Smart people + Good tools = Amazing things

The American journalist Charlie Rose has recently interviewed a series of influential people in the technology industry.  They include Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google), Marc Andreesson (Founder of Netscape), Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), Evan Williams (co-founder of Twitter), Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn) and Marissa Mayer (VP of Search and User Experience at Google).

They are fascinating conversations about the future of technology and the rise of social/business networking.

I found Marissa Mayer’s conversation with Charlie particularly intriguing.  Marissa Mayer is 33 years old and is already the Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google. She is the very powerful a gatekeeper who she determines when or whether a particular Google product should be released to users.

Google gives all employees 1 day a week to explore their own ideas.  People have carte blanche and can investigate whatever technologically-related ideas fascinate them and there is no interference by the company.  It turns out that over 50% of Google’s new products have come from that 20% free-for-all time.  Marissa Mayer said, ‘When you take really smart people and give them really good tools, they build amazing things.’

Where Leaders of Talent Get Their Edge

A business colleague, Julien Salvi, owns an excellent company, Teneo, that runs European talent management and employee engagement conferences. You can see details at their website – especially see their upcoming conference on employee engagement.

He sent me the following information recently. It’s really interesting what some top talent managers are focusing on at the moment.

Julien moderated a panel of senior talent development officers representing three very different industries and diverse geographies: Deb Wheelock of Mercer (a high-end professional services firm, recruiting highly educated knowledge workers), Pamela Stroko of The Gap (a retailer faced with the classic industry challenges of creating a differentiating employee proposition and enhancing retention of its large workforce), and Sujaya Banerjee of the Essar Group (a diversified India-based enterprise participating in a variety of industrial sectors, including steel, energy, and communications).

Julien reports that even with this diversity of perspectives, they found their views on today’s top talent challenges to be surprisingly aligned. Here are their ten top views:

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How finding your passion changes everything

Sir Ken Robinson is an expert on creativity and innovation.  I highly recommend that you watch his excellent talk on ForaTv, especially if you don’t have time to read his book called The Element: How finding your passion changes everything.  The talk is about 90 minutes and it basically summarises the book.

In these times of unpredictability and uncertainty, we need to think and work differently.  It is becoming clear that old, linear ways of working and thinking are collapsing.  Those people and businesses that prize flexibility, creativity, adaptability, self-assurance, collaboration and entrepreneurship will win in the future.  An essential ingredient in creating a vibrant and healthy economy is to help people discover their ‘element’.

Sir Ken believes it is essential that we find ‘our element’ in order to live a balanced and fulfilled life.  Your element is the place where what you are good at and what you love to do comes together.  It is an expression of your most authentic self and is the point where you connect with your deep sense of identity, purpose and well being.  When you have found your element, you are likely to be more productive, self confident, creative and adaptable. 

Few people know what their true talents are and what they are capable of achieving. Many people plod along with no deep sense of fulfillment and meaning.  Most people spend time in jobs that don’t really light their fire.  We tend to define ourselves by the jobs we do even though this work often does not express who we feel we really are.

Sir Ken believes we all have natural capacities that we lose touch with as we spend more time in the world.  In many of his interviews, he tells the story of when he asked a class of adults to put up their hand if they believed they were creative.  Very few people raised their hands.  He asked the same question to a group of children and everyone put up their hands.  Children seem to have a confidence in their imagination that adults don’t.  We are all born with enormous natural capacities but we lose touch with them along the way. 

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A new way of looking at inheritance is needed

If you read this blog regularly, you might have spotted that last week’s Spectator magazine has been on my reading list. It just happened to be a fairly thought provoking edition. Here is another thought it sparked for me.

When the world changes, we need to change too. As demographics change, the institutions of the world also need to change. We are living in an era of unprecedented change. I mean fundamental shifts, not just technological changes or infrastructural improvements. One example of demographic change is that we are now living longer on average than at any time in recorded history. An example of a change in institutions this requires is that we should be rethinking inheritance.

