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Mazin Gilbert has an ambitious goal. As vice president of advanced technologies at AT&T, Gilbert wants to make AI technologies widely available throughout the corporation, especially to those who might not have a computer science background and may not even know how to program. Call it the “democratization of AI.” To accomplish that goal, AT&T is building a user-friendly platform with point-and-click tools that will enable employees — up to one-quarter of the company’s workforce — to build their own AI applications. AT&T and a host of other companies are trying to address a crucial issue in business: the severe shortage of AI talent. According to some estimates, only about 10,000 programmers in the world have the necessary expertise to develop advanced AI algorithms. But that’s barely a drop in the bucket for what companies will need in their future workforces. Tools like AT&T’s platform will help spread AI technologies well beyond just a limited number of “haves” and reach the “have nots” that may lack the technical knowledge and experience. This democratization of AI will happen in two ways. First, it will enable employees across a large organization like AT&T to develop their own AI applications to make them better at their jobs. But it will also allow smaller firms to deploy some of the same AI capabilities that have heretofore been limited to large corporations. Think of how spreadsheets like Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel helped democratize data analysis, enabling even mom-and-pop shops to perform invaluable “what-if” analyses.
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The vast majority of humans throughout history worked because they had to. Many found comfort, value, and meaning in their efforts, but some defined work as a necessity to be avoided if possible. For centuries, elites in societies from Europe to Asia aspired to absolution from gainful employment. Aristotle defined a “man in freedom” as the pinnacle of human existence, an individual freed of any concern for the necessities of life and with nearly complete personal agency. (Tellingly, he did not define wealthy merchants as free to the extent that their minds were pre-occupied with acquisition.) The promise of AI and automation raises new questions about the role of work in our lives. Most of us will remain focused for decades to come on activities of physical or financial production, but as technology provides services and goods at ever-lower cost, human beings will be compelled to discover new roles — roles that aren’t necessarily tied to how we conceive of work today.
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Successful entrepreneurs have a lot of things in common; one is knowing how to make the best use of their time. When the clock is ticking and they are under pressure to deliver, many have a favourite productivity hack to ensure things get done on time. Here, seven entrepreneurs share their tried and tested ways of being more productive. Create artificial deadlines Business expert and author of The Startup Coach Carl Reader uses a clever technique of creating artificial deadlines to guarantee a productive finish. “One of my favourite tricks is the ‘train journey to nowhere,” he said. “I book a return train ticket, don't take my mobile phone, and set a completion target for the journey. With a clear deadline and no distractions, I find that I often produce more than I would in the office in a whole day. It's great if you can tie this around meetings that you need to travel to, but if not, the productivity boost is well worth the cost of a train ticket.”
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You had a great idea for a product. Your prototype got great reviews from focus groups or even from a crowdfunding campaign. Now you’re planning for mass production, ready to launch your own website, prepping for massive online sales, and practicing poses in the mirror for your picture on the cover of Forbes. Whoa! Having something to sell is the easy part. Getting it into the hands of consumers is sometimes the more complicated step. E-sales may make marketing easy, but that can be deceptive. Ben Wong is the Head of Startup Launchpad at Global Sources. He helps startups understand the distribution channels they need to leverage, and the different challenges they need to address to get their products into the hands of paying consumers in an offline setting. Global Sources runs the largest electronics sourcing trade show in the world. This October, more than 63,000 distributors and retailers from around the globe will wander the aisles at the Asia-World Expo in Hong Kong, stopping — or not — at 6,000 manufacturers’ booths. Among those will be about 300 booths where ambitious, hopeful, sometimes naïve, startup companies will beam with pride, burst with anticipation, and sweat with anxiety as they demonstrate their products and hope for a chance to launch a product, start a business, and scale to meet demand.
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Learning about your customers has become a priority in business, informing everything from product development to marketing and customer service. It’s important that brands remain aware of the customer perspective as they make crucial decisions. This has given birth to a surge in experiential marketing and a focus on customer experience. By giving consumers the option of trying their products out, businesses find that they can increase conversions. What brands may not realize, though, is that these marketing events offer the perfect opportunity to collect customer data. With the right tools in place, businesses can learn more about their target market while also introducing their offerings to potential customers. Here are a few best-in-class solutions for collecting data from and about your customers.
