Multigenerational management refers to managing the four generations of employees that are now entering the workforce and one-size does not fit all. Each group is uniquely individual. Today's multigenerational workforce includes the Pre-Boomers (Born 1925-1945), also know as The Silent Generation and Traditionalists, the Baby Boomers (Born 1946-1964), Generation X (Born 1965-1976), and Generation Y, also know as The Millennials (Born 1977-1994). If you manage or own a business that hires employees, a good chunk of your time is easily spent finding countless ways for this group to work in harmony and it can be a total hit or miss unless you know what motivates each group. One of the most challenging aspects of managing multiple generations in the workplace is getting each group to respect the unique talents of the other.

"We have to move beyond stereotypes and always have an open mind," said Dr. James Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship and national speaker with WeSpeakWorldwide.com speakers bureau. "Managers and employees have to understand that great ideas, creativity and innovation come in all shapes, sizes and ages. We have to have a greater respect across generations to understand that everyone comes to the workplace with a set of skills and contributions."

Each generation, the Pre-Boomers, Baby Boomers, X and Y, all come to the workplace with a distinct set of values, attitudes and behaviors. In addition, each has their own expectations, priorities, approaches, work and communication styles. When managed properly, businesses will discover their competitive edge by utilizing the talents and skills of each generation to get the optimal performance from each group. Because each group is very different from the other, managers have to rethink hiring practices, managing styles, rewards, training and retention of their employees.

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Creating Teams of Multigenerational Employees Can Help

Help each generation to understand each other and to work more effectively together. Host an initial training on each generational style and characteristics.

Create effective multigenerational teams by publicly identifying each person's skills in the group. i.e., "Richard has years of experience in graphic design which may benefit your group's presentation."

Develop clear goals and expectations for each team.

Hold every member accountable for their individual group participation, i.e., "What role did you play in this project?"

Offer ongoing formal feedback to modify behavior and performance. Meet with each team individually to monitor their success and challenges.

Managers are forewarned not to ignore the differences of each generations' characteristics. Best practice is to conduct regular training sessions for all employees and to require supervisors to attend multigenerational management training.

Janice Celeste travels and speaks at conferences and conventions on the topic of multigenerational management, which includes her seminar on "Managing Millennials For Optimal Performance." You can find out more information at WeSpeakWorlwide.com.

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Imagine that your business is a car. Which model is it? Is the engine well-tuned, the driving experience comfortable, is it made as well and are the components guaranteed to last for years? Can you perform like a Mercedes?

When it comes to buying a car, people often opt to spend less money on a midlevel vehicle, which looks very similar to a Mercedes from the outside. But is the same?

Where Is the Value?
When it comes to branding, a lot of clients believe they can save money on a logo, website and supporting materials. Sure, they might end up with a product that functions--but will that product truly differentiate them in a way that translates into ROI?

There are so many choices and directions when it comes to creating a logo and brand, but clients should ultimately be concerned with devoting their resources to a Mercedes-like design experience. The reasons are simple. Branding professionals:
· Save clients time
· Save clients money, because good branding endures
· Save on client stress, because they know what they're doing

Your branding needs to express your true identity, which is not just another commodity in today's world. It must be discovered through research and deep introspection among all stakeholders.

Here's a famous example of this principle in action. In 1986, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs asked famous graphic designer Paul Rand to design a logo and brand identity for his new computer company, Next. Rand agreed to do so, on terms that would have made most clients panic: $100,000 for the logo, along with a long brochure explaining the brand. Speaking later about his interaction with Rand, Jobs said: "I asked him if he would come up with a few options, and he said, 'No, I will solve your problem for you and you will pay me.'" Rand created solutions.

The Courage to Change Things
He understood that design has value, and that the best designers can be trusted to come up with an interesting and surprising answer to a branding conundrum, rather than waste time and energy producing a scattershot of options. What Rand produced was a premium product, similar in its own way to a Mercedes or other high performance car. (When he returned to Apple later in his career, Jobs reinforced the idea of design as the most important differentiator; his highly stylized phones and PCs became global blockbusters.)

Some clients can get away with hiring the creative equivalent of a mid level car, or by doing their own branding, but they are relatively few and far between. Prepackaged templates are commonly used and inexpensive, but they won't make you stand out from the crowd.

Most industries are hyper-competitive, and companies need every advantage in order to win the day; a logo and brand, as the way those companies greet the world, is invaluable in that context. Steve Jobs could spend $100,000 on the Next logo because he had millions in investor dollars, but no matter what your firm's financial situation, the large amount of money spent on premium branding is often a good investment.

Knowing the Difference
During the process, the client should resist any impulse to micro-manage the brand's creation--designers devote their professional lives to defining clients' identities, and they know what they're doing. You wouldn't dream of going to a surgeon and giving them specific instructions about how to perform an operation.

At the same time, the creative team should listen to the client's story and respond to any reactions, especially during the discovery process, when all participants drill down into the essence of the company and brand.

In general, the designers' work will raise the client's identity to the next level. For clients, here's the big question: What is your value? How do you bring that to life in the hearts and minds of audience? And why does that matter?

Janet Odgis is the President and Creative Director of Odgis + Co, an award-winning certified woman-owned design firm based in New York City. Working with some of the world's most prestigious corporations, Odgis + Co. reinvents ways to define and express your brand.

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In his famous TED Talk, 'Start With Why', Simon Sinek puts it perfectly that, people don't buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it. "Yes, but what if I don't know my 'WHY'?" This is a question I am often asked - especially from those I mentor belonging to the younger generation.

For most people, discovering their 'Why' comes from many years of life experience with all it's challenges, suffering, joys and its wonders. "But how do I know when I have found my Purpose?"

In my opinion you know you've found your purpose (you're 'why') when it becomes a mission.

Before starting any business, I go away for 3-4 days and disconnect from the rest of the world. I spend the majority of my time unwinding into a peaceful state and on the last day I ask myself one question...

"What are 65 reasons why I must succeed in this business?"

If I can't come up with 65 or more, I never start that business. I know what you're thinking, why 65?

Well, it helps me ReWHYer (okay I made that word up) my brain to create a compelling future and connects my desires, values and belief to the as an entrepreneur to the mission of my company.

Plus, let's be real. If I can't come up with enough reasons why it is an absolute MUST for me to succeed then I really don't want it bad enough!

I choose 65 reasons because it's tough, period!

I've tested this across hundreds of people from all walks of life and what I've noticed is that most people (I included) can easily come up with 10, 20 or even 30 reasons.

Things like. I want the business to succeed so I can buy a nice car, travel the world, buy a big house etc Now don't get me wrong these are all valid reasons, but I've been around business long enough to know that making money is a by-product of the value you provide or the change you create within an industry.

So whilst these reasons are important they won't pull you through the tough and challenging times in business.

In my experience, I've found that it's usually around the 33rd reason where people get stuck and then QUIT. Why?

Because the reasons why they want to start that business is not congruent with their values, beliefs and desires. Therefore once the surface level reasons are out of their system there is nothing left!

In my opinion your reason for success needs to be much bigger than materialistic objects, they need to include things like: how are you going to transform the industry, the millions of lives that are going to be impacted by your service or product and so on.

When you write down and look at these reasons throughout the good and tough times in business you are consistently reminded of why you got into business in the first place and impelled to take action..

Doing this will enable you to truly master the art & science of achievement. You move away from the traditional frame of thinking (Goal Setting) and move towards purposeful living.

When people create this WHY, I see huge shifts.

All of a sudden Saturday and Sunday's become regular working days, 80+ hours at work are no longer a drag, Monday's mornings become their favorite part of the week and every day they wake up feeling excited and pumped to take on the world.

And not because they have to, they GET too.

This is one of the reasons why I don't believe in motivation or inspiration. If you have a big enough reason WHY (65) you don't need constant motivation and you don't need to search for inspiration. You are impelled to go forward.

To gain further insight into the power and importance of having a big enough reason WHY, I recently spoke with Pauline Nguyen, an Award Winning Author, highly sought after International Speaker and one of the most grounded Spiritual Entrepreneurs around the globe.

"In business, having a clear understanding of your why will set you apart from your respective industry and differentiate you from your competitors and industry peers. Breakthrough leadership is the same for our team members at my restaurant Red Lantern.

My team doesn't think of themselves as employees who just deliver food and clear tables. They have a deeper purpose to bring family and friends together by creating joy, love and surprise to all those who come through our doors." Pauline explains.

Your purpose should fulfill you because success without fulfillment is the master of failure... and besides, if it is what you are meant to do in this life, it will happen regardless.

Whether you know your purpose or still searching for it, below Pauline shares a 4 step process you can take to help you gain clarity on discovering and developing your 'Why' no matter what area of life you're currently focusing on.

"The first distinction I make is this; we are not born automatically knowing what our life's purpose is. Purpose is not a race. The second distinction is that there need not be solely one purpose in life. There can be many.

