The Art of Pitching by Richard Branson



One of the best things about hearing business pitches is that there is always a new idea and a new way of looking at things. I hear a huge number of pitches in a wide variety of places – we even had a pitching session while cycling in South Africa recently. But the most impressive pitches all have a few things in common. Here are five simple similarities shared by all successful pitches:

- They explain how the new business will make a difference to customers and provide a compelling alternative to competitors. This means showing a new way of doing things to shake up the market, and explaining it in short, sharp, entertaining fashion.

- They are grounded in expert knowledge of the industry. If you are going to launch anything - a new social network, a new bank, a new fashion line – you need to demonstrate a solid understanding of the market and how you can disrupt it.

- They have a realistic plan. While high concepts are fine, pitches need to illustrate how a company could work practically. This means legal, financial and operational plans. It’s tough to include details in a short presentation, but the most engaging pitches manage to combine passion with pragmatism.

- They are in it for the long haul. Nothing stays the same, and business changes faster than most things. Pitches latching on to the flavour of the month are all well and good, but they need to communicate how the business could grow sustainably and develop in the future.

- They show their strongest hand. Pitching is all about selling your idea and your business as an exciting place to be. Highlight the strengths – especially the talented people who are working on the project – and don’t be afraid to talk up your prospects.


Virgin Media Pioneers have announced the return of our ‘Pitch to Rich’ competition, giving entrepreneurs from around the UK the chance to pitch their ideas to me and win a start-up investment.

The winning company will get a grand prize worth £5,000 including investment and mentoring plus legal, branding and marketing advice for their business. Runners up will also receive £1,000 worth of investment as well as an opportunity to build their network and raise their profile.

What do you think are the most important things to remember in the art of pitching?

 

Posted by:

Richard Branson (Via Linkedin.com)

 

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17 Ways to Be Happier at Work

17 Ways to Be Happier at Work by Geoffrey James

(For Inc. Magazine, March 5th, 2013)

 

 

 

A reader recently pointed me to some "rules for a happier life" that various folks have posted in various forms. Here's my take on those rules as they apply to the workplace:

1. Don't compare yourself to others.

Everybody, and I mean everybody, starts out in a different place and is headed on their own journey. You have NO idea where someone else's journey might lead them, so drawing comparisons is a complete waste of time.

2. Never obsess over things you cannot control.

While it's often important to know about other things--like the economy, the markets that you sell to, the actions that others might take, your focus should remain on what you actually control, which is 1) your own thoughts and 2) your own actions.

3. Know and keep your personal limits and boundaries.

While your job might sometimes seem like the most important thing in your world, you're killing a part of yourself if you let work situations push you into places that violate your privacy and your integrity.

4. Don't over commit yourself or your team.

It's great to be enthusiastic and willing to go the "extra mile," but making promises that you (or your team) can't reasonably keep is simply a way to create failure and disappointment.

5. Remember you get the same amount of time every day as everyone else.

You may feel you're short on time and that you need more of it, but the simple truth is that when the day started, you got your fair share: 24 hours. Nobody got any more than you did, so stop complaining.

6. Don't take yourself so seriously; nobody else does.

The ability to laugh at your foibles not only makes you happier as a person, it makes you more powerful, more influential and more attractive to others. If you can't laugh at yourself, everyone else will be laughing behind your back.

7. Daydream more rather than less.

The idea that daydreaming and working are mutually exclusive belongs back in the 20th century. It's when you let your thoughts wander that you're more likely to have the insights that will make you both unique and more competitive.

8. Don't bother with hate; it's not worth the effort.

Hate is an emotional parasite that eats away at your energy and health. If something is wrong with the world and you can change it, take action. If you can't take action, you're better off to forgive and forget.

9. Make peace with your past lest it create your future.

Focusing on past mistakes or wrongs inflicted on you is exactly like driving a car while looking in the rear view mirror. You'll keep heading in the same direction until you collide with something solid.

10. Don't try to "win" every argument.

Some battles aren't worth fighting, and many people are easier to handle when they think they've won the argument. What's important isn't "winning," but what you, and the other people involved, plan to do next.

11. Remember that nobody is in charge of your happiness except you.

While some work environments are inherently difficult, if you're consistently miserable it's your fault. You owe it to yourself and your coworkers to either find a job that makes you happy or make the best of the job you've got.

