Think that a CEO is too high up in the corporate food chain to care about transparency and "radical trust?" Think again.
From last month's Wired magazine: Pretend for a second that you're a CEO. Would you reveal your deepest, darkest secrets online? Would you confess that you're an indecisive weakling, that your colleagues are inept, that you're not really sure if you can meet payroll? Sounds crazy, right? After all, Coke doesn't tell Pepsi what's in the formula. Nobody sane strips down naked in front of their peers. But that's exactly what Glenn Kelman did. And he thinks it saved his business.
Read the whole article HERE
Read the writer's (Clive Thomson's) blog (which he used to solicit input while writing the above article): http://www.collisiondetection.net
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
What’s Really Squeezing Middle Class Workers?
From today's NYT: There are two different stories people tend to tell when they're trying to explain why the middle class is feeling squeezed.
The first one is about inequality. The top 0.1 percent of earners -- that's one taxpayer out of every 1,000 -- now brings in 11 percent of the nation's total income, triple the share that they did just a generation ago. This has happened because the rich have grown ever richer, while the pay of rank-and-file workers hasn't risen much faster than inflation.
The second, related story is about instability. Layoffs seem to happen more frequently than they once did, and these job losses -- combined with the spread of bonus pay -- have caused workers' incomes to bounce around a lot more than in the past. So not only have middle-class families been getting meager raises, their finances have also become more volatile.
The story about inequality is indisputably true. But we're starting to learn that the second story, the one about instability, is more complicated. It may even end up being wrong...Read the whole story HERE.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Tomorrow! Chicago Creative Expo
From the Portfolio Center's News page: Chicago Creative Expo | April 21
Something for all creatives is the motto of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/Chicago Artist Resource's annual Chicago Creative Expo. On Saturday, April 21, from 10AM-4PM at the Chicago Cultural Center, venders and seminars will be a plenty with resources on issues such as affordable housing, creating a business plan, protecting intellectual property, insurance and the list goes on. The event seeks to connect artists with tool and services available to them in Chicago. So go and get connected...it's FREE!
Something for all creatives is the motto of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs/Chicago Artist Resource's annual Chicago Creative Expo. On Saturday, April 21, from 10AM-4PM at the Chicago Cultural Center, venders and seminars will be a plenty with resources on issues such as affordable housing, creating a business plan, protecting intellectual property, insurance and the list goes on. The event seeks to connect artists with tool and services available to them in Chicago. So go and get connected...it's FREE!
Next Gold Mine: Web Searching By Cellphone
From today's NYT: Searching the Web on a mobile phone has been a lot like getting online via dial-up modem circa 1995: slow, tedious and not terribly useful. Typing on tiny buttons, squinting at a list of links and clicking through to a page that won't display properly is enough to test anyone's patience.
But that is beginning to change. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all trained their sights on cellphones, which they see as the next great battleground in the Internet search wars. They have thrown tens of millions of dollars and armies of programmers at the problem, seeking to develop tools that people on the move can actually use.
In recent months, the three search giants have introduced a new breed of search services that emphasize quick answers to urgent questions: Where is the best local pizzeria? How did the Yankees do against the A's? What's the fastest way to get to the airport?
The services are beginning to carry small ads related to searches like those that have turned desktop Internet search into a gold mine...Read the whole article HERE
But that is beginning to change. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have all trained their sights on cellphones, which they see as the next great battleground in the Internet search wars. They have thrown tens of millions of dollars and armies of programmers at the problem, seeking to develop tools that people on the move can actually use.
In recent months, the three search giants have introduced a new breed of search services that emphasize quick answers to urgent questions: Where is the best local pizzeria? How did the Yankees do against the A's? What's the fastest way to get to the airport?
The services are beginning to carry small ads related to searches like those that have turned desktop Internet search into a gold mine...Read the whole article HERE
Auditioning in a Video Résumé
From tomorrow's NYT (online today): ...“Today’s executives not only have to be photogenic, but also telegenic for anything from basic blogs to podcasts,” said Rachel Weingarten, author of the coming book “Career and Corporate Cool” (Wiley, July 2007). “Since this information is also more widely available and accessible, there’s less of a chance to impress people, and the concern is that the immediate sound bite, video loop or MP3 be dazzling.”
