Sorry

This feed does not validate.

In addition, interoperability with the widest range of feed readers could be improved by implementing the following recommendations.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheSocialBusinessGuy

  1. <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:blogger='http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005" xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742</id><updated>2020-06-04T20:31:23.325+12:00</updated><category term="social business"/><category term="customer experience"/><category term="twitter"/><category term="new zealand"/><category term="social media"/><category term="collaboration"/><category term="innovation"/><category term="people"/><category term="facebook"/><category term="crowd-sourcing"/><category term="leadership"/><category term="linkedin"/><category term="sales"/><category term="social selling"/><category term="IBM"/><category term="Time &amp; Attendance"/><category term="brand"/><category term="brand reputation"/><category term="customer service"/><category term="employee engagement"/><category term="blogging"/><category term="culture"/><category term="disruptive technologies"/><category term="engagement"/><category term="social"/><category term="social collaboration"/><category term="Apple"/><category term="CIO"/><category term="Lotus Notes"/><category term="business"/><category term="enterprise collaboration"/><category term="human resources"/><category term="products"/><category term="social enterprise"/><category term="transformation"/><category term="video"/><category term="Big Data"/><category term="CIO Summit"/><category term="Microsoft Outlook"/><category term="Microsoft SharePoint"/><category term="New Zealand CIO Summit"/><category term="ROI"/><category term="auckland"/><category term="conference"/><category term="connections"/><category term="customer engagement"/><category term="cycling"/><category term="employees"/><category term="empower employees"/><category term="gamification"/><category term="google"/><category term="job"/><category term="learning"/><category term="marketing"/><category term="subject matter expert"/><category term="thought leadership"/><category term="#NZLEAD"/><category term="2015 Healthcare Congress"/><category term="Analytics"/><category term="Apple Mac"/><category term="Brand Army"/><category term="Cloud Services"/><category term="Cloud computing"/><category term="Customer Loyalty"/><category term="HR"/><category term="Healthcare"/><category term="ISP"/><category term="Influencers"/><category term="Internet"/><category term="Line of Business"/><category term="New Zealand Government"/><category term="Office 365"/><category term="Opinion"/><category term="Sales Training"/><category term="Social Media Guidelines"/><category term="Use Cases"/><category term="Vaughan Rivett"/><category term="Weekly Youtube find"/><category term="Workforce Management"/><category term="attrition rate"/><category term="blog"/><category term="cloud"/><category term="communication"/><category term="community"/><category term="consumer insights"/><category term="consumer trends"/><category term="continuous improvement"/><category term="customer"/><category term="customer satisfaction"/><category term="dna"/><category term="economy"/><category term="email"/><category term="goals"/><category term="ideation"/><category term="ipad"/><category term="job satisfaction"/><category term="listening"/><category term="management"/><category term="marketing department"/><category term="microsoft"/><category term="music"/><category term="online storage"/><category term="posts"/><category term="predictions"/><category term="presentation"/><category term="project"/><category term="real people"/><category term="relationship"/><category term="reputation"/><category term="research"/><category term="return on investment"/><category term="risk management"/><category term="sales prospect"/><category term="share"/><category term="social enterprise platform"/><category term="social listening"/><category term="technology"/><category term="timesheet"/><category term="unconference"/><category term="user adoption"/><category term="website"/><category term="work"/><category term="yammer"/><category term="youtube"/><category term="ADSL"/><category term="AWS"/><category term="Art"/><category term="Backup"/><category term="Blogs"/><category term="Brand sentiment"/><category term="CMO"/><category term="Chinese"/><category term="Christchurch Earthquake"/><category term="Citrix"/><category term="Cold Calling"/><category term="Contraversal"/><category term="Courier Post"/><category term="Decision Making"/><category term="GPS"/><category term="Google Docs"/><category term="Google Glass"/><category term="Google X"/><category term="Helping my network"/><category term="High Availability"/><category term="Howto video"/><category term="I.T."/><category term="IT"/><category term="IT Infrastructure"/><category term="Idea Generation"/><category term="Information Technology"/><category term="Internet of things"/><category term="IoT"/><category term="Java"/><category term="Jeffrey Gitomer"/><category term="Job Posting"/><category term="Job-costing"/><category term="Jonathan Feldman"/><category term="KPI"/><category term="Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge"/><category term="Leadership speaker"/><category term="Lotus Domino"/><category term="Lutz Finger"/><category term="Michael craven"/><category term="Network Attached Storage"/><category term="News"/><category term="OSX Yosemite"/><category term="Online Event"/><category term="Operating system"/><category term="Payroll Manager"/><category term="People Business"/><category term="People Media"/><category term="Professional Services Organisation"/><category term="Public Speaker"/><category term="Public speaking tips"/><category term="Punch Clocks"/><category term="QR Code"/><category term="Research and Development"/><category term="SMCAKL"/><category term="SME"/><category term="SPAM"/><category term="Sales Lead"/><category term="Sandy Carter"/><category term="Service Desk Manager"/><category term="SharePoint"/><category term="Signage"/><category term="Smartphone"/><category term="SocialMedia.org"/><category term="Solution Selling"/><category term="Taxi"/><category term="Thank you"/><category term="The Salvation Army"/><category term="Training"/><category term="Uber Taxi"/><category term="VDSL"/><category term="VMware"/><category term="Vala Afshar"/><category term="Virtual Connection"/><category term="Wellington"/><category term="Windows 8"/><category term="Windows 8.1"/><category term="World Community Grid"/><category term="ZenApp"/><category term="absenteeism"/><category term="advocacy"/><category term="airline"/><category term="amazon"/><category term="andriod"/><category term="appreciation"/><category term="appstore"/><category term="attrition"/><category term="band master"/><category term="bandmaster"/><category term="barbie"/><category term="battery"/><category term="belonging"/><category term="biometric"/><category term="bioscience"/><category term="blogspot"/><category term="books"/><category term="brand loyalty"/><category term="brand trust"/><category term="business transformation"/><category term="cancer"/><category term="career"/><category term="career change"/><category term="challenge"/><category term="change"/><category term="characteristics"/><category term="church"/><category term="coaching"/><category term="comments"/><category term="communities"/><category term="comsumer"/><category term="connected"/><category term="contacts"/><category term="corporate culture"/><category term="corruption"/><category term="crowd sourcing"/><category term="customer advocates"/><category term="customer information systems"/><category term="customer insights"/><category term="customer intamacy"/><category term="cyber fraud"/><category term="dancing"/><category term="data"/><category term="disconnected"/><category term="discussion forums"/><category term="don&#39;t give up"/><category term="e. coli"/><category term="education"/><category term="employer"/><category term="employer is taking advantage"/><category term="engaged"/><category term="engaging an audience"/><category term="ent 2.0"/><category term="event"/><category term="exceptional work experience"/><category term="experts"/><category term="failure"/><category term="fear"/><category term="files"/><category term="fishing"/><category term="followers"/><category term="fraud"/><category term="friends"/><category term="game changer"/><category term="gaming"/><category term="gap"/><category term="getting started"/><category term="gmail"/><category term="google mail"/><category term="government"/><category term="help"/><category term="human body"/><category term="human capital"/><category term="iPad Mini"/><category term="impersonation"/><category term="industry"/><category term="inspiration"/><category term="jellybean"/><category term="job titles"/><category term="kazian"/><category term="key account management"/><category term="kindle"/><category term="knowledge"/><category term="language"/><category term="learning on the job"/><category term="like"/><category term="lists"/><category term="live event"/><category term="mash-up"/><category term="mash-up&#39;s"/><category term="media gallery"/><category term="meeting"/><category term="mentoring"/><category term="mobile applications"/><category term="mobility"/><category term="moderation"/><category term="money"/><category term="nimble"/><category term="objectives"/><category term="openess"/><category term="opportunities"/><category term="organisational culture"/><category term="pain"/><category term="participants"/><category term="password"/><category term="personal brand"/><category term="personal development"/><category term="photography"/><category term="plan"/><category term="policy"/><category term="product"/><category term="product videos"/><category term="productivity"/><category term="project management"/><category term="project team"/><category term="prospecting"/><category term="public speaking"/><category term="recognition"/><category term="recruitment"/><category term="referral"/><category term="reflections"/><category term="relationships"/><category term="replication"/><category term="resources"/><category term="retail"/><category term="reward and recognition"/><category term="sales suspect"/><category term="samsung"/><category term="samsung galaxy S6"/><category term="search engine"/><category term="security"/><category term="service"/><category term="service station attendant"/><category term="sharing"/><category term="silo"/><category term="small things"/><category term="social analytics"/><category term="social business agenda"/><category term="social businss"/><category term="social customer"/><category term="social eggs"/><category term="social government"/><category term="social platforms"/><category term="social profile"/><category term="social shopping"/><category term="social trust"/><category term="storage"/><category term="story"/><category term="stress"/><category term="struggling"/><category term="taking advantage"/><category term="team"/><category term="team calendar"/><category term="technology review"/><category term="thoughts"/><category term="time"/><category term="transparency"/><category term="travel"/><category term="trust"/><category term="twitter chat"/><category term="twitter lists"/><category term="unlike"/><category term="upgrade"/><category term="use case"/><category term="utilities"/><category term="utility billing"/><category term="value"/><category term="virtual"/><category term="virtual connections"/><category term="virtual reality"/><category term="web 2.0"/><category term="whiteboard"/><category term="wordpress"/><category term="work habits"/><category term="working hard"/><category term="xWork"/><category term="yosemite"/><title type='text'>Social Biz Guy</title><subtitle type='html'>- The thoughts and ramblings of Vaughan Rivett</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default?redirect=false'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25&amp;redirect=false'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>150</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-6887293365255321075</id><published>2019-11-27T09:18:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2019-11-27T09:18:49.717+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="employer"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="employer is taking advantage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="learning"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="learning on the job"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="taking advantage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="work habits"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="working hard"/><title type='text'>What to do if your employer is taking advantage of you</title><content type='html'>This morning I was speaking with a friend of mine about the first job I had, right out of school. I was running telephone and computer cables through office blocks. I was the youngest person in the company. I was eager and willing to learn. I did everything to learn as quickly as I could. I put in some serious hours to be the very best I could be.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The remuneration wasn’t financially unrewarding. I received little more than the minimum wage. One day my concerned father passed a comment about the company taking advantage of me because I was the cheapest person on the team. He was right.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rapidly, I found myself to be the head person for several projects. Most of the time I was working un-qualified, lacking experience and un-supervised. Not only that, but I was also leading teams of experienced people, many of them over twice my age. I was working long hours to keep up.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I would often think of the comment my father had made, “your employer is taking advantage of you”. It would often echo through my thoughts, especially on the days that were hard and frustrating. But I would retort with the view “but I am taking advantage of my employer”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Yes, I was taking advantage of my employer. I was using this as an opportunity to get my career off the ground. I was forming good work habits. I was using this as an opportunity to learn as much as I possibly could. Financially, that employer didn’t reward me as it should have, but the money has come later as I quickly climbed the career ladder.