Downsized? Fired? Here are the new rules of finding a job.

This is a wonderful articulated piece of advice by David Meerman Scott for those who’s Company lost its funding, Outsourced, Caught in a merger, Downsized, Fired. This article not only identify the new age “marketing yourself” techniques but also provide some insights into how to sustain your market position on the new age marketing map. I wish no one should go through an ordeal like that, & I am sure we will turn back for the good.

David’s Article

It seems like every day I learn of another person who is on the job market. Usually that's because when they need a job, all of a sudden people jump into "networking mode" and I hear from them after years of silence. Hey, I'm OK with that, it's always good to hear from old friends. And I've been fired three times so I certainly know what it's like to be on the job market.

But is this the best strategy to find a job?

Hell no!

If you're like the vast majority of job seekers, you'd do what "everyone knows" is the way to find a job: You prepare a resume, obsessing over every entry to make sure it paints your background in the best possible light. You’d also begin a networking campaign, emailing and phoning your contacts and using networking tools like LinkedIn, hoping that someone in your extended network knows of a suitable job opportunity.

I got news for you. The old rules for finding a job suck in today's market. Well, OK, I admit that is a little harsh. Sure, many people find jobs the old way. Just like credit card companies may sell you a card via direct mail and you may hire some gutter cleaning services from a guy who interrupts you at dinner with a telemarketing call. But it's increasingly rare.

- The old rules of looking for a job rely on spamming your network. (Spam is email that is sent, unsolicited, to a large number of people in substantially the same format. That’s exactly what many job seekers do.)

- The old rules of finding a job required advertising a product (you) with direct mail (your resume that you send to potential employers).

- The old rules of job searches required you to interrupt people (friends and colleagues) to tell them that you were on the market and to coerce them to help you.

You want to find a new job? You have to stop thinking like an advertiser of a product and start thinking like a publisher of information.

So what is the New Rule(s)………Read More

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Some, such as the exotic car crashes seen on this page, can be very expensive. But that's trivial compared to the truly expensive accidents. An accident is defined as "an undesirable or unfortunate happening that occurs unintentionally and usually results in harm, injury, damage, or loss". Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.

This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.

#10. Titanic
$150 Million
The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today's dollars).

#9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge
$358 Million
On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.

#8. MetroLink Crash
$500 Million
On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.

#7. B-2 Bomber Crash
$1.4 Billion
Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we're only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.
The crash was captured on video. It shows one B-2 Bomber successfully taking off followed by the B-2 Bomber which crashes. The crash starts at 2:00

#6. Exxon Valdez
$2.5 Billion
The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world's biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship's master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.

#5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig
$3.4 Billion
The world's worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world's single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day.. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world's most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.
Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.

#4. Challenger Explosion
$5.5 Billion
The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today's dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today's dollars).

#3. Prestige Oil Spill
$12 Billion
On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.
According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

#2. Space Shuttle Columbia
$13 Billion
The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today's dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.
In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

#1. Chernobyl
$200 Billion
On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

Courtesy – Group Email

Layoffs and How to…?

In the harsh season of layoff, I do wonder that how companies reacts to situation like these. When things are fine then company goes all way to recruit 000’s but when times like what we all are going through these companies just starts laying people off…yes again in 000’s. It is unfortunate and makes me wonders about the process or thoughts being followed at the time of hiring. I do not intend to entirely blame the companies for that, but as we all are aware, we could have never expected the financial turmoil that we all are in. However having opined that, I still believe that at least someone could have seen it coming and /or reacted to it, we could have been…… Not sure about the an answer for that.

So as of now Philips to lay off 1,600 employees – CNN IBN, Jet Airways cutting salaries, India textile to loose around 5,00,000 jobs. Some other layoffs are citi layoff, ibm layoff, citibank layoff, cadence layoff, dell layoff, symantec layoff, micron layoff, ubs layoff and others most notable IT layoffs of 2008.

But then there is something  to Survive a Layoff. It could be 10 tips to survive a layoff, financially or Ten Ways to Survive a Layoff. But when you ask How Do I Survive a Layoff, you need to know How To Survive A Layoff Or Downsizing.

The time is tough but we hope we tied over it , soon. Have a Happy & Smiling Week.

Finding New Markets by Tracking Channel Partner’s Customer Satisfaction Scores

It’s time to question the assumption that the largest channel partners and resellers deliver the highest levels of service.  The argument goes that these resellers have the resources, processes, systems and experience to deliver excellent service to every customer, every time. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Under attack from their cross-channel competitors and having to routinely sacrifice margins, bundle in services, discontinue unprofitable lines while attempting to stay up to speed with new product introductions and the technologies behind them, the largest resellers often deliver the worst customer satisfaction.  They have too many distractions to find new markets as efficiently as smaller and more focused resellers do.

Channel Loading Now In Progress – What about Satisfaction?

Well into the 4th quarter, these largest resellers are getting loaded up with inventory, motivated by Market Development Funds (MDF), CO-OP Programs, even cash sales incentives taken directly to gross margin, they are doing what they do best: move product. 