12. Smile and laugh more frequently.

Contrary to popular belief, smiling and laughter are not the RESULT of being happy; they're part of a cycle that both creates and reinforces happiness. Find reasons to smile. Never, ever suppress a laugh.

13. Don't waste precious energy on malice and gossip.

Before you tell a story about anybody else, or listen to such a story, ask yourself four questions: 1) Is it true? 2) Is it kind? 3) Is it necessary? and 4) Would I want somebody telling a similar story about me?

14. Don't worry what others think about you; it's none of your business.

You can't mind read and you don't have everyone else wired into a lie detector. Truly, you really have NO IDEA what anyone is REALLY thinking about you. It's a total waste of time and energy to try.

15. Remember that however bad (or good) a situation is, it will inevitably change.

The nature of the physical universe is change. Nothing remains the same; everything is, as the gurus say, transitory. Whether you're celebrating or mourning or something in between, this, too, will pass.

16. Trash everything in your work area that isn't useful or beautiful.

Think about it: you're going to spend about a third of your waking adult life at work. Why would you want to fill your work environment--and that part of your life--with objects that are useless and ugly?

17. Believe that the best is yet to come, no matter what.

When my grandmother was widowed in her 70s, she went back to college, traveled across Europe in youth hostels, and learned Japanese painting, among many other activities. The last thing she told me was: "You know, Geoffers, life begins at 90."

READERS: What additional rules should be on this list? (Leave a comment!)
Like this post? If so, sign up for the free Sales Source newsletter.

Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world's most visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

Why Beer Marketers Don't Spend Much on Joe Six-Pack Anymore

 

Subpremium Suds Like Busch, Keystone Light Yield 'Fast Nickels,' But Advertising More-Expensive Brews Brings in "Slow Dimes'

By:

E.J. SchultzBio
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RSS feedAlcoholic Beverages/Food (Originally posted on AdAge.com)

Published: March 25, 2013

 

With the beer market inundated by fruity flavored brews, pricey craft brands and Justin Timberlake ads, what ever happened to Joe Six-Pack?

 

He's still there, chugging cheap beers after work, but brewers are dedicating fewer dollars to reach him as the "subpremium" segment declines. Instead, beer marketers, on a quest for fatter profit margins, are encouraging drinkers to trade up to pricier line extensions such as Bud Light Platinum or new concoctions like Redd's Apple Ale.

 

Brewers are advertising economy brands less: Measured-media spending on the five largest low-end brews -- Natural Light, Busch Light, Busch, Miller High Life and Keystone Light -- fell to $6.9 million last year from $22.4 million in 2011, according to Kantar Media. That compares with the $32 million that Anheuser-Busch InBev spent last year launching Bud Light Platinum. Redd's Apple Ale, introduced by MillerCoors this year, is getting a similarly hefty push, while the brewer last week launched the first national TV ads for Leinenkugel's that spotlight its lemonade-flavored Summer Shandy offering, whose sales soared 90% last year, according to the brewer.

 

Add in the fact that the economic downturn hurt blue-collar drinkers the most and the result is that the sub-premium segment has been on a long-term slide, falling to 13.5% in 2012 from 15.7% of beer sales at supermarkets in 2009, according to SymphonyIRI. During the same period, craft-beer sales grew to 11.9% from 8.3%, while so-called superpremium beers, like Blue Moon and Shock Top, jumped to 10.7% from 9.1%.

 

How has beer been able to get consumers to trade up in a sluggish economy? "It comes down to emotional engagement," Trevor Stirling, a beverages analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said. "Consumers are much more likely to "brand' themselves by what they drink, be it a quirky, heavily hopped IPA, or a "sophisticated' Stella; whereas Natty Light and Beast Light have, if anything, negative brand badging."

 

New drinkers -- think Joe College -- are a lot more experimental than they used to be, sampling craft beers, cocktails and flavored malt beverages, rather than relying on the same old Keystone or Natural Light. Younger drinkers "grew up with so many different flavors that it's not unusual for them to want to try different things," said Dan Wandel, SymphonyIRI's senior VP-beverage alcohol client insights.

 

Marketers have also spurred the shifts by hiking prices on subpremium brands. A-B InBev for the past few years has been closing price gaps between mainstream beers like Bud Light and its value brands in an effort to rebalance its portfolio -- and the American beer market at large -- toward premium beers. "Our strategic intent is to grow our share of the value segment, but without growing the segment itself," said Edison Yu, VP-value brands at A-B InBev.