Vault Inc., a career consulting firm, informally asked employers if they would watch a video résumé if it were submitted to them, and most said yes."...
Read the whole article HERE
Vault Inc., a career consulting firm, informally asked employers if they would watch a video résumé if it were submitted to them, and most said yes."...
Read the whole article HERE
Friday, April 13, 2007
Stock prices are dropping, so...start spying on staff?
From today's NYT: ..."paranoia has set in at Wal-Mart. The otherwise cost-conscious company spent millions to spy on employees and critics.
First we learned that a Wal-Mart employee taped phone calls between Michael Barbaro, a New York Times reporter, and Wal-Mart officials. This came after The Times reported on a Wal-Mart memo that suggested such clever tactics as forcing all shop clerks to spend some time hauling shopping carts in from the parking lot -- the better to weed out unhealthy workers who might submit health insurance claims.
Wal-Mart fired the employee it said was responsible for taping the calls, a man named Bruce Gabbard, and said his actions were unauthorized. Then Mr. Gabbard started talking to The Wall Street Journal, saying the department he worked for had spied on critics. Wal-Mart quickly issued apologies to the critics and got a judge to order Mr. Gabbard to stop talking.
Mr. Gabbard said he told a Wal-Mart lawyer that "I'm the guy listening to the board of directors when Lee Scott is excused from the room."
Read the whole article HERE
First we learned that a Wal-Mart employee taped phone calls between Michael Barbaro, a New York Times reporter, and Wal-Mart officials. This came after The Times reported on a Wal-Mart memo that suggested such clever tactics as forcing all shop clerks to spend some time hauling shopping carts in from the parking lot -- the better to weed out unhealthy workers who might submit health insurance claims.
Wal-Mart fired the employee it said was responsible for taping the calls, a man named Bruce Gabbard, and said his actions were unauthorized. Then Mr. Gabbard started talking to The Wall Street Journal, saying the department he worked for had spied on critics. Wal-Mart quickly issued apologies to the critics and got a judge to order Mr. Gabbard to stop talking.
Mr. Gabbard said he told a Wal-Mart lawyer that "I'm the guy listening to the board of directors when Lee Scott is excused from the room."
Read the whole article HERE
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Not all is well with the Weinstein Company
From today's NYT: As last weekend’s box-office take for the heavily promoted “Grindhouse” tumbled in at just $11.6 million, a chilly realization came with the numbers: Not all is well with the Weinstein Company.
Indeed, the namesake entertainment boutique founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein as they acrimoniously left Miramax and the Walt Disney Company two years ago has seen its highly visible movie operation suffer humiliations that might have sunk a less tenacious start-up...Read the whole article HERE.
A brief side note: Celia went to high school with Troy Duffy who was (in)famously given a chance to live the Hollywood dream when Harvey Weinstein gave him a million dollars for a screenplay (not to mention buying him the bar where he was working when "discovered"). The subsequent crashing and burning of Troy's career was made into a documentary called Overnight. Here's an article from the NYT about this cautionary tale of "False Hope, Hubris and Tinseltown. Fans of schadenfreude and/or comeuppance, Google "troy duffy" and "usa today" for more reading
Indeed, the namesake entertainment boutique founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein as they acrimoniously left Miramax and the Walt Disney Company two years ago has seen its highly visible movie operation suffer humiliations that might have sunk a less tenacious start-up...Read the whole article HERE.
A brief side note: Celia went to high school with Troy Duffy who was (in)famously given a chance to live the Hollywood dream when Harvey Weinstein gave him a million dollars for a screenplay (not to mention buying him the bar where he was working when "discovered"). The subsequent crashing and burning of Troy's career was made into a documentary called Overnight. Here's an article from the NYT about this cautionary tale of "False Hope, Hubris and Tinseltown. Fans of schadenfreude and/or comeuppance, Google "troy duffy" and "usa today" for more reading
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Cruise’s Studio Hires a Disney Executive
United Artists, the boutique film studio being revived under Tom Cruise and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, said yesterday that it had recruited a top executive from the film operation of the Walt Disney Company, Dennis Rice, as its president for worldwide marketing and publicity...Read the brief NYT article HERE
Read about this recruitment in the Hollywood Reporter or Variety
Read about this recruitment in the Hollywood Reporter or Variety
Want help to quit smoking, go green or spend more quality time with your family? Work at Wal-mart.