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The challenge for me today is to question myself about how I am taking advantage of those organisations that employ me right now. My answer to that is that I am not making enough advantage as I should be. I need to get back to the way I use to work ats a 19-year-old.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/6887293365255321075/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/11/what-to-do-if-your-employer-is-taking.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6887293365255321075'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6887293365255321075'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/11/what-to-do-if-your-employer-is-taking.html' title='What to do if your employer is taking advantage of you'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-3029048582011826561</id><published>2019-11-04T09:31:00.002+13:00</published><updated>2019-11-04T09:36:40.467+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cycling"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="personal development"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="small things"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Vaughan Rivett"/><title type='text'>Full of adrenaline and ready to conquer the world as I train for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge</title><content type='html'>&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d1_fIPJTd1k/Xb85BX26HVI/AAAAAAAAg3I/Ik9HTEVLzTcrPS7MqwvFmCvBiIFfBB_UwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/20191102_155428.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;How do I train for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; data-original-height=&quot;759&quot; data-original-width=&quot;1600&quot; height=&quot;303&quot; src=&quot;https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d1_fIPJTd1k/Xb85BX26HVI/AAAAAAAAg3I/Ik9HTEVLzTcrPS7MqwvFmCvBiIFfBB_UwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/20191102_155428.jpg&quot; title=&quot;Training for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge&quot; width=&quot;640&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Some of the scenery&amp;nbsp; as I train for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This morning I have arrived at work, high on a drug called adrenaline. I am sitting at my desk, writing this as my very being is in overdrive. I could conquer the world right now. I went up to a friend of mine and asked if I look like I am on drugs. He looked into my eyes and said “yes”.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So how did this come about? Two days ago I got on my bike and went for a training ride. I am currently training for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. A challenge where cyclists cover a 160km loop of New Zealand&#39;s, Lake Taupo. 2019 will be my 4th time doing the race in as many years.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My training ride went for 135km. This ride was never about improving speed as I knew it was going to be windy. My intention was to go for a long slow ride that would be mentally challenging. As much as I was training my body for endurance, I was preparing my mind for what will be intellectually challenging.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge is as mentally demanding as it is physically. It has hill after hill for the first 90km. By the time I get to the 120km mark, I know that pain will start to kick in. My lower back will start to get sore. The reverse side of my left arm will hurt. Yes, even my bottom will get ache. I will experience pain. Pain that I will need to work through.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;These conditions are not something that I can train for overnight; they require consistency over time. It is like that with any personal development. It is about consistency over time. So far this year, I have ridden over 4,000km. Small amounts, consistently over the year enabling me to achieve something big. The Taupo Cycle Challenge.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I reflect on my training, I think about how I can apply this to the rest of my life. There are things that I need to commit to doing every day so that over time I can become good at them. Call it &quot;practice&quot; if you will.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In a few weeks, I have been asked to play my trumpet at church. There will not be any accompaniment. It will be me, the lone trumpeter. When I was younger I use to practice for many hours a day. Something that changed when I began working. I already know that I am going to need to practice if I want to sound good on the day. I cannot just practice the day before. I need to start now by doing a little bit every day.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As I plan for the week ahead, I am thinking about the small things that I need to do every day that will help me to achieve at my personal best. I am thinking about the things I need to do to ensure that I live a life where I am continually growing. My challenge to anyone reading this is exactly that, what are the things you are doing to ensure that you grow every day?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/3029048582011826561/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/11/full-of-adrenaline-and-ready-to-conquer.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/3029048582011826561'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/3029048582011826561'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/11/full-of-adrenaline-and-ready-to-conquer.html' title='Full of adrenaline and ready to conquer the world as I train for the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-d1_fIPJTd1k/Xb85BX26HVI/AAAAAAAAg3I/Ik9HTEVLzTcrPS7MqwvFmCvBiIFfBB_UwCLcBGAsYHQ/s72-c/20191102_155428.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-7456862161661488759</id><published>2019-10-24T08:46:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2019-10-24T08:46:31.033+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="band master"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bandmaster"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Leadership speaker"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Michael craven"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Public Speaker"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="story"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="thought leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Vaughan Rivett"/><title type='text'>The Bandmaster</title><content type='html'>&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;I grew up, here in New Zealand as the son of parents who were officers in The Salvation Army. Part of what The Salvation Army was well known for was their brass bands. They were often seen out on the streets, they even travelled around neighbourhoods on the back of trucks, playing carols at Christmas time. Many a member of a Salvation Armey band, took their role very seriously with many hours of private practice and practice as the band.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;As a youngster, I enjoyed playing in the band. Not only did I like the music and the challenge that came with it, but was that sense of camaraderie that is often spoken about by sports teams. The members of the band covered a wide range of ages, from young children to elderly retired folk. We all seemed to get along well.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;One person sticks out in my mind. There was a bandmaster by the name of Michael Craven. In the band I was playing in at the time, he was formerly the bandmaster but now played the cornet. He was an excellent musician. From time to time he would conduct the band. I observed that as he conducted, the band sounded a lot better. Just his quiet presence seemed to lift the group to a completely different level.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Michael was wise, very humble a quiet sort of a person. He wasn’t one to boast about his talents even though he probably had reason to do so. He had standards that didn’t need to be spoken about, but people knew of them without needing to ask. People had the utmost respect for him, a level of respect that he never had to command. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;The thing that always interested me was how he was able to get the best out of people. When standing in front of a brass band with 25 – 30 people, he was able to get every individual to play better than they would for any other conductor. It wasn’t about the way he waved his arms around that made the difference. It all came down to a style of leadership that meant that he connected with people both as a leader and also a peer. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/7456862161661488759/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/10/leadership-post-the-bandmaster.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7456862161661488759'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7456862161661488759'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/10/leadership-post-the-bandmaster.html' title='The Bandmaster'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total><georss:featurename>Auckland, New Zealand</georss:featurename><georss:point>-36.8484597 174.76333150000005</georss:point><georss:box>-37.2549887 174.11788450000006 -36.4419307 175.40877850000004</georss:box></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-7862856741586936744</id><published>2019-06-25T09:30:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2019-06-25T09:30:22.061+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="church"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="job"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="job titles"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="people"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="thoughts"/><title type='text'>Alienation through job titles </title><content type='html'>&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;I have always been a big fan of titles. Having a title that made me feel more valuable than I believed I was, not necessarily matching my credentials. For me, the title on my business card was often more of an aspiration than a reality. I always wanted to market as better than I was. When I reflect on this behaviour, it wasn’t all that bad; it also meant that I would try to live up to a higher standard. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;One of the things that I am coming to appreciate is that it’s not about a job role or a title. It’s about looking out for the interests of others, no matter who they are. I am constantly challenged by the words of a song that we use to sing at church, “Except I am moved with compassion, how dwelleth thy Spirit in me?” &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;The words of that song are continuously running through my mind as I interact with people. My decision making is often prefixed with a personal challenge to act with kindness and compassion. In situations where I would often get frustrated, I am reminded to work in a way that demonstrates both kindness and compassion to others. One could easily interpret this to be adding value to people.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;A few weeks ago, I arrived at church early. With the pastors being on holiday, they had asked me to lead the service on that particular morning. It was one of the most straightforward services I have ever run as the service was live streamed from one of our other locations. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;When I arrived, there was a homeless man at the door to the church. It was my pleasure to meet him for the first time. He introduced himself and asked if he could come in to use the kitchen to make something for his breakfast. As I didn’t know him, I was hesitant to let him into the building while I was alone. As it was cold, I opened up the foyer entrance for him. I mentioned to him that I could not let him in any further, explaining my reasoning. I could have left him outside in the cold until someone else showed up, but I was moved with kindness and compassion.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;I went about doing what I needed to do to get everything set up for the service. However, I wanted to do more for this gentleman. As soon as everything was ready, I went back downstairs and opened up the kitchen to let him make himself something for breakfast. During this time, I had a conversation with him and got to know a little bit about him, about his situation.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;To me, it doesn’t matter what someone’s social status is; it’s all about humanity. It’s not about titles that allow me to pump myself up with my self-importance. It’s about breaking down barriers and being able to connect with all people, no matter what. The moment we use titles, we often alienate people. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/7862856741586936744/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/06/alienation-through-job-titles.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7862856741586936744'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7862856741586936744'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/06/alienation-through-job-titles.html' title='Alienation through job titles '/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-1196384211999777280</id><published>2019-06-11T09:34:00.001+12:00</published><updated>2019-06-11T09:35:36.915+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="career"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="career change"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="customer information systems"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="goals"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="thought leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="utilities"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="utility billing"/><title type='text'>How a career transition is inspiring me to become a better leader</title><content type='html'>&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;At the beginning of this year, I took some time out to reflect on where I was at in my career. I was at a point where I felt things have come to a standstill and that I wasn’t advancing as quickly as I would have liked to have thought. Some might say that I had become a bit “stale”.