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Friday, 25 January 2013

Newsletter Issue 229, January 2013



Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 229, January 2013
Hi guys,
To paraphrase an online 'commenter', the company outsources a job and its capitalism; you do it and you're fired. Check out Developer Bob below.
A bit of a surprise for researchers in discovering that Overweight People Appear to Live Longer. 
Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Developer Bob - Outsourcing Your Job

Have you heard of Developer Bob?
He's the guy whose story Iain Thomson broke on 16 January 2013 in the UK's Register, reporting on the 2012 security audit of a US 'critical' infrastructure company. The audit found that the firm's top performing coder had "outsourced his own job to a Chinese subcontractor".
He was found out by a check of the company's VPN logs (Virtual Private Network), pinging up a "regular series of logins to the company's main server from Shenyang, China, using [Bob's] credentials". The IT gurus thought that Bob's PC had been co-opted by a hacker or was being set up for a 'zero day malware' attack, and were worried. They didn't suspect Bob, but got permission watch and monitor Bob's activity so as to catch the ghost in their system.
Boy, was everyone surprised! Thomson reported that the IT guys discovered that Bob had "hired a software consultancy in Shenyang to do his programming work for him, and had FedExed them his two-factor authentication token so they could log into his account. He was paying them a fifth of his six-figure salary to do the work and spent the rest of his time on other activities" (16 January 2013).
Some deeper digging turned up that Bob was not only doing this work for this employer: he had taken jobs with other companies, cranking out a very nice income for himself indeed. But what caught the public imagination was when the company eventually pieced together Bob's 'typical' day at work: "9:00 a.m. – Arrive and surf Reddit for a couple of hours. Watch cat videos 11:30 a.m. – Take lunch 1:00 p.m. – Ebay time 2:00-ish p.m – Facebook updates, LinkedIn 4:30 p.m. – End-of-day update e-mail to management 5:00 p.m. – Go home" (Thomson, 16 January 2013). The cat videos have sparked a lot of online me-too comments, articles and blog posts.
Nice work if you can get it, eh. Unfortunately Bob isn't getting it any more. He is no longer with the company.
Interestingly, many people seem to feel that Developer Bob is a Robin Hood character. David Futrelle reported for Time on 18 January 2013 that many people in the US were wishing they had done what Bob had; "fantasizing about outsourcing [their] own job". He went on to relate what Arden, a commenter on Gawker (an online media and blog site), had said: "So when a corporation outsources your job, it’s just Capitalism and sorry but that’s how things work, get used to it. But when YOU outsource your OWN job, well that’s wrong and bad and you’re fired now and you shouldn’t be lazy. Smell that? That’s the smell of good old fashioned American Hypocrisy" (Futrelle, 18 January 2013).
Futrelle went on to say that "every company who outsources jobs to foreign workers who are willing to work for less is doing" the same (18 January 2013). However, he also pointed out that the difference between a company outsourcing tasks and Bob's endeavours; that when companies outsource work, the shareholders - sometimes - get the benefit. Bob got the outsourcing benefits himself, not passing them on (18 January 2013).
But perhaps Bob's consistently high performance achievements (Thomson, 16 January 2013) gave others in the organisation something to strive for. At least he will have lots of time to update his LinkedIn profile now, and to catch up on all those cat videos.
 
References:
 
Overweight People Appear to Live Longer

According to Melinda Beck of the Wall Street Journal, a US government study seems to indicate that overweight people (ie, those with a Body Mass Index - BMI - of 25-30) are apparently less likely to die in any 'given period' than people of normal weight (BMI between 18.5-25). People with a BMI of 25-30 have a 6% less chance of dying than those with a BMI between 18.5-25.
Beck (1 January 2012) reports "Even those who are moderately obese don't have a higher-than-normal risk of dying" (BMI 30-35) than those with a overweight BMI, having a 5% less chance of dying in a given period than those with a normal BMI.
However, having a BMI higher than 35 - being substantially obese - increases the risk of death by 29%.
The study was conducted by the US Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and analysed data from three million participants, looked at 270,000 deaths, and over 97 studies globally.
Senior CDC scientist and lead author, Katherine Flegal, said "The findings are very consistent across all different ages and continents", but hastens to add that this finding doesn't mean that being overweight is good for us long term. Obesity-associated illnesses - such as high blood pressure, heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, high cholesterol, joint failure, respiratory problems - get worse the heavier we get, and once we are substantially obese, our mortality risk increases by almost a third.
Beck states it is unclear "why people with heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease live longer if they are overweight or obese". It is possible that carrying a few extra pounds gives us a metabolic reserve when we are ill: 'something to go on' (as my mother used to say); or that a little fat gives us padding to better deal with traumatic injuries (1 January 2013).
But the results of this study are surprising. It will be interesting to read what other researchers uncover as the findings are further analysed.
Beck, Melinda (1 January 2013). A Few Extra Pounds Won't Kill You—Really. USA: The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 January 2013 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323635504578215801377387088.html

