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| Volume 6, Issue 4 |
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In This Issue:
 Microsoft and Google’s battle for supremacy
Hijacking MySpace for fame and fortune
U.S. to auction frequencies for in-flight Net use
 Microsoft: Let’s make more deals
Game time for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft
Scuttling some job-hunt myths
Offer-and-Acceptance etiquette
 What pay raise can you expect from your employer?
 Why your employees are loosing motivation
How to adjust your decision-making style
Can you manage different generations?
Four strategies for making concessions
 The new face of disaster recovery
The pros and cons of portable external hard drives
 Clustering the Microsoft way
 The seven deadly sins of Outsourcing
Making performance appraisals a positive process
Study: Noncertified IT worker pay gaining ground
NASA models collision of black holes
 Team building and teamwork
Email addiction
 Getting yourself fired
 The NSA knows who you’ve called
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Microsoft and Google's battle for supremacy
The Microsoft-Google rivalry is shaping up as a titanic corporate clash for the ages.
It may not turn out that way. Markets and corporate fortunes routinely defy
prediction. But it sure looks as if the two companies are on a collision course,
as the realms of desktop computing and Internet services and software overlap more
and more. Microsoft, of course, is the reigning powerhouse of computing and Google
is the muscular Internet challenger. On each side, the battalions are arrayed:
executives, engineers, marketers, lawyers and lobbyists. The spending and
competition are escalating daily. For each, it seems, the other passes what
Andrew S. Grove, a founder and former chairman of Intel, calls the "silver bullet
test" of strategic competition. "If you had one bullet, who would you shoot with
it?"...
Read the article. Back to top
Hijacking MySpace for fame and fortune
MySpace gets into the IM game
Even as rumors swirl about AOL's planned MySpace killer the social network has launched a new battle with AOL: instant messaging.
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Brandon Hoffman has found thousands of friends on MySpace. Not for himself, but for his clients: car dealerships.
Hoffman, who works for KEA Advertising in Valley Cottage, N.Y., has built
MySpace profiles for several car dealers. He then contacts other members of the
network asking them to be a "friend" to the business, using software tools to
target those he thinks might be interested. "You can become part of their network
and develop a relationship. It is better than banner advertising, because you get
to interact with the actual potential customer," he said. Hoffman is one of a
growing number of enterprising MySpace users who are using software to exploit
the hugely popular social networking site for profit or fame. But the tools they use
are controversial....
Read the article. Back to top
U.S. to auction frequencies for in-flight Net use
Many fliers look forward to boarding planes so they can get away from their phones and e-mail.
That sanctuary will inch one step closer to oblivion today when the
Federal Communications Commission begins to auction off frequencies for
in-flight Internet service. Nine companies, including Verizon Airfone, which
pioneered pay phones in the air, are expected to enter bids for the two
licenses available. The companies have developed a variety of technologies
that effectively create wireless networks on planes so fliers can use their
laptops to surf the Web or to make calls with voice-over-Internet technology...
Read the article. Back to top
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Microsoft: Let’s Make More Deals
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With its increased emphasis on video content, the software giant is slowly refashioning itself as a media powerhouse.
During the last few weeks, Microsoft (MSFT) has made several acquisitions to feed
the ever-growing demand for content on MSN, its huge online network. On May 4,
it announced the purchase of Massive Inc., a privately held New York company that
places ads in online games, for an undisclosed amount. Last month, the company
acquired British game developer Lionhead Studios, which will develop content
for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console. The hunger for more online content will
likely lead to more deal-making in Redmond. News reports last week said Microsoft
has contemplated an acquisition of Yahoo (YHOO), MSN's larger rival online
network. While no deal appears to be imminent, the reports underscore how
Microsoft's evolving business model is putting more and more emphasis on
content. Microsoft built its business selling shrink-wrapped boxes of software
for desktop computers. Now it's shifting more of its focus to the Web, where rivals
such as Google (GOOG) already distribute word-processing software and other tools
that compete with Microsoft products. In many cases, these tools are available for
free to users who view online ads...
Read the article. Back to top
Game time for Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft
The big three peel back the curtain on their latest round of their next generation console war.