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;For the more significant part of my career, I had worked with IBM’s collaboration software, better known as “Lotus”. Many of you will know of Lotus Notes, and for those who have been around for a while, you will remember the likes of Lotus Smartshuit; Lotus 1-2-3. I was not only good at what I was able to do but had a global reputation to match my achievements.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;When I was 16 years old, I sat in a geography lesson at secondary school where my teacher talked about how, at some point in our careers, there would become a time where we may need to change career. He told us that this would lead to the need to retrain and learn something new. For some reason, I have never forgotten this comment.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Over three years ago, there was a significant shift in my career. I left something behind that I was good at, to enter into something completely new, if not foreign to me. I went to work with Utility organisations, through a business that specialises in Billing and Customer Information Systems. Not only was the industry foreign to me, but so was the specialisation of the products. I went from hero to zero, as I needed to learn something new. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;The transition has not been smooth. I recall an occasion where I was travelling with the Chief Executive Officer. Over breakfast, I mentioned to him that I was struggling. I had very little confidence and sought his advice on how to best deal with building my confidence throughout this transition. His encouragement was a turning point for me. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Upon some personal reflection, it dawned on me that there was a log of experience and transferable skills that put me in good stead for what I am doing today. I think today’s term is “soft-skills”. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;One of the areas I decided to focus on is to develop myself as a leader. Not only have I signed up to podcasts, and begun to read books, I am putting into practice the things that I have been learning. People like John C. Maxwell, Andy Stanly and Simon Sinek have become my goto coaches. These people challenge me and are helping me to rewire some of my thinking.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;Six months into the year, and I would say that I have made some outstanding strides into a better career direction. Not only have I been developing as a leader, but my confidence has also increased. I am becoming even more aware of the people around me. Providing value and encouragement to people has become somewhat of a focal point for me. The confidence I have is because of the faith I have in the people around me. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot;&gt;A key thing I have learnt from John Maxwell is “the toughest person to lead is yourself”. &lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/1196384211999777280/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/06/how-career-transition-is-inspiring-me.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1196384211999777280'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1196384211999777280'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2019/06/how-career-transition-is-inspiring-me.html' title='How a career transition is inspiring me to become a better leader'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-1820052279115832311</id><published>2018-09-06T20:20:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2018-09-06T20:23:39.764+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="engaging an audience"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="public speaking"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Public speaking tips"/><title type='text'>Should I, or shouldn&#39;t I make eye contact when presenting</title><content type='html'>Today, someone asked me for some &quot;professional&quot; advice on public speaking. The question was, &quot;should I make eye contact when speaking in front of an audience?&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This is something that is important, and a lot of fun for a seasoned speaker, but it can be really daunting and uncomfortable if you are not use to it. Both for you and the audience. As a speaker you have so much to concentrate on. You are worried about the words that are coming out of your mouth and other things like technology working correctly. My suggestion is that, every time you speak, concentrate on only a couple of areas of improvement. Too much, and everything else will be compromised.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To learn to engage people with eye contact, try this. When you look at people, just look slightly above their heads. Then their looks and blank stares will not be off putting to you. Once you have become comfortable with this, begin to look at people more. When you really get comfortable, you can even talk directly to people as if they are the only person in the room.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Take a look at my video for more.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; class=&quot;YOUTUBE-iframe-video&quot; data-thumbnail-src=&quot;https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Gnm7B6piEu8/0.jpg&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;281&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gnm7B6piEu8?feature=player_embedded&quot; width=&quot;500&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/1820052279115832311/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2018/09/audience-engagement.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1820052279115832311'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1820052279115832311'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2018/09/audience-engagement.html' title='Should I, or shouldn&#39;t I make eye contact when presenting'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/Gnm7B6piEu8/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-8872374681812161837</id><published>2017-06-15T14:50:00.001+12:00</published><updated>2017-06-15T15:03:29.497+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="AWS"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO Summit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cloud"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="dna"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="innovation"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="New Zealand CIO Summit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="value"/><title type='text'>Digital transformation must create new value for the enterprise</title><content type='html'>In the news this week, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/300086731/amazon-drive-ends-unlimited-free-cloud-storage-plan.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Amazon Drive ends their unlimited free cloud storage plan&lt;/a&gt;. Opting to give customers a smaller amount of free capacity data and charging for additional data. It appears that disruption has knocked on the door of the disruptor as &lt;a href=&quot;http://sia.tech/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Sia&lt;/a&gt; provides distributed enterprise storage at 10% the cost of AWS. The more traditional players like AWS, HP, and EMC are either in talks or working with now partnering with Sia.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Technology-led&amp;nbsp;innovation and disruption are paving the way to better problem solving (business) while also eroding traditional revenue streams. At the CIO Summit (New Zealand), IDC&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankgens/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Frank Gens&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;spoke about Digital Transformation in 2017, is about the creation of new value for the business. As with the example of the Amazon Drive, old revenue streams may no longer deliver the value they once did.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While technology is moving quickly, businesses are creating services right behind it. Cloud providers are managing to help organisations&amp;nbsp;keep pace because&amp;nbsp;they provide the ability to trial ideas and then scale the heck out of them. Is there any wonder that the likes of &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.lemonade.com/&quot;&gt;Lemonade&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;can approve an insurance claim in just 3 seconds through the use of an AI bot? It took you longer to read that sentence. Lemonade may not be running on AWS, but you get the idea.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As we live in an ever more connected world, we need to create platforms within our business so that people can connect to us for things that are relevant to our industry. By allowing other organsiations and customers to interface with our business will provide a new wave of innovation. Aren&#39;t you thankful for API&#39;s?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As businesses are transforming, they are looking for new ways to engage the digital customer. An excellent example of this is &lt;a href=&quot;http://fortune.com/2016/10/26/campbell-soup-invests-habit/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Campbell&#39;s Soup&lt;/a&gt;. Campbells have created an ecosystem of innovative partners to find the means to add value, both to the consumer and to the business. One solution has been to provide a method whereby a customer can send a DNA sample (through a swab) for analysis so that Campbell&#39;s can provide a nutritional plan for the consumer! Who would have thought that a company selling traditional canned soup would be offering nutritional advice based on DNA samples?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/8872374681812161837/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2017/06/digital-transformation-must-create-new.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8872374681812161837'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8872374681812161837'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2017/06/digital-transformation-must-create-new.html' title='Digital transformation must create new value for the enterprise'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-1659207695785675829</id><published>2016-06-08T21:48:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2016-06-08T22:06:51.627+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="customer experience"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="IoT"/><title type='text'>The smart customer needs you to innovate, integrate and incorporate</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_0TdZ1S3QBw/V1fj9RRUwGI/AAAAAAAAGW8/lc6qVhZURV0AX2iZ4-hKEqvRhxCMYirxwCLcB/s1600/huggies_tweetpee.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;225&quot; src=&quot;https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_0TdZ1S3QBw/V1fj9RRUwGI/AAAAAAAAGW8/lc6qVhZURV0AX2iZ4-hKEqvRhxCMYirxwCLcB/s400/huggies_tweetpee.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Look around you right now. How many inanimate objects do you see? Each of them serves a purpose or did at some point. But they&#39;re just dumb things with no intelligence or superpowers. Well, that&#39;s the way it use to be until everything became smart. What&#39;s that you hold in your hand? The next digital assistant?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today, I attended New Zealand&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ciosummit.co.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;CIO Summit&lt;/a&gt; where &lt;a href=&quot;https://sg.linkedin.com/in/sandra-ng-4148561&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Sandra Ng&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(IDC, Group Vice President - ICT Practice Asia Pacific), opened the summit by talking about the importance of Leading in 3D to drive digital transformation to scale. She spoke about the importance of leading in three key areas: Innovation, Integration and Incorporation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sandra spoke of businesses rethinking how their solutions are integrated into human experiences. Take lift manufacturer &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/company/6191?trk=tyah&amp;amp;trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Acompany%2CclickedEntityId%3A6191%2Cidx%3A2-1-2%2CtarId%3A1465374587019%2Ctas%3Aschindler%20group&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Schindler Group&lt;/a&gt;, for example. After use, a lift would typically return to the ground floor while awaiting the next request with no intelligence about where it could best be utilised. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.schindler.com/hk/internet/en/mobility-solutions/products/transit-management/transit-management.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Schindler&#39;s Transit Management System&lt;/a&gt; now provides, among other things, the &quot;smart lift&quot; that knows where it needs to be and when. With integration to the building tenants&#39; calendar, the lift is able to predict when someone will need to leave the building to get to a meeting. Just push the button, and ping! No more waiting for the lift!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Perceived experiences are one of the strongest influences in customer purchasing decisions. Will this product or service really make my life better? Take the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/huggies-app-sends-you-tweet-whenever-your-kid-pees-his-diaper-149282&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Huggies TweetPee&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;prototype as an example. A wearable device with a moisture sensor is attached to a diaper, sending messages to inform parents that it&#39;s time for a change. Affordable sensors like this provide comfort and health benefits for the infant and the ability for a caregiver to respond on demand.