So what makes us humans truly happy? I believe there are two things that make us truly happy - Purpose and Progress. If you don't know yet what makes you truly happy, then you must discover it by trial and error.

1) Become a Seeker

Keep seeking until you find it. "How do I know when I have found it?" You will know by how it makes you feel. Once you have checked in with yourself and identified how it has made you feel, the desire to feel that way on a regular basis will become your mission. Everything changes when it becomes a mission. I love hanging out with Seekers.

2) Find out what your strengths are

One way to find out what you are good at is through the Gallup Strengths Finder. I believe everyone should be aware of their weaknesses but not focus on the weaknesses. Know your strengths and work on these strengths instead. Why? Because doing what you are good at will make you happy. Fish are not meant to climb trees!

In his book, A New Earth - Awakening to Your Life's Purpose, Ekhart Tolle puts it perfectly... "People who are exceptionally good at what they do perform largely free of ego while they work.

They may not know it but their work becomes a spiritual practice. They are one with what they do and are fully present to respond to the task at hand." I wish I had known my strengths at a young age.

3) Be self-aware enough to identify when you are in Flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, describes flow as being the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.

In essence, flow is characterised by complete absorption in what one does. Achieving flow is often referred to as being in the zone. It is single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate experience in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning.

In flow, the emotions are not just contained and channelled, but positive, energised, and aligned with the task at hand. Complete engagement leads to a higher level of wellbeing.

The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, and even rapture, while performing the task at hand. When what you are doing is something higher than yourself, and most importantly, when what you are doing, makes you feel good and it is work that you love, that's when you know you've found your purpose and your life's mission.

4) Go 7 levels deep

First, ask yourself the reason why you want to succeed in this business. Then ask the same question of the new answer until you go 7 levels deep. Take your time with the answers. Purpose is not a race.

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In my first career as a registered nurse (RN), taking additional courses following graduation was expected. Plus, it was important. Let's face it--who wants an RN unfamiliar with the latest heart monitoring technology caring for a loved one during a health crisis. Not me! Ongoing learning was so important that it was rewarded with continuing education units (CEUs) often required for re-licensing.

Nurses, of course, aren't the only professionals bound by the imperative of continuing their education. Attorneys, tax professionals, physicians, and engineers are only a few professions that require ongoing education to maintain their licensure.

And then there are entrepreneurs...

Ah yes! Long gone are the days of securing our degree in business, never to crack a book again--or so we hoped. With the rapid growth of communication technology, the need for ongoing learning--continuing education, if you will--is reaching epic proportions.

At the current rate of change, your skills--and your business--can quickly become obsolete and irrelevant.

School is Never Out for the Pro

Former President of Harvard, Derek Bok, said, "If you think the cost of education is expensive, try the cost of ignorance." How true this is for small business entrepreneurs. In today's age of information, clients can access experience, expertise, and knowledge with the click of a mouse.

If you don't keep up, the competition will eat your lunch. (Don't ask me where this came from. Its been rumbling around my head for decades, waiting for just this moment to escape.)

Additionally, the pursuit of education and knowledge brings along other perks. It...

Encourages contemplation, creativity, and thought process

Inspires fresh solutions to stubborn problems

Establishes a desire to stay abreast of changes in the business community

Prepares you to be a more valuable service provider for your clients

Permits your business to sustain success in an ever-changing environment

If that wasn't enough, furthering your entrepreneurial education prevents mental and physical diseases...and, it's just plain fun!

Class is in Session

The pace of business comes at a cost. That cost being a lack of time for learning for which entrepreneurs pay dearly. With time limited, it's important to focus your ongoing learning efforts on these important topics:

International Economic Trends
Regardless of your country of residence, you're no longer an island. We recently "got schooled" on the far-reaching impact of conditions around the world during the recent shakeup of the Chinese economy. What happens to the future of your business is closely tied to what happens in China, Greece, Spain, etc.

Pay attention or pay the price--the choice is yours.

Technology
According to a J.D. Power and Associates survey, only 1 in 5 Americans are even interested in technology. Really? You wouldn't know with the number of people with their noses in their smartphone while waiting in line at Starbucks. Technology is on fire.

As entrepreneurs, we need to gain an understanding of the cloud, social media, user experience (UX), and apps like Evernote and Trello that are revolutionizing productivity, just to mention a few.

Although experts avail themselves and their expertise, entrepreneurs need to have an understanding of the far-reaching impact that such technological developments have/will have on the future of their business.

Consumer Behavior
There seems to be some disagreement about which came first--changes in consumer behavior or technology. One thing we can all agree upon is that this is not 1995.

Consumers buying behaviors are changing--and fast.

For instance, did you know that 89% of shoppers do online research before purchasing an item in-store. Or, that a dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Or, an overwhelming majority (96%) of consumers have searched for product information from their mobile device.

(Want more little tidbits like this? Check out 50 Essential Facts About Consumer Behavior.)
Egads! Lots to learn to stay fresh and relevant for your audience.

Industry Trends
Each industry has its own unique set of goings-on that exert influence for opportunity and risk for your business.

It's important to learn what is on the horizon for your industry. But, that's not all. It's equally important to continue your education to stay abreast of what lurks around the bend for your clients industry, as well.

What happens in your client's industry materializes in your business.

Check out Deloitte's Industry Outlook 2015 to learn more.

Marketing Trends
Closely tied to technology and consumer behavior, the marketing landscape is continually on the move. Smart consumers know this. Subsequently, they make decisions (right or wrong) whether to do business with you or the other guy--much based on the relevancy of your marketing.

Want to know what marketing will look like in 2020? Check out Jeff Beer's aptly named article in Fast Company, 25 Predictions for What Marketing Will Look Like in 2020.

Whew! My brain cells are saturated...and we've only just begun.

It seems as though we wouldn't need to mention the importance of continuing our entrepreneurial education. Sadly, we see each and everyday that many businesses are failing--failing to stay informed, failing to stay up-to-date, failing to remain powerful and inspired.

The words of Shiza Shahid, CEO of the Malala Fund, sum up the importance for entrepreneurs to continue their education, "Knowing allows us to act, allows us to repair, allows us to move forward and evolve."

Lifelong Learning: An Essential Ingredient for Entrepreneurs Eyeing Business Growth first appeared on Synnovatia.

Let's connect: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Google+

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The Reality Distortion Field - Steve Jobs had it, Elon Musk seems to have inherited it from him. And in retrospect, I'm a hundred percent sure my first girlfriend had it too.

Originally coined by Bud Tribble at Apple in 1981 to describe Steve Jobs' ability to make himself and others believe that almost anything was possible, the concept has long become a staple notion in business and popular culture. Especially in management and marketing contexts, we hear this term all the time when executives admire other executives' ability to commit employees, partners, and customers to forget their reservations and to adopt a particular perspective.

Given the appeal of reality distortion fields to everyone who is involved in market creation, there is only one question: how can we create one?

Lay theories on the topic typically invest a lot of energy in the protagonist. Often using blurry notions such as aura, charisma, character, personality, etc., the force is entirely placed within the person. Steve Jobs' reality distortion field, for example, is often thought of as the result of a specific combination of personality traits such as salesmanship, hyperbole, eccentricity. And once these traits were put on display, let's say during a product presentation, the audience had to invariably submit.

On a more serious analytical level, Steve Jobs' reality distortion field was probably just that - a field not a personality. And like any field, its existence required various external forces to interact favourably. Consequently, reality distortion is probably just another word for reality creation - not an arbitrary reality but a strategic one. A good story, tale or narrative that is appealing to you - and also aligned with the protagonist's actual goals.

One interesting takeaway from this is that reality distortion fields are all around us - from the local pub we swear by to the marriage that endures. Strictly speaking, reality is "distorted" in all of them in an effort to sustain particular social or commercial relationships.

But this process can also operate in the opposite direction. Marie-Agnes Parmentier and Eileen Fischer have recently published a groundbreaking study in the Journal of Consumer Research that applies a very similar lens to understand the decline of Tyra Banks' former blockbuster franchise America's Next Top Model (ANTM). For Parmentier and Fischer, ANTM's reality distortion field - the aura or the brand that makes us addicted fans against better knowledge - is not emanating from Tyra Banks' charisma or a particular type of magical entertainment formula but rather an assemblage of people and things. And such an assemblage can dissipate despite the builder's best intentions.

As Parmentier and Fischer demonstrate, in ANTM's case it was not a contender such as Project Runaway or simple audience boredom but the actions of some of the show's most devoted fans. By adding new elements to the reality distortion field that undermined its original effectiveness, by reinterpreting its originally suggested nature and purpose, or by rejecting certain aspects that were needed for its sustenance, they accelerated ANTM's demise.