For one, it was news of exclusive access to the controversial, runaway hit game
Grand Theft Auto. Another offered the surprise unveiling of its classic
game controller -- with an unusual twist. The third demonstrated its tiny
controller being used as a baton to conduct an orchestra, a tennis racket in a
doubles game, and a steering wheel in a racing game. These are the latest weapons
in what's expected to be a bruising battle for dominance of the
multibillion-dollar computer-game market in the next few years. Sony (SNE),
Nintendo, and Microsoft (MSFT) took the wraps off their defenses on May 8-9.
The media briefings before and during Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, which
runs in Los Angeles May 10-13, are watched closely for clues to the tactics
that technology and traditional consumer-electronics makers will employ to gain
control over your living room. The Big Three console makers did not disappoint...
Read the article. Back to top
Scuttling Some Job-Hunt Myths
What some applicants accept as gospel when they're interviewing never ceases to amaze. Here are 10 misconceptions that can really hurt.
When I had my first baby, my husband's grandmother told me to put a penny on the
baby's belly button and tie something around the baby's tummy to keep the penny
in place -- that way the baby wouldn't have a prominent belly button. She also
told me to keep the cat away from the baby because cats, she said, "steal the
baby's breath." I looked at the cat and I looked at the baby, and I couldn't see
how the cat, even if she were so inclined, could manage to get a lip-lock on the
baby. But grandma was certain the cat had it in for the baby. Some old myths die
hard. Job seekers have created their own mythology around the
recruitment-and-selection process, and from time to time these myths bubble
up to people like me, who get to poke holes in them. Here are some myths that
you may have heard, and the corresponding truths of the matter...
Read the article. Back to top
Offer-and-Acceptance Etiquette
Recruiters and job seekers can reach an agreement more quickly and comfortably
by employing a technique called a "supposal". Job seekers often call me and
say: "How much time can I ask for to evaluate a job offer?" Well, how much time
do you want? I'd say two or three days is standard, unless the weekend is coming,
in which case you can ask for the weekend, too. "Oh, my goodness," said one young
man. "The recruiter balked when I asked for 24 hours. "That sounded so crazy that
I had to probe. Once I got the whole story, I realized that the young man wasn't
asking how much time he could take to review his offer letter. He didn't have one.
The recruiter, in fact, was phoning to collect his acceptance first. This is
really silly. When you're evaluating an offer, you have to look over all of the
parts together. You can't be expected to say yes on the phone when the recruiter
tells you, "We'd like to hire you as a program analyst at X salary, Y bonus, Z
amount of travel, and with our standard benefits package." Whaaat? You need the
offer letter to see the entire picture...
Read the article. Back to top
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Why Your Employees Are Losing Motivation
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| Business literature is packed
with advice about worker motivation—but sometimes
managers are the problem, not the inspiration. Here
are seven practices to fire up the troops. From
Harvard Management Update. | |
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To maintain an enthusiastic workforce,
management must meet all three goals.
A command-and-control
style is a sure-fire path to demotivation.
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Most companies have it all wrong. They don't have to motivate their employees.
They have to stop demotivating them.The great majority of employees are
quite enthusiastic when they start a new job. But in about 85 percent of companies,
our research finds, employees' morale sharply declines after their first six
months—and continues to deteriorate for years afterward. That finding is based
on surveys of about 1.2 million employees at 52 primarily Fortune 1000 companies
from 2001 through 2004, conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence (Purchase,
New York).The fault lies squarely at the feet of management—both the policies
and procedures companies employ in managing their workforces and in the
relationships that individual managers establish with their direct reports.
Our research shows how individual managers' behaviors and styles are contributing
to the problem (see sidebar
"How
Management Demotivates")—and what they can do to turn this
around...
Read the article. Back to top
How to Adjust Your Decision-Making Style
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| To move up the ladder, it's important that your method
of making decisions develops as you do. This excerpt
from Harvard Business Review reports on
research drawn from a comprehensive Korn/Ferry International database. | |
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Somewhere between the manager and director levels, executives find that approaches that used to work are no longer so effective.
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When we began our research, we expected to find that managers' predominant
decision-making styles would change as they progressed through their careers.