Nailing sales quotas is critical right now. Yet so is retaining your brand name and reputation as well, and your customer loyalty above all.  It’s time to start evaluating your channel partners for more than just their ability to move tonnage when it comes to products and more on their long-term ability to deliver solutions that stay relevant.  It’s time to see which resellers can also lead you into new markets too. 

Time to Start Managing Channels by Value

The mid-tier and smaller channel partners and resellers need to be looked at from their contribution to value-added services they add today and have the potential to in the future.  Entirely new market segments, many of them vertical, are being found today based on concentrating on nurturing and measuring channel partners on value, not sales alone.  The 20 year dominance of Printronix for example in bar coding and now RFID is attributed to this strategy.

Concentrating on the value partners are delivering can give you insights into entirely new markets – insights not possible with just a sales volume standpoint.

Getting There from Here

It seems counterintuitive to say that focusing on nothing less that sales results given the economy and all the bad economic news is foolish.  Bet remember that the best performing companies look at these slow times to aggressively invest time and effort to get stronger, more knowledgeable, more agile to capitalize on the bounce-back of the global economy.  The catalyst of this idea comes from the blog post Crisis Advice from GE's Immelt: Stay Committed to Growth. In this blog post is a great quote:

“Keep your company safe but keep building the future.”

Building for the future means getting to the truth of what your resellers are really contributing.  Sure, the largest and best financed resellers can help you slam-dunk your quarterly and yearly quotas. But what about your long-term relationships with customers?  Your brand reputation? Your ability to find entirely new solutions based on the lessons these resellers can give to you? The fostering and nurturing of customer loyalty?  

You’ll never know if your largest resellers are contributing to or detracting from your brand and customer loyalty until you start measuring customer satisfaction.  Consider these potential ideas to gain greater insights into customer satisfaction across your entire reseller base.

• Getting Your Channels Twitterpated. Get on Twitter and post customer satisfaction surveys often, solicit feedback, and track customer satisfaction by reseller and post it on your Intranet sites.  It will surprise you; often the largest resellers have the worst customer satisfaction scores.

• Facebook Applications for Tracking Reseller Satisfaction. Go after your customers using Facebook as well, and get them to opt in and provide the best and worst experiences they have had with your products and channels.

• Look To Your Resellers Who Excel At Customer Satisfaction for new market ideas.  There is an abundance of examples that show how small yet highly focused resellers can give you entirely new ideas of how to find new markets and dominate them.  The slow yet deliberate path of Printronix to dominate the bar coding and then the printing of RFID tags was a 20 year overnight success story.  It all started with resellers who found this market opportunity.

Bottom line: Get ready for the turnaround by measuring how effective your channel partners are in nurturing customer satisfaction, because in discovering that you will find new market opportunities as well. 

Courtesy – Louis Columbus, Perfect CEM

Enterprise MicroSharing Tools Comparison

As the economy toughens, companies must function more efficiently. Travel budgets often suffer the first cuts, leaving geographically decentralized teams with an urgent need to replicate both structured and unstructured time together. Better collaboration tools jump from nice-to-have to core and crucial. Concurrently, employees see the collaboration, networking, problem-solving and other productivity benefits of web 2.0 tools and want to apply them at work. These tools directly contribute to knowledge capture and management as workforces are scaled back and baby boomers retire, and they boost motivation and retention, especially among millennial generation employees.

CIO magazine’s October survey of 243 IT executives found three-quarters plan to freeze or cut their IT budgets. There is a critical need for cheaper, more versatile ways for information to flow within the enterprise. Enterprise-grade versions of Twitter may be the low-cost solution that fills this need.

Twitter is a social networking, communications and publishing hybrid used to exchange short bursts of information within formal and ad-hoc one-to-many networks. Accessible from many different interfaces on both computers and mobile devices, the service adapts to diverse communication styles and settings. Twitter has proven its value in diverse business setting and is being taken seriously as a business tool that shares knowledge, connects people and spreads ideas. Twitter and similar applications are often referred to as “microblogging,” although we suggest “microsharing” as a more apt descriptor.

Microsharing for organizational communication and collaboration fundamentally changes how employees interact with others and grow their professional capacity. Microsharing connects people in ways that promote mutual support, rapid networking, inspiration, mentoring and idea exchange.

Read more of 19 Applications to Revolutionize Employee Effectiveness (PDF)

Courtesy : Expert Access

Me & Recession

In the evening when I am sitting in my hotel room with day gone by full of meetings, I “accidentally” peeped into some of my daily news site. Of course at the time of such a global recession, it seems to have virtually gone everywhere – countries, economies, sector, industries, newspapers, radio, TV, and I mean everywhere.

Markets remain under pressure what Hindus says, Financial Times argues that India's IT executives fear worst slowdown and the Economy seemingly in bad shape. Even Jerry Yang To Step Down As Soon As Yahoo Board Finds Replacement.