 

Still, big brewers cannot risk alienating economy drinkers for fear of losing them to cheap liquor or smaller beer brands like Pabst Brewing Co.'s Pabst and Old Milwaukee, whose locally targeted, quirky Will Ferrell ads have gotten a ton of free media attention.

 

There are signs that A-B InBev and MillerCoors this year are paying a bit more attention to their low-end brands, rolling out new packaging, campaigns and promotions. The goal is to protect share in a segment that still accounts for 18.4% of dollar sales, according to SymphonyIRI. Although declining, the segment is still larger than imports (14.4%) and crafts (5.4%).

 

"When you are a big mega-brewer like [A-B InBev] or MillerCoors, you are looking to be all things to all people," said Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer's Insights. "And if subpremiums are 20% of the business, you damn well want to play there." Economy brands are more about "fast nickels" than a "slow dime," said Ashley Selman, marketing director-economy brands at MillerCoors. "We make less per barrel, but we sell a lot of volume."

 

As they narrow their focus, value brands are zeroing in on core drinkers. Keystone Light is replacing its "Keith Stone" ads that targeted younger drinkers with a partnership with tournament-fishing organization FLW. Its mostly in-store campaign targets Walmart-shopping, middle-age drinkers.

Busch is seeking to hook more anglers with a limited-time promo this spring in which 50,000 special "fishing-lure" cans will be randomly inserted into cases. Fans who upload pictures of the cans to the Busch Facebook page can win prizes, including a fishing trip with star angler Kevin VanDam.

Miller High Life is launching a campaign that plugs the beer's role in "everyday celebrations," teaming with Harley Davidson for in-store promotions that tout the fact that both brands are turning 110 years old this year.

 

Despite the competition from crafts, economy brands are not giving up on younger drinkers. A-B InBev's Natural Light, which targets college-age consumers, is seeking to stand out with new "stubby" bottles, dubbed "Fatty Natty," rolling out nationally. MillerCoors is targeting hipsters with its Hamm's brand via grassroots marketing.

 

The brew is part of the marketer's "classic" economy-brand lineup, which is meant to compete with crafts. "These guys are still challenged by the economy," Ms. Selman said. "And they don't have the money to buy crafts all night long." 

Beyond the Product: What We Should Be Teaching Young People

Beyond the Product: What We Should Be Teaching Young People

A viral video of Kelvin Doe, aka DJ Focus, an Innovate Salone 2012 winner, has been viewed more than 4.3 million times on YouTube. This inspirational video captures Kelvin’s three-week trip to visit the MIT Media Lab, where he was the Institute’s youngest ever “visiting practitioner,” at the age of 15. Before this trip, Kelvin had never left his home in Sierra Leone. When people talk about Kelvin’s story, they focus on the products he’s built: a battery, a generator, and an FM radio transmitter. Indeed, it is incredible that Kelvin made a battery and generator to charge phones for his neighbors while enabling other youth to engage civically through his radio station.

However, what is most amazing is not the set of products Kelvin has developed, but rather his daring audacity to ask and act upon questions that young people seldom dream of in his community. Why couldn’t he make his own battery? How could he repurpose electronic components from products that are found in the trash? For the challenges in our communities, how do we develop a robust local solution?

His ingenuity to understand a problem; his resourcefulness to find the materials, tools, and mentors needed to develop a prototype; and his appetite for risk taking are what make him special -- not the products he has built.

The goal of Innovate Salone in simple terms is to ignite creative thinking, to nurture invention, to encourage entrepreneurship, and to build integrity among young people. Why? So that they learn to identify the challenges in their communities, gather the resources available to solve those problems, and implement their own solutions.

At the MIT Media Lab, we focus on “the invention of new media technologies that radically improve the ways people live, learn, work, and play.” At the core of creating these technologies and products is a dense but diverse set of curious students and staff who collaborate to develop solutions that will change the world. Most solutions we develop are by-products of the process, an afterthought.

In a similar way, for Kelvin and the students whose stories I continue to share, the products should never be the focus. Our biggest goal is that we can provide them a platform that encourages creativity and dares them to dream about a future they can create as we build a culture of innovation. It is our job to enable teens to make things that they are passionate about. Kelvin gave an amazing TEDxTeen talk in New York City recently. He describes his life story, which revolves around a kind of persistent experimentation that has led him to develop the products his family and community need.