My grandmother is 95 years old, and still going strong. She spent most of her life in Christian ministry, and so doesn’t have much of a nest egg to pass on as an inheritance. But, if she did, who would it go to? The current system means my aunt and father would receive the inheritance. But aunt is retired, as is her husband, and my father is certainly of retirement age. As the oldest grandchild, I am nearing 40 with three children under 10 years old, while the youngest cousin of my generation has just become a father for the first time.

Surely it is my generation that would gain much more benefit from an inheritance from her?

As the demographics of longevity have changed, should we not change our practices, so that inheritance is passed onto the grandchildren? Once this is established, each generation will receive an inheritance. The only generation to be affected would be the current middle aged generation who would need to forgo an inheritance in favour of their children.

And there lies the problem. To implement such a change, the Baby Boomers would need to forgo their inheritance. But, this seems unlikely. The Boomers have spent their lives not only being selfish about hoarding and spending their money, but also whittling away the inheritance they could leave to their children. There is a danger that many of them will take the inheritances they should start to receive soon, and use these up. I don’t think, then, that they’re likely to look favourably on the idea of giving up their inheritance rights altogether.

But, it would make sense if they did.

Read the Spectator article that got me thinking about this online here, or below.

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Gary Hamel on Generation Y

Gary Hamel, the best selling author and global guru on innovation, has turned his attentions to the impact that the next generation of young people is having on the workplace. Hamel’s latest book is on the Future of Management, and he believes that the recession is simply adding force to some major changes already underway in the world of work.

This is from his blog on the Wall Street Journal website: Gary Hamel’s Management 2.0: A look at new ways of managing. Read it online here, or below.

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Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up

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TomorrowToday does extensive research on the impact of changing societies, institutions and technologies on the new world of work and what is called the connection era.

There are signs that one of the UK’s largest institutions, its schools, are changing and realising the importance of preparing kids for the new world of work and the connection era. A new school curriculum proposes that children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war but will be required to master web tools such as Twitter and Wikipedia.

This is bound to be controversial but one of the problems the current curriculum faces is that the top 10 jobs in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004. The current challenge for today’s school curriculum is to prepare kids for jobs that don’t even exist today.

you can read The Guardian for the latest report on this issue.

Boomers: the worst parents ever? The worst generation ever!

Here is the second article from The Spectator of last week. If you haven’t heard about Julie Myerson, you may want to do a quick Google search to get some background – or read this news report.

I don’t necessarily agree with Rod Liddle (on this, or almost anything else), but the man has a point. He claims that as a society, we are “concerned, consensual, caring, socially libertarian: in the abstract, when it doesn’t bother [us]. When it does bother [us], [we] are less consensual, caring and libertarian. When it bothers [us], [we] turn into fascists.” I’d like to make sure I don’t, so a story like this is worth reading every now and again – as an innoculation.

And, if you can make it through the first 10 paragraphs, the final two paragraphs make the article sharp and insightful in the extreme. Is the Boomer generation really the worst generation in history? And will their legacy in history really be of the generation who selfishly mucked it up completely? You decide…

Read The Spectator article here, or below.

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How to get kids to look at great art (and enjoy it)

A good friend of mine recently asked me why a self-professed social liberal reads The Spectator magazine. It’s simple really – as an author, I enjoy reading great writing, and I don’t think there is better use of the English language in popular print than The Spectator. I also don’t believe you should only read things you agree with, and I enjoy – and appreciate – learning from any intelligent, intellectually coherent and passionate person; even if I disagree with their end point!

So, without apology, here is the first of two posts from last week’s Spectator magazine.

This first one relates to the content of my latest book, “Future-Proof Your Child” (get it at Amazon or Kalahari). We have failed our children by not teaching them to use their intuition and emotions – and to enjoy doing so for its own sake.

If you have children, or believe that we need to develop more emotional intelligence in the world, then you’ll enjoy this article. Read it at The Spectator, or below.