Herein lies an opportunity and a challenge for managers: if reality distortion fields are assemblages, anyone can create them - not just Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. But the flip side is that almost anyone can destroy them. Managers must constantly scan the field for people and things that step out of line and ensure that they continue to play their ascribed roles. But depending on where you stand, this could be an opportunity as well.

A CEO who missed it was Blackberry's Jim Balsillie. A few years ago, he launched a snarky comment about "real" people "outside of Apple's [reality] distortion field." The better move would have been to try to reprogram some of the central actors and elements that made Apple's reality distortion field so effective - similar to how ANTM's fans did it - and succeeded.

In the end, a reality distortion field is perhaps best thought of as a good story people continue to believe in because it allows them to become someone else. And making that happen is less about the powerful self and more about empowering others.

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"Most parents hate to experience conflict, are deeply troubled when it occurs, and are quite confused about how to handle it constructively. Actually, it would be a rare relationship if over a period of time one person's needs did not conflict with the other's. When any two people (or groups) coexist, conflict is bound to occur just because people are different, think differently, have different needs and wants that sometimes do not match."
― Thomas Gordon, Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children

Let's take a simple conflict and use it to identify its core elements. Two managers in a technology firm are locked in a fierce debate. The woman who manages the help desk wants to hire another customer service rep. The man who manages the sales force wants to hire another salesperson. There's only enough money to hire one person. The two managers have been arguing for a long time who should get hired.

Let's distinguish the three factors necessary for a conflict:

1. Disagreement. A disagreement is a difference of opinion. The disagreement here is obvious: The help desk manager and the sales manager disagree about which role to fill. If either of them changed his or her mind and agreed with the other, the conflict would disappear. The disagreement is like the spark that will ignite a fire--it is necessary, but not sufficient.

2. Scarcity. Some limitation prevents each party from obtaining what each wants independently of the other. Scarcity creates interdependence. There's a constraint that makes it impossible for both parties to get what they want, or for either party to get what he or she wants without the acquiescence of the other. In this case the scarcity involves the hiring budget. There is only enough room to hire one candidate. If there were the opportunity to have each of the managers for hire his or her preferred role, they might disagree about which role is more important, but they would not have a conflict. Scarcity is like the fuel that the spark will ignite--again, necessary, but not sufficient.

3. Unclear Property Rights. The two parties disagree about who has the power to allocate resources, or about what decision-making mechanism will be used in the case of unresolvable differences. Neither manager in the hiring example above owns the budget; so neither has the authority to make a decision autonomously. If both managers report to a single person with final say over hiring decisions, then they could escalate the decision (together) to their superior. Unclear property rights are like the oxygen necessary for combustion--in a vacuum, a spark will not ignite the fuel.

If any of the three elements disappears, so does the conflict. In the following posts, I will use this insight to develop a conflict resolution process.

A Personal Example At The Kofman Home

My daughter Sophie (entering the kitchen and seeing a cookie on the counter): "I call that cookie."

My son Tomás (entering beside her): "I saw it first."

Sophie: "No, it's mine."

Tomás: "No, it's mine."

Fred (who's supposed to be an expert in conflict resolution and knows that without scarcity there is no possible conflict produces a box full of cookies exactly the same as the one on the counter): "Relax, guys, here is a box full of cookies. You can each have one."

Sophie (pointing to the cookie on the counter): "It's not the same. I want that cookie."

Tomás (equally adamant as he points to the cookie on the counter): "No, that is my cookie."

In this video you will find the essential ideas of Constructive Collaboration.

7.2 How to Identify and Eliminate The Sources of Conflict from Fred Kofman

Readers: Take a conflict you're experiencing and try to identify the three elements in it to illustrate the concepts. Let us know if the scheme works for you.

Fred Kofman, Ph.D. in Economics, is Vice President at Linkedin. This post is part 2.1. of Linkedin's Conscious Business Program. You can find the introduction and structure of this program here. To stay connected and get updates join our LinkedIn Group: Conscious Business Friends

You can Follow Fred Kofman on LinkedInhere

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In her insanely popular book, Lean In, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg relays the story of how Caroline O'Connor reconciled her love of work and love of parenting to design a balanced life. Former Storyteller-in-Chief and lecturer at the Stanford d.school, and current product marketing manager for education for Google, O'Connor approached her apparently conflicting goals (the desire to kick ass at being a designer and the desire to kick ass at being a mom) as a design problem and, in the process, coined a new term: "career-loving parent." Adopting this minor turn of phrase has the potential to transform the way many so-called "working parents" feel about both their careers and their families.

"Working parent" is a phrase that defeats our dreams of doing more than one thing with our lives. It implies that we are parents first, but -- thanks to the injustices of the socioeconomic systems in which we're trapped -- we have to go to work, leaving our children to forage for food scraps and education in the dumpsters behind Whole Foods. Through that phrase, we resign ourselves to the dominant work-life balance paradigm -- to the idea that if we can't have it all, we'll settle for nothing instead.

More importantly, the idea of being a "working parent" means that every time we find ourselves really enjoying our work -- in the flow of doing something really good or important or satisfying and doing it well -- that enjoyment is tempered with guilt and shame. Surely, nothing we're doing in that moment is as important as the work of being a parent.

And maybe that's true. Parenting is a pretty awesome responsibility and requires intense commitment and focus. But what if you could love your job and love being a parent at the same time? What if you could be as committed to your family as you are to your work? What if you discarded the work-devotion schema and the family-devotion schema, and instead, focused on living a meaningful, fun, and fulfilling life? If you did that, you might just consider yourself, as Caroline O'Connor considers herself, a "career-loving parent." Sound like a better life? Let's dig in.

How to be a career-loving parent

Let's not kid ourselves though (if you'll pardon the pun). It's way easier to resign ourselves to the old compromise-riddled, settle-for-nothing paradigm of work-life balance than to try to design the life of a career-loving parent. If you're not up for the hard work required to get there, you might want to just quit reading here and turn your attention back to your complaints.

But if finding fulfillment in both work and parenting sounds like a worthwhile mission to you, read on. It's hard work, but I'll break it down into three simple steps:

Know your work-life style. Do you like to integrate work with the rest of your life, separate work from the rest of your life, or do you like to switch focus back and forth as needed?

Know your work options. In today's world of work, there are more choices than just working outside the home or staying home with the family.

Get smart. Regardless of your work-life style and your particular work arrangement, you can make the most of your circumstances with a few simple tricks.

In the next installment in this series, we'll get real freaken real about these steps and what's involved. For now, I'd love to hear your reactions. Do you think it's possible to be a great parent and a great professional? Do you think you can love your family, love your job, and love your life? Is guilt the price you just have to pay for having it all? Let's get the debate going in the comments below.

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IBM released their report 'Making Change Work' over seven years ago. In essence, it predicted that adapting to continuous disruptive change will become a necessity for successful long term business.

The world in 2015 is one that's a dramatically changed one, albeit a place IBM predicted. Thriving in a fast-moving, constantly disrupted and innovative business place requires leaders to adopt to all sorts of novel approaches. Hence, strategic thinking about the future and the skills that will mould it is a necessity for those hoping for ongoing success.

So, how do you make change work for your business and future proof it?

Employees are your Backbone

There's an old business idea which suggests hiring people smarter than you. It makes a lot of sense. Additionally, inspiring people to innovate and giving them the room to expand on good ideas is also something companies look to the future do. Building a culture that encourages employees to be innovative and to experiment empowers them and gets them involved in interesting projects, inspires them and gets them involved in something outside of their typical role. It creates greater employee satisfaction, increases motivation, lowers turnover and also might be the thing that allows your business to break out from its core product and get its next big win. This can be a notably large competitive advantage. Replicon recently created this PDF on the competitive benefits of better employees.

Training

Learning something new is as great of motivation to do something as anything. Offering employees the chance to upskill benefits your business and also your employees. It benefits your workplace, it helps your customers and it in turn will help you create a long term success from your business even in a changing marketplace.

According from Andrew Young from We Do Training: "Businesses that adapt and train create a work environment where employees thrive and also want to offer the sort of input that creates the changes that are revered in the future."

Avoid Founders Dilemma

A lot of entrepreneurs and founders tend to lose touch with what the consumer wants. This is known as 'founders dilemma'. However, being aware that you need to stay immersed in your market and need to stay in touch with cutting-edge entrepreneurs helps greatly. Staying connected ensures you know of changes in your industry and can continue to delight customers. This can be done through close observation of the market, crowdsourcing ideas and attending events where you meet people in person and gain insight from them on how best to serve their needs.

Leave the Comfort Zone

Expanding your capabilities and your comfort zone allows you to learn and grow and extend insights and abilities. The greater depth of professional resources you can lean on, the greater the flexibility and the more dynamic you will be. In a world of constant change, flexibility is as close to future proofing as you can get.

Past and Present

According to Richard Branson, just because a brand has been around for decades doesn't mean its okay for the world of today. Rebranding for the future can be very important for brands that may once have been cutting edge but are now outdated and seen as something only older people may use.