Innovate Salone (Sierra Leone), Innovate Kenya (Kenya), and Innovate the Cape (Cape Town) represent our own way of promoting this vision. Bill Drayton (founder of Ashoka) says that about 80 percent of Ashoka Fellows started something as a teen. To build a culture of innovation means more teens have to go through that process of making. We can’t leave it to chance. Recent efforts to promote project-based learning among young people are well placed within rigorous learning theories by Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert and Mitch Resnick. For us, “making is learning and that is very different from education,” something my mentor Nicholas Negroponte often points out.

The young people I interact with in Sierra Leone and beyond are ready to make a future different from their parents' present ecosystems. That future starts with a dare to dream, and the use of their creative freedoms to explore solutions to challenges they understand. It is that process of developing prototypes and hacking products that will enable them to learn, become serial inventors, and transformational leaders of their communities. It is part of our task to help smart, but inexperienced youth appreciate the totality of resources at their disposal and to help them aspire ever higher on the basis of real, escalating accomplishments.
Photo Courtesy: Joi Ito/MIT Media Lab

Posted (on Linkedin Page / Authored by  :    David Sengeh

 



The 3 Biggest Resume Mistakes

The 3 Biggest Resume Mistakes



In a typical week I spend on average 10% of my time screening resumes, interviewing or reviewing interview notes and offers for candidates we want to join the team. Talent management is a core pillar of our company strategy and one of my most important responsibilities. I have reviewed thousands of resumes over my career and built a system to categorize them into yes, no and the dreaded maybe buckets. The resumes that go into either the yes or the no piles are usually very easy to identify. But I often think about the maybes. These resumes get saved as a backup but in reality, never get a chance to be in the field of play.


With over 200M resumes on LinkedIn, it will be harder and harder for a maybe to become a yes which is the first step in landing a new job. Great candidates with fantastic backgrounds can get condemned to the maybe pile because the resume didn’t represent them well and didn’t make an impression in the 30 seconds an average hiring manager spends on filtering a resume.


I find there are three big mistakes that usually cause an otherwise great resume to be filtered out in a screening process:


1) Focusing on the wrong thing: I often see candidates explain their responsibilities and list them in great detail, but forget to highlight their results. The unique things they did that their predecessors had not. What were their specific accomplishments and what sets them apart? The more quantitative, the easier for a screener or hiring manager to understand and select them for the next discussion. Numbers and metrics speak louder than words. Vague generalities are the kryptonite of a resume.

2) Writing a thesis when a synopsis is needed: Mark Twain once said, “if only I had more time, I would write thee a shorter letter”. When writing a resume, it is important to heed these words and take the time to really write succinctly and precisely. The longer and more dense a resume, the harder it is for a recruiter to get to the heart of your achievements and contributions. Precise, clear, factual, numbers driven resumes will always get more traction.

3) Leaving unanswered red flags: Candidates will often wait for the interview process to explain any red flags or gaps that may be on their resume, but by that time it may be too late. In most cases, they won’t make it that far if the issues are not explained on the resume, cover letter or LinkedIn profile itself. Candidates should put on the hiring manager’s hat and look at their own resumes with this filter and then proactively address any of these issues in a clear and unambiguous way. A couple of examples of what I mean:

• Let’s say someone has moved around a lot in their career. A screener may see this as inability finish things they start or an indication that they aren’t a committed candidate. It behooves you to explain the reasons for the movement where possible. Was it a corporate change, like an acquisition, that caused the moves? Or is it an indication that you were looking for more of a challenge?
• Let’s say someone is applying for an engineering role but doesn’t have an engineering degree. This should be addressed in the objectives and the resume should reflect any and all skills that do relate to the job you are looking for. Do you have any relevant certifications? Are you self-taught? Can you link to any code you have written?

It is worth the extra effort to make your online profile rock solid. That’s the only way to convert the page views into clicks on your resume.


Oh and one other thing, in this day and age, there is no excuse for typos and grammar mistakes in a resume. Those types of errors demonstrate a lack of detail orientation and commitment, and may result in your resume going into the no bucket.


I’d love to hear if you agree with these, and which other resume mistakes you’d add to the list.

