August 2016

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 aug 2016

Technology-driven transformations are clearly visible in human resources management. HR experts from Forbes Human Resources Council share their views regarding five areas where technology is impacting to make human resource practices more effective and efficient - (1) Digital Interviews Save Time And Money: Rohit Paul of Academy For Urban School Leadership, says, 'Digital interviewing allowed candidates to use whichever technology they preferred - phone, tablet or laptop - to record their responses and provided screeners with an opportunity to review on their own time. It saved my team hundreds if not thousands of hours.' (2) Everyone Can Connect Through Social Media: Ben Martinez of HireVue, says, 'Social media opened doors for human resources professionals years ago, allowing us to be more open and to connect with people in a different way...we use live-streaming apps like Periscope or Facebook Live for big meetings or Snapchat to share stories of our workdays.' (3) Paper Records Are Now Digital: Sarah O'Neill of Digital Trends, says, 'Technology has allowed everything from new hire paperwork to cases of discrimination to be easily trackable by including date/time stamps and reminders to help keep never-sleeping HR departments on track.' (4) More Focus Can Be Placed On Relationship Building: Angela Nguyen of Ad Exchange Group, says, 'With technology greatly helping to streamline (basic HR tasks)...professionals can now spend more time on what humans do better than machines. They can keep their ears to the ground, analyze what motivates employees, ensure that values from leadership align with the culture of the company, and refine ways to develop stronger and happier teams.' (5) Geographical Boundaries Are Eliminated: Sabrina McGrail of Techstars, says, 'It's now entirely possible to have a global team and talent pool...alignment to our values is stronger than it's ever been. That wouldn't be possible without tools like Slack and advanced video conferencing.' Read on...

Forbes: Five Ways Technology Is Impacting HR For The Better
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 aug 2016

The interactions and engagement of brands with their audience and customers now happens in real-time, thanks to social media and technological innovations. But the similar engagement with employees and worker is far off, and happens only through annual performance reviews or employee surveys. Michael Papay, Co-founder and CEO of Waggl, explains, 'Even organizations that really care about personal development typically run a 360-degree feedback process only every 3-5?...Most business and HR leaders agree that traditional methods of listening to and engaging with employees, while full of positive intent, have had little impact on driving business health, let alone business strategy. Yet, despite this shift in attitude, most organizations are still relying primarily on the annual survey to communicate with employees.' Waggl conducted a survey on its platform obtaining response from 575 people (business leaders, HR leaders and consultants) - 98% were positive about listening to employees and incorporating their ideas is critical to an organization's success; Only 38% were positive about hearing from employees once a year (via an annual survey) gives organizations the timely insights they need to be successful. Following were the response (526 answers, 7550 votes) about top human capital/people priority for 2016 - (1) Encouraging/engendering a growth/ownership mindset, we call it leadership at all levels. (2) Leadership development throughout the field, with a strong emphasis on personal accountability. (3) Agility, collaboration and trust. (4) Finding the right talent who are innovative and can take the organizations to the next level. (5) Influencing the company culture to have more authentic, people oriented people managers and reward and promote those who are successfully engaging their people, not the ones that get the best results but do not show the right leadership behaviors. Read on...

Business 2 Community: The Importance of Developing a People Strategy that Supports Your Business Strategy
Author: Michael Papay

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 aug 2016

Businesses work in ever changing environment and they have to effectively adapt to it for survival and success. Continuous learning and knowledge seeking approach can help owners and employees safeguard their business's future. Nowadays, with technology-enabled knowledge and learning available all the time online, they don't even have to leave their work and can get it whenever they have time. Flexibility and accessability are the strengths of online education. Currently, with a number of online initiatives by many education providers, the range of learning modules available in a number of diverse fields have multiplied. The choice is in the hands of the learner and acquiring new skills is just a click or tap away. Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) provide courses on various topics of business, management, technology etc, and students can submit coursework, receive feedback and marks, and participate in duscussion forums with mentors and peers. Synchronised teaching allow students and teachers to connect and communicate in real-time from different locations. MOOCs have made massive progress since 2008, when they were first launched. Many traditional education providers have MOOCs as part of their online strategy. MOOCs incorporate various elements like forums, social networks, blogs, videos and written materials as part of their learning environment. With continuing advancements in communication technologies, MOOCs will also improve and transformation will also happen in their business model. Latest concept under research in online education is MiRTLEs (Mixed Reality Teaching and Learning Environments). The emphasis here is to enable students to virtually join a lecture through webcam. As the research in online education continues, there will always be availability of better learning environments that fulfil the needs of business owners and their employees. Read on...