Continuous Improvement

Owing to the pace of change, brands should be constantly looking to evolve their products. There are few products in any market that are good enough to remain stagnant. In the UK, people use the phrase "it's like painting the Forth Bridge." This references the fact that the painters of the particular bridge in Edinburgh had to start painting the bridge from the start again immediately after they got to the far side. Continuous improvement is a prerequisite of future proofing a business.

Opportunity Cost

According to corporate intelligent professionals Aperio Intelligence, money and balance sheets alone don't tell the full story of how a business is doing. For instance, investing in new software infrastructure may cost a lot in the short term. However, it may allow you to add new features and improve upon your offerings and provide a lot of value over a long-term horizon. Gather business intelligence before making a decision and then adjust as you get feedback from the actions. Remember, short-term gains aren't ideal bedfellows for long-term ones.

A business that understands the future is different from the present and goes about preparing to seize not just the day today, but prepares for those in the future too, is one that greatly increases its chances of long-term success.

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My monthly newsletter goes out to 6,000 friends, clients and business partners. You can't "subscribe" to it or buy it. It's my way of staying in touch with friends. For my clients, it's a benefit of doing business with me. My way of saying thank you for their business and support. My day job is top Headhunter in the gaming industry, where I place about 50 top executives each year.

Each month I get a dozen wonderful emails thanking me for the newsletter, and for all the time I dedicate to creating and distributing it. Industry executives enjoy reading about the latest industry news and what's going on with their peers. It's a small world, and everybody knows everybody. Life is grand...except for that ONE GUY.

You know him, the guy that only calls you when he wants something. Never adds value; he is a taker. In my case, that ONE GUY has come to me multiple times for a job over the years. Because he has a new job every two years. The one time he actually gave me a search, he wasted 40 hours of my time, treated the candidates poorly, and never hired anyone. Could not get him to return a phone call or email.

So I made a business decision not to work with him. Not angry or bitter. Not judging or complaining. Moving on! As Joel Osteen states, "You only have so much emotional energy each day. Don't fight battles that don't matter." It took that ONE GUY a year to figure out he was off the newsletter and off my client list, at which point he sent me a nasty email explaining how important he is. I chose not to respond. Some battles are just not worth fighting. Here are several lessons we can learn from that ONE GUY.

Always Get Back to People - My Daddy used to say, "Return all your calls and messages. It's the professional, respectful and right thing to do." I return every phone call and email (500+ per day), even if my answer is a simple, "no thank you."

Never Burn Bridges - His hate mail may sooth his bruised ego, but why would you want to get sideways with the top Headhunter in your industry? Better to shake hands and part friends.

Focus on the People That WANT to be on Your Bus - Not everyone is going to like you or want to work with you. Focus on the people that WANT to be your friend, that want to be your client, that want to be on your bus. There are only so many hours in the day. Spend them with the right people.

The Golden Rule - The people you pass on the way up are the same ones you will pass on the way down. No matter how brilliant, talented and cool you THINK you are, the only thing people will remember...is how you treated them.

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Six tips for building a more agile, digital-savvy workforce to compete in the IoT economy.

Five years from now, the workplace as we know it won't resemble what we see today.

Seventy-five percent of businesses will be digital businesses by 2020, according to analysts, but only 30 percent of these ventures will succeed.

Why? The growing deficit of multi-skilled talent is a major contributing factor. If analysts' projections are accurate, we're looking at a global shortage of 38 to 40 million college-educated workers by 2020 -- just five years from now.

If that's not alarming enough, the average employee tenure has dropped from 5-7 years to 2-3 years today, further compounding the gap between talent supply and demand.

It's an assault on all sides. It's not just a lack of business-ready college graduates. The more pervasive issue is that the existing workforce isn't skilled in critical areas needed to drive digital transformation of business in an Internet of Things era. As pointed out in a recent article published by the World Economic Forum, "Some employers say that schools and universities educate the graduates of tomorrow in the skills needed in the industries of yesterday."

Compounding these challenges is the fact that we now have the most multi-generational workforce in history, which means there is a greater diversity of development needs, experience, expectations, and skills. As an industry, however, we are still reliant on a relatively linear set of skills requirements and job descriptions that narrowly define immediate needs -- as opposed to long-term problem-solving for the organization into the next three, five and 10 years.

Never has talent been more central to the long-term success of business -- and certainly, the Internet of Things.

Just as the way we cultivate and acquire talent must evolve to keep pace with the fluidity of a new wave of IoT market demands, the workforce must evolve from point-in-time learning to continual learning, acquiring new and relevant skills and expertise.

Here are six tips to aid in preparing a workforce to compete in the IoT economy:

1. Think exponentially about your talent portfolio, not linearly. The way people learn has changed and as a result, traditional training is only part of the equation. An increasingly diverse workforce requires continual, adaptive and agile training models at every stage of one's career. Bear in mind that knowledge doubles every year, yet skills have a half-life of 2.5- 5 years, which means that 75-90 percent of the workforce requires continuous reskilling.

2. Map talent development to learning outcomes and explore new and inventive methods for learning through collaboration. Culture and technology are critical to enable successful melding of the world of work with everyday learning and knowledge building.

3. Identify and engage experts within your organization who are underutilized, or being leveraged at a fraction of their ability and knowledge. Consider the cost-to-benefit ratio of investing in new recruits versus existing staff. Don't overlook existing employees with untapped potential. Transferable skills can be re-skilled and re-deployed in different ways and scenarios.

4. Don't overlook unconventional candidates when hiring. Resilience, the ability to solve problems and on-the-job collaboration say as much about a person's potential as a perfect resume or academic credentials. A balance of technical skills and strategic business skills are critical. But cognitive skills, social skills, and life-learned expertise are paramount (and often undervalued or overlooked).

5. Invest in the right tools to foster organic, employee-driven collaboration and non-traditional learning and up-skilling. Doing so will enable your most valuable asset -- your people -- to glean from the collective knowledge, experience and skills of the wider talent pool. Offering 24/7, mobile-ready knowledge-consumption models will give your talent on-demand access to knowledge anytime, anywhere, on any device and convert knowledge into a scalable asset. To learn about how the New York Academy of Sciences is doing this, click here.

6. Join the IoT Talent Consortium and major players in the industry working to build the workforce of the future.

The workforce of the future is not only in the hands of employers, but also lies in the hands of the employees.

"You don't build a business. You build people -- and then the people build the business." - Zig Ziglar

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You've heard it time and time again. The best way to attract customers is by engaging them. What happens, though, when you engage your employees? Does this bring benefits to your bottom line? It can and will when employee engagement is encouraged and implemented throughout your entire organization. From higher rates of employee retention to improved productivity, worker engagement brings about three primary benefits:

High levels of employee retention

Engaged repeat customers

Positive operational health

High Levels of Employee Retention

Finding quality workers is more complex than it used to be. This has caused a major increase in the cost of recruitment. And with the Internet revolutionizing the way we communicate and work, recruiting expenses are increasing because we're no longer hiring workers on a local-only basis. Today you can literally hire people from all over the world without ever having to leave your office.

So, the question is, how do you improve your bottom line in relation to employee retention vs. recruitment?

The answer is simple. Through employee engagement, your quality workers will be encouraged to stick by your side. They will understand that they are truly appreciated, and engagement will lead to the development of deeper relationships with your workers. Not only will you employ top-notch workers, but your recruiting, hiring, and training costs will be slashed.

Keep Customers Coming Back

When customers conduct business with your company, they expect to be treated with respect. They also expect to have access to knowledgeable employees who can answer their inquiries. When employees are engaged they will be better tuned into your operational processes as well as the services and products that you sell. Their deep knowledge of your company will be passed onto customers, which increases your company's professionalism and improves branding. And when customers keep coming back, your bottom line will be improved, especially in terms of marketing.

Maintain Positive Operational Health

Employees who are engaged tend to focus their time working on objectives that not only improve their daily work processes but the processes of other workers as well. After all, the better employees can work with one another, the smoother and quicker projects can be completed, and this is exactly what quality workers want to achieve.

No matter the department, employee engagement is of equal importance. HR departments will notice improved performance when employees are fully engaged, including better training practices and fewer HR-related complaints. About 75 percent of HR professionals agree that worker absences contribute to lower levels of productivity as well as a decrease in profit levels. Through employee engagement, though, absenteeism is greatly reduced.

Some HR solutions to achieve employee engagement are through:

Regular performance feedback

Transparency

Clear employee objectives and progress documentation

Matching workers' skills with the job

Rewarding workers; paid vacation, gifts, etc.

Providing career planning

Quantum Workplace conducted a study in 2013 and found that employees who are disengaged are 3.6 times more likely to find a different job than those who are invested through engagement. This statistic alone proves how important it is for worker engagement to be a top priority for all businesses.