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So much for making objects smart when we are presented with traditional organisations, the likes of government departments. &lt;a href=&quot;https://ee.linkedin.com/in/siimsikkut&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Siim Sikkut&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(Digital Policy Advisor - Government Office of Estonia) spoke of building a digital society of e-residence. The Estonian government set out to transform how it engages with its citizens through the use of technology. In Estonia, it doesn&#39;t matter who you are, young or old, everyone uses online services to the same level.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Simple things save time and improve experiences and often they are the most obvious. Estonia has a rule of &#39;once only&#39;. If the Estonian government already has the information, why should it ask for this information again just because you find yourself dealing with a different department. Siim went on to say that his government aimed to recycle information and systems wherever it seemed logical. Open standards play a significant role to ensure that they recycle the experience of experts from around the globe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today&#39;s world seems to lend itself to small but powerful tweaks. While sensors are affordable and efficient, cost effective changes can be made to business models and processes to help improve the lives of the people we serve. As &lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/in/paulkeesing&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Paul Keesing&lt;/a&gt; put it, &quot;We think we know how customers should be served but we don&#39;t.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;In the quest to understand the customer better, the digital business will innovate, integrate, and incorporate products and services into the smart worlds of the modern consumer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/1659207695785675829/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2016/06/Smart-Customer.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1659207695785675829'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1659207695785675829'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2016/06/Smart-Customer.html' title='The smart customer needs you to innovate, integrate and incorporate'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_0TdZ1S3QBw/V1fj9RRUwGI/AAAAAAAAGW8/lc6qVhZURV0AX2iZ4-hKEqvRhxCMYirxwCLcB/s72-c/huggies_tweetpee.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-1732952002867211282</id><published>2015-06-22T15:06:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-22T15:42:05.871+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Big Data"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="bioscience"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="dna"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="e. coli"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online storage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="storage"/><title type='text'>Bioscientists find ways to store data using the DNA of common household bacteria</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gw8IQ1ov5Mc/VYd6JgrgNRI/AAAAAAAADss/O8sVcl9EFPA/s1600/dna-double-helix.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;140&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gw8IQ1ov5Mc/VYd6JgrgNRI/AAAAAAAADss/O8sVcl9EFPA/s320/dna-double-helix.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;There is nothing worse than not having enough space on your mobile phone to store holiday photos and videos. We are forced to delete old data to clear room for the new. As we try to find the &#39;trash&#39; icon, moments pass as we are lost in time. If only we had another gigabyte! Maybe you do, have you checked the fridge lately?&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;In every refrigerator there is a bacteria feeding frenzy. The household refrigerator is a great breeding ground for bacteria like &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Escherichia coli&lt;/a&gt;, commonly known as E. coli. This bacteria often causes food poisoning when ingested due to food contamination.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;In 2014, Engineer and Neuroscientist, &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/jhewitt123&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;John Hewitt&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/194116-mit-can-now-use-e-coli-dna-to-store-up-to-455-exabytes-of-self-replicating-data-per-gram&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;reported&lt;/a&gt; that scientists at &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.mit.edu/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Massachusetts Institute of Technology&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(MIT) were able to store 700 terabytes of data on a single gram of E. coli DNA. That&#39;s the same as the amount of data stored on a tower of 14,000 Blu-ray discs. In the future, your data may even be encrypted and stored within your personal DNA.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;In their research paper entitled &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.emc.com/leadership/digital-universe/2014iview/executive-summary.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;The Digital Universe of Opportunities: Rich Data and the Increasing Value of the Internet of Things&lt;/a&gt;, EMC says &quot;Like the physical universe, the digital universe is large - by 2020 containing nearly as many digital bits as there are stars in the universe. It is doubling in size every two years, and by 2020 the digital universe - the data we create and copy annually - will reach 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes.&quot;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Traditional forms of data storage are no longer going to be sustainable. Today&#39;s hard drives are slow, unreliable and consume vast amounts of electricity. Enterprise storage requires redundancy leading to multiple copies of the same data, requiring further duplication as it is backed up. The cost of storing data has the potential to increase exponentially.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Over the past couple of decades, individuals have been forced to consider their carbon footprint and its effect on the world around us. While we&#39;re changing our behaviour in regard to greenhouse emissions, we hardly give thought to our resource hungry digital addiction and its effect on global emissions. Most of this is invisible to us as it is in the &#39;cloud&#39;, out of sight and out of mind. The ability to store data on DNA, will significantly disrupt the way that we store information and help us to address the issue of global emissions as we move into the future of innovative, sustainable data storage.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/1732952002867211282/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/bioscientists-find-ways-to-store-data.html#comment-form' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1732952002867211282'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1732952002867211282'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/bioscientists-find-ways-to-store-data.html' title='Bioscientists find ways to store data using the DNA of common household bacteria'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Gw8IQ1ov5Mc/VYd6JgrgNRI/AAAAAAAADss/O8sVcl9EFPA/s72-c/dna-double-helix.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-6857300846199372580</id><published>2015-06-17T09:31:00.001+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-17T12:00:58.730+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="2015 Healthcare Congress"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Apple"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="google"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Google X"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Healthcare"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="human body"/><title type='text'>Nanomechanics and wearable devices contribute to life beyond 100 years</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GNSOzYMP3ok/VYCVEZIZ9cI/AAAAAAAADrQ/3DcoyX-OX7c/s1600/lens.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;176&quot; src=&quot;http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GNSOzYMP3ok/VYCVEZIZ9cI/AAAAAAAADrQ/3DcoyX-OX7c/s320/lens.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The convergence of health and smart technology are not only changing the way we think about healthcare, but also the future of life as we know it. By 2028, it is expected that one in three people will live beyond 100 years. Not only will driverless cars be the norm but people with locked-in syndrome will be able to drive these vehicles by using their thoughts to provide instructions. They will be able to control their world. The average person will be a 34 year old Indian male.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Over the last couple of days, I have attended the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.healthcarecongress.org.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;2015 Healthcare Congress&lt;/a&gt; where the importance of technology has been discussed by the majority of speakers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Futurist and keynote speaker, &lt;a href=&quot;https://au.linkedin.com/in/craigrispin&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Craig Rispin&lt;/a&gt;, talked about the massive amounts of money being invested into health sciences by leading technology companies, Apple and Google. Some of the more obvious developments in these areas are wearable devices such as the &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.apple.com/nz/watch/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Apple Watch&lt;/a&gt;, but what&#39;s more surprising is what is happening behind the scenes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_X&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Google X&lt;/a&gt; is a semi-secret facility being run by Google to make technological advancements. One such advancement is to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tomsguide.com/us/google-baseline-human-body,news-19219.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;baseline the human body&lt;/a&gt;, to create a picture of what a healthy human body should be. Never before has there been an example of a perfect human body that can act as a reference point. Comparisons can then be made to aid in the early detection of illness. This will enable future intervention at the onset of disease.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Another research project undertaken by Google is the &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Contact_Lens&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Google Contact Lens&lt;/a&gt;. This lens allows tear fluid to seep into the lens where it can then measure the body&#39;s blood sugar levels. Technology like this will allow us to have a better understanding of diseases like diabetes. Not only will we be able to know if medical assistance is required, but when this information is linked to other data sources like food and exercise, the patient will be able to make lifestyle decisions affecting their personal wellbeing.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The world of the unseen is providing new opportunities as we aspire to know more about our bodies. By unseen, I mean what is beneath our skin, but I am also referring to the fascinating world of nanotechnologies.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/in/medickinson&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Dr. Michelle Dickinson&lt;/a&gt; of the Nanomechanical Testing Laboratory at The University of Auckland, provided insight into research that involves nanoparticles that aren&#39;t visible to the human eye. Research centres around the world are looking for ways to replace needle vaccinations with inhaled medicine for respiratory diseases such as the flu, pneumonia and tuberculosis.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the future, it is predicted nanotechnology will be used as a tool to gain near real-time insight into what is happening in the human body. With the ability to inhale or snort nanoparticles, information about diseases will be collected as particles use the blood system to traverse the human body.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today, young people appear to have less regard for privacy, yet the amount of personal information being shared is set to increase. The above examples of research enable the ability to gather masses of personal data. Humans are participating in what is nothing but a &#39;Data Tsunami&#39;. We want to be able to collect data so that we can understand the world around us. However, data that stands on its own has little value. When this data is shared, however, it can be analysed to help identify trends that will lead to further investment and medical advancement. It will be interesting, therefore, to see how this data is managed and controlled.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It&#39;s time to rethink the term &#39;midlife crisis&#39;. As technology is helping to advance healthcare, life expectancy will also increase. If you thought you were running out of time to achieve all that you want, it might be time to think about bigger goals and achievements. It sounds like you may have more time.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/6857300846199372580/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/nanomechanics-and-wearable-devices.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6857300846199372580'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6857300846199372580'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/nanomechanics-and-wearable-devices.html' title='Nanomechanics and wearable devices contribute to life beyond 100 years'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GNSOzYMP3ok/VYCVEZIZ9cI/AAAAAAAADrQ/3DcoyX-OX7c/s72-c/lens.