But the patterns that jumped right out of the data were even more sharply defined
than we could have imagined. We found that decision-making profiles do a complete
flip over the course of a career: That is, the decision style of a successful CEO
is the opposite of a successful first-line supervisor's. In the leadership (or
public) mode, we see a steady progression as managers move up in the ranks
toward openness, diversity of opinion, and participative decision making, matched
by a step-by-step drop in the more directive, command-oriented styles. In the
thinking (or private) mode, we see a progression toward the maximizing styles—where
an executive prefers to gather a lot of information and think things through—and,
at the highest executive levels, an uptick in the styles favoring one course of
action. There's a logic as well as an interdependence to the way the two aspects
of decision making evolve. As you move up the ladder...
Read the article. Back to top
Can You Manage Different Generations?
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| Managing multigenerational workforces is an art in itself. Young workers want to
make a quick impact, the middle generation needs to
believe in the mission, and older employees don't like ambivalence. Your move. | |
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As the oldest baby boomers draw closer to traditional retirement
age, forward-thinking firms are investing more heavily in leadership
development and succession programs.
They are focusing on building up bench strength: embedding in their top
young talent the skills and wherewithal to take over leadership positions
when the time comes. On the surface, it seems like a sensible approach.
But what if the people you're counting on to lead your company into the
future won't be there when you need them? Or what if they don't even want
the roles for which they are being groomed? According to recent studies, both
such possibilities are increasingly likely—especially for companies that are
not keeping pace with the changing makeup and diverging priorities of the
U.S. workforce. Companies that expect to compete in even the very near future
must recognize new attitudes among their workers. They must acknowledge that
new relationships will exist between employees and organizations. And they must
open themselves up to revisiting assumptions about which workers are appropriate
for which roles and to rethinking the ways in which they hire, motivate, and
retain employees. Where to start this heady effort? Begin by considering the
advice of Tamara Erickson and Bob Morison of The Concours Group, a
Kingwood, Texas-based consulting company, who have done extensive research
on the changing workforce and the age-based cohorts that compose it...
Read the article. Back to top
Four Strategies for Making Concessions
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| "Concessions are often necessary
in negotiation," says HBS professor Deepak Malhotra.
"But they often go unappreciated and unreciprocated."
Here he explains four strategies for building good will
and reciprocity. From Negotiation. | |
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The strategy of
demanding and defining reciprocity
plays out in a variety of contexts...
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Most people understand that negotiation is a matter of give-and-take: You have to
be willing to make concessions to get concessions in return.
But the process of making concessions is easier said than done. Consider how
events unfolded in the following management-union negotiation, adapted from Richard
E. Walton and Robert B. McKersie's book A Behavioral Theory of Labor Negotiations:
An Analysis of a Social Interaction System (ILR Press, 1991).The head of a
manufacturing firm was preparing to initiate talks with the leadership of the
employees' union. The biggest issue on the table was a wage increase. The union
was asking for a 4 percent increase, while management wanted to raise salaries by
only 1 percent.The executive considered the situation. During past negotiations,
weeks were lost as each side jockeyed for position, feigned willingness to walk
away, and eventually compromised on an unsurprising outcome. In this case, a deal
at 2.5 percent, the midpoint of the two parties' opening positions, seemed likely
to be agreeable to both sides. This time things would be different, he resolved.
He would save everyone hassle and delay by making concessions early. Against the
advice of the mediator, he opened discussions by announcing that the eventual
outcome was obvious and that he was prepared to make a final offer: 3 percent, the
most he could have offered...
Read the article. Back to top
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The new face of disaster recovery
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Continuous data protection, wide-area file services and managed backup services
help companies get their businesses back online faster amid disaster.
Jason Hamlett was caught by surprise last December when an oil refinery
explosion destroyed space his company was about to move into and knocked out
its existing office and data center nearby while firefighters battled the
ferocious blaze. The Buncefield fire burned for several days and was the largest
to hit Europe in peacetime. Fortunately, Hamlett, IT manager for drug
manufacturer Fulcrum Pharma Development, was able to keep his business operating
using a new means of disaster recovery - a combination of wide-area file
services (WAFS) and continuous data protection (CDP). With offices in
Morrisville, N.C., and Tokyo, Hamlett is well aware of the threats posed by
hurricanes, earthquakes and other disasters. He and many others have adopted
new software or hardware technologies to protect their companies'
business-critical data...