Next Steps

By using the ideas in this article, you can be on your way to running a more successful business and retaining your talented workers. Recognizing that engagement of employees impacts your bottom line is the first step. If you don't know where to go from there, contact us for HR solutions and we will be right there to support you.

Margaret Jacoby, SPHR, is the founder and president of MJ Management Solutions, a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive. This article first appeared on the MJ Management Solutions blog.

Let's connect: LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Google+

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You probably wouldn't order grilled Patagonian Toothfish at your favorite restaurant.

That's why a wholesaler named Lee Lantz renamed it "Chilean Sea Bass" nearly 30 years ago to give it more cachet.

Google was originally called BackRub because it determines the value of a site by checking the links that refer back to it, get it?

Ever heard of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing? The engineers who founded it back in 1902 thought the name was so dull that they started using the moniker 3-M instead.

Nike was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports, then renamed after the Greek goddess of victory. Good move. Somehow a "Blue Ribbon" swoosh wouldn't cut it.

Then there's Sir Richard Branson. He was just 20 when he started a mail order records business. He was wondering what to call it and his associate came to the rescule: "What about Virgin? We're complete virgins at business."

Verizon? A combination of the Latin word veritas (truth) and horizon. Cisco? An abbreviated version of San Francisco, where it was founded. In fact, the logo is based on the Golden Gate Bridge:

Ikea represents the first letters of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he was raised (Elmtaryd) and his hometown in Sweden (Agunnaryd), which has a population of just 220.

If you're trying to figure out what to name a business or a product here are some guidelines:

Color it (literally): Red Hat or Green Giant

Combine words: Laserjet or Dreamworks

Add alliteration: Dunkin' Donuts

Rhyme it: Reese's Pieces

Evoke a concept: Amazon

Describe the product: Whole Foods or Burger King

Abbreviate: AOL, AT&T, FedEx

Go sci-fi: Quark or Quasar

Wax abstract: Akamai, Acura

Add whimsy: Yahoo

Invent words: Wii, Häagen-Dazs

Then again, sometimes the founder's name(s) work best: Dell, Hewlett-Packard or Disney. I first called my business Greg Stone Productions, and I was doing, as you might have guessed, video production. (I had been a TV reporter so I was capitalizing on those who knew me in Boston.) As the company grew, I migrated into media strategy consulting and changed the name to Stone Communications. If nothing else, it's descriptive. Should I have chosen something more trendy? Maybe. Yet Johnson & Johnson, Ford and Steinway are still with us. I guess I'm in good company.

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The digital paradigm shift, from the cultural perspective.

By Linda Ong, CEO and Founder, TruthCo.

As complicated and disruptive as digital content has been, there is a simple way to explain the quantum change in the consumer's relationship to content. As is true of most paradigm shifts, the solution can be seen by flipping the model on its head -- in this case, moving consumers from the bottom of the content food chain to the very top.

The consumer is the CEO of content.

No longer a captive, passive throng awaiting a morsel of good TV, today's consumers dominate in a buyer's market of quality -- and "Quality" -- TV. Today, everyone in the communication business is now in the content business as well -- from traditional media companies to marketers in every consumer sector.

As consumers curate their own content feeds from a plethora of brands, channels, platforms and devices, they're taking over the functions of a traditional media organization in:

Programming: greenlighting content and replaying old favorites; creating new, original content.

Scheduling: deciding when and where to watch, and for how long.

Marketing and Social Media: spreading the word for content they love and advocate for.

Distribution: curating and retweeting, vlogging and sharing.

Advertising: working in tandem with brands via content collaborations and user-generated hashtags, their endorsements increasingly carry more weight than traditional celebs and outlets.

Critiquing: simultaneously consuming and evaluating content, often in real time.

So if consumers have assumed control, what is the need today for businesses to provide this infrastructure when a few clicks do it all?

Content creators need to serve viewer needs, not just attract eyeballs.

Content creators are now in a hotly contested, Survivor-like battle of the fittest for consumer attention. But the quest for dominance won't be won by just having the best show, and/or the best marketing. The programmers that will succeed in this new era will likely forge some combination of two paths:

Enable the consumer's desire to effectively create, find, manage and share their content, in ways that complement your own content. Provide customized tools and tips that extend your role as a tastemaker. Think of your content brand as a recommendation engine for specific sensibilities that transcend your platform or category, in the way that Etsy helps DIYers make and sell their products by introducing them to a community of like-minded people.

1) Be purpose-driven entertainment: create content for good. While there's nothing inherently wrong with "feel good" content or support of a worthy cause, today's culture views those traditional approaches as ultimately self-serving. Content with embedded social values that are deeply ingrained in the company culture (Über's recent fight against New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, for example) or that drive its business strategy, will be seen as differentiated in consumer decisions going forward - just as the greening of household products launched entirely new categories. Because when solid entertainment is widely available, content with meaning offers value above and beyond the entertainment value of the content itself. We want to invest our time in entertainment we believe in.

2) For advertisers, this paradigm shift requires a similar change in mindset. For decades, what qualifies as a "hit" meant attracting the highest number of eyeballs in the coveted demographic of choice. But in this new era, the most-watched shows are rarely considered the best. Let's considerNCIS on CBS: consistently a ratings leader, and a well-crafted procedural, but hardly the show most people would buzz about at a dinner party, let alone live-tweet about. In recent years, that distinction has belonged to more narrowly focused, so-called "Quality TV" like Mad Men on AMC, whose ratings never equalled the buzz - and yet has been universally lauded by the industry and viewers alike. So: which is the hit show that provides the best environment for an advertiser message? Which has stronger viewer engagement and therefore higher affinity for a brand's message? And based on that, which is the more effective, targeted buy? Aside from the promise that data analysis brings, how do we factor in and measure the cultural success of these shows - that is, which ones serve the viewers best?

Some might argue that content has always served the viewer - which was in fact true for many decades. But in my experience working for (and with) traditional media companies, it's clear that advertisers have a degree of direct or indirect influence on content decisions. It's also clear that consumers are voracious for a wider array of content than traditional television has served up to date, especially among Millennials.

Today, the content that quickly gains cultural cred is typically more niche, pointed and more unqiue than advertisers tradtionally have felt comfortable with. But we're in an era now where trust is at a premium, and consumers are skeptical of businesses who they feel act out of self-interest. Viewers can no longer be controlled - they have to be wooed. In today's market, those who do will win their hearts, and their wallets.

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Turn-key offices. Flexible contracts. Unlimited networking opportunities.

The social and financial benefits of coworking have been well documented, fueling a rapid expansion that has made Class A office space accessible to freelancers and entrepreneurs who might not otherwise be able to afford it.

But a number of coworking spaces also offer ancillary services, many of which come at no additional cost to the client and may not even be included on an office provider's list of available services and amenities. These are especially valuable for small businesses with modest budgets, not only saving them money, but in many cases, making the transition from home office to shared office that much easier.

So, before committing to a communal workspace, be sure to vet the office providers on your short list to see if they offer any - or all - of the following:

Move-in coordination: Office moves can be expensive, which is why businesses that are leasing traditional office space try to negotiate free rent and other concessions from their landlord to help offset the cost. In order to (literally) get businesses in the front door, some shared office providers will go as far as covering the cost of a moving service to help clients transport furniture, boxes and any other items they need to personalize their space and get their office up and running. In addition to helping clients physically move their possessions, a center's staff can also coordinate with building management to ensure loading docks are available on moving day, eliminating unnecessary delays that could create headaches for the business owner.

Technical support: Most shared offices are already equipped with phone and internet service at move-in, allowing business owners to plug in and go without spending time and money on tech setup. While an office provider may not have the resources to provide advanced technical support, they typically have established partnerships with third-party providers who are available to assist clients on short notice - and often at a discounted rate.

Package receiving/delivery: More people are shopping online today than ever, and whether deliveries are for businesses purposes or personal use, many are being sent to the workplace to avoid having packages left out on a doorstep or, in cases where the recipient hasn't pre-signed, routed back to the delivery center. In a shared office environment, the center's on-site staff can sign for packages and either store them in a secure room or hand-deliver them to a client's office so they're waiting for them when they return.

Of course, these services are in addition to the regular social events that take place in communal workspaces - almost all of which are included in monthly membership fees - as well as exclusive discounts that can help businesses save on everything from web hosting to hotel rooms.

All of this adds up to hundreds of dollars in savings that can be funneled back into the business, allowing companies to reap the benefits of a shared office long after the moving crates have been unpacked.

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Ron Bockstahler is co-founder and CEO of Amata Office Solutions, a Chicago-based real estate provider specializing in office solutions for companies requiring up to 10,000 square feet of office space.

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Join me at the front of the room during a business presentation when this photo of Braelyn pops up on screen and you will witness a fascinating phenomenon. Leaders in the room have no idea who Braelyn is or why she's on the screen, yet immediately their expression softens. Many are smiling. You can literally feel a shift in their energy.