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Some humour from Dilbert …

I would imagine the AIG execs are now flying coach?

Incorrect Thinking in the Financial Crisis

The current economic crisis has seen a deluge of woolly thinking. At TomorrowToday we work hard to bring clarity in the midst of such defective views of the world. Here are just a few of the nonsenses being perpetrated on logic and reason:

There are many statements about consumers being “impacted by the credit crunch”. I have read this phrase in particular with reference to houses and cars.

House prices are currently in decline in most parts of the world – and most journalists (probably fuelled by estate agent press releases) perpetuate the nonsense that this is “bad news”. It’s about as much bad news as petrol, food or beer prices falling, isn’t it? There are a number of reasons why this could be a nonsense statement. For some people, their house is still worth more than what they bought it for (and more than they have borrowed in mortgage to pay for it). So, they are mourning the “loss” of an estate agent’s valuation, rather than any actual monetary loss. For others who overstretched themselves to buy their house, they are now in a “negative equity”. But unless they have to sell their house in the next few months, this should have no real impact on them. The only people for whom this crisis is, in fact, a crisis are those who have multiple properties in the “buy to let” market, and now have empty properties with no rental income but mortgages due.

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Wisdom from Katherine the Great

Katherine Garrett-Cox sounds like superwoman.  She is one of London’s highest profile fund managers, earning about £1 million a year when she was at Morley Fund Management.  She is currently CEO of the FTSE 100 company, Alliance Trust.  She is 40 years old and has 4 children under the age of 8.  The media in the UK have dubbed her ‘Katherine the Great’ because she seems to have it all. 

I have been researching some of the common traits of high achieving women in the UK and I came across this YouTube clip of a presentation Katherine gave at the World Economic Forum in January.

She believes that ‘people who feel valued, motivated and engaged perform better.’ The clip is 5 minutes long and the topic is ‘How do we get the most out of the people that work in our organizations?’  I liked the emotive pictures in the background and it’s refreshing that she didn’t use any bullet points! 

You can’t sit this one out

Originally posted at TomorrowToday UK’s article library, and distributed in their March ezine

As the recession deepens, with customers dwindling and staff morale dropping, strong leadership is required. Too many companies, and the individuals in them, are falling into a trap of trying to keep their heads down and hoping the downturn ends soon. They’re trying to get away with doing what they’ve always done – but on a tight budget. They’re desperately hoping that wave after wave of cost cutting measures, while making no operational mistakes, will be enough.

But, this is no time for low cost business as usual. Equally, though, it’s not a time for panic or self-destructive short-term strategies. The world truly has gone mad, and sanity and reason seem to have fled. If companies want to survive this recession, and take advantage of the few opportunities it might provide, they have to be level headed and have a clear “downturn strategy” while focusing on a few key areas that can give them competitive advantage in rapidly shifting markets. This requires a new mindset with clear thinking and single-minded execution.

There seems to be too little of that going around at the moment. But the solutions are actually surprisingly simple.

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Say sorry and move on

The big political hot potato in the UK right now is trying to get Gordon Brown to say he was wrong, and that he is sorry for the mess the UK is in. Some people say it should just be left alone, and we should get on with it. I was starting to think that, too. Until I read Martin Jacques’ insightful piece in the latest New Statesman. You can read it here, or below.

I think there are some important lessons to be learned for leaders in all organisations, especially leaders who are now presiding over struggling or failing companies. Some analysis of the past can really help to set a great path for the future. It’s worth thinking about, at least.

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Barbie is 50 years old this week

Yes, Barbie – the doll – is 50 years old. As a father of three young daughters, I know Barbie. She (and her clones) are in my home. Is this good or bad? Too much rubbish has been written about this.

But, then in the New Statesman magazine, I read this fantastic little piece that put it brilliantly! By the way, this week’s edition of New Statesman is awesome! It looks at the crowds that changed the world in 1989 – get it and enjoy a brilliant magazine!