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-7355265501433928587</id><published>2015-06-16T08:26:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-16T08:26:44.755+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="2015 Healthcare Congress"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Healthcare"/><title type='text'>Today I&#39;m blogging from the 2015 Healthcare Congress</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lgyalnO6rRA/VX8yfM-TNKI/AAAAAAAADq4/7UC8cO2JEg0/s1600/Healthcare.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;285&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lgyalnO6rRA/VX8yfM-TNKI/AAAAAAAADq4/7UC8cO2JEg0/s320/Healthcare.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Over the next couple of days I will be blogging and tweeting from New Zealand&#39;s &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.healthcarecongress.org.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;2015 Healthcare Congress&lt;/a&gt; which is being held in Auckland.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Why the Healthcare Congress? As you can imagine, technology has a significant role to play in the wellbeing of people.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/7355265501433928587/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/today-im-blogging-from-2015-healthcare.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7355265501433928587'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7355265501433928587'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/today-im-blogging-from-2015-healthcare.html' title='Today I&#39;m blogging from the 2015 Healthcare Congress'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lgyalnO6rRA/VX8yfM-TNKI/AAAAAAAADq4/7UC8cO2JEg0/s72-c/Healthcare.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-1795615673134390321</id><published>2015-06-13T21:45:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-14T00:10:37.216+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="New Zealand CIO Summit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="predictions"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="technology"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="time"/><title type='text'>&quot;3 Years is a decade&quot; says NASA&#39;s Soderstrom to a crowd of 500 top Chief Information Officers</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z45BCPidxE/VXv5_zb2V4I/AAAAAAAADqM/Qjv2JnsZQaY/s1600/Tom_Soderstrom.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z45BCPidxE/VXv5_zb2V4I/AAAAAAAADqM/Qjv2JnsZQaY/s200/Tom_Soderstrom.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;In his presentation at the New Zealand CIO Summit, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/pub/tom-soderstrom/4/100/a99&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Tom Soderstrom&lt;/a&gt; (IT Chief Technology Officer, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;NASA Jet Propulsion Labs&lt;/a&gt;) talked about how quickly technology is changing. He shared a thought provoking statement &quot;3 years is a decade in IT years.&quot; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Tom compared the difference in the way technology is used between a freshman and a senior college student (American education system). An example, is that the senior student used Facebook as a freshman but the freshmen of today may choose not to use Facebook. The attention span for a technology platform is on the rapid decline. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This creates a challenge for the corporate world. If you intend to deploy a technology within a duration of 3 years, by &#39;go live&#39; you&#39;ll be no better off than you are today. And that&#39;s just the tip of the iceberg. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Failing to keep up with technology creates risk. An employee tries to email a large file to a customer. Your email service prohibits this usage by enforcing a size limitation. A few clicks and the employee is sharing the file using Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive or some other &quot;we&#39;ll give you 50GB of what your company won&#39;t provide&quot; service. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let&#39;s not ask if your corporate data is in someone else&#39;s cloud. The fact is, you know it is. Why? Maybe you were too busy working with HR on a policy full of disciplinary consequences while all this was going on. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My concern is that most companies I know of are more than just an &quot;IT decade&quot; behind. But it doesn&#39;t have to be this way. One of the most compelling reasons for considering cloud based technology is that it often provides a rapid path to deployment. Corporate offerings of Dropbox, Google Drive and others, address concerns around security, ownership and governance. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the presentation prior to Tom, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/pub/jacki-johnson/a/100/a1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Jacki Johnson&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(CEO of IAG&#39;s New Zealand business) talked about the level of work that most people fail to ever get to, that of ‘strategic leadership’. It’s the place where you have 80% of the fact base with 20% being gut and intuition. People will not know if you have made the right decision for 3 - 5 years. This is pretty scary when strategic leadership intercepts with accelerated change. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If we are going to step up to the plate of strategic leadership, we must learn how to use the facts along with our gut and intuition. We must predict technological outcomes in line with rapidly changing customer demographics and workplaces of the future. We need to ensure that corporate governance enables the rapid adoption of new technology.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/1795615673134390321/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/3-years-is-decade-says-soderstrom-to.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1795615673134390321'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1795615673134390321'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/3-years-is-decade-says-soderstrom-to.html' title='&quot;3 Years is a decade&quot; says NASA&#39;s Soderstrom to a crowd of 500 top Chief Information Officers'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1z45BCPidxE/VXv5_zb2V4I/AAAAAAAADqM/Qjv2JnsZQaY/s72-c/Tom_Soderstrom.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-1323658458203503748</id><published>2015-06-11T21:39:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-12T10:32:41.272+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="challenge"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO Summit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="customer"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="customer experience"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="leadership"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="New Zealand CIO Summit"/><title type='text'>Keeping up with customers&#39; changing appetites and what they like is the greatest challenge</title><content type='html'>&lt;div dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;table cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Y95Uxbg0pY/VXlTyB-75FI/AAAAAAAADpk/rspZEAlr-PE/s1600/Jacki_Johnson.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;200&quot; src=&quot;http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Y95Uxbg0pY/VXlTyB-75FI/AAAAAAAADpk/rspZEAlr-PE/s200/Jacki_Johnson.jpg&quot; width=&quot;200&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Jacki Johnson - CEO IAG&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;Yesterday, while at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ciosummit.co.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;New Zealand CIO Summit&lt;/a&gt;, I had the privilege of listening to&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/pub/jacki-johnson/a/100/a1&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Jacki Johnson&lt;/a&gt; (CEO of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.iag.co.nz/Pages/default.aspx&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;IAG&#39;s New Zealand&lt;/a&gt; business) talking about the challenges that businesses and leadership are facing in a modern digital world. One of the things that always excites me, is when I hear people talking about customer centricity. Jacki is one of those people.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Businesses are encountering significant challenges due to disruptive technology and rapidly changing customer demographics. Today&#39;s threat is about being out-competed by younger, more nimble companies if we don&#39;t think about the customer. Small business has the ability to leapfrog big business.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jacki shared a story about a trip she made to the slums of Dharavi, India (where &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slumdog_Millionaire&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Slumdog Millionaire&lt;/a&gt; was filmed). This story is confronting as it highlights how smaller companies who are customer focused can take our place. Jacki met with a lady who had started up a small enterprise, cooking food for local businesses out of her 3m x 3m home. She had a single hotplate, provided by &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.worldvision.org.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;World Vision&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The only technology the lady had (other than a hotplate) was a mobile phone. An essential piece of equipment for order taking.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Through a translator the lady was asked what her biggest challenge was. Jacki&#39;s group expected her answer to be along the lines of needing more hotplates. However she responded by saying, &quot;I don&#39;t know how I&#39;m going to keep up with my customers&#39; changing appetite and what they like.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Her response surprised the group of visitors because of how customer focused she was. Upon further questioning, she revealed that her customers were wanting Asian cuisine and she only knew how to cook Indian food. She was listening to her customers and knew how she needed to adapt.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.idg.co.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;IDG&lt;/a&gt;, over 80% of money spent on Information Technology projects is now marketing related. Over the two days of the conference, many of the presenters talked about the need for Information Departments to work on building better relationships across the business with a deliberate focus on customer outcomes. I feel that there may be a gap between these new relationships and IT professionals&#39; ability to have strong interpersonal relations at the best of times.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jacki said something I hope I will never forget while working with technology, &quot;We are analog humans living in a digital world.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Keeping this at the front of our minds will help us to build relationships with customers, vendors and people within the business without expecting programmed responses or outcomes. It will help us to hold onto the joy of unpredictable surprises. After all, business is about people, not technology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If IT is to deliver excellence to the business, we need to be focused on better customer outcomes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/1323658458203503748/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/keeping-up-with-customers-changing.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1323658458203503748'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/1323658458203503748'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/keeping-up-with-customers-changing.html' title='Keeping up with customers&#39; changing appetites and what they like is the greatest challenge'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Y95Uxbg0pY/VXlTyB-75FI/AAAAAAAADpk/rspZEAlr-PE/s72-c/Jacki_Johnson.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-7082526287643343242</id><published>2015-06-10T09:56:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-10T09:56:33.223+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO Summit"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Jonathan Feldman"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new zealand"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Vala Afshar"/><title type='text'>Interview with one of the world&#39;s top 100 most social CIO&#39;s</title><content type='html'>Yesterday, at the New Zealand CIO Summit, I interviewed &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/in/1jfeldman&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Jonathan Feldman&lt;/a&gt; one of the world&#39;s top 100 most social CIO&#39;s (as published on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vala-afshar/the-top-100-most-social-c_b_5028376.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Huffington Post&lt;/a&gt; by &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/ValaAfshar&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Vala Afshar&lt;/a&gt;). &amp;nbsp;Jonathan is the CIO for the City of Asheville. He has led a team of exceptional people on a road of digital transformation with a passion for making the world a better place.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Below is a video of the interview:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/LIN2lycXxbE&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/7082526287643343242/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/jonathan-feldman-interview.