"What's happening right now?" I ask them. They speculate: She's cute. You want to respond by reaching out to her. She reminds me of my own daughter. I encourage them to consider what they are feeling. Sometimes I hear: Unconditional love. What finally dawns on them is the purity of Braelyn's intention--she's reaching out for no other reason than to connect. That is what makes them feel good.

Braelyn's photo represents a basic psychological need that every human being has for Relatedness--the need to care about and be cared about by others without ulterior motives.

Scientists have discovered that human beings thrive when all three psychological needs are satisfied: Autonomy, Relatedness, and Competence. Regardless of generation, gender, job classification, race, or cultural influences, people have a high need for Relatedness.

In the workplace, Relatedness is often discounted or nonexistent. This is a huge risk, because there is no such thing as compensatory need satisfaction. If people aren't getting their Relatedness need met at work, there's a chance they are not getting it met at all given the amount of time people spend at work compared to other areas of their life. Without Relatedness at work, people simply will not thrive or have the energy, vitality, and well-being required for pursuing and achieving their goals.

Satisfying people's need for Relatedness at work

Listen.Listening is the greatest form of flattery. It's an old adage, but listening can go way beyond superficially motivating someone. Genuine listening satisfies a deeper motivational need to feel connected to the person with whom you are communicating. If you have a personality type that doesn't predispose you to be a good listener, take a class to learn the fundamentals. Listening is a skill. Learn how to do it. Develop a value for doing it. Do it. Listen with intention and you may discover that the person benefitting from the experience is also the one doing the listening.

Reconsider the F-word in organizations: Feelings. When you listen intentionally, you hear the content of what people are saying. But, you also hear the sub-context--how they feel about what they are saying. Acknowledge people's feelings. Feelings are the primary way people make decisions and come to conclusions about their well-being. Those feelings of well-being or ill-being lead to people's intentions. Their intentions are the greatest predictor of their behavior. Those behaviors are what lead to employee engagement--and disengagement. To ignore feelings as if they don't exist is foolishness--and a big reason for suboptimal motivation and disengagement.

Tie work to meaningful values and contributing to the greater good. Have you had a values conversation with the people you lead? Do you know what they find meaningful? Have you helped them make the connection between their daily efforts, values they personally hold dear, and a noble purpose? Dr. Ken Blanchard records an inspirational voicemail every morning for the hundreds of people that work in his company throughout the world. Every day, he reminds people that no matter what their role is in the organization, they are an integral part of making the world a better place.

Advocate for procedural justice. The primary reason people leave organizations is due to perceptions of injustice. For example, if people have a bad boss, they don't leave just because of the bad boss, but because the organization has allowed that bad boss to exist--procedural injustice. If you have a HIPO program where individuals are selected as "high performers," but the selection criteria and process is ill-defined, not public knowledge, or limits participation, then you probably have a small group of HIPOs and a workforce full of LOPOs (low performers) whose sense of Relatedness has been totally undermined. Transparency and communication about policies and procedures is essential for people to have the sense of fairness that is the foundation for Relatedness with the organization.

Fight for distributive justice. If salaries are out of whack compared to your competition, you will most likely lose employees who are motivated by money. But, if salaries are out of line internally--if the CEO and executives make 100 times what the average person earns, for example--a large part of your workforce may "quit but stay". They are disengaged, getting by doing as little as possible. People interpret unfair distribution of resources as a statement of how little the organization cares about them. Fight for fair wages--help topple the top-heavy inequity that is eroding Relatedness in so many organizations.

I began by asking why Braelyn's photo made you smile. The question I really need to ask, so you can take advantage of motivation science, is: "How can you help people thrive through Relatedness at work?" As a leader, you influence this psychological need every day. When you do it well, you will see immediate results that come from an optimally motivated workforce whose engagement improves over time.

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As China's President Xi Jinping prepares for his visit to the United States, pressure is mounting on both sides to identify potential areas of cooperation amid ongoing contention. Yet, intractable issues dominate the agenda for the two Presidents - accusations of cybertheft, military aggressiveness in the South China Seas and currency manipulation are among the hot topics. Trade, usually the bright spot in the bilateral relationship, holds limited promise with no expected significant breakthrough in the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) negotiations. The one area that does stand out as a win-win, if progress can be made, is environmental protection.

In November 2014, President Barack Obama and President Xi reached an historic agreement to mitigate climate change as part of a long-term cooperative effort to accelerate each country's transition to a low carbon economy. To meet China's green objectives, President Xi is planning to announce a highly ambitious environmental "clean up" strategy as part of the 13th Five Year Plan later this year, with an estimated price tag of $1 trillion annually. China does not have the necessary expertise or financial resources to implement this plan independently however. Thus, developing strategic priorities and outlining potential areas of greatest impact will be critical to the success of an effective war on pollution.

As one of the most pressing global priorities, climate change could replace trade as the new bright spot in the bilateral relationship. This is a natural opportunity for the United States and China to bring their best to the table and leverage a combination of technological, financial, trade, and market expertise in seeking solutions to this pressing common problem. The effects of climate change will have a significant impact on our two economies and could potentially reshape long-term national security priorities if they lead to competition for food security, clean air and clean water. If deployed effectively, U.S. technology, know how and experience combined with China's vast market scale and ability to commercialize technologies rapidly could bring about significant reductions in China's greenhouse gases.

China's building sector presents one of the biggest opportunities for high impact collaboration. Buildings account for an astonishing 40% of global greenhouses gas emissions. China is the world's largest builder, with plans for 50% of all new construction, and will hold this position for the foreseeable future. US companies such as Dow, Honeywell, General Electric and Johnson Controls manufacture green technologies that if installed could lower China's carbon emissions. Yet the largest obstacle for widespread adoption of green technologies in China has been overcoming the higher up-front costs. The long-term savings and increased energy efficiency have not been sufficient to counteract these cost concerns.

In an effort to overcome this pricing hurdle and pull one of the biggest levers in the war on pollution, on September 17, the Chinese Economic and Financial Leading Group and the Paulson Institute, announced the intent to launch the U.S.-China Green Building Energy Efficiency Fund. Leading US and Chinese financial institutions such as Warburg Pincus, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Avic Trust and CDH Investments, as well as major Chinese real estate firms including Vahke and SOHO partnered with the industrial firms mentioned earlier and China State Construction the largest builder in the world.

The mission of the U.S.-China Building Energy Efficiency Fund is to enable and accelerate the deployment of U.S. technology and expertise in the China market that will reduce substantially CO2 and other climate-related emissions while improving energy efficiency, promoting industrial productivity and restructuring, encouraging cross-border innovation, and creating green jobs at home and in China. Deploying energy efficient technologies will have the added benefit of reducing the amount of energy required to supply China's continued economic growth. In fact, cutting energy intensity is an integral part of China's strategy to rebalance its energy system and accelerate the shift away from a coal-based economy.

The Fund will support this mission with a three-pronged approach: developing an innovative financing mechanism with support from U.S. and Chinese institutions, identifying proven sustainable technologies, and proposing regulatory updates and recommended specifications to propel the use of sustainable technologies in China.

This energy initiative provides significant opportunities for American companies that are lead developers and deployers of green technologies. The Fund will help U.S. companies bridge the pricing hurdle of green building systems installation in China. And most importantly, greening China's building stock will mean greater energy efficiencies and lower global greenhouse gases - and cleaner air for us all.

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Recent history is littered with examples of multinational corporations meeting spectacular failure on the international stage. Too often, cultural misunderstandings of other nations' customer bases or corporate environments cripple a company's efforts to enter foreign marketplaces. Not only have such catastrophic missteps cost companies billions of dollars, they have impeded the flow of goods and services in our increasingly globalized world. For instance, Germany's Daimler AG merged in 1998 with American car company Chrysler in a $38 billion deal. Less than a decade later, irreconcilable gaps in corporate cultures led Daimler to unload the struggling Chrysler for one-fifth of its purchase price.

This example only scratches the surface, but the lesson is clear: in a world where S&P companies generate one-third of revenues from foreign markets, a globalized perspective isn't just an advantage, but a necessity. As international marketing expert Nataly Kelly recently wrote in the Harvard Business Review, a defining trait of American companies that succeeded in international markets was that their founders or high-ranking executives often came from abroad or were first-generation Americans. But for many managers and the organizations they represent, the risks are high. A recent study found that 42% of managers on overseas assignments fail due to a lack of preparation and insufficient skill sets. These deficits are often magnified by inadequate language and cultural training provided by employers.

To eliminate these problems, individuals must gain such skills and foundations prior to their international assignments. As educators, we felt there was no better time to do this than during their formative years, when business students can greatly enhance skill sets learned in the classroom with cultural immersion, exposure to international executives, and hands-on experience in diverse environments. But how would we teach something that ticks all of these boxes? The answer came through a novel program we now call the "World Bachelor in Business."