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A New Contract is being Born

The 1990’s were characterised by much change. Political, Social, Environmental and Business. On a business front the most significant was possibly the destruction of the employee/employer contract. An understanding that had served both parties well for many years, was destroyed.

Until the 1990’s the advice most people received from their parents was, “Get a job in a big company, stay there, and work your way to the top.” This advice was built on an understanding that most companies offered security (in the form of long term/life time employment) in return for loyalty (you literally became the company man or woman once you stepped through the office doors).

In the 1990’s this understanding was put at risk as shareholders met with the directors of companies and asked for greater returns. In order to fulfil this new objective, a massive drive toward increased efficiency was embarked upon. Consulting companies the world over made large amounts of money preaching the new paradigm. Of course when you’re looking for efficiency gains, rationalising your people compliment is always a large win. And so it was. Retrenchment in every country, in every industry, across every level of every organisation.

The Employee/Employer Contract was torn up and set aside. A new contract was being born.

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Leading through the Storm: Four Things Leaders need to do

The year was 1929, it was towards the end of the third quarter and everything seemed fine. The promise of economic prosperity beckoned and optimism was at an all time high, especially in the United States. The steady building wave of optimism had led to an orgy of speculation and the belief that the beast that is economic crisis had been caged and mastered once and for all. The proliferated through numerous books and articles on the wisdom of the science of business management was offered as the Master of the beast.” We are apparently finished and done with economic cycles as we have known them” said the president of the New York Stock Exchange in September of that year.

By October everything had changed as an economic tsunami swept through Wall Street and on into the infant global economy. Wisdom is an easy thing with hindsight.

Warren Buffet once said, “When the tide of economic growth goes out, you will see who has been swimming naked”. As we now know the tide has irrevocably gone out and as we can see, many have been caught naked. Such is the nature of tides, they go out but they also ‘come in’. That is part of the reality of economic life cycles which we would be foolish to deny, ignore or think we have mastered. For beyond economic cycles, life itself offers rhythms and cycles that best we seek to understand and befriend.

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The day I saw the future of the News

This is synchronicity. I had just finished posting my previous blog about Bernie Madoff and the biggest fraud of the downturn (although that’s debatable, really). Then, I watched the recording I had made of Jon Stewart’s Daily Show from earlier this week. Two things struck me.

Firstly, how the whole financial system is sick. The SEC failed. The directors and Board members of companies failed. The central banks failed. Governments failed. Financial media failed. Investors were gullible, greedy and foolish. And now honest, hard working people like myself have to struggle for survival and fear for our homes and our children’s futures! And a lot of them in the system are still thieving and lying! During the last Great Depression, the bankers were hailed as heroes and seen as the pillars of society. How times have changed. And the future will not be anything like the past.

But the second thing that struck me was that I had witnessed a moment in history. I have put the clips below, so you can witness it too.

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The other side of the Madoff scandal

This past week, Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty to one of the largest frauds ever perpetrated. It is estimated to total $ 65 billion. Thousands of people have lost millions of dollars each, and many have lost their life savings. Even as he read his guilty plea, it seems as if Madoff was more intent on covering his tracks than truly coming clean, as he tried to ensure the safety of his family and close associates. And the fact that he says that he knew for over a decade that he was one day going to be caught makes his continued fleecing of investors even worse! If you don’t know the story to which I am referring just Google Bernie Madoff fraud and you’ll have pages and pages of media reports to read through.

Yet, there is another side to this story that the media seems to be ignoring. Most of the people who invested with Madoff directly (including individuals, trusts, banks and brokers) were driven by greed and invested foolishly. Now I am not saying they deserved to be ripped off. And want to be clear that I believe Madoff is an evil and disgusting human being who deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life and have every cent he owns taken away from him. But this does not change the fact that most of the people who were sucked into his Ponzi scheme were greedy and foolish.