Customising the Office Ribbon

Susan Harkins of TechRepublic posted a great "How To" on customising the Office Ribbon at the tail end of last year.
If the ribbon doesn't work for you, in Office 2010 you can either add icons to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT); customise a ribbon tab with a new group; or create new ribbon tabs (these instructions work for all Office 2010 apps using Ribbons, but not for Office 2007).
  1. Customise the QAT (in the top-left corner of header bar, just right click and, from the dropdown list, select "Choose More Commands" | Choose Commands From... | Commands Not In The Ribbon | highlight your chosen item | click Add (between the two lists) | click OK.
  2. Create a new group in a tab:
    • Click the ribbon tab you want a new group in (Susan uses the example of adding the Style function in Word to the Home tab)
    • Select Options
    • In the left pane, select Customize Ribbon. In the dialogue box, under the Home tab in the Main Tabs list, select Font
    • At the bottom of the list, click New Group. Rename the new group by right-clicking it, and selecting Rename.
    • Add Style to your new group by selecting Commands Not In The Ribbon | highlight Style | click Add | click OK.
    • Use the arrows to the right of the Main Tabs list to move the new group within the tab
  3. Create a new tab: same process as for 2, but instead of clicking "New Group" click "New Tab". Use the arrows to the right of the Main Tabs list to move the new tab to where you would like it on the ribbon.
If you are someone who likes to heavily customise their icons, macros and shortcuts, this will make your computing much easier again!
Reference: Harkins, Susan (26 December 2012). Two easy ways to customize the ribbon interface. USA: TechRepublic. Retrieved 26 December 2012 from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/two-easy-ways-to-customize-the-ribbon-interface/7011?tag=nl.e064&s_cid=e064

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:
  • EMD, Exact-Match Domain. This is where your domain name is the same as your site keywords; eg your site is called www.rentalcar.com and your keywords are rental and car. Google now penalise EMDs in their algorithms, so an EMD site will not rank highly in searches.
Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys
In this newsletter, we look at spelling commands in Office:
  • Access, Excel, FrontPage, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, Word "Display Spelling and Grammar dialog box" F7
  • PowerPoint, Word "Find next misspelling" Alt & F7

Hot Linx
Wow - so 'leadership role occupancy' is genetic, based on gene rs4950. Check out this article in the Irish Times at http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2013/0115/breaking40.html?goback=.gde_4658233_member_204689792 and the Leadership Quarterly paper abstract at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1915939
Check out the consumer predictions of Dutch marketing gurus, Trendwatching, for the coming year at http://www.trendwatching.com/trends/10trends2013/
ZDNet has an interesting article about the Internet of Things and M2M computing at http://www.zdnet.com/topic-tapping-m2m-the-internet-of-things/
On the light-hearted side, Henri, the existentialist moggy extraordinaire takes some beating with his terrible French angst. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7ibPk37_U and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q34z5dCmC4M&feature=player_embedded
                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here
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Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Overweight People Appear to Live Longer

According to Melinda Beck of the Wall Street Journal, a US government study seems to indicate that overweight people (ie, those with a Body Mass Index - BMI - of 25-30) are apparently less likely to die in any 'given period' than people of normal weight (BMI between 18.5-25). People with a BMI of 25-30 have a 6% less chance of dying than those with a BMI between 18.5-25.

Beck (1 January 2012) reports "Even those who are moderately obese don't have a higher-than-normal risk of dying" (BMI 30-35) than those with a overweight BMI, having a 5% less chance of dying in a given period than those with a normal BMI.