It all began as something quite common between universities: an agreement to collaborate and experiment. Our schools--the University of Southern California (USC) Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and the Universitá Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (Bocconi)--reside within three enterprising and diverse geographic areas with plenty of economic and cultural capital to educate and challenge business students. We initiated detailed discussions on how to create a viable experiential business program where students are simultaneously enrolled at all three universities. With an appreciation that there could be no serious innovation without calculated risk, our ambitious endeavor took flight.

We quickly discovered grounds for optimism.

Upon founding the World Bachelor in Business program, a survey of major corporations commissioned by Bocconi revealed two dominant reactions by respondents: 1) We have been waiting for a program like this; and 2) How do we hire these students? And when we launched the program in 2013, we received over 1,000 applications for just 45 slots, making the World Bachelor in Business one of the most competitive programs on our three campuses, and amongst the most selective in higher education overall.

Over the first two cohorts, the program has attracted an incredibly diverse array of students from 23 countries across five continents, speaking more than 10 different native languages. Many were already multi-lingual entrepreneurs. To engage this uniquely talented group, we tailored coursework for global demands with regionally specific business and legal courses to help students acquire in-depth understandings of the nuances of doing business wherever they find themselves.

The goal is to prepare confident executives who are socially and professionally fluent in international settings. We do this by facilitating real-world experiences and face-to-face meetings with leaders so students can understand foreign workplace cultures and business climates. Students are regularly exposed to leading international executives, including most recently, the chairman of Disney International, and the chief technical officer at Nestlé USA.

We made a concerted effort to avoid the trappings of a study abroad program--the coursework is academically rigorous and there is no "pass/fail" option. Students spend their freshman year in Los Angeles, go to Hong Kong for their sophomore year, attend Milan for year three, and choose one of the three universities for their fourth and final year. Throughout their undergraduate careers, daily interactions with fellow students in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment represent a powerful tool to develop skills like mutual understanding, the ability to appreciate the value of diversity, and the intellectual curiosity to discover new opportunities beyond conventional wisdom. And since students receive degrees from all three institutions, they can tap into three distinct alumni networks, each with strengths in three strategically important regions.

Rising sophomore Johnson Seong Hun Moon studied in a Chinese kindergarten, a Korean primary school and graduated from an American International school in Shanghai. He believes businesses will increasingly expand globally to survive and sees the WBB as a natural extension of his international upbringing and education.

Among many hopeful expectations, our program has shown that students learn through trial and error outside of the classroom. The entrepreneurial Benjamin Rubin, who is both American and Israeli, figured out that an understated approach proved more fruitful in Asia than the direct style with which he had grown up. Instead of contracts, which underpin transactions in the West, he learned to navigate a complex set of relationship-based vendor partnerships as part of the start-up he launched during his sophomore year at HKUST. These challenges, which he has the benefit of overcoming at a young age, will surely support his long-term global business ambitions.

In addition to her native tongue, Bosnian rising sophomore Farah Karabeg speaks German, Italian and English. In preparation for her second year in the program, she began studying Mandarin Chinese. Grasping the importance of communication, Farah and two of her classmates launched a startup to enable people to overcome language boundaries in everyday life. Giulia Savino, a rising sophomore from Italy, benefited from her year in Los Angeles by not only adapting to a foreign environment, but by building a successful network that extends well beyond Southern California. This led her to a lucrative internship this past summer with SAP in Germany.

Although the program's students are only now beginning their junior year, global corporations are already actively recruiting them. When our sophomore class toured Bocconi in preparation for their junior year in Milan, recruiters from nearly 40 companies were on hand to greet them. Not only is it highly unusual for sophomores to be recruited in this manner, but there were more companies than students at the event.

The success of the World Bachelor in Business gives birth to a new model of internationalization in academia. Indeed, now that this idea of a small cohort of students rotating together to different parts of the world has proven to deliver far greater depth than typical undergraduate exchanges, there is merit to explore scaling this approach to other degree programs beyond business.

Meanwhile, multiple inquiries from other universities who now seek to replicate our success have been received. Our application numbers certainly suggest that the market is ripe for more such programs. While this model will not work everywhere, the indispensable ingredients for educational institutions are clear: high academic quality, proximity to global business hubs, entrepreneurial values, and a high threshold for risk.

For every industry failure, there is a stunning success. Under Ford's ownership, Britain's iconic Jaguar operated at a loss every year. Yet when the Mumbai-based Tata Group acquired Jaguar, it was able to successfully revive the brand. Tata brought profitability to Jaguar by expanding into international markets like China with personnel who keenly understood the cultural business landscape. Today, through programs like the World Bachelor in Business, teaching the critical foundations of global business is beginning earlier than ever. By educating the next generation of business leaders in their formative years, we are not only promoting the prospects of success for global companies, but also the promise of success for our globalized world.

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By Barbara Manley, Director, PwC

We've all heard it: The promise of programmatic advertising to improve efficiency through automation, and to improve campaign effectiveness through more precise targeting and real-time analytics. To fulfill this promising marketers and advertisers need to navigate and master a complex set of new tools.

During the last several months PwC has had the opportunity to speak to over 30 different agencies and marketers about how they are approaching the complexities and prioritizing challenges of programmatic advertising. Several key themes emerged from our conversations about their strategic priorities.

Data

"The nirvana would be to integrate data and own it all" - US Marketer

Data ownership is critical to most of the marketers that we talked to. Not surprisingly there was almost consistent interest in maintaining ownership of first party data. Unfortunately, struggling to figure out how to approach and integrate third party data was also a consistent theme. There is concern about the consistency and quality of third party data and yet, also strong interest in any opportunity to enhance existing data with external sources.

"3rd party data is not always great, expensive and not always on time" - US Agency

In-house capabilities and operating models impact how most marketers integrate customer data. The 'build vs. buy' decision regarding the DMP (Data Management Platform) is strongly influenced by in-house technical capabilities.

Technology

Programmatic advertising requires a suite of different technologies working together to be successful - from the ad exchanges, and bid managers, to campaign managers and creative solutions. And that is just on the buy side! Making sure these tools - the so called Ad Tech Stack - all work together and talk to one another is a critical and fundamental step in a successful programmatic advertising program. The easiest way to do this would be an integrated stack, a single suite of tools designed and built to operate together.

Most marketers we talked to see the vision and understand the benefits of a vertically integrated stack. Chief among those benefits are ease of integration, efficiency, and data integrity. If that is ad tech nirvana however, most marketers are not willing to make compromises in other areas to achieve it. One of the primary challenges marketers see to a single integrated stack is the absence of a single "best of breed" provider across all ad stack components. Today, most marketers seem to prefer a collection of "best of breed" components and accept the technical challenges that come with that.

The existence of 'walled gardens' is also forcing marketers to step away from the nirvana of an integrated stack. 'Walled Gardens' exist when a media company limits how advertisers can access inventory. These walled gardens have forced media buyers to implement multiple DSPs (Demand Side Platforms) to access the breadth of inventory that they want. Many of the marketers that we talked to selected a primary DSP to give them access to broad audience and then they selected supplemental DSPs to access niche audiences in mobile, video, or specific geographic regions.

Eighty percent of our survey participants rated "Ease of integration with ad tech tools from other vendors" as either a 4 or 5 (out of 5, 5 = Most Important) with only "Access to top digital inventory, publishers, and web developers" outranking it. The lesson here for all of us: limit the number of DSP's that you are working with. Keep the environment simple. Limit your headaches and costs.

Analytics

Analytics is the secret sauce that makes programmatic advertising work. As we have talked to marketers, this theme was repeated over and over.

"This is a very important area for us, we use all the analytics that we can."

The desire for more analytics and deeper insights seemed to be about where the commonality stopped. Companies are taking a variety of different approaches to analytics and have different preferences for where they want to go to get deep insights.

Marketers and agencies will always welcome insights/analytics based on high quality, user-specific data (e.g. logged in data) owned by the media companies themselves. Advanced insights and analytics performed with data beyond reach would be valued from media companies.

Marketers have high expectations of their technology providers. In many cases, they expect the technology providers to be the experts. In other cases, marketers continue to work with their agencies and expect them to be the experts.

"The more explanation/detail on how campaign is performing is key. Preference is to have the provider be the expert..."

Partnerships are being established with analytics providers to shift from traditional research/targeting (male vs female) to audience/behavioral based segmentation to improve targeting

In conclusion

So while all the world is a buzz with hope and high expectations for programmatic advertising, be sure to focus on the fundamentals. The fundamentals - data, technology, and analytics - will enable you to be successful with the capabilities that exist today. And give you a strong foundation to build on, as programmatic continues to grow and expand.