From today's NYT: A New Program to Offer White-Collar Perks To Chain's Workers: In the last year, Wal-Mart has quietly introduced an ambitious program in the United States -- in equal parts self-help class, corporate retreat and tent revival -- that tries to turn its 1.3 million workers into a model for its 200 million customers on issues ranging from personal health to the environment.
The program, to be announced today, tests the assumption, if not conventional wisdom, that environmentalism and fitness are luxuries of the well-off, inaccessible to a vast number of the nation's working class because of hectic schedules, stretched budgets and bad habits.
At the same time, it thrusts Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, far deeper into workers' personal lives than the company -- and perhaps any retailer -- has ever reached before.
In extensive workshops held nationwide, the company is teaching its employees the benefits of carpooling to work with three colleagues (for a savings of $400 a year on gas), quitting cigarette smoking ($1,500 a year) and turning off a television ($40 a year in electricity, plus more time to spend with family).
The program, called the personal sustainability project, is voluntary, but it is proving popular, with roughly 50 percent of employees in a dozen states signing up so far...Read the whole article HERE
The program, to be announced today, tests the assumption, if not conventional wisdom, that environmentalism and fitness are luxuries of the well-off, inaccessible to a vast number of the nation's working class because of hectic schedules, stretched budgets and bad habits.
At the same time, it thrusts Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer, far deeper into workers' personal lives than the company -- and perhaps any retailer -- has ever reached before.
In extensive workshops held nationwide, the company is teaching its employees the benefits of carpooling to work with three colleagues (for a savings of $400 a year on gas), quitting cigarette smoking ($1,500 a year) and turning off a television ($40 a year in electricity, plus more time to spend with family).
The program, called the personal sustainability project, is voluntary, but it is proving popular, with roughly 50 percent of employees in a dozen states signing up so far...Read the whole article HERE
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Automatic wage increases over time--what happens when you're laid off?
From today's NYT: Over the years, American companies have built a pretty extensive social safety net for their workers. The clearest examples of it are pensions and health insurance, which became popular during the wage freeze of World War II, when employers were looking for creative ways to give raises. Today, the United States is the only major country in the world where the private sector plays such a big role in caring for the old and the sick.
But the corporate version of the welfare state is not just about retirement and health care. Another, much less obvious, piece of it is the steadily increasing pay that most workers receive over the course of their careers. All else equal, a typical worker in his early 60s makes about 50 percent more than a worker in his early 30s.
This arrangement produces some enormous benefits for society...Read the whole article HERE
But the corporate version of the welfare state is not just about retirement and health care. Another, much less obvious, piece of it is the steadily increasing pay that most workers receive over the course of their careers. All else equal, a typical worker in his early 60s makes about 50 percent more than a worker in his early 30s.
This arrangement produces some enormous benefits for society...Read the whole article HERE
Monday, April 02, 2007
The (non) coverage of layoffs
An essay from today's NYT: When executives at Circuit City decided last Wednesday to cut costs by laying off 3,400 of their most experienced salesclerks, they undoubtedly went through a number of calculations: that they could save $250 million over two years; that consumers are inured to bad service; and that the layoffs would be a one-day blip in the news.
They were right about the last part...Read the whole article HERE
They were right about the last part...Read the whole article HERE
Pushing a New Writer Upstream
Increasing numbers of aspiring authors are embarking on pre-publication book tours:
From today's NYT: "Unlike the postpublication book tour, which focuses on publicity and public appearances, the pre-publication tour is meant to win the hearts of the front-line soldiers in the bookselling trenches, and more and more publishers are finding it an indispensable part of their marketing plan." Read the whole article HERE
From today's NYT: "Unlike the postpublication book tour, which focuses on publicity and public appearances, the pre-publication tour is meant to win the hearts of the front-line soldiers in the bookselling trenches, and more and more publishers are finding it an indispensable part of their marketing plan." Read the whole article HERE
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