Read the article. Back to top
The pros and cons of portable external hard drives
When it comes to portable external hard drives, hardware features are
outshining the software that resides on them.
While I absolutely adore the design, portability and storage capacities of
these new devices, the bundled software that comes with them desperately needs
some work. I discovered this when testing two such devices recently...
Read the article. Back to top
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Clustering the Microsoft way
If you have the need and the dough, Microsoft Compute Cluster 2003 is worth checking out.
I can't talk about the embargoed Longhorn meeting I had Tuesday, except to say
that I got one Microsoft rep to say that Redmond doesn't think there'll be any
more service packs after Longhorn sees daylight. But then he burst out laughing,
so I'm not sure how reliable that is. So instead of the wealth of
ultrasecret Longhorn-maybe info I just got, let's talk about the not-so-hush-hush
peek I got at Microsoft Compute Cluster Server 2003 (MCCS2K3) release candidate.
A buddy got this installed at his lab because doing it at mine would have sliced
too deeply into my beer-drinking schedule. Fortunately, he's smarter than I am
anyway, so we're probably better off all around. Microsoft is positioning MCCS2K3
to run on what it terms "inexpensive machines," but it's also pushing 64-bit
CPU power...
Read the article. Back to top
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The Seven Deadly Sins of Outsourcing
These are the transgressions that can doom you to outsourcing hell. Here's
how to avoid them.
Outsourcing is a source of stress, struggle and angst for many IT managers,
and no wonder: More than half of outsourcing agreements end up prematurely
terminated, according to a study released last year by DiamondCluster
International Inc., a Chicago-based consulting firm. That leaves a lot of
companies far from outsourcing nirvana, but it doesn't have to be that way.
We asked IT experts and veterans to talk about the bad decisions and faulty
assumptions that can cause your outsourcing project to fall from grace. They
came up with seven deadly sins...
Read the article. Back to top
Making performance appraisals a positive process
For many, June is bittersweet.
While the month indicates the official launch of summer — and upcoming
vacations — it also signals performance review time for countless IT
professionals. Needless to say, not everyone looks forward to these
discussions. Employees often worry about being criticized for not meeting
expectations, and managers struggle to find the time to speak with staff — not
to mention complete the paperwork. But implementing an effective performance
review process — and getting your workers to realize the value of it — can mean
the difference between an average and truly great department. In fact, research
by Development Dimensions International, a management consulting firm, shows
that organizations with strong performanceTargeted guidance given during a
performance appraisal can confirm for your top professionals that they are on
the right track and provide significant motivation for them to take on
additional responsibilities with the company, as well as encouragement to
remain with the firm through the long term. And helping employees who have
performed at a lower level understand in which areas they can improve helps
ensure that everyone on your team is contributing to his full capacity.
That, in turn...
Read the article. Back to top
Study: Noncertified IT worker pay gaining ground
It’s growing faster than pay for certified workers, Foote Partners says.
Eighteen months ago, if a worker was seeking a specialized IT job, critical
job-related certifications were probably needed just to get in the door of
a prospective employer. That’s not necessarily true now, according to a study
released this week on IT pay and hiring, by management consultancy and IT
workforce research firm Foote Partners LLC in New Canaan, Conn. The Q1 2006
Hot Technical Skills and Certifications Pay Index found that the growth in pay
for noncertified skills was three times the growth of pay for certified skills
in the past six months -- and 68% higher than one year ago. “This is
unprecedented since our firm began surveying tech skills pay in 2000,” David
Foote, president and chief research officer of Foote Partners, said in a statement.
The data, compiled from responses by 52,000 IT professionals in 1,820 North
American companies, signals a shift in employers’ acceptance of the value of
workers who lack certifications in key IT positions, according to the study.
The Q1 2006 Hot Technical Skills and Certifications Pay Index found that the
growth in pay for noncertified skills was three times the growth of pay for
certified skills in the past six months -- and 68% higher than one year ago.
“This is unprecedented since our firm began surveying tech skills pay in 2000,”
David Foote, president and chief research officer of Foote Partners, said in
a statement...
Read the article. Back to top
NASA Models Collision of Black Holes
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The simulation provides the foundation to explore the universe through the detection of gravitational waves.