Tech.co: 2 Ways Technology Revolutionized Online Education
Author: Marcelo Brahimllari

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 aug 2016

Entrepreneurs thrive in regions and countries that have developed better and facilitating entrepreneurial ecosystem than others. According to Alberta's Center for Innovation Studies, Canada has the second-highest level of entrepreneurial activity in the world. Andrea Stairs, Managing Director of eBay Canada, provide five traits of successful online entrepreneurs shared by winners of eBay Canada's 'Entrepreneur of the Year' award - (1) They are strategic. They map out their growth. A recent BDC survey of Canadian entrepreneurs found that successful businesses are much more likely (71%) to have a strategic plan than less successful companies (46%). (2) They think globally from the outset. (3) They focus on niches to differentiate themselves from the competition. (4) They are passionate and resourceful. (5) They are resilient. They learn from failure and pivot in the face of obstacles. Read on...

Huffington Post: 5 Traits Of Successful Online Entrepreneurs
Author: Andrea Stairs

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 20 aug 2016

Social media provides ease of connecting and sharing information with ones network and communities. Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising works towards bringing the supporters and their networks together for financial contributions. Social media can be an effective tool to reach donors and networks to fulfil nonprofit's fundraising goals. Following 8 strategies can be utilized to successfully implement social media into P2P fundraising campaign - (1) Optimize online components - Ensure that all fundraising pages are functional, user-friendly and mobile responsive; WHY: Strong online fundraising gives a positive signal to supporters. Social media is an extension of online fundraising. Having a strong online background is needed to support individual fundraisers that may lack technological expertise; WHAT: A clear, straightforward, and simple fundraising page. A platform that allows individual fundraisers to create their own giving pages. Active social media accounts. (2) Tell a cohesive, simple story - Telling a story about the recipients of your aid is the perfect way to engage with social media while reaching your donors; WHY: Compelling stories add value to your nonprofit. They connect people to people, generating an emotional response that can lead to action; WHAT: An individual or a community to focus your story. An interview with your chosen subject. An accompanying photo. A short, postable format. (3) Use a multimedia approach - Pictures, videos and sound, capture our attention. They offer the user a diverse, vivid experience, one that can connect supporters more directly to the cause; WHAT: High-quality content. A posting schedule. (4) Strategize for each platform - Nonprofits often post the same content to each site with little adjustment. For maximum effectiveness the approach should differ for each platform; WHY: Different social media platforms offer different opportunities for engagement, and likewise, different opportunities to reach your donors in meaningful ways; WHAT: Hashtags. Character-limit copy. The right language. Specific calls to action. (5) Post, share, tag, and like - Active social media presence gives positive signals. It also helps in tracking the online conversations regarding the campaign; WHY: Liking and sharing supporters' fundraising milestones and accomplishments shows supporters that you're engaged with their work and appreciate what they've done for your mission. Posting the campaign's success at regular intervals inspires individual fundraisers to keep working toward long-term goals; WHAT: A social media coordinator. Tracking tools. The rules of operation. (6) Set goals for your fundraisers - Set goals in a way inspires your supporters and anyone who stumbles upon your campaign; WHY: Clearly displayed goal will show the supporters the level of progress they have made and how much more is needed. Similarly, an individual goal establishes each individual fundraiser's role in the campaign. Setting clear goals is the only way for your supporters to meet your expectations; WHAT: Fundraising metrics. Fundraising thermometers. Integrate fundraising goals into user-friendly pages for clear communication at different stages. (7) Provide toolkits to supporters - Right materials and tools helps to keep message consistent and clear for supporters and their networks; WHY: Providing toolkits helps supporters create the most effective tasks. Provide templates to easily relay the message; WHAT: Suggested copy. Images. Suggested posting schedule. Background information. (8) Generate friendly competition - Needed to push the campaign reach its goal within time and even go beyond its goal; WHY: Competition inspires to work effectively with vigour. It's easy for family and friends to get caught up in the fun and donate more to see their own reach the goal and get on top; WHAT: Leaderboards. Badges. Recognition. Read on...