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7082526287643343242'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/7082526287643343242'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/jonathan-feldman-interview.html' title='Interview with one of the world&#39;s top 100 most social CIO&#39;s'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/LIN2lycXxbE/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-8751455360406983540</id><published>2015-06-09T22:34:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-09T22:41:15.153+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Analytics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Big Data"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CIO"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="CMO"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="marketing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="marketing department"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="New Zealand Government"/><title type='text'>The best marketing idea is an informed decision</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZq9wWg4Yyw/VXbCr132jRI/AAAAAAAADnY/urKg3H7nfL8/s1600/2015-06-09%2B13.54.29.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;320&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZq9wWg4Yyw/VXbCr132jRI/AAAAAAAADnY/urKg3H7nfL8/s320/2015-06-09%2B13.54.29.jpg&quot; width=&quot;240&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;This morning I was at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ciosummit.co.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;New Zealand CIO Summit 2015&lt;/a&gt;. The event was opened by Andrew Patterson.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Andrew shared an interesting story about a discussion he had with &lt;a href=&quot;http://paulabennett.co.nz/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Paula Bennett&lt;/a&gt;, Minister for Social Development. In the New Zealand government&#39;s 2015 budget, provision has been made for beneficiaries to receive $25 extra per week from 1 April 2016. Paula Bennett said that this was made possible because of new IT capabilities around Business Intelligence and Big Data.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It is likely that the cost to the country for this increase will result in significant savings. The government is now able to make decisions based on real-time predictive analytics. For example, being able to provide financial assistance to a family may reduce costs associated with domestic violence. Big Data is being used as an intervention tool with outcomes that affect lifestyle and the economy. Without access to data and predictive analysis,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_English&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Bill English&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;wouldn&#39;t have been able to agree to or promise such an increase.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Line of business often find it hard to justify spend as they don&#39;t have the capability for building a good business case. Trying to get the CFO to agree is often frustrating due to a lack of solid or convincing data.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;This decision is probably also one of the best marketing initiatives I have seen in a long time. It caught the competition/opposition completely off guard. While they should have seen it coming, they didn&#39;t.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Imagine what this means to a business competing in today&#39;s economy.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Key note speaker, &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.linkedin.com/pub/rich-vancil/0/306/b52&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Rich Vancil&lt;/a&gt;, drove home the point of the CIO needing to work better with other line of business managers, specifically the CMO. In the early days, most of IT&#39;s spend was on financial systems. For the developer it was easy, you&#39;re just dealing with dollars and cents, right? Today&#39;s IT spend is greatest in the area of marketing. Not such a simple area for software developers. Marketing people wake up in the morning with a &quot;new idea&quot;!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The CIO needs to learn how to talk a new language. They now need to be able to discuss a wide range of marketing concepts in a lingo that the CMO understands. The CIO has the ability to empower marketing to deliver an end to end customer centric experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So in short, today, like never before, IT is able to flex its muscle by enabling line of business managers to understand the information that they already have or that is publicly available (this is typically unstructured). This leads to informed decisions that can be a &#39;hit&#39; with our customers.</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/8751455360406983540/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/the-best-marketing-idea-is-informed.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8751455360406983540'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8751455360406983540'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/the-best-marketing-idea-is-informed.html' title='The best marketing idea is an informed decision'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kZq9wWg4Yyw/VXbCr132jRI/AAAAAAAADnY/urKg3H7nfL8/s72-c/2015-06-09%2B13.54.29.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-5706444692975252888</id><published>2015-06-07T18:35:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-08T08:28:00.888+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Backup"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="corruption"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="data"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="High Availability"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Network Attached Storage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="replication"/><title type='text'>High availability doesn&#39;t mean backup!</title><content type='html'>In a typical discussion about cloud based technologies, not only does the topic come up about knowing where in the world the data is, but there&#39;s often a discussion about how the information may exist in multiple places. This usually means that if there is a catastrophic failure in one location the other location is able to provide uninterrupted services.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I am surprised by the number of people who are treating this capability as a backup. It&#39;s not! This is what we call &lt;i&gt;high availability&lt;/i&gt;. &amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;High availability&lt;/i&gt; ensures that critical services remain running, usually in advance of 99% of the time.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Today, most systems support some sort of high availability clustering, making use of real-time replication. As data is added, deleted or modified in one location, it is also updated to other cluster members (often in different geographical locations). If one cluster member should fail, then desktop applications or web browser apps should automatically fail over to the other cluster member. However, in my experience this is not necessarily seamless.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;So here is what you need to think about. All of those files that you have stored on dropbox, Google Drive or other file storage services, still need to be backed up. Some of the services have what is called a retention policy. This means that if you accidentally delete a file or maybe even an email, you should be up to restore it within a certain time period without requiring the data to be restored from a backup. However, once that retention period has expired, the file is likely to have been deleted for ever. &amp;nbsp;In some instances, there may be a capability to permanently delete a file right away.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I know of someone who is currently running a NAS (Network Attached Storage) within their small business. The data on the NAS is replicated to another NAS at another location. &amp;nbsp;The business considered this to suffice as a &quot;backup&quot;. &amp;nbsp;The problem is, if the data is deleted or corrupted in one location, it is likely to be deleted or corrupted at the other location. &amp;nbsp;No backup, may result in permanent data loss.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I was discussing this with a former work colleague of mine, &lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/pub/phil-atkinson/3/204/a56&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Phil Atkinson&lt;/a&gt;. Phil specialises in data protection systems at EMC. &amp;nbsp; He was telling me about a solution called &lt;a href=&quot;http://spanning.com/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Spanning&lt;/a&gt;. Spanning provides the ability to act as a third party tool to backup your business data when using the likes of Office 365, Salesforce or Google apps. &amp;nbsp;This allows you to comply with your corporate backup policies when moving to the cloud. For a lot of organisations, this will mean keeping data for a lifetime.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I&#39;m hoping to get more of an overview about the capabilities of Spanning. I will keep you up-to-date in the near future.&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/5706444692975252888/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/high-availability-doesnt-mean-backup.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/5706444692975252888'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/5706444692975252888'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/high-availability-doesnt-mean-backup.html' title='High availability doesn&#39;t mean backup!'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-6916597537597077573</id><published>2015-06-04T09:56:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-06-04T09:56:38.245+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="characteristics"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="crowd-sourcing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="employee engagement"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="management"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="research"/><title type='text'>15 most desirable characteristics in a boss</title><content type='html'>&lt;div style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;Recently I asked the following question through my &lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/in/socialbizguy&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;LinkedIn network&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;h2 style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17px;&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-size: small;&quot;&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;&quot;&gt;What one quality or characteristic do you most need to see in your boss?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;Over a couple of weeks I received 293 one word responses. I collated my findings and included them in the pie chart below.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;table align=&quot;center&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; class=&quot;tr-caption-container&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IecQ5Rl65fI/VW9xYI7nZoI/AAAAAAAADeI/OZdCMpS8Nso/s1600/character.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IecQ5Rl65fI/VW9xYI7nZoI/AAAAAAAADeI/OZdCMpS8Nso/s1600/character.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class=&quot;tr-caption&quot; style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Integrity-33, Leadership-28, Trustworthy-18, Honest-17, Respect-14, Vision-11, Consistent-8, Fair-7, Supportive-6, Empathy-5, Communicator-5, Transparent-4, Loyal-4, Intelligent-4, Humour-4, Other 125&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While going through the process of collating the information, I was forced to think about some of the responses. Some of the characteristics that I thought would have been important appeared far down the list.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I then started to question why people responded with a specific characteristic. Did their contribution come from a sense of pain or even hurt? For instance, take the word &#39;fair&#39;. I&#39;d assume that this appears in the top 15 because a lot of employees have felt the injustice of being treated unfairly. This thinking obviously has far reaching implications.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What are your first thoughts to this crowd-sourced research?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/6916597537597077573/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/15-most-desirable-characteristics-in.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6916597537597077573'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6916597537597077573'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/06/15-most-desirable-characteristics-in.html' title='15 most desirable characteristics in a boss'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IecQ5Rl65fI/VW9xYI7nZoI/AAAAAAAADeI/OZdCMpS8Nso/s72-c/character.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-4485409721106578354</id><published>2015-05-28T10:18:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-05-28T10:18:47.244+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Microsoft SharePoint"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Office 365"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="user adoption"/><title type='text'>It&#39;s great to see co-workers getting excited about Office 365</title><content type='html'>Yesterday, I blogged about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/05/first-impressions-of-microsoft-office.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;my first impressions of Office 365&lt;/a&gt;. Since then, it has been interesting to see the reaction of some of my co-workers. Being that my background has been focused on collaboration, not a lot is new to me. However, my co-workers have a different view.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So far I have noticed that people (even in a small company) are in either of two camps.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Let&#39;s embrace this and see how I can use it to work better&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;I&#39;m going to keep on doing things they way I usually do, why change?