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Charlie Pabst is a graphic designer. Before going freelance, he had a full-time day job where he designed coffee shops all around the world. But each night, Pabst would come home and mock up logos and websites for fictional companies. At first, it was just a creative outlet. Then he started posting some of his designs online. The initial response was positive. For the first time, he says, "in the back of my mind I thought maybe I could actually make a go of it." Pabst started hunting around for freelance work and eventually got hired to design a book cover for a connected client. The client was pleased, and promoted Pabst's work on his website, which reaches a few hundred thousand people. Many are taking up side gigs because they need to and not because they want to, [but] it's clear that money is far from the only motivator. It jump-started Pabst's freelance career. He quit his job, accepting lower pay at first in exchange for freedom and flexibility.
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You've heard the stories, read the reports, and know the trends. It's undeniable that how we work is changing dramatically and that most companies need to reconsider their current strategies to set themselves up for future success. So why isn't your company changing? It could be the cost or time involved, or perhaps the manpower to lead such a charge. But in those cases, the benefits easily outweigh the costs. Most often, the biggest barrier to change comes down to a mental roadblock. We've been taught to do things a certain way for so long, it can seem counterintuitive to change.
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Every CEO, marketer and entrepreneur wants their business to “stand out”, to rise up out of the noise of the competition and grab the hearts and minds of consumers and clients. They want raving fans lining up for their products and services. They want repeat business and loyalty. Who wouldn’t? When you have raving fans, you get the two most coveted things in 21st century marketing — word of mouth and “social proof”, in the form of positive reviews and spontaneous, unequivocal social promotion.
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Every supplier knows the drill: You identify your most valuable customers and classify them as “strategic accounts.” You can’t afford to lose them. Whatever they ask for, you deliver with your best team and best turnaround — even if it’s unreasonable or unprofitable. The customers know they are a strategic account, so they’ll try everything to wring out cost savings. Even customers that use extensive analysis and a rigorous qualification process to identify the ideal vendor have learned that discounts will flow if they put a supplier through the procurement price “buzz saw.” It’s a brutal process. No wonder a recent study showed that salespeople worry more about the price conversation than any other part of the sales cycle.
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Every day, you and the people who work for you need to make decisions. Many decisions. As the leader, you may take it upon yourself to make the most critical ones, but for the company to thrive you have to be sure that the people who work for you develop this essential skill. One of the best decisions you can make, therefore, is to devote time to helping your team improve their decision-making. Here's how. 1. Encourage autonomy If you have delegated authority to your employees and solicited their input, avoid dictating to them how they should do their jobs or micro-managing their approach to problem solving. Instead, spell out the goals or desired outcomes and then let them decide how to achieve them.
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When you need to get a message to a colleague, what’s your preferred mode of communication? Do you dash off an email, pick up the phone, or maybe send an instant message via the company’s intranet? A lot has changed since the era of interoffice memos, and how you choose to communicate could well be a generational choice. According to a new study from Peter W. Cardon at the University of Southern California and Bryan Marshall at Georgia College, age differences increasingly result in sharp divergences in how employees connect and correspond with one another. Email still reigns supreme in the workplace, the authors found, but social media networks are poised to take over.
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At few moments since the end of World War II has downward pressure on prices been so great. Some of it stems from cyclical factors—such as sluggish economic growth in the Western economies and Japan—that have reined in consumer spending. There are newer sources as well: the vastly increased purchasing power of retailers, such as Wal-Mart, which can therefore pressure suppliers; the Internet, which adds to the transparency of markets by making it easier to compare prices; and the role of China and other burgeoning industrial powers whose low labor costs have driven down prices for manufactured goods. The one-two punch of cyclical and newer factors has eroded corporate pricing power and forced frustrated managers to look in every direction for ways to hold the line. In such an environment, managers might think it mad to talk about raising prices. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
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The first impression someone has of you can make or break the rest of the relationship. In fact, studies have shown that people begin to judge others 1/10 of a second after meeting them. This reaction is usually not a conscious choice. It's a trait left over in our DNA from our prehistoric days when judging someone new was a life-or-death decision. Not only are first impressions important in your personal life, they're even more important in your career. Many deals I've closed have come down to the sheer fact that people felt more comfortable with my team and me than they did with my competition. Because first impressions play an important role in a new business relationship, I've studied top entrepreneurs and researched how people make judgments on first interactions. Below is a list of five things to do when meeting a potential client for the first time. .