However, having a BMI higher than 35 - being substantially obese - increases the risk of death by 29%.

The study was conducted by the US Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and analysed data from three million participants, looked at 270,000 deaths, and over 97 studies globally.

Senior CDC scientist and lead author, Katherine Flegal, said "The findings are very consistent across all different ages and continents", but hastens to add that this finding doesn't mean that being overweight is good for us long term. Obesity-associated illnesses - such as high blood pressure, heart disease, adult-onset diabetes, high cholesterol, joint failure, respiratory problems - get worse the heavier we get, and once we are substantially obese, our mortality risk increases by almost a third.

Beck states it is unclear "why people with heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease live longer if they are overweight or obese". It is possible that carrying a few extra pounds gives us a metabolic reserve when we are ill: 'something to go on' (as my mother used to say); or that a little fat gives us padding to better deal with traumatic injuries (1 January 2013).

But the results of this study are surprising. It will be interesting to read what other researchers uncover as the findings are further analysed.

Reference: Beck, Melinda (1 January 2013). A Few Extra Pounds Won't Kill You—Really. USA: The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 3 January 2013 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323635504578215801377387088.html

Sam 
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Friday, 4 January 2013

Newsletter Issue 228, January 2013



Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 228, January 2013
Hi guys,
Happy New Year! How influential are you? Check out Influence below.
How do we get past those beliefs we have that hold us back? Kaihan Krippendorff tells us in his 20 Minute Positive Thinking Exercise. 
Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

Influence

So what is influence? And is influence important?
To me, influence is very important. This comes from my early influences (ha - there's that word again!): I was brought up in a family where we all did lots of voluntary work, often accomplished by trading favours.
Having strong, well-nourished networks was something that my parents did as naturally as breathing, and so myself and my siblings followed the same route. We naturally used our networks to get things done, and to help both ourselves and others acheive goals.
In saying that, we tended to do favours for others first, without a return expectation: paying it forward like the movie. The favour we might eventually need would probably come from someone else, and would probably also be for the benefit of yet another person or organisation. All that voluntary work that we did - and still do - tended to mean there was a club in need of some funds, a group needing some equipment, some PR needing to be done or raffle tickets to be sold.
In leadership, influence is defined as the "effect a person’s actions have on the attitudes, values, beliefs, or actions of others" (Daft & Pirola-Merlo, 2009, p. 381). It sounds something like power, doesn't it. However, power is the capacity to cause a change, while influence is the degree of actual change that happens.

You can have strong influence without having a lot of power; certainly without having the power of a certain position. Your influence can be magnified hugely by your networks, with goodwill, and though how you model doing things for others. If nothing is ever a problem for you, and you meet others needs as they need them to be met, those around you are likely to pull out all the stops for you when you need it.

Additionally, we tend to give more generously when someone is asking a favour on behalf of someone else, in the service of something that doesn't benefit them directly. We reward altruism with our trust, and see the person asking as being trustworthy.

We can lose influence very quickly by abusing that trust though undisclosed direct benefits from a favour, by asking for something in return before we give, by complaining when we are asked for help (we eventually won't get asked), by needing prodding, reminding and coaxing before we deliver, by needing continual accolades, or by belittling others who help or undoing all they have done before we will start. I am sure you will all know people to avoid, as they cost more in management problems than they provide in benefits.

In business, government and non-profit organisations, influence is very important for leaders. It can be used by leaders in a much more structured way than in peer relationships. Daft & Pirola-Merlo (2009, p. 394) lists seven tactics that a leader can use to influence others:

  1. Use rational persuasion This frequently used influence tactic uses facts, data, and logical arguments to persuade others that a proposed idea or request is the best way to complete a task or accomplish a desired goal.
  2. Make people like you People would rather say yes to someone they like than to someone they don’t like. When a leader shows concern for others, demonstrates trust and respect, and treats people fairly, people are more likely to want to help and support the leader.
  3. Rely on the rule of reciprocity Leaders gain power by having something that others value. A primary way to turn that power into influence is to share what you have-whether it be time, resources, services, or emotional support. Leaders who do favours for others can expect favours in return.
  4. Develop allies Reciprocity also plays an important role in developing networks of allies, people who can help the leader accomplish goals. A leader’s network of contacts can be expanded by reaching out to establish contact with additional people. Some leaders expand their alliances through the hiring, transfer, and promotion process.
  5. Ask for what you want Another way to have influence is to make a direct appeal by being clear about what you want and asking for it. Political activity is effective only when the leader’s vision, goals, and desired changes are made explicit so the organisation can respond.
  6. Remember the principle of scarcity This principle means that people usually want more of what they can’t have. When things are available, they become more desirable. Leaders can learn to frame their requests or offers in such a way as to highlight the unique benefits and exclusive information being provided.
  7. Extend formal authority with expertise and credibility The final principle for asserting authority is the leader’s legitimate authority in the organisation. Research has found that the key to successful use of formal authority is to be knowledgeable, credible, and trustworthy. Effective leaders keep the previous influence principles in mind, realising that influence depends primarily on personal rather than position power.

Just remember, whether you are influencing paid or volunteer workers, using your influence works best when it is not "all about you".


Reference: Daft, Richard L. & Pirola-Merlo, Andrew (2009). The Leadership Experience (Asia-Pacific Edition 1). Australia: Cengage



20 Minute Positive Thinking Exercise



Towards the end of last year, Kaihan Krippendorff emailed out a great little article called the "20-Minute Exercise To Eradicate Negative Thinking". I thought that Kaihan's "how to" was really a very positive thinking exercise.

Kaihan said in his introduction to "Imagine a hot air balloon being held down by four anchors. The balloon represents the belief holding you down and [the] actions and words [that] this belief influences. The four anchors represent evidence, logic, emotion, and social consensus. To release the balloon you must replace the offending belief".

He listed five steps to do this:

  1. Identify the belief holding you back. Kaihan's tip for this was to "Write down beliefs until you find one that hurts". Try to identify things said by that nagging "you can't do that" voice when you set out to do something new.
  2. Identify your anchors; the evidence for that belief; the logic of this belief; the emotions anchoring you; the social consensus - people - around you reinforcing it; and what "dependent beliefs” fit? (ie Kaihan desires to be a speaker, so dependent beliefs are that this is self-centered, and thinking there is a unique offer for people is conceited)
  3. Pick a new belief consistent with someone who has achieved your dream
  4. Release your anchors - gather supporting evidence, think through the logic, have supportive emotions and social consensus - so you can embed your replacement beliefs
  5. Live your new belief. Writing down five specific things you will do (action) and say (words), and practice, practice, practice until you build your new habit!

A lecturer of mine used to say that it takes 90 iterations to build a habit: so if you do something daily for three months, you will own it.


Reference: Krippendorff, Kaihan (17 November 2012). 20-Minute Exercise To Eradicate Negative Thinking. USA: FastCompany Ltd. Retrieved 17 November 2012 from http://www.fastcompany.com/3003046/20-minute-exercise-eradicate-negative-thinking



Adding Holidays to Outlook



Do you know how to add another country's holidays to your Outlook calendar? As it happens, you can add holidays to Outlook from almost any country on the planet. All you need to do is:

  1. Go to the Tools menu, and select Options
  2. Select Calendar Options | Add Holidays
  3. Tick the box next to each country/region where you want to add their holidays to your calendar
  4. Click OK.

It is just that easy :-)



TLAs for SMEs



Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

  • MOOCs, massively open online courses.


Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.



Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we look at revision commands in Word:

  • Word "Go back to previous revision or to the location of the insertion point when the document was last closed" Shift & F5
  • Word "Toggle revision marks with Track Changes command on " Ctrl & Shift & E



Hot Linx

A great gmail tool is Rapportive, which, once installed searches multiple sites including LinkedIn & Facebook for the email address you are sending to and pull up profile information on the person. Check it out at http://rapportive.com/

Check out Starbucks off-shoring transfer pricing strategy for avoiding UK taxes at http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/nov/12/amazon-google-starbucks-diverting-uk-profits?intcmp=239

Take a walk down memory lane with this list of 1983 computers & hardware for sale at http://www.zdnet.com/top-holiday-tech-buys-of-1983-gallery_p12-7000008839/#photo

And keeping on the technology theme, the internet turned 30 on January 1! Read all about it at http://www.firstpost.com/tech/happy-birthday-the-internet-is-30-years-old-now-575475.html