Posted by:

Rajat Taneja

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March Madness: How to Play the Job-hunting Game to Win

March Madness: How to Play the Job-hunting Game to Win (By: Lou Adler)

It’s hard to win a game when the rules are made up after the winner is chosen.

In hiring this is pretty much the state of affairs. While there are some written rules, no one really follows them. If they did, there wouldn’t be many great people being hired. Unfortunately, most active job-seekers play the wrong game, and then become frustrated as their losses pile up. Recruiters make things worse, since they each use their favorite unwritten rules. Hiring managers compound the problem since most don’t even want to play.

So if you’re serious about a getting a better job, or any job for that matter, you first have to figure out which game is being played. Then you must do everything you can to break the rules and use your own instead.
(Special Note: I’ll be describing some game-winning strategies at a special webcast for job-seekers on March 28. )

The Biggest and Dumbest Rule of Them All: Using Skills-Infested Job Descriptions.

Possessing a list of skills, experiences, and academics using some arbitrary metric is the default rule. HR embraces this rule contending it’s the required legal validation (it isn’t) and sets it in stone, or at least in the HR handbook and ATS system.

The problem with this rule is that having the skills and experiences listed is no guarantee of successful on-the-job performance. A bigger problem is that using this rule eliminates the possibility of considering diversity candidates; light, but high-potential candidates; and top performers from other fields as possibilities.
From a practical standpoint, this default rule is broken every day. People promoted into these same jobs internally are hired based on their performance and potential, not their absolute level of skills and experiences. External candidates who are vouched for by current employees because of their exceptional performance form the second biggest group of people hired who don’t possess all of the skills.
So if you’re a job-seeker who is a top performer, but doesn’t meet the default standard, you’ll have to figure out a different way to get into the game.

The Second Biggest Rule: even if you get the interview, there are no rules for how to select the best candidate.

Techies overvalue tech. Senior managers overvalue their intuition. Less-skilled interviewers defer to their superiors. Candidates are assessed largely on their presentation skills, not their ability and motivation to do the work. And everyone is affected by first impressions. These errors are magnified when using a skills-infested job description, since it allows something other than the actual job to be the benchmark. The actual debriefing session is largely based on an up-down voting system where a safer “no” vote carries more weight than a yes, rewarding the weaker interviewer, since they can never be proved wrong. In these same sessions emotions and feelings are more persuasive than evidence. As a result, the person ultimately selected is often the compromise and least offensive candidate, not necessarily the best person.

There are other rules in the hiring game, but these are the big ones. Throughout my search career I attempted to impose some degree of order to this anarchic-like process. This was the genesis of Performance-based Hiring, based on the idea of defining the actual work as the standard of excellence rather than skills, and the use of a structured evidence-based assessment process rather than individual bias. I’ve been called wild ‘n crazy as a result.

We’ll be discussing how to play the game at the March 28 webcast, but to get ready here’s some quick advice:

1. Unless you’re a perfect fit for the job, don’t apply directly. It will be a waste of time. Some machine will spit you out as unqualified long before some recruiter gives your profile the 15-second review.
2. Use the backdoor to apply. First find out who the hiring manager or department head is. Then send this person a letter (yes, letter) and an email with a link to your LinkedIn profile. Make sure the line under your name on your online profile says you've accomplished something remarkable and job-related, like, “just finished training 12 sales reps and all of them made quota the first year!” In the letter, describe your 2-3 biggest accomplishments that roughly compare to the open job. Suggest that you’d like to arrange a 15-minute call to see if your background matches the company’s hiring needs.
3. Ask about the real job during the first five minutes of the phone screen or interview. If the interviewer is a box-checker, you’ll have no chance if your skills and experience are a bit off the mark. In this case, quickly ask something like, “Rather than wasting a lot of time, could you tell me about the big challenges or problems involved in the job? I can then give you a quick summary of some of my related accomplishments. Then if it makes sense to get serious we can arrange a more in-depth discussion."
4. Find someone credible who can personally vouch for your performance. A book could be written on this technique, but the idea here is that's it's better to be referred by someone rather than applying.

Of course, these aren’t all of the rules, but when someone is using flawed rules, or none at all, you might as well create your own. At least this way you’re more likely to be evaluated based on your ability and past performance, rather than on some arbitrary criteria and the quality of your first impression.
______________________________________________________
Lou Adler (@LouA) is the Amazon best-selling author of Hire With Your Head (Wiley, 2007) and the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, Talent Rules! His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, is now available as an Amazon Kindle eBook. You might want to join Lou's new LinkedIn group to discuss hiring related issues.

