Business & Finance

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 feb 2014

Proper geriatric or elderly care is a critical component of the healthcare ecosystem. Due to physical and mental conditions of the old age and related disorders and diseases, focused planning and management to provide better lifestyle to the elders is a necessity. Technology can also play an important role by assisting the seniors while they spend their life in the comfort of their homes. Large number of companies are participating to develop devices and applications for this segment of the aging population. According to Laurie M. Orlov, a geriatric care specialist, the market is expected to grow from US$ 2 billion (2013) to US$ 20 billion by 2020 and most of this growth will be in areas such as remote health monitoring. Entrepreneurs, Geof Auchinleck designed a health monitoring tablet device specifically for seniors living at home, and Robert Herzog developed a healthcare management system that can be used by caregivers, health professionals and family members. Read on...

The Age: Want to grow old at home? Technology to the rescue
Author: Mark Miller

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 jan 2014

Customers are becoming more aware and knowledgeable about the products and services that are provided by companies and expect customer service to attend them effectively, efficiently and with an understanding approach. In a highly competitive business environment companies are using all possible resources to acquire and retain customers, and are trying to restrict them to switch to other comparable brands. Customer service is at the forefront of this customer acquisition and retention process. But all companies aren't able to provide proactive customer service and are still stuck in the older methods of reactive customer service. Article provides detailed example of a customer service delivery process by two companies, one of them is a CDN (Content Delivery Network) and the other a managed hosting service provider, serving the same client. The hosting provider has proactive approach (frequent and continued communication of the problem's status and step by step explanation of the solution process) while CDN had a reactive approach (only responding to client messages without providing assurance of solving the problem or trying to find a way to tackle it). Author also provides some basic steps that fulfil the requirement of a proactive customer service approach - Have processes that track potential problems before customers know them; Automate customer contact when a problem alert happens and manually evaluate severity of problem; Communicate humanly and effectively with customers when problem is identified; Don't keep users in the dark and share with them the solution process; Engage all possible communication channels and utilize the ones that customer prefers and is comfortable with. Read on...

ClickZ: Proactive vs. Reactive Customer Service
Author: Jack Aaronson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 jan 2014

According to the recent research brief by MediaPost, online advertising is still lagging behind substantially in terms of total ad spending by global firms in the first six months of 2013 - TV (57.6%), Newspapers (18.9%), Magazines (10%), Radio (5.4%), Internet (4.3%), Outdoor (3.5%), Cinema (0.3%). But what is to be noted here is that TV ads cost substantially more than any other media. Another important fact that is found in the data provided by Nielsen is the fastest growth of the internet-based advertising spend globally during the same period - Internet (26.6%), Outdoor (5%), TV (4.2%), Magazines (-1.9%), Newspapers (-2%). The rise in online advertising is even higher in Asia-Pacific (43%) and Latin American (38.5%) countries. Read on...

Examiner: The most hyped advertising medium is the world's third smallest
Author: Bruce Goldman

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 jan 2014

Technological advancements and innovations bring game changing shifts in the dynamics of industries. Data science is transforming the online advertising industry with newer concepts and technologies like real-time bidding, advertising exchanges, social media, retargeting techniques, lookalike targeting, online data dashboards, analytics softwares like Hadoop etc. Technology have also led to the democratization of online advertising, and even businesses with smaller advertising budgets are been able to utilize it. Use of big data and analytics is providing advertisers with information, insights and tools to focus on specific consumers and market segments for better value and return on their advertising campaigns. But to interpret and utilize the data in right context and for maximum impact, newer set of skills are required by advertising human resources. Data scientists are expected to have knowledge of mathematics and statistics alongwith expertise in using spreadsheets and other analytics tools. Read on...

the guardian: What's the role of data scientists on online advertising?
Author: Tony Evans

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 jan 2014

Diversity in entrepreneurial and product development teams is capable of bringing not only valuable inputs and perspectives but can also make firms enhance and expand to markets they haven't actually planned to target. In case of most mobile apps that are currently been developed, the founders are young and educated and most of them are trying to serve the market that they themselves belong. But there is lack of apps development for the other segments like elderly, rural population, less effluent etc. Although there are some efforts in healthcare focused mobile apps development for senior population. According to an expert there is also a visible divide between tech-sector startups - big data and biotech firm's leadership tend to skew older, while consumer focused tech firm leadership skews younger. When products from large corporations are considered it is observed that they seem to be more prepared in handling diverse set of market segments in their product delivery. Skype and FaceTime, by Microsoft and Apple respectively, are the two apps that have been well adopted by seniors. Moreover such corporations are also the ones that have implemented workforce diversity and inclusion programs. While startups are just beginning to consider inclusiveness in their workforce. Read on...