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Tired of chasing down your ideal clients and ultimately scaring them away? Good. To be honest, this method isn’t good for business anyway. But I don’t have to convince you of that — poor results will. Thankfully, there is a better way, a more profitable and enjoyable way. The following six methods are ones you can implement immediately to earn clients online without spamming them — no tech expertise required. 1. Host an online workshop. The days of showing off a certificate or a degree on the wall are over. The best thing you can do to demonstrate you are the right expert to work with is to add value to your target audience. In just 45 minutes, an online workshop affords you an opportunity to educate, entertain and inspire people so that they know why you are (or aren’t) the right fit for them to work with. If you are not sure what topics to cover, consider the questions you are most frequently asked and/or how your ideal client group's most common costly mistakes. At the end of the workshop, you can invite them to continue learning with you in your coaching program. 2. Send value-rich emails. One of the most common reasons people will give for not working with you is that it’s not the right time. That’s an easy one to solve — simply keep in touch via email and continue adding value, inviting them to future online workshops and sharing testimonials from your current clients. When the time is right, they will have all the information they need to make a well-informed buying decision about joining your program. This is a great and low-pressure way to increase your positioning, elaborate more on your brand and values and build more trust with them. By the time they do sign on to work with you, they will feel more confident than ever about their investment.
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Behind every great athlete there is an even greater coach. There isn't a top athlete--from Muhammad Ali to Tiger Woods to Serena Williams--who did not need a mentor to help them reach the top of their profession. If you think about it, your business is similar to that of an elite athlete. You may have the drive, the skills, and the vision, but there are times when you need professional guidance to ensure you stay on the right path, and how to best utilize your talents and work on your shortcomings in order to reach your goals. An executive coach can be that person. No matter where you are on your career path--from eager up-and-coming manager to a seasoned senior executive to an entrepreneur--there will be times when you can benefit from some professional coaching.
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One of the keys to any successful business, regardless of its size, is innovation. Developing new ideas is the fuel which will keep your business up to date. Innovation will keep operations, products, and services fresh. Adding this fuel will make your business more competitive. According to a study from PwC, an overwhelming 93 percent of business executives believe that “organic growth through innovation will drive the greater proportion of their revenue growth.” But, what exactly is innovation? The answer to this question can and will vary depending on your industry or market.
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While it may seem like remaining employed after a company’s reorganization is reason for celebration, the reality is often not so rosy. A 2015 survey by research and training company Leadership IQ found that 74% of employees who kept their job after a corporate layoff said their productivity declined. Many report feelings of guilt, anxiety, and anger. Another 2016 study by the University of East Anglia in England found that even when companies are restructured without layoffs, restructuring has a mostly negative effect. If you’ve been through a “re-org” and still have a job, getting over those negative feelings and finding your way is important for your future success, says Dave Popple, president of Psynet Group, an employee assessment firm. “If you survived a reorg, it is because your company saw value in you and believe that you can help them move forward,” he says. So, if you’re having trouble reconciling your feelings and taking advantage of the new opportunities before you, here is a seven-step plan.
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Don't you wish marketing were as easy as waving a magic wand? Unfortunately, marketers must create their own magic to drive sales, raise awareness and generate qualified leads, in the face of ever changing customer needs and expectations. In order to capture, cater to, and retain a customer's interest, CMOs and entrepreneurs need to make it more rewarding to choose their company. In the words of Hilton Chief Marketing Officer Geraldine Calpin, "We have to get customers really engaged and addicted to what we as a brand stand for. The way you get brand loyalty, love and stickiness, is through world class hospitality and technology. Simple, beautiful, useful technology makes travel easier."
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There it is: your dream job. There’s just one problem. You don’t meet all the qualifications. It's a conundrum. Should you channel your inner life coach and go for it? Or should you follow the rules and wait until you have the right experience or credentials? If you sit it out, you may miss a great opportunity. On the other hand, you don’t want to waste your time or, worse, alienate hiring managers by wasting theirs. It’s a tough question, but you should almost always err on the side of "go for it," says career expert Cynthia Shapiro author of What Does Somebody Have to Do to Get a Job Around Here? 44 Insider Secrets That Will Get You Hired. After all, everyone has to take a job that stretches skills if they want to move ahead. Before you do, these career coaches and recruiters recommend asking yourself these six questions.