About the Author

Barbara Manley is a Director in PwC's Advisory Consulting practice with over 20 years of combined consulting and industry experience. In this role, Barbara specializes in the design and execution of customer digital solutions to address disruptive market and industry forces. She is a seasoned executive with a track record of delivering business value and driving change.

Barbara has a broad range of experience across industries. She brings leading practice knowledge, skills and experience in commercial strategy, development and adoption of new business models, programmatic advertising, advertising technology, omni-channel marketing and sales, business-led CRM design and execution, and sales force optimization.

Prior to joining PwC, Barbara served in executive roles in both sales and marketing where she was responsible for the design and execution of digital marketing strategies, corporate re-branding, re-organizing the commercial team, global implementation of salesforce.com, and the post-merger integration of marketing, sale and service teams.

Barbara holds a bachelor's degree from Smith College (Northampton, MA) and an MBA from the University Of Michigan Ross School Of Business (Ann Arbor, MI). More recently, she completed a yearlong training program in improvisational comedy at Chicago's famous Second City.

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Ross Jones's Windows 10 upgrade goes wrong and now Microsoft wants him to pay $499 to fix it. Is that right?

Question: I recently upgraded my computer to Windows 10. After that, my Microsoft Outlook won't stay connected to the exchange server that hosts my email. Microsoft says that since my problem is with an exchange server connection -- the server is not a Microsoft server, by the way -- that I will have to pay $499 to get help.

In other words, the upgrade they are pushing messed up my computer and now they want me to pay a fortune to get help to fix it. This does not seem right to me. Can you help? -- Ross Jones, Bloomington, Minn.

Answer: That doesn't seem right to me, either. Microsoft heavily promoted its new operating system as (I'm not making this up) an opportunity to "upgrade your world."

"Windows was built to help people do great things," its slick launch site promised. "Whether fighting hunger, saving the environment or inspiring the creation of the next new lifesaving technology, Microsoft and our partners are celebrating people and organizations who do great things -- to not just upgrade Windows, but also to upgrade the world."

Oh, wow. Mother Teresa, meet your new OS.

Seriously, you would expect an upgrade -- even one that simply promised a modest performance improvement -- to actually, you know, be an upgrade. But clearly, yours wasn't.

When a Microsoft representative demanded $499 to fix your problem, you should have blazed a paper trail using the company's contact form. I asked you to do that, but it proved to be a dead end.

I think Microsoft should fix this problem. The upgrade it pushed on you created this problem. If its programmers had paid closer attention to their coding, then they probably could have avoided the server problem you experienced. But we know this for sure: Without trying to "upgrade" your life, you'd still be connected to your server.

I contacted the company on your behalf. A representative called you and spent about 40 minutes on the phone, trying to troubleshoot the problem. Here's the fix, in case other readers are experiencing the same problem: You updated Outlook and then deleted and reset your email address.

"It took quite a bit of deleting, reinstalling and rebooting," you told me. "But now it works."

Christopher Elliott specializes in solving intractable consumer problems. Contact him with your questions on his advocacy website. You can also follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Google or sign up for his newsletter. (Illustration by Aren Elliott.)

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I'm not going to talk about the Fed.

I already told you last week what the announcement would be and, in our Option Opportunities Portfolio over at Seeking Alpha, our outlook on the Fed combined with the activity we were observing over at the COMEX led us to go long on gold as it fell down to $1,100 in addition to the obvious futures trade idea we had in PSW's Live Member Chat Room to go long on Gold Futures (/YG). For the futures challenged, our trade idea was simply to use the Gold ETF (GLD) instead:

Buying 10 of the GLD Oct $104 calls for $3.58 ($3,580)

Selling 10 of the GLD Oct $108 calls for $1.39 ($1,390)

That net $2,190 position pays back $4,000 if GLD is over $108 at October contract expiration (16th) but already the Futures have paid off like a gold strike as we shot up to $120 for a $664.40 PER CONTRACT gain. The margin requirement on gold futures is just $1,826 per contract, so it's a nice, efficient way to play! Meanwhile, in our OOP, GLD is already at $107.31 and the spread is at net $2,580 - up $390 so not quite as exciting as the Futures trade but that one stopped out already so we'll see which makes more next month.

This stuff isn't complicated folks, we read the news and, when we think we know what's going to happen next AND we can see an opportunity to make a nice trade to take advantage of it - we go for it. Ulike Rothstein, however, we don't "bet it all" because we are constantly presented with opportunities like this and, since we understand the value of "How to Get Rich Slowly," we are very happy to CAREFULLY work our way in and out of positions that maximize our gains while minimizing our risks.

Our Option Opportunity Portfolio was originally called the 5% (Monthly) Portfolio with a goal of making 5% each month but the title tested as confusing so it was renamed. I am, however, happy to announce that, as of yesterday's close (day 38) we were up 9.8% already - almost two months' worth of gains in 6 weeks!

You don't need to bet big to win big, you are far better off betting smart. Since we were long on gold for what we thought was good reason, we also went long on Silver Futures (/SI) above the $14.50 line. Already they are close enough to our goal of $15, where silver contracts pay $50 per penny so over $2,250 per contract on those above $14.95. We did not make a silver option play, however, as we already had the GLD trade and our Option Opportunities Portfolio is fairly conservative.

Today we are being conservative with our gains from the last few days, which have rocketed our Long-Term Portfolios value as well as the OOP so we're going to pick up some hedges like the ones we described back on Sept 4th in "Hedging for Disaster". In fact, in that FREE post I published our OOP positions and the open ones were flat at the time and have since gained almost $10,000!

These are the last two weeks to sign up for the Options Opportunities Portfolio at the introductory price of $99/month - it doubles on October 1st and 6 more weeks like this and we'll double it again - so I'd go annual!

That's right, how many people can point to a portfolio with 7 positions that they published two weeks ago that are up 10% as a group today? Actually, it's the whole portfolio that's up 10%, the positions are up much more than that since they were only using a very small amount of cash ($16,000). That's what I mean by CONSERVATIVE - we don't risk a lot of cash and that keeps us flexible - able to turn on a dime with the market.

Overall, the S&P (SPY) has made little progress since Sept 4th - it's up about 2.5% but the leverage we get by using our option plays enhances our gains considerably. Still, what has been done can easily be undone so, as a rule of thumb, we like to put about 1/3 of our winnings back into hedges to lock in our gains.

2 of the 3 hedges we suggested (TZA and SQQQ) are around where they were two weeks ago and we still like them for protection. In fact, because we used our "Be the House - NOT the Gambler" strategy to set the trades up, even though (TZA) itself has fallen from $12.34 to $11.05 our TZA spread has GONE UP to net $1,570 (up $170 or 10.8%) as of yesterday's close DESPITE US BEING WRONG!

How is that possible? Because we SOLD premium to other suckers while we took conservatively bearish positions underneath them. Since there were only 6 weeks to the trade, two weeks have eaten up the premium we sold faster than the Delta (net change) of the position has punished us for being wrong (so far).

It's still a good entry at $1,570 because the payoff is $6,000 if TZA gets back over $13 into October expirations and this is not a BET, this is INSURANCE against a downturn that protects the ill-gotten gains we already have in our bullish positions. As with life insurance - we don't WANT to "win" the money - it's just there if something bad happens...

I haven't made an official pick yet but we'll be sending out alerts to our various Members well ahead of the Fed meeting as well as tomorrows quarterly Quad Witching Expiration of index options, stock options, index futures and single stock futures (rarely played). Because futures and options investors must close out of their positions on those days, they often witness increased trading volume.

Strap yourselves in with those hedges - it's going to be a wild couple of days!

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How to Manage a Multigenerational Workforce and Not Go Totally Insane

What Is Quality Worth to You? Is you business a Mercedes?

Do You Know Your Why?

Lifelong Learning: An Essential Ingredient for Entrepreneurs Eyeing Business Growth

School is Never Out for the Pro

Class is in Session

Is There a Science Behind Reality Distortion Fields?

How to Identify and Eliminate the Sources of Conflict (7.2)

How to Be a Career-Loving Parent

How to be a career-loving parent

IBM 'Making Change Work' Report Rings Truer Than Ever After 7 Years

That ONE GUY aka Don't Fight Battles that Don't Matter

Are You Investing in the Workforce of the Future? Or the Workforce of Yesterday?

How Employee Engagement Benefits Your Bottom Line

Name It and It's Yours

Content is King, But Consumers Are King-ier

The digital paradigm shift, from the cultural perspective.

3 "Hidden" Services of a Shared Office

Why Does This Baby Make You Smile?

Satisfying people's need for Relatedness at work

Fighting China's Environmental War One Building at a Time

Building a New Global Higher Education Model

Programmatic Advertising: Lessons Learned from First Movers

Data

Technology

Analytics

In conclusion

About the Author

He's Ready to Throw His Windows 10 Upgrade Out The Window

Faltering Thursday -- Fearing Fed's Forthcoming Failure