As Housing Starts at Record Low, the Economic Forecasters, Who Missed the $8 Trillion Housing Bubble, Predict 14 Month Recession. Economist’ View relates the current condition to a crispy electronic music of a horror movie in "Nightmare on Main Street".The Economist: Free Exchange says about this catastrophic collapse through You don't say? and now The Fed has been forced to seek risk while other central banks seek safety.

Ben Bernanke said today “the TARP plan, and any subsequent debt-financed bail-outs, pose no credit risk to America”. This rather remarkable statement and argument about Could America default? Is debatable under current circumstances. Now even people have been forced to ask to the Dear Economist: How do I calculate an appropriate salary?

This recent market turmoil portends hard times for even the wealthiest universities. Last week, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust told stakeholders that, with the research service Moody's projecting "a 30 percent decline in the value of college and university endowments in the current fiscal year," Harvard needs "to be prepared to absorb unprecedented endowment losses and plan for a period of greater financial constraint." Is this Harvard University's investment errors.

With so much recession affecting countries all over, you can now get The Spanish Crisis In A Nutshell. With companies all across filing chapter 11 and looking for bailouts, Robert Reich’s has done a decent job explaining The Real Difference Between Bankruptcy and Bailout. Hence I guess your Financial futures? predictions depends upon your investing in the same.

Having done the Recession Dating and I hope people should not be forced to say To Hell with the Long Run.

Look and You Will Find ... $$$

The Ignored Gold Mine—Channel Management Contracts

With so much pressure on marketing departments to generate positive returns on the investments they make in channel marketing and channel programs, getting the most out of managing contracts is often forgotten.

There is no clear return on investment calculation for contract management, and as a result, it gets ignored.

Yet contract management needs to be the basis of any multi-channel management strategy today. It's not enough to just rely on the outbound marketing strategies anymore; looking instead at how to better use pricing discounts, arbitrate on pricing strategies, and how to better manage resellers to performance levels and goals all can be tied to the better use of contract management.

Cisco Looked ... and Found

How Cisco was able to capitalize on putting contract management at the core of their channel management strategies is a case in point. Instead of allowing pricing discounts and opportunities for cost savings to expire, Cisco has created an enterprise-wide contract management system that is now core to their multi-channel management strategies. Their ability to manage pricing, analyze contracts down to the clause level and also increase the profitability of their channel partners, and in so doing add to their own, is evident in the latest fiscal-year figures reported. An astounding $4.8B backlog and 7% revenue growth illustrates how critical managing contracts with their many channel partners is.

An Emerging Contract Management Maturity Model

The majority of companies rely on intensive contract management systems to manage their procurement and supply-chain contracts, yet this same level of concentration and intensity is needed for sell-side contracts as well. From several companies that we spoke with in the discrete-manufacturing, high-tech, and process-goods industries that rely on contract management in their sell-side and multi-channel management operations, the following maturity model has emerged:

Level 1: Stand-Alone and Siloed

The majority of these companies use sell-side contract management only for managing pricing exceptions and as a database for re-evaluating sales contracts.

These databases often reside in Microsoft Access databases and Microsoft Excel. As a result, there is often a lag in terms of the accuracy of the data that leads to lost profit opportunities as well.

From the research, approximately 70% to 80% of the companies researched are in this category. There are major opportunities for increasing contract management performance in multi-channel management strategies.

Level 2: Minimal Integration leads to Margin Loss

This is the middle ground of the contract management maturity model, and it is populated by companies that have integrated their sell-side contract management systems with sales operations, Accounts Payable (AP), Accounts Receivable (AR), and in the case of distribution-based businesses, their pricing and forecasting systems.

On average, these systems have two to four system integrations, most often through internally developed adapters or connectors their IT departments have created. Companies in this level of the maturity model have the ability to forecast and plan out the impact of taking discounts across their reseller base, creating specific programs to help resellers get to their specific performance goals.

Level 3: Contract Management Platform

In companies including Cisco, Ingram Micro, Intel, GE, Microsoft and others, channel contracts are managed more as part of the broader Master Data Management (MDM) strategy, which are what SAP customers commonly use for managing their Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) contracts.

Forward-thinking companies spoken with during a series of sales calls on sell-side contract management want to move their dealer and distributor contracts into their SAP MDM warehouses as well.

Companies that have done this are capable of managing their multiple channels more profitably because the contracts can be accessed and used by anyone completing a marketing plan or evaluating a new marketing strategy.

Bottom Line:

Instead of filling up filing cabinet with contracts, get them automated so they can be used for better managing your resellers and creating incentives for your channels to seller higher margin, more profitable products.

About the Author:

Louis Columbus is a member of the Cincom Manufacturing Business Solutions Team and a former senior analyst with AMR Research. He has worked with enterprise clients on defining solutions to their channel management, order management and service lifecycle management strategies. Mr. Columbus also teaches graduate-level international business and marketing courses at Webster-Loyola Marymount University and University of California, Irvine. He is the author of 15 books on technology and two books on analyst relations. His book, "Getting Results from Your Analyst Relations Strategies," can be downloaded for free.

Technorati Tags: Contract Management,Automation