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;If you have ever read &lt;a href=&quot;https://nz.linkedin.com/in/collabguy&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Michael Sampson&#39;s&lt;/a&gt; book entitled &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://michaelsampson.net/publications/books/useradoption/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;User Adoption strategies: Shifting Second Wave People to New Collaboration Technology&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, you will probably consider second wave adoptors to be a typical adoption issue.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;One of our key people in the service delivery team has been creating SharePoint sites as a way to better share information on customer projects. He has worked out how to use the integration between each of the Microsoft products and now has something that looks to be quite promising.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I have built a site for the Sales Team. We are now starting to share documents such as product roadmaps within the site. I have also set up a wiki where we can update information on the competitors.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I have had some discussions with some of my &quot;second wave&quot; co-workers about how we can work better as a team (we have sales people across 3 different locations). These co-workers are open to knowing more and understanding how this technology can help them to work better. It will be interesting to see how things go over the next few weeks. I hope to be able to blog more about the business value within the context of this company.&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/4485409721106578354/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/05/its-great-to-see-co-workers-getting.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/4485409721106578354'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/4485409721106578354'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/05/its-great-to-see-co-workers-getting.html' title='It&#39;s great to see co-workers getting excited about Office 365'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-4302020636749621072</id><published>2015-05-26T15:57:00.001+12:00</published><updated>2015-05-26T15:57:43.981+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="collaboration"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Microsoft Outlook"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Microsoft SharePoint"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Office 365"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="VMware"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Windows 8.1"/><title type='text'>First impressions of Microsoft Office 365</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2NWlw7BGGy8/VWPvKiq5ooI/AAAAAAAADdQ/6-IDD9bxLTg/s1600/office.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;241&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2NWlw7BGGy8/VWPvKiq5ooI/AAAAAAAADdQ/6-IDD9bxLTg/s320/office.jpg&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;A few days ago, my company made the decision to move its office productivity applications to the Microsoft Cloud, known as Office 365. The company I work for is small with less than 30 employees and focuses on building systems to help businesses with Workforce Management.&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The plan was to make the move over the next few days. However, yesterday the email server had a catastrophic failure. Not only did this server run Microsoft Exchange (Outlook) but it was also the Domain Controller! This forced our hand, and we had to make the move quickly. We were all told to export our email to a PST file so that we could import it into Microsoft Office 365.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;At work, I use my Apple Mac with VMWare Fusion. This allows me to run Microsoft Windows 8.1 for work. I decided to use a snapshot of a new Windows installation to give me a clean start.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;As instructed I went to the Microsoft 365 portal and logged in. I was presented with all of the information to help me get started. I was able to download Office 2013. This was a small file that ran the rest of the installation. What really impressed me was that I was able to start using Microsoft Office while it was still installing. It takes a while to install so this was a blessing!&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I started to get the feeling that Microsoft had done all that they could to get new users up and running as quickly as possible.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The thing that has impressed me the most is that our company has moved from a typical small business set-up to a well built and well architected enterprise solution. Not only do we have Microsoft Office but we also have Skype for Business, Sharepoint and OneDrive. It all just works.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;It was easy to import my email into Microsoft Outlook and I simply copied and pasted my files into OneDrive (for business). I am now able to share files with colleagues without having to send them in an email.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;All up? A good experience.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/4302020636749621072/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/05/first-impressions-of-microsoft-office.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/4302020636749621072'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/4302020636749621072'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/05/first-impressions-of-microsoft-office.html' title='First impressions of Microsoft Office 365'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2NWlw7BGGy8/VWPvKiq5ooI/AAAAAAAADdQ/6-IDD9bxLTg/s72-c/office.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-8624532142231925956</id><published>2015-04-13T12:41:00.000+12:00</published><updated>2015-04-13T12:51:54.682+12:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="andriod"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="battery"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="jellybean"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="online storage"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="samsung"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="samsung galaxy S6"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="technology review"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="upgrade"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="virtual reality"/><title type='text'>The Samsung Galaxy S6 - What&#39;s all the buzz about?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rvpdW8Mh9XY/VSsTFEY8xZI/AAAAAAAAC2o/4HMwl-oIZbA/s1600/samsung.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rvpdW8Mh9XY/VSsTFEY8xZI/AAAAAAAAC2o/4HMwl-oIZbA/s1600/samsung.jpg&quot; height=&quot;305&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Recently, I was invited by Samsung to attend an event at a local retail stand for the New Zealand launch of the Samsung Galaxy S6. I wasn&#39;t doing a lot else, so I decided to attend early on my Saturday morning.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I went along with the view that Samsung really needed to pull something new out of the hat. For some time, I have been using a Galaxy S4. I made some enquiries about the S5 but could not justify the value of the limited new features. Very few of my friends are using the S5. So what is the S6 promising to deliver that would build the desire to upgrade?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;instagram-media&quot; data-instgrm-captioned=&quot;&quot; data-instgrm-version=&quot;4&quot; style=&quot;background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;padding: 8px;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://instagram.com/p/1TpnB8ODSh/&quot; style=&quot;color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;&quot; target=&quot;_top&quot;&gt;The cues are one deep i must be early&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;&quot;&gt;A photo posted by Social Biz Guy (@thesocialbizguy) on &lt;time datetime=&quot;2015-04-10T20:00:04+00:00&quot; style=&quot;font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;&quot;&gt;Apr 10, 2015 at 1:00pm PDT&lt;/time&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;script async=&quot;&quot; defer=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;I guess that I must have spent too much time abroad, I had expected that there would have been hundreds of people wanting to be the first to get their hands on a new Samsung Galaxy S6. While my Instagram photo shows just a few people, the numbers did triple! Still not the best turn out.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Without too much pushing and shoving I managed to get my hands on a shiny new Samsung S6 Edge. The screen practically wraps around the long edges of the phone. It is stylish and would be a great accessory for my wife&#39;s handbag. However, I would personally prefer the standard version. To me, the Edge allows for more knocks and scratches.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;twitter-tweet&quot; lang=&quot;en&quot;&gt;Liking the new &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/hashtag/SamsungGalaxyS6?src=hash&quot;&gt;#SamsungGalaxyS6&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://t.co/AsIGOPQalP&quot;&gt;pic.twitter.com/AsIGOPQalP&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;— Vaughan Rivett (@SocialBizGuy) &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/SocialBizGuy/status/586621071824068608&quot;&gt;April 10, 2015&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;script async=&quot;&quot; charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; src=&quot;//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt; I managed to spend some time with one of the Samsung sales representatives. He pointed out the following key features:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Wireless battery charging&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A 10 minute (wired) battery charge will allow for about 2 hours of video viewing&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No ability to add an additional SD card to increase storage. Apparently there were numerous complaints about accessing media on SD cards. The speed of the card would cause a performance bottleneck.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Not only is the Samsung Galaxy S6 using faster storage, but Samsung is also providing customers with over 200BG of online storage to compensate removing the ability to use an SD card.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The Samsung Galaxy S6 is shipping with Android Jellybean. Those people who are using earlier versions of the Samsung Galaxy (S4 &amp;amp; S5) will have to wait for Samsung to release the OTR (Over the air) update. This may be part of Samsung&#39;s marketing strategy for the S6.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;div&gt;One of the other benefits that seems to be creating a lot of excitement is the virtual reality. All you have to do is purchase a headset (goggles) accessory, insert the Samsung Galaxy S6 and you are ready to go.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;twitter-tweet&quot; lang=&quot;en&quot;&gt;Great &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/hashtag/virtualreality?src=hash&quot;&gt;#virtualreality&lt;/a&gt; experience with the &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/hashtag/samsunggalaxys6?src=hash&quot;&gt;#samsunggalaxys6&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/samsungnz&quot;&gt;@samsungnz&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://t.co/c6staWwtgk&quot;&gt;pic.twitter.com/c6staWwtgk&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;— Vaughan Rivett (@SocialBizGuy) &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/SocialBizGuy/status/586622370707718145&quot;&gt;April 10, 2015&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;script async=&quot;&quot; charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; src=&quot;//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;/div&gt;I have been wanting to experience &quot;Virtual Reality&quot; for quite some time. I jumped at the opportunity to give it a go. It was very cool. I was able to watch a movie where I felt like I was in the movie. I was about to look all around me to see something wherever I turned my head. I would love to see this sort of thing being used in the boardroom! There could be several use cases for the the likes of business meetings right through to online shopping.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While I have only listed a select few of the benefits of the new Samsung Galaxy S6, I don&#39;t see myself forking out another $1000.00 to upgrade for such a limited set of new features. My focus is really on how the phone would make my life easier. If I was given a Samsung Galaxy S6, would I be happy? Sure I would! After all, there&#39;s nothing like bragging rights with your friends or a family of Apple iPhone users :-)</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/8624532142231925956/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/04/the-samsung-galaxy-s6.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8624532142231925956'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8624532142231925956'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/04/the-samsung-galaxy-s6.html' title='The Samsung Galaxy S6 - What&#39;s all the buzz about?'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rvpdW8Mh9XY/VSsTFEY8xZI/AAAAAAAAC2o/4HMwl-oIZbA/s72-c/samsung.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total><georss:featurename>Auckland, New Zealand</georss:featurename><georss:point>-36.8484597 174.76333150000005</georss:point><georss:box>-37.2549887 174.11788450000006 -36.4419307 175.40877850000004</georss:box></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-5538475598500720677</id><published>2015-03-11T09:23:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2015-03-11T09:23:08.020+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="linkedin"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="sales"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Sales Training"/><title type='text'>Some good tips on using LinkedIn</title><content type='html'>This is a great video on how to get more out of LinkedIn. The tips are basic but powerful and well worth considering for the sales professional.