Crowdfund Insider: 8 Social Media Strategies for Nonprofit Peer-to-Peer Fundraising
Author: Abby Jarvis

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 aug 2016

According to WordStream.com, 'Marketing analytics is the practice of measuring, managing and analyzing marketing performance to maximize its effectiveness and optimize return on investment (ROI). Understanding marketing analytics allows marketers to be more efficient at their jobs and minimize wasted web marketing dollars. Beyond the obvious sales and lead generation applications, marketing analytics can offer profound insights into customer preferences and trends. Despite these compelling benefits, a majority of organizations fail to ever realize the promises of marketing analytics.' It is imperative for marketers to overcome analytics related challenges and bring customers closer to the brands and serve each one of them in the best possible way. Ensuring better data quality, effective knowledge and skills to analyze data, focus and clarity of goals, collaborative approach and creativity, will provide what marketing analytics promises. In KPMG's 2016 Global CEO Outlook, 84% of CEO's indicated their concern about the quality of the data they use to make decisions. Moreover, Forrester Research noted that 58% of the work in a business intelligence initiative is spent on trying to find the right data and integrate it for analysis. Openprise released a study on marketing data management, noting barriers to data management success included - Poor data use/accessibility (54%); Poor data quality (44%); Poor database integration (37%). Study by Ascend found similar challenges to data-driven marketing, listing integrating data across platforms and enriching data quality and completeness as the top two challenges. Finding the right data and analyzing it properly and gain valuable insights is the key to effective data-driven marketing. This requires specialized knowledge and expertise for marketers. eMarketer points to an IAB study that found that 34.8% noted a lack of internal experience at the functional and operational level as a major obstacle to deploying and deriving value from data-driven marketing. Moreover, collaborative approach and focus are other critical factors required to get maximum results. Amar Doshi, VP of Product at 6sense, says, 'Marketing can't operate in a silo if the enterprise wants to be successful at data-driven marketing. It takes a team that includes resources across the organization to work together.' He adds, 'Marketers are also trying to do too much and, as a result, not doing anything well.' The key is to agree on performance goals and metrics. CMO Solution Guide suggests to always be testing and measuring. But in all these processes and focus, importance of creativity should never be forgotten. Robert Glazer, founder and managing director of Acceleration Partners, says, 'Marketing needs to do both, but too often it's choosing the data over creative. Focusing on creative doesn't mean ignoring data. In fact, data plays an important role in directing creative. Incorporating both data and creativity means maintaining a balance between insight-driven ideas and compelling execution. Smart marketers bring their creative team and data geeks together.' Read on...

diginomica: Why do marketers struggle to do analytics well?
Author: Barb Mosher Zinck

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 12 aug 2016

Team of multidisciplinary researchers from Case Western Reserve University (USA) [Victoria Webster; Roger Quinn; Hillel Chiel; Ozan Akkus; Umut Gurkan; Emma L. Hawley; Jill M. Patel; Katherine J. Chapin], have created a 'biohybrid' robot by combining sea slug materials with 3D printed parts, that can crawl like sea turtle. Scientists suggest that in future, swarms of biohybrid robots could be released for such tasks as locating the source of a toxic leak in a pond that would send animals fleeing. They could also be used to search the ocean floor for a black box flight data recorder, a potentially long process that may leave current robots stilled with dead batteries. According to Ms. Webster, PhD student and lead researcher, 'We're building a living machine - a biohybrid robot that's not completely organic - yet. For the searching tasks, we want the robots to be compliant, to interact with the environment. One of the problems with traditional robotics, especially on the small scale, is that actuators - the units that provide movement - tend to be rigid.' Researchers also explain that if completely organic robots prove workable a swarm released at sea or in a pond or a remote piece of land, won't be much of a worry if they can't be recovered. They're likely to be inexpensive and won't pollute the location with metals and battery chemicals but be eaten or degrade into compost. Read on...

think - CWRU Blog: Researchers build a crawling robot from sea slug parts and a 3-D printed body
Author: Kevin Mayhood

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 04 aug 2016

According to Wikipedia, 'Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) became popular in 1960s and is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a self-regulatory mechanism whereby a business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and national and international norms.' While BusinessDictionary.com defines CSR as 'A company's sense of responsibility towards the community and environment (both ecological and social) in which it operates. Companies express this citizenship - (1) Through their waste and pollution reduction processes. (2) By contributing educational and social programs. (3) By earning adequate returns on the employed resources.' According to a Global CSR Study conducted by Cone Communications/Ebiquity, 91% of global consumers expect companies to do more than make a profit but also operate responsibly to address social and environmental issues. From integrating a social mission into cross-departmental activities to engaging in sustainability practices, there are myriad ways in which organizations can adopt both a good business and commerce-driven model. A new report from PSFK Labs, 'Impact Debrief', explores how brands can innovate around this decades-old concept of CSR to elevate their social impact and influence. The study provides 5 key ingredients for creating social innovation - (1) Identify And Unite Around A Relevant Social Problem. (2) Promote Cross-Functional Integration. (3) Incentivize And Empower Employees. (4) Create Value By Maximizing Sustainability Efforts. (5) Deliver Transparency. Read on...

PSFK: The 5 Fundamentals For Corporate Social Innovation
Author: NA