Human Resources

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 02 mar 2015

To create a business from an idea and managing it successfully, requires not only technical and managerial skills but also 'intangible' competencies that are essential for start-up's survival. Carla Young, founder and publisher of MOMeo Magazine, suggest skills that entrepreneurs should have particularly at the early stages of the venture's development - (1) Talking Money (2) Public Speaking (3) Selling (4) Managing (and Protecting) Your Time (5) Dealing with Criticism (6) Communicating with Crazy & Irrational People (7) Learning New Skills. Read on...

MOMeo Magazine: Essential Entrepreneurial Skills- The 7 Skills Every Entrepreneur Must Master
Author: Carla Young

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 28 feb 2015

According to National Council of Nonprofits, 'Nonprofit board members are the fiduciaries who steer the organization towards a sustainable future by adopting sound governance and financial management policies, and ensuring adequate resources. The board of directors have three primary legal duties known as the "duty of care", "duty of loyalty", and "duty of obedience".' To make changes to various aspects of the organization and take decisive actions is a challenging task and requires experienced, capable and effective individuals to be members of the board. Professor Eugene Fram of Rochester Institute of Technology, defines three main groups of board members who are part of the decision making process - (1) Directors who want change (2) Directors opposed to change (3) 'Process Directors', individuals who are uncomfortable with major decisions and always want more data or information before voting. The third type of directors, although well-intentioned individuals, can sometime become obstacles in the board's decisiveness. According to Prof. Fram, 'The board has to be careful that these directors don't allow the board to continually examine one angle after another until they lose sight of the board's main job. They can keep action in limbo indefinitely!' Board chair have to optimize the board processes and don't let them go out of hand, as it may result in loss of talented volunteers. Read on...

Huffington Post: How Can Nonprofit Boards Overcome the Inertia of Certain Directors?
Author: Eugene Fram

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 feb 2015

The 2014 report, 'Culture of Quality: Accelerating Growth and Performance in the Enterprise' by American Society for Quality (ASQ), analyzed responses from more than 2,000 executives and quality professionals (members of ASQ) and showed that while 2/3rd of executives say their organizations exhibit a culture of quality, only half say that these values are clearly understood throughout the organization. According to Laurel Nelson-Rowe, Managing Director for Global Business Development at ASQ, 'Achieving quality goals requires a strong commitment: setting a compelling vision, companywide shared values and complementary performance metrics and incentives'. Based on the research findings, ASQ created a list of 10 signs that show the lack of 'culture of quality' in the organization - (1) Top executives rarely discuss quality (2) Lacks quality vision (3) Managers fail to consistently emphasize quality (4) Lacks feedback loops to continuous process improvement (5) Lacks formal mechanisms to assess customer feedback (6) Quality goals are not mentioned in performance metrics (7) Employees are not aware of organization's quality vision and values (8) Training and development do not emphasize quality (9) Quality visions and values are not communicated to new hires (10) Inconsistent quality causes frequent minor setbacks. Read on...

Entrepreneur: Infographic - 10 Telltale Signs That a 'Culture of Quality' Is Lacking at Your Company
Author: Laurel Nelson-Rowe

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 feb 2015

Nonprofit sector is an important contributor to economy and employs 10.7 million people (over 10% of the US workforce). According to the 2015 Nonprofit Employment Practices survey just released by Nonprofit HR, 50% of the 362 nonprofits it queried anticipate creating new positions in the coming year. Moreover the nonprofits are also avoiding layoffs, as only 7% are expected to do so in 2015. Lisa Brown Morton, President and CEO of Nonprofit HR, says 'The nonprofit sector is a huge, but often overlooked, economic powerhouse.' She provides important advice for those in search for nonprofit job - (1) Research groups that match your passions and values. (2) Get involved at a nonprofit to gain an edge over the competition. (3) Broaden your chances of getting hired by saying you're open to project work that's part-time or has an end date. (4) Don't assume you need to take a vow of poverty to work for a nonprofit. (5) Tweak your job-search tactics. Read on...

Forbes: 5 Tips To Get A Nonprofit Job Now
Author: Nancy Collamer

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 feb 2015

Designing for Internet of Things (IoT) is pushing the boundaries for designers and engineers to experiment and evolve out of their specific roles. Martin Charlier, design consultant and co-founder of Rain Cloud, provides his perspective on the future of interfaces and how to design for IoT. According to him, 'Products in today's world, especially, need to be thought about from variety of angles. A designer has to consider both the looks and working of the product while designing.' He stresses the importance of symbiotic nature of interaction design and service design. On working of cross-disciplinary teams, he says, 'Every field needs to know a little bit, have a basic understanding, of the other side... The key, though, is that they started working as one team together, before splitting up into their respective domain areas, so that there was a joined vision.' While discussing the role of human values in IoT design, he suggests, 'Designers need to start thinking about how they change people's behaviors and affect their lives.' Read on...