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/Km4ZnAMHl3o&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/5538475598500720677/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/03/some-good-tips-on-using-linkedin.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/5538475598500720677'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/5538475598500720677'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/03/some-good-tips-on-using-linkedin.html' title='Some good tips on using LinkedIn'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/Km4ZnAMHl3o/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-8347418459624407675</id><published>2015-02-18T08:31:00.001+13:00</published><updated>2015-02-18T08:31:43.349+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="brand"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="posts"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="social business"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="twitter chat"/><title type='text'>Should I post things on Social Media as a brand or as myself?</title><content type='html'>Yesterday, while participating in an online Twitter chat about Social Business. A question was raised about posting things on Social Media as a brand or as yourself. In this short video clip I address this question.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/5dpzQF4kVv0&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/8347418459624407675/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/02/should-i-post-things-on-social-media-as.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8347418459624407675'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8347418459624407675'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/02/should-i-post-things-on-social-media-as.html' title='Should I post things on Social Media as a brand or as myself?'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="https://img.youtube.com/vi/5dpzQF4kVv0/default.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-8005724534281795130</id><published>2015-02-02T09:57:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2015-02-02T09:57:18.125+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="biometric"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cloud"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Cloud computing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Cloud Services"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Time &amp; Attendance"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="timesheet"/><title type='text'>Time and Attendance software in the cloud</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class=&quot;separator&quot; style=&quot;clear: both; text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PXtTmjLzWtw/VM6Ss0QMV7I/AAAAAAAACrU/pWw4ub1azxM/s1600/biotimeupdate.jpg&quot; imageanchor=&quot;1&quot; style=&quot;clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;&quot;&gt;&lt;img border=&quot;0&quot; src=&quot;http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PXtTmjLzWtw/VM6Ss0QMV7I/AAAAAAAACrU/pWw4ub1azxM/s1600/biotimeupdate.jpg&quot; height=&quot;181&quot; width=&quot;320&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;When I am talking to customers about Time and Attendance, it is interesting how often I am asked about cloud based solutions. Only a couple of years ago, businesses were very shy of any mention of cloud based software, often known as SaaS (Software as a Service)&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;Here at iDt Group, we have a cloud based time and attendance solution (Biotime) and&amp;nbsp;we even have biometric clocks that have been built specifically to work with Biotime.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;One of the things I like about cloud based solutions is that they are constantly being updated. Bugs are being sorted, new functionality is added and the user interface typically becomes more and more appealing. With on-premise software, you typically have to wait for a yearly upgrade along with the expense of installing and configuring the upgrade.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;One of the other main advantages of the current round of updates is speed. There has been significant improvement in the performance of Biotime. &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;I have recently seen some of the changes that will be rolled into Biotime in the next few days. The new style of customisable widgets is pretty cool, allowing the user to customise a dashboard to their liking. There are also a host of there features that are currently under wraps.&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/8005724534281795130/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/02/time-and-attendance-software-in-cloud.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8005724534281795130'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/8005724534281795130'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/02/time-and-attendance-software-in-cloud.html' title='Time and Attendance software in the cloud'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" url="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PXtTmjLzWtw/VM6Ss0QMV7I/AAAAAAAACrU/pWw4ub1azxM/s72-c/biotimeupdate.jpg" height="72" width="72"/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-6063454990183968421</id><published>2015-01-19T09:41:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2015-01-19T09:45:16.895+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="cycling"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="fishing"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="subject matter expert"/><title type='text'>A tough weekend has come and gone - now back to work</title><content type='html'>I&#39;m quickly learning that after a great holiday of making the most of life, getting back to work is great, but the following weekend makes for such a tease. I feel like I am living from weekend to weekend now!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Having a BBQ on Friday night with friends led to the typical conversations that we all have about fishing (I&#39;m making a broad assumption there). So the next morning I was out on the Auckland harbour with friends, trying to catch some big fish. We managed to get a few snapper! Happy days!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Here is a video of me catching a fish. If you watch it long enough, you&#39;ll get a good laugh out of it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/rtrVEJGTa88&quot; width=&quot;560&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To top the weekend off, I did 80km&#39;s worth of cycling to ensure that I reached my weekly goal of 250km/week. Due to the fishing on Saturday I had a bit of catching up to do. Early on Sunday morning I ended up with a puncture, the second one in two rides. I posted my frustration on Instagram.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;instagram-media&quot; data-instgrm-captioned=&quot;&quot; data-instgrm-version=&quot;4&quot; style=&quot;background: #FFF; border-radius: 3px; border: 0; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 658px; padding: 0; width: -webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width: 99.375%; width: calc(100% - 2px);&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;padding: 8px;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background: #F8F8F8; line-height: 0; margin-top: 40px; padding: 50% 0; text-align: center; width: 100%;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;background: url(data:image/png; display: block; height: 44px; margin: 0 auto -44px; position: relative; top: -22px; width: 44px;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://instagram.com/p/x9z-BguDai/&quot; style=&quot;color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;&quot; target=&quot;_top&quot;&gt;2 rides and 2 punctures.  Don&#39;t sell glass bottles to youths. #glass #tyre #cycling&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;&quot;&gt;A photo posted by Social Biz Guy (@thesocialbizguy) on &lt;time datetime=&quot;2015-01-17T18:53:07+00:00&quot; style=&quot;font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px;&quot;&gt;Jan 17, 2015 at 10:53am PST&lt;/time&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;script async=&quot;&quot; defer=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt; It&#39;s always interesting to see how much glass there is on the road after a Saturday night. Young people seem to think that throwing glass bottles out of car windows is a great way to dispose of them. It&#39;s pretty dangerous to say the least.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One of the things I like about Social Media, is that when I share my experiences with the world at large, I get to make new friends. People engage because they think they might be able to add some value. As I shared this experience on Twitter, a fellow cyclist gave me some good advice. Once again, it is good being able to connect with someone new.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;blockquote class=&quot;twitter-tweet&quot; lang=&quot;en&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/SocialBizGuy&quot;&gt;@SocialBizGuy&lt;/a&gt; I agree about the CO2. You must use the big canisters. I can&#39;t get more than 80 in mine if I use CO2. I ride out west mostly.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;— shaun (@slow_tri_guy) &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/slow_tri_guy/status/556643407334887424&quot;&gt;January 18, 2015&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: center;&quot;&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;text-align: left;&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;Often we use Social Media to spread our influence as &quot;Subject Matter Experts&quot;. In the past this was a great way to gain some credibility and recognition. However, things have changed. I am now finding that Social Media provides better value when we share our experience. By doing this we often end up engaging with the &#39;real&#39; subject matter experts. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;script async=&quot;&quot; charset=&quot;utf-8&quot; src=&quot;//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/6063454990183968421/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/01/a-tough-weekend-has-come-and-gone-now.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6063454990183968421'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6063454990183968421'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/01/a-tough-weekend-has-come-and-gone-now.html' title='A tough weekend has come and gone - now back to work'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8553932383983804742.post-6676234120552064998</id><published>2015-01-13T09:37:00.000+13:00</published><updated>2015-01-13T09:37:19.064+13:00</updated><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="new zealand"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Taxi"/><category scheme="http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#" term="Uber Taxi"/><title type='text'>New Zealand Police target users of Uber Taxi</title><content type='html'>Over the past few days I have read a few stories in the news about the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/64837913/uber-taxi-battle-sees-police-vs-cabbies&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;New Zealand Police targeting users of the popular Uber Taxi platform&lt;/a&gt;. &amp;nbsp;They go as far as kicking passengers out of vehicles and leaving them on the streets, sometimes potentially compromising their personal safety.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As with a lot of countries, the New Zealand taxi industry is heavily regulated and there is good reason for this. However, it would appear that taxi drivers are losing market share to users of the Uber Taxi app. Hence, complaints from the taxi drivers to the police.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The word &#39;disruption&#39; comes to mind. A term that I have blogged about numerous times as I have debated using both sides of the argument.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;People vote with their feet. If they can find a better service elsewhere, then off they go. Every business needs to be agile enough to change their business model to better meet the needs of rapidly changing consumer behaviours. As New Zealand is reasonably isolated from the rest of the world, trends often take a while to become reality. The New Zealand taxi industry should have seen this coming from a mile off and changed their business model to suit.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rather than fighting serious crime, the New Zealand Police seem to have little more to do than to punish the New Zealand public for using a new service. Yes, the Police are upholding the law, but just as quickly as consumer behaviours change, we need to be able to change the law to enable people to abide by the law through times of change.&lt;br /&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/feeds/6676234120552064998/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/01/new-zealand-police-target-users-of-uber.html#comment-form' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6676234120552064998'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/8553932383983804742/posts/default/6676234120552064998'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://www.socialbizguy.com/2015/01/new-zealand-police-target-users-of-uber.html' title='New Zealand Police target users of Uber Taxi'/><author><name>Social Biz Guy</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/13905525903587877139</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='16' height='16' src='https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b16-rounded.gif'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry></feed>

Home · About · News · Docs · Terms

 
Copyright © 2002-9 Sam Ruby, Mark Pilgrim, Joseph Walton, and Phil Ringnalda