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The hiring dilemma – Entrance vs excellence criteria

Two things happened this week that prompted me to write this particular blog:

1.  I watched a YouTube clip of author Malcolm Gladwell where he made an interesting point about the selection process at elite universities.
2. An acquaintance of mine described his recent experience while applying for a position at a global consulting firm.  He uploaded his CV on to the web site and then had to complete a personality-profiling test.  Two minutes later, he received a computer generated email saying his application would proceed no further because his personality did not match the entrance criteria.  How bizarre - he is one of the few people I have met who has the elusive x-factor!

Malcolm Gladwell believes that the way in which people are selected to attend top-notch universities and business schools is nonsensical.  His premise applies to the selection process at many companies as well.

The criteria on which you are judged to become part of a university, company or team are often very different to the factors that will make you good at the particular discipline or task for which you are being selected.

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South Africa is most economically at risk emerging market in the world

For the past 5 years or so, South Africa’s central bank governor, Tito Mboweni, had been publicly concerned at the high levels of credit in the economy. Consequently, he raised interest rates every few months. Prime interest rates are now at 14%. He did this in order to slow down borrowing. He did this specifically and deliberately in the face the global trend towards easier credit. Consumers howled, those with mortgages wept. But he slowed demand for credit (and increased foreign investment, too, as an unintended consequence).

At the same time, the finance minister, Trevor Manuel, instituted an Act of Parliament known as the National Credit Act (NCA). Simply put, this Act required strict controls over the proof of earnings required before approving credit, instituting a national credit database so that an individual’s total debt exposure was known, and placing limits on how much could be borrowed. Banks, mortgage lenders and retail stores with store cards all cursed the Act. It slowed car sales and house sales in particular.

That Act came into effect in mid 2007.

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7 ways forward (strategies for now)

I subscribe to the online version of Booz&Co’s “Strategy + Business” magazine. I think it’s brilliant. And it’s free. Their latest edition is entitled “7 Ways Forward” and has their best and brightest collaborating to provide short, sharp insights for seven key industries. It really is worth reading.

The industries they deal with are:

1. Manufacturing: Diagnosing This Downturn
2. Consumer Products: Some Brands Win
3. China: Cautious Activists
4. Aerospace and Defense: Assault on Risk
5. Telecom: Exceeding Expectations
6. Japan: Lessons from a Lost Decade
7. Finance: Facing the Liquidity Challenge

Generations online… who’s on and who’s not?

It’s great to follow the online trends for each generation. Pew Internet recently completed a report called Generations online in 2009. You can get the full report here but I’ve copied the key highlights for you below:

Generation Y, aka the “Net Generation,” does not dominate every aspect of online life. That revealing statistic and many others like it come from Pew Internet and American Life’s recent “Generations Online” report which takes a look at how the different generations of users – from Millennials to the G.I. Generation – use the internet.

The web is still largely populated by younger generations as over half of those online are between the ages of 18 and 44 years old. But these days, larger percentages of older generations are going online and they are doing more activities while there.

According to Pew’s research, Generation X is most likely to shop, bank, and look for health information online, but boomers are just as likely as Gen Y to make travel reservations online. Even the older Silent Generation is competitive when it comes to email, although that could point to the fact that email is an activity that is trending older.

Who Uses Email?
It’s true: email is for old people – at least it is now. Today, 74% of internet users age 64 and older send and receive email, making it the most popular activity in this group. Meanwhile, email usage among teens is dropping. In 2004, 89% of teens said they used email. Now that number is 73%.

Social Networking Dominated by the Young
Teens and Generation Y (18-32*) are the most likely to use the internet for entertainment and for communicating with friends and family through social networks. They’re also more likely than others to play online games, watch videos, send instant messages, hang out in virtual worlds, and download music. In other words, they’re the most likely to use the net for fun.

The favorite online activity for teens, however, is not social networking – it’s game playing. 78% of 12-17 year-olds play games online, but only 50% of Gen Y does.