O'Reilly Radar: Design to reflect human values
Author: Jenn Webb

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 21 feb 2015

In recent reports it is found that execution, the way of translating strategy into results, is not only more challenging but enough is not even written about it in business literature. A survey of 400 global CEOs mentions that executional excellence was the number one challenge facing corporate leaders in Asia, Europe, and the US. Moreover studies have also found the difficulty associated with the execution, about 2/3rd to 3/4th of large organizations struggle to implement their strategies. Extensive and ongoing research by Donald Sull of MIT Sloan School of Management, Rebecca Homkes of London Business School and Charles Sull of Charles Thames Strategy Partners, in which a survey of about 8000 managers in 262 companies and across 30 industries has been done, found that several commonly held beliefs regarding strategy implementation are wrong. They provide five myths and explain relevant and accurate perspective and insights that will help managers to effectively execute strategy - (1) Execution Equals Alignment (Coordination and cooperation across all functions and units horizontally is the need in addition to hierarchical alignment from top down) (2) Execution Means Sticking to the Plan (Real-time adjustments, adaptiveness to the changes on the ground and seizing unexpected opportunities at the right moment with creative solutions on an ongoing basis are required apart from sound planning. The need to be agile within the framework of overall strategy is the key. Concentrate on fluid reallocation of funds, people and attention. Failure to exit when needed also creates a drag on execution) (3) Communication Equals Understanding (Explaining and making everyone understand with clarity the strategic objectives of the organization and how they relate and connect with the overall strategy is essential. Leaders need consistency in communicating strategic priorities and avoid confusing and conflicting messages) (4) A Performance Culture Drives Execution (In addition to performance, a culture that supports execution must also recognize and reward abilities and skills like agility, teamwork, and ambition. Excessive emphasis on performance can impair execution as it may lead to play it safe attitude and making conservative performance commitments. Culture of coordination and collaboration among team members is essential for execution) (5) Execution Should Be Driven from the Top (Effective execution in large, complex organizations emerges from countless decisions and actions at all levels. Concentrating power at the top may boost performance in the short term, but it degrades an organization's capacity to execute over the long run. Distributed leadership is where execution is propelled and achieved. It includes not only middle managers but also technical and domain experts who are part of the ecosystem that get things done. Although execution should be driven from the middle but it should be guided from the top. Top leaders should bring out structured processes to facilitate coordination and teamwork. Micromanagement and alignment traps should be avoided). Read on...

Harvard Business Review: Why Strategy Execution Unravels - and What to Do About It
Authors: Rebecca Homkes, Donald Sull, Charles Sull

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 feb 2015

In today's business world driven by social media, mobile and numerous other digital technologies, to seek customer's attention and stand out seems to be a logical digital powered brand strategy. But in the process of jumping on the digital bandwagon are brand strategists forgetting the golden rules of human strategy and customer connection. Umair Haque, author and Director of Havas Media Labs, explains why digital strategy shouldn't focus too much on ephemeral customer attention but on customer relations and not only seek their loyalty but try to be loyal to them and care for them as human beings. He suggests 4 mistakes of digital strategy and how to overcome them - (1) Titillating, not educating (2) Making zombies, not superheroes (3) Infecting, not connecting (4) Communicating, not elevating. Read on...

Harvard Business Review: Your Digital Strategy Shouldn't Be About Attention
Author: Umair Haque

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 16 feb 2015

The report 'The Sales Organization Performance Gap' by Prof. Steve W. Martin of University of Southern California and Nick Hedges, CEO of Velocify, is based on surveys of about 800 industry participants and dismantles the myth of a lone, star performer, cowboy-type salesman without whom the organization can't generate revenues. According to Mr. Hedges, 'The goal of the study was to identify the differences between a "good" sales organization and a "great" one. When we quantified what made the great sales organizations work, we found the underlying factor was a team process, a team culture.' Prof. Martin says, 'Another differentiator between good and great sales operations is that the latter are quick to recognize a poor fit in the team and rectify it. That usually means terminating employment.' The study also found that, 'The best sales organizations are not a collection of individuals trying to succeed as a team. Rather, they have a high level of morale and camaraderie. They are united for a greater purpose than themselves.' Read on...

CMSWire: No Cowboys Here - Teamwork, Culture Leads to Sales Success
Author: Erika Morphy

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 feb 2015

Continual business transformation is necessary for companies not only for success but to attain and remain in the leadership position of any industry. According to an Oracle/Forbes Insights survey of 534 global executives conducted for the "Making the Change: Planning, Executing and Measuring Successful Business Transformation", 48% of executives believe their organization is only somewhat or not at all prepared to successfully execute a business transformation today. There are reasons for the failure and ways to avoid them and succeed - (1) You Need a Process, Not Just a Plan. (2) Buy-in Is Critical. (3) Everyone Must Be on the Same Page. (4) The Devil Really Is in the Details. (5) The Transformation Is Never Complete. Read on...

Forbes: Why Business Transformation Fails and How to Ensure It Doesn't
Author: Amy Westervelt

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 24 jan 2015

Apple Inc. is associated with the best designed world-class products. It's a result of extraordinary design process that they apply before their products reach the hands of their customers. Here are few product design lessons from Apple - (1) Quality counts at every stage of product development and customer experience. (2) Embrace change and continuously iterate, evolve and develop new products. (3) Stay ahead and provide new to market technologies within compelling new products people need. (4) Whole widget, meaning owns the primary software technology giving it the flexibility to introduce new solutions and add new features over time. (5) Riding without wheels, meaning the robust, inventive and long design process that takes time to launch new to market product categories. (6) Take risks, embrace failures and learn. Apple understands the value of process innovation in order to maintain its design lead. (7) Thoroughly understand the various elements of the innovations process like use of advanced new materials and technologies etc. (8) Deeply complex but simple to users. Develop products so that they work intuitively. (9) Customers count at every stage. (10) Consistency across every strand of the user experience. Read on...

Computerworld: Apple's top 10 tips for great product design
Author: Jonny Evans

Latest             ⊲ Newer Posts             Human Resources             Older Posts ⊳             Last