Image Credit: Christopher Henze, NASA |
Scientists at NASA have reached a breakthrough in computer modeling that
allows them to simulate gravitational waves from merging black holes.
The 3-D simulations, the largest astrophysical calculations ever performed on
a NASA supercomputer, provide the foundation to explore the universe in an
entirely new way. According to Einstein's math, when two massive black holes
merge, all of space jiggles like a bowl of Jell-O as gravitational waves race
out from the collision at light speed...
Read the article. Back to top
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Team-Building and Teamwork
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Team-building is rarely the answer to problems with teamwork. When Randy was
hired as CIO, he inherited a leadership team populated with seasoned executives
who were technically qualified, generally liked by their staff, and pleasant
people. One little detail: They didn’t team. Sure, they talked with one another
and cooperated on organizational decisions like policies and plans. But each
ran his/her own shop as an independent department—a “stovepipe”—with
minimal collaboration on projects and services.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that this was costing the
company money. Many skills were replicated across departments and people were
spread thin, which hurt their productivity. Another consequence was that people
managed functions outside their primary expertise. For example, applications
developers ran their own development server (without much in the way of
security, continuity planning or even backups). Meanwhile, the infrastructure
group (adept at running servers) had its own applications development team for
its billing system. Each department had its own support functions, like
procurement, budgeting and administration. There were two infrastructure
control centers: one for the computers, and another for the network. There were
even three different help desks: one for desktop computers and infrastructure,
another for applications and still another for telecommunications. How was a
client supposed to know which to call when his or her PC couldn’t access an
application via the network? For lack of teamwork, handoffs were rough. When
an application was ready for production, there were often delays due to
poor coordination between the developers and the infrastructure staff who
managed change control. Perhaps most embarrassing to Randy, each department
had its own client liaison function. IT looked foolish when clients got
different, sometimes conflicting answers from different “single points of
contact,” and when one hand didn’t know what the other hand was doing. Just
one month after taking the job, Randy was mortified when clients were exposed
to internal finger-pointing after a project missed its deadline. This was the
last straw. Randy took on teamwork as one of his primary challenges on the job...
Read the article. Back to top
E-Mail Addiction
The first step is to admit you’re powerless.
I recently read an article in a business magazine about three busy executives.
The writer of the piece asked them how many e-mails they typically receive in a
day. They said they average about 150. One hundred and fifty?! How does that
qualify as busy? By lunch, I’ve usually received well over 200 e-mails.
I’ve been averaging about 450. Some people I know get more. Recently, I had an
e-mail epiphany. It was triggered when I...
Read the article. Back to top
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Getting Yourself Fired
Sadly, innate stupidity isn't a firing offense. It's the brilliant things stupid people do that get them canned.
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently fired a city employee for
playing solitaire on his computer at work during business hours. Bloomberg, who
made a fortune by building the premier real-time financial newswire from scratch,
is obviously a futzy traditionalist who believes workers should, you know, work.
"Be in tune with the corporate culture," says Richard Bayer, chief operating officer
of Five O'clock Club, a career placement and coaching organization in New York.
"You also have to be aware that computer technology keeps a record of everything you
do. You don't want to have porn on your hard drive--believe me, that's not as
uncommon as you'd think." How stupid can you be? You've probably never put your
mind to it. We have. Improper use of the company's computer isn't the only big
mistake you can make; there are other ways to get yourself fired that require
less thought and talent. In Michigan, a reporter and a photographer at a small
newspaper got the boot for...
Read the article. Back to top
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Your Rights Online: The NSA Knows Who You've Called
Posted by Zonk on Thursday May 11, @08:55AM
from the at-least-i-know-i'm-free dept.
Magnifico writes "USAToday is reporting on the National Security Agency's goal
to create a database of every call ever made inside the USA. Aided by the
cooperation of US telecom corporations, AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, the NSA
has been secretly collecting phone call records of tens of millions of Americans;
the vast majority of whom aren't suspected of any crime. Only Qwest refused to give
the NSA information because they were uneasy about giving information to the
government without the proper warrants. The usefulness of the NSA's domestic
phone call database as a counterterrorism tool is unclear."...
Read the article. Back to top
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