Older Generations Research, Shop, and Bank
It’s not really surprising to discover that the older generations use the internet less for socializing and entertainment and more for research, email, and shopping. Generation X (ages 33-44) remains the leader when it comes to online shopping with 80% using the internet to buy products online, compared with 71% of internet users ages 18-32.

What is surprising is that users age 73 and up use the internet just as frequently for doing health searches as does Gen Y. In fact, researching health information is only the third most popular online activity for seniors, after email and general online search.

However, when it comes to online banking, it’s Gen X that dominates. 67% of this age group does their banking online. Gen Y will most likely do more banking online as they grow older. You can see the activity trending up in their group from 38% in 2005 to 57% in 2008. As Gen Y ages, this number will continue to increase, as does the percentage using the net for booking travel. In 2005, 50% of Gen Y booked travel online and today 65% do.

ConnectToday ezine (TomorrowToday UK)

The latest ezine from TomorrowToday UK is now available online here. You can subscribe to the ezine by clicking here, or in fact, just filling in the form below…

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5 essential leadership skills

As we all know, 2009 will be an unpredictable, volatile year.  Being a good leader is going to be more challenging than ever.

I was recommended a book called The Leadership Code by Dave Ulrich.  I haven’t read it yet but I got a good summary diagram off the book’s promotion website. 

There are 5 skills that a good leader must master.  Some of these skills are focused on tangible organizational aspects while others are focused on the intangible people aspects.  Some have long term rewards while the benefits of others may be visible in the shorter term.

A good leader must focus on these 5 crucial rules or skills:

1. Be a strategist – Shape your future
2. Be an executor – Make things happen
3. Be a talent manager – Engage today’s talent
4. Be a human capital developer – Build the next generation
5. Develop your personal proficiency – Invest in yourself

The core of leadership is to continue to invest in yourself and maintain your personal proficiency that makes you a better strategist, executor, talent manager and human capital developer.

Top 10 challenges for businesses in 2009

I was recently sent an article, by a business associate, called Challenges for Business (in 2009). The article covered by the magazine eucommerz, lists the top 10 challenges identified in the Business Risk Report conducted by Ernst & Young. Here are the top 10:

1. The credit crunch
2. Regulation and compliance
3. Deepening recession
4. Radical greening
5. Non-traditional competition
6. Cost cutting
7. Managing talent
8. Executing successful alliances and transactions
9. Business model redundancy
10. Reputation risk

A few things about this list are of interest. It’s obvious that the recession and credit crunch would top the list of concern, but what is surprising is that people elements of business are low down on the list with talent management only coming in at No 7 and customer service or satisfying customers not even cracking the top 10. When will business leaders realise that sustainable competitive advantages are now more about who you are and not about what you sell. Who you are is about the people you attract to your business, both talented and engaged staff and valuable customers. It would seem a lot of the problems businesses face today are the result of obsessing with cost cutting and being product, not people focused. Which makes it interesting that Business Model Redundancy, a new entrant on the list, makes it in at No 9. There is a concern that long established business models are becoming obsolete. Is there now a glimmer of hope that companies will start to realise that business models in the new world of work are about being people centric?

What is shaping the next leaders of Britain

At TomorrowToday, we study the past to track the trends that help us predict the future. In last week’s Spectator magazine, there was an excellent article on the influences currently shaping the Conservative party, and particularly David Cameron and his inner circle.

The article hints at the influences that shaped Margaret Thatcher, and how these later shaped Britain. It points out some of the key influences that shaped Tony Blair and Gordon Brown while they were in opposition, and how those later shaped Britain. It then points out a key shaping force for today’s Tories, and leaves the reader to speculate on how this might shape a future Britain. I will come back to this in the next few days, since I think the article is onto something.

For now, read the article at The Spectator, or below.

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Lessons from the best companies to work for in the UK 2009

Published yesterday in the UK Sunday Times, this article highlights a theme that runs through much of the work in HR these days. This article is linked to the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For survey. I am not generally a fan of these types of surveys, but this is worth a read anyway.