Posted by:

Lou Adler

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Just Got Hired? 100 Days to the Perfect Start

Just Got Hired? 100 Days to the Perfect Start

You’re starting a new job. You’re good at what you do... or at least you were good at what you did at your old job. But now you’re unproven.

Now you need to get off to a great start... and you don’t have a lot of time to make that happen. If you’re a senior executive you probably have three months to stake out your position and take a few major – and visible – steps.

If you’re lower on the corporate ladder you might have even less time.

I haven’t started a new job in forever, so I found someone better to give advice: Jim Whitehurst. He’s gone from a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group to Treasurer and then Chief Operating Officer of Delta Airlines and is now the CEO of Red Hat, the $1.1 billion open source software company.

So yeah, he’s successfully started a few new jobs.

Here’s Jim on how to get off to the perfect start in your new job:

Deeply understand how the business creates value.

Obviously you need to learn how to do your job well, but more than that you need to understand the company’s competitive advantage and underlying value proposition to make sure those things happen.
Don’t assume your predecessor did.

When I reflect on what I do at Red Hat and what I did at Delta it’s absolutely night and day. I didn’t think about it at the time, but when I think back to Delta I realize I was pretty hard on people. An airline is a pennies and nickels kind of business with single-digit margins -- if you’re lucky. So I would challenge and direct and correct… I was extremely focused on execution and spent the majority of my time going through the details.

At Red Hat my focus is on talking to customers, to M & A prospects, to partners, to CIOs to find out where they think the future of tech is going…. We’re outward facing, customer facing, and all about the future, while the airline business is pretty well defined and the goal is to optimize within that box. Strategic long-term planning is a much bigger part of what I do now than it was at Delta.

Don’t assume the way you did your old job, or the way your new job was done before, is the way it should be done now.

If you want to succeed – and move up to higher levels – take the time to figure out how the company truly creates value.

Learn how to serve all of your constituents.

You may have direct reports. You may have external customers. You definitely have internal customers. Often many of your constituents have little to do with what you might think is your job.
In my role, over half of my time is not spent “running the business.” Talking to the press, to board members, investors, analysts, engaging in civic responsibilities (because you can’t be a leader without being a leader in the community where that company lives and works)….

At first I got frustrated by those demands. Then I realized I couldn’t run a full schedule the way I once did. I needed to be on the phone talking to legislators about issues. I needed to be on the phone with the governor-elect when he asked if I would host a session to get input from business leaders. All that "stuff" is really important to our company and our community.

You’ll start a job with certain expectations, but once you understand the needs of all your constituents you must redefine how you see your job and the way you perform it.

Learn about all of your constituents and determine how to serve them while creating value for your company. That might sound contradictory, but when you deeply understand how the company creates value and you deeply understand your constituents, it's not.

Stay focused on what you do best.

You were hired for a reason. Don’t lose sight of that reason as you take on your new duties.
Sometimes a company hires a new employee because they need specific things done and that person has done those things before. Sometimes a company hires a new employee who has the attributes they need instead of the person with the “right” set of skills experiences.

Often it’s a blend of both: You’re hired because of your skills and qualifications… but also because you bring qualities and attributes the company needs.

Never lose sight of what makes you different. You possess qualities and attributes other people don’t. That’s why you were hired.

Use them. But make sure you also...

Show what you will do differently.

Never assume what made you successful at one job will make you successful at your new job. Many executives fail because they try to apply what was successful in the past to a new business.

Understand the company’s competitive advantage, understand the needs of all your constituents, and decide how you can leverage your skills, experiences, and intangibles to stake out a position and take the job to another level.

Work extremely hard to deliver value... and soon the company may decide to take you to another level.

I also write for Inc.com; here are a few related articles:

• How to Spot a Remarkable Employee
• 5 Questions Great Job Candidates Ask
• How Much to Pay Outstanding Employees

(Photo courtesy flickr user Haonavy)

Authored and originally posted on Linkedin.com by:

   Jeff Haden

 

"Don't Call Me Maybe," Pick Up The Phone!

"Don't Call Me Maybe," Pick Up The Phone!