Fast Company: STARTUP CULTURE'S LACK OF DIVERSITY STIFLES INNOVATION
Author: Neal Ungerleider

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 22 jan 2014

To predict and prepare for the uncertain future is a challenging task. But to keep ahead and stay competitive and relevant, it is required not only to mitigate risks but also to anticipate to some accuracy what is going to happen next. As Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player, rightly said, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." So it becomes important to have a strategic map to successfully participate in the future. Seth Godin provides three ways of coping with future: Accuracy (the most rewarding and also the most risky way is to predict correctly about the future and put all on one outcome thus involving high investment of time and money on information and decision making but without any guarantee of getting it right); Resilience (the best strategy to minimize risks and maximize gains by participating in a range of outcomes without predicting future on a specific outcome); Denial (considering that the future will be same as today and avoiding to participate in the changing environment thus losing the chance to gain and win). Read on...

Boing Boing: Strategies for the future: accuracy vs. resilience vs. denial
Author: Cory Doctorow

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 jan 2014

'Holacracy' is a concept and structural system of oranizational governance that involves non-hierarchical entities that self-govern and come together to work on a common goal. It's a type of flat management system but with a constitution and governance process for discussions and running meetings and that finally results in power and responsibility allocation through specific roles. In the upcoming book 'A Shift Of Power' the concept's creator, Brian Robertson, explains what it's like to operate within 'holacracy' - "It comes as a revelation and a challenge for everyone involved. The workers realize that they are no longer just employees following orders. They have real power and authority - and with that comes responsibility. They no longer have a parent-like manager to solve their problems." Article provides the evolution of 'holacracy' by exploring the main events from Brian Robertson's life - Self learning to code as a child; Teaching programming at age 13; Involvement with agile software development; Experimentation with sociocracy; Influence of philosopher Ken Wilber's concept of 'holarchies' (overarching systems that are made up of other self-organizing systems or entities called 'holons'); Partnership with serial entrepreneur Tom Thomison to crystallize ideas into a firm HolacracyOne. Read on...

QUARTZ: The story of the man who's flattening the world of corporate hierarchies
Author: Aimee Groth

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 jan 2014

'Corporatization of governance' - trying to run government like a business might be a popular thought seeking acceptance in political circles but it is important to understand the implications and outcomes of its application. Another important thing would be to understand what models of business are to be considered in this regard. According to the author this type of agenda might include free trade, privatization, weakening labour rights, deregulation, slashing government services and taxes on large corporations, and the advent of the surveillance state. The basic difference between the government and business is regarding the interests they serve - public or private. Article provides perspectives and views on various aspects of this model of governance by sharing specific instances from the Canadian politics. Read on...

The Rossland Telegraph: The problem with running government like a business
Author: Murray Dobbin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 jan 2014

'Datafication' of businesses is creating new models that harness the power of big data by storing, analyzing and monetizing it. There is a need for 'datafying' human resources as it happened with marketing that became a data-centric function some 25 years ago. Considering that businesses spend 50-60% of their total revenues on payroll it is even more important for them to optimize employee spending by analyzing data related to HR. Article provides detailed examples of companies that have taken the initiative to 'datafy' their HR function and are getting positive results by doing so. It is helping businesses to retain right set of employees, to enhance hiring and training programs to a targeted employee segment and to hire and predict high performers in a business function. The 'datafication' process have already started and it has potential to change and transform many aspects of HR that are currently in practice - Data management; Analytics tools; Data providers; Analytics education; New decision-making processes. Read on...

Forbes: The Datafication of Human Resources
Author: Josh Bersin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 09 jan 2014

Globalization as an economic and business phenomenon has consistently been a norm and countries have been encouraging and developing collaborations and partnerships with each other. Globalization impacts life of every consumer. For thirty years there has been a consistent trend where global trade grew at about twice the rate of global economy. According to WTO (World Trade Organization), global trade grew at an average 6.2% annually and global GDP at 3.7% during 1988-2007. But a new thing that emerged in the last two years is drop in global trade even below the global GDP growth. Although developments like internet, opening up of Chinese economy, rise of emerging markets, better travel connectivity etc point towards faster globalization. But the rise of protectionism and localism are the probable reasons for the decline. Nature of global politics will play an important role in shaping the future of globalization. Moreover the growing possibilities of large scale use of technologies like 3D printing may shift the global manufacturing patterns by giving rise to self-manufacturing of certain goods that are currently being outsourced, thus encouraging localization. Read on...

CNN: Have we reached the end of globalization?
Author: NA

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