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Imagine trying to communicate with customers that speak 11 different languages and come from dozens of different cultures. How would you help them understand how to manage their debt when they never had credit before? On a recent episode of mypodcast, YPO's 10 Minute Tips From the Top, I interviewed Ian Wason, CEO ofIntelligent Debt Management (IDM), on how he solved these exact problems. Wason, a member of Young Presidents' Organization (YPO), related how his company is able to help clients in South Africa overcome their debt issues with a 90 percent success rate, which is substantially higher than his competitors. The key for him is strong and creative communication. Here are his tips for communicating effectively with your customers. 1. Identify their pain. Successful communication with a customer starts with understanding. By identifying their needs, you are more likely to develop an appropriate solution. Moreover, by showing them empathetically that you understand their pain, they will also see that you care and will be more willing to work with you.
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There are now more than 2 billion active social media users worldwide, and that sum is growing at a brisk clip of 25% each year. Businesses haven't failed to noticed the runaway expansion of social media. 1. Social Networks Storm The Workplace For years now, we’ve been promised that a new generation of internal social networks—for use within companies by employees—will put a swift death to email. No more hunting through your inbox for information. No more endless reply-all threads from hell. And yet email has lumbered on.
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ven though many large enterprises continue to be run by women, 2015 represented a departure from the growing gender diversification in the C-suite. Just 10 women were among the 359 incoming CEOs at the world’s 2,500 largest companies in 2015. At 2.8 percent, that was the lowest share since 2011, and far below the 5.2 percent peak reached in 2014. Although the numbers of incoming female CEOs have always been low, there had seemed to be a slow trend toward higher numbers over the last several years. Despite this year’s reversal, we remain confident that demographic, educational, and societal forces will continue to promote greater diversity in the C-suite. By 2040, as much as a third of the incoming CEO class around the world will be female.
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One of the hardest things for any entrepreneur to figure out (after how to make money) is building a healthy, focused, powerful company culture. It's easier said than done, especially in today's world of outsourcing, teams that live across the country from each other, virtual assistants, etc. However, I've seen, time and again, that when a company knows how to make money AND gets their culture right, they're pretty much guaranteed to succeed. One without the other doesn't last long. To drill down into the magic of doing this, I invited my good friend Gunnar Lovelace onto The School of Greatness. Gunnar is the founder of the super-successful online warehouse of health foods at wholesale prices, Thrive Market.
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Just as an image can say a thousand words, hand talkers are communicating far more than they know. After studying famous TED talks, consultant Vanessa Van Edwards discovered that the ones that went viral featured speakers who used their hands the most. Indeed, an average of 272 hand gestures were used in the least-watched TED talks as compared to the average of 465 hand gestures in the top-ranked ones during the same length of time. "When really charismatic leaders use hand gestures, the brain is super happy," Edwards recently told the Washington Post. "Because it's getting two explanations in one, and the brain loves that." So while talking with your hands is a good thing, it's also important that they're saying the right thing. Here are 11 rules of thumb to follow when using your hands during a presentation:
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Einstein's famous theory of relativity (E=MC2) celebrates its 110th anniversary this year. This elegant formula helped us understand how the world works and has impacted scientists and philosophers alike. The business world has its own formulas for success. Hard work dedication = results. Power = money influence. Big > Small. Fast > Slow. Fancy degree time = corner office. The thing is, the world has changed. The old rules of business no longer carry the day as we cope with fist-fighting competition, mind-numbing speed, and exponential complexity. Add in macro trends such as global markets, digitization, cloud computing, millennial workforce shifts, mobile technology, and geopolitical turmoil, and you're wrestling a whole new beast. One that can't be conquered with some long-expired formula.
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Off-the-shelf tools will shift competitive advantage.
It's miserable to see that the utilization of custom business card design is vanishing in the present advanced age. In any case, since no single alternative has sufficiently increased the drive to supplant this straightforward advertising device, it is as yet critical and irreplaceable to keep a decent stock in your wallet, pocket or portfolio to ensure you get the chance to present yourself successfully when the shot comes.
That is valid, yet at the same time, there are different contemplations that you have to consider. One of them is the substance of the card. Content, all things considered, is above all else. You have to guarantee that your message and contact subtle elements are the first rates on the custom business card design.