                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here
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Wednesday, 2 January 2013

So What's Hot? Trends for 2013

There are a load of trends that will increasingly impact us - and largely in a positive way - as 2013 unrolls.
  1. Social media is driving a lot of change. It is now central to home and work, and the collective communities are reshaping companies from without. Social media is helping business build broader, agile networks so they can create and deliver value to customers. B2C is creating what feels like a one-to-one relationships, but is using one-to-many technology to enable it. About two thirds of the wired globe is on Facebook. LinkedIn is growing (and is increasingly being used for head-hunting). Expect to see many more people automatically touching base via social media as time goes on (The Economist, Nov 2012; Caligiuri, 14 Dec 2012).
  2. Companies are growing a social and economic conscience, trying to build legitimacy in the eyes of their demanding consumers, employees and stakeholders. Increasingly, their stakeholders can din companies on Facebook and various review sites if companies muck it up or greenwash. Where companies truly have mutual benefits with society, it works. Beware the company who puts on ethics like a cloak: it will not be the cloak of invisibility! (The Economist, Nov 2012)
  3. Cheques are on their way out. Internet banking is in. Malaysia is phasing out cheques by April 2014, as more people chose internet banking (Yong, 20 March 2013). Like money orders, cheques are an anachronism. The change is being driven by the ease, information-richness, immediacy and low cost of automatic & online payments. Accounting software now automatically codes bank transactions: a cheque has no information with it, so it means additional manual adjustments. Cheque costs are likely to increase to more accurately reflect their processing cost too - bankers drafts now cost about $30 each…There will be even fewer once banks start charging realistic processing costs... from 2008 to 2011 we went from writing 204 million to 60 million cheques; and cheques have gone from making up half of all banking transactions in 1993 to 2% in May last year.
  4. If you are still watching broadcast TV, you are so old hat. According to eMarketer’s 2012 digital media usage report, those of us viewing TV and video on computers, tablets or mobile devices will increase to over half the population. This looks set to increase. Additionally, more businesses now use video to communicate info about their company, their products and their services (eMarketer, 2012).
  5. There is some awesome technology convergence allowing those of us with smart phones to tap into a new marketing trend which will be a biggie: “SoLoMo” - Social, Local, Mobile. More B2C companies are working in that sector such as Foursquare, which converges users' GPS and the users' 'likes' and advises the companies located close by and what special deals are currently available. And 96% of smart phone users are also on the web (Caligiuri, 14 Dec 2012).
  6. Online conferences, video conferencing and online meetings will increase. This will mean we can save travel costs. It will not be a replacement for getting face to face, but will create more choice for participants. Expect the BNZ Business Centre facilities to get very booked out!
  7. MOOCs will get bigger. Courses will continue to go online, and we will end up with some great deals as students, but bad deals as academics and teachers. The model will shift more towards learners actually learning from individuals in order for teachers to earn money from teaching... though I am not sure this is a bad thing either.
  8. Open Access academic writing and eBooks will continue to gain ground. Open Access is about not tying up academic publications with profit-making publishers, but by-passing them to publish articles as a public good. EBooks in various formats will continue to gain ground over print. Expect some of the slower adopters to move to Kindles, iPads, Tablets and audiobooks.
  9. The customisation of content to fit the context will increase. Companies will create tailored communications that talk to specific customer problems in the customer's industry, targetted at the customer's company and how their product or service will benefit the customer. The seller will have to ensure they tell the customer what the WIIFM is, else their message will be ignored. Company marketing will have to shouts their “calls to action” in all their comms. Companies will need to be even more savvy about bridging their content to action, and how they get information from potential audiences and target them more effectively in future campaigns. Look for more calls to action via some more unusual content in 2013, especially from free information exchange such as blog posts, white papers, articles and case studies (Caligiuri, 14 Dec 2012).
  10. We will see more news-jacking, where people get their own expertise in to breaking news by creating a connection between the story and themselves. Caligiuri reports that a "lawyer client of mine specializing in privacy has been having some newsjacking success. When stories about Google keeping consumer information came out this year, for instance, he reached out to the media to offer his opinion, and has now become recognized as a privacy expert to whom media turned multiple times in 2012 on privacy-related matters. This has done much to raise his profile" (14 Dec 2012).

Sources:

Sam 
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