Strongly engaged staff aid business survival
Firms still making it their business to keep employees onside look set to ride out the gloom, reports Sue Leonard (March 8, 2009)

Are you worried about losing your job? You’re not alone. Fears about job security are rife even among employees within the Best Companies to Work For. Many feel on edge as a result of the current global downturn, which has already led to a dramatic rise in unemployment and seen household names such as Woolworths disappear from the UK high street.

Among all 997 companies entering this year’s Best Companies contests, staff scores for feeling their jobs are secure are down 6.2% on last year, from 72.5% positive to 66.3%.

The top two big companies and the top 10 mid-sized businesses show a significant fall of 5.3%, although with the positive score for job security still at 78.1% this represents a much healthier bottom line than the 66.3% achieved across all 997 companies. Among the 120 companies included in this magazine there is a 5.5% fall in the positive score for job security to 71.5%.

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Generation OMG

Published in the New York Times over the weekend, here is an interesting piece looking at generations in the USA.

By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: March 7, 2009, New York Times

IN 1951, Time magazine set out to paint a portrait of the nation’s youth, those born into the Great Depression. It doomed them as the Silent Generation, and a generally drab lot: cautious and resigned, uninterested in striking out in new directions or shaping the great issues of the day — the outwardly efficient types whose inner agonies the novel “Revolutionary Road” would dissect a decade later.

“Youth’s ambitions have shrunk,” the magazine declared. “Few youngsters today want to mine diamonds in South Africa, ranch in Paraguay, climb Mount Everest, find a cure for cancer, sail around the world or build an industrial empire. Some would like to own a small, independent business, but most want a good job with a big firm, and with it, a kind of suburban idyll.” The young soldier “lacks flame,” students were “docile notetakers.” And the young writer’s flair “sometimes turns out to be nothing more than a byproduct of his neuroses.” (This even before Philip Roth, born 1933, had published a novel.)

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Let the (dumb) markets speak

I am a fan of Jon Stewart and his satirical news show, “The Daily Show“. While it’s not as clever (or funny) as some of the British shows (such as Mock the Week, or Have I Got News For You), it does often have great moments of clear insight into what’s going on in America. It is a great example of the powerful use of parody as a political tool.

One of the most pieces they’ve ever done on the show was aired earlier this week, and showed just how wrong the Wall Street pundits have got it over the past few years. Now that the US government is trying to put some controls on Wall Street, it’s frothing at the collective mouth. But it’s all bluster and fury, signifying nothing, as Jon Stewart and co so brilliantly point out. Enjoy the two video extracts from the show on 4 March. Links are below:

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What Gen Y Really Wants – And Why We Should Care

A nice post from some young people who really do know what their peers would like at the workplace. Read the original here. Or an extract below:

While conducting research on the work-life balance outlooks of crème de la crème Gen Y-ers (highly educated young people around the world, what we like to call Gen Y-Fi), we asked forty American college students and young professionals what kind of benefits they were looking for from potential employers. By far the most common response was simply “health insurance.” When we asked a similar cohort of Gen Y Europeans the same question they came up with a whole score of desirable work-live benefits: flexible working hours, in-house child care facilities, freedom to work from home or a different country even, respect for family life…the list went on. Why were responses from America’s college-educated youngsters so uniform and unimaginative, while their European counterparts could shoot off an entire wish-list?

A recent survey of graduating college seniors by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) sheds some light on the matter. The NACE survey reports that out of fifteen possible job attributes, the top three chosen by American students were: opportunity for advancement, job security, and a good insurance package. Assuming young grads would choose attributes stressing flexibility and creativity (especially since work-life balance has become a “mantra for characterizing Generation Y”), researchers were perplexed that Gen Yers were so zealous about job security. The NACE report concludes that Gen Yers are looking for a company that provides steady salary increases along with life-long benefits — think General Motors circa 1950. Unfortunately, that kind of employer no longer exists, as the current economic recession has made abundantly clear.

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