com

April 27, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

I blew the mind of one of my Babson College students this morning.

Like most people, he believes that success is measured by how much money you have and how much money you make. By that measure, there is no single individual who is the world’s most successful.

After all, Bill Gates–whose net worth totaled $79.6 billion according to Forbes’s January 29, 2015, tally–probably has the most money, but I sincerely doubt he makes the most money every year.

That title probably goes to a hedge fund manager. For example, Ray Dalio–who runs $120 billion (assets under management) Bridgewater Associates–pulled in a cool $3 billion in personal earnings last year, according to Forbes.

But if you believe that success means both having the highest net worth and getting paid the most every year, then neither Gates nor Dalio is successful.

That’s because the pursuit of the most wealth or the highest annual income is success only if you keep winning every year. Otherwise, you are going to spend time trying to figure out how you can get to be number one–rather than taking pleasure in what you have achieved.

Google Is About to Make Your Wireless Carrier a Lot Less Relevant | WIRED

April 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

GOOGLE’S NEW WIRELESS phone service, Project Fi, offers a long list of modern day perks. It automatically moves phones between traditional cellular networks and the WiFi wireless networks inside homes and businesses. Once on WiFi, you can still make calls and send texts. And you can pay for all this in small, flat, monthly fees—avoiding the sort of inflated, strings-attached pricing that so often accompanies our cell services.

Comcast abandons $45bn Time Warner Cable deal | BBC News

April 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Today, we move on,” said Comcast chairman Brian L Roberts.

“We structured this deal so that if the government didn’t agree, we could walk away.”

In March last year, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) launched an antitrust probe into the deal.

“The companies’ decision to abandon this deal is the best outcome for American consumers,” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement.

“This is a victory not only for the Department of Justice, but also for providers of content and streaming services who work to bring innovative products to consumers across America and around the world.”

The deal was also being scrutinised by the Federal Communications Commission, and had been criticised by some politicians and various consumer and industry groups.

Shares in Comcast declined slightly on the news, whereas Time Warner Cable’s were up slightly.

Three Strategies to Engage Your Clients | Getentrepreneurial.com

April 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“What have you done for me lately?” is the client attitude du jour. And by “lately,” they mean very recently. The number of client experiences with and impressions from your competition expands daily with a multitude of tech-driven access points.

Client engagement—from relationship to results—is a key to your increasing sales with greater productivity to get out of the office earlier to do what you love with those you love.

How do you strategically engage your clients?

Here are 3 Strategies to Engage Clients for more business:

Be Initiating

The Science Of Why You Should Spend Your Money On Experiences, Not Things | Co.Exist

April 24, 2015 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Most people are in the pursuit of happiness. There are economists who think happiness is the best indicator of the health of a society. We know that money can make you happier, though after your basic needs are met, it doesn’t make you that much happier. But one of the biggest questions is how to allocate our money, which is (for most of us) a limited resource.

There’s a very logical assumption that most people make when spending their money: that because a physical object will last longer, it will make us happier for a longer time than a one-off experience like a concert or vacation. According to recent research, it turns out that assumption is completely wrong.

“One of the enemies of happiness is adaptation,” says Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has been studying the question of money and happiness for over two decades. “We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.”