Do you ever get an email from a prospect and simply reply by return without taking the time to pick up the phone and chat, human to human? It’s so easy to hit reply and answer their inquiry taking it off a to-do list, we all do it, because they will come back to us if they are interested won’t they?

Normally, I pick up the phone and give them a call and until recently, have never really given it another thought, but I have noticed a surprise in the voice of the person I am calling, surprise that I have picked up the phone and called them. Some have even said they didn’t expect a call, just a return email because that’s what people do these days.

It might be quick and convenient but is it right?
An email will never replace being able to chat to someone you have not met yet and when you call them back, you do a couple of things:

1. You delight and surprise them that you are there in voice rather than digital form, someone to start and build a relationship with rather than a “cut and paste” response. Making someone feel good for any reason will leave a lasting impression on them, you will be remembered for a good reason.
2. You are seen as on the ball, keen as mustard, ready to serve and enthusiastic about helping them in some way. Even if business is slow at the moment, don’t pretend to be busier than you are and call back much later, get in there before your competitor does. Grab some urgency; it’s not the same as desperation.

This digital world brings us all kinds of benefits, and I love it, but remember that particularly your prospects and customers always appreciate the human touch, it's worth the little extra effort.
I'm interested to know, what is your norm, email by return or a more personal touch? What works for you?

Authored and Posted (originally on Linkedin.com) by :          Linda Coles

 

Linda Coles is the author of “Learn marketing with social media in 7 days” (Wiley) and is an author, speaker and trainer on building relationships. She lives in New Zealand on a fig orchard. You can get a free sample of a chapter of her book by registering for her newsletter.

 

8 Wharton MBA lessons that stood the test of time



At the end of my decades-ago Wharton MBA years, I gathered my best lessons into a three-ring binder I called the Great Book of Knowledge. It cost me $21,241.89, which was the price of tuition, plus $1.89 for the binder itself.
Here are the eight lessons that have best stood the test of time. Since I was in the Entrepreneurship track, many of them came from entrepreneurs or pragmatic leaders who visited campus:

1. There are dozens of reasons why something can't be done, but perhaps only one why it can. Decide whether you are going to search for a way to do it, or regularly settle for a handy excuse.

2. Nothing stays the same. You have to be in tune with changes. Change is the norm.

3. Learn how when you have the time, so that you can do it when you have the chance.

4. Every business is show business.

5. Get as close as possible to what drives the business.

6. Invariably, there is a difference between those who carry titles on an organizational chart and the people who run the company. As soon as possible, figure out who runs the company.

7. If you can't relate to the boredom of daily chores, how can you manage people who must do them all the time?

8. A superior leader is a person who can bring ordinary people together to achieve extraordinary results. Remember this if you are lucky enough to manage a team.

You may have been surprised to find that my greatest lessons are generalities, rather than sophisticated equations for calculating, say, the net present value of a real estate deal. Equations are simple to look up, but truisms inform your most critical decisions.

For example, "get as close as possible to what drives the business" (#5), could prevent you from taking a sales job in an engineering-driven company, or from accepting a job in Denver with a firm whose headquarters are in New York.

The one thing I can tell you for certain is that time shows you what is valuable, and what is not. In my experience, the lessons you actually remember are the true gems.

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Article written by: Bruce Kasanoff

Get your free copy of Simplify the Future, Bruce Kasanoff's short guide to a more successful career and rewarding life. Bruce is a ghostwriter for business leaders, and he blogs at Now Possible.

What You Should Know about the Cyprus Controversy

What You Should Know about the Cyprus Controversy

Yesterday, European officials stunned Cypriots (and many others) by announcing a rescue package for their country that involves a levy on ALL bank deposits. The news is spreading far and wide, causing quite a bit of controversy in the process. There are also questions about what will happen next…in Cyprus and beyond.


Having posted an FT column on this earlier today, here is a summary:

The Context: With massively overextended banks and a stumbling economy, Cyprus is in desperate need of external funding. Like other struggling euro zone members, it turned to its European partners and the International Monetary Fund for help.

After months of negotiation, a 10 billion euros ($13 billion) bailout package was announced. It spreads the burden sharing in an unprecedented manner by including a de facto haircut on all bank deposits (de jure, depositors receive an equity claim).

The Controversy: "PSI" (private sector involvement) has been featured in other European rescue packages, but none have imposed losses on deposit holders. This one does, and it covers all deposits—through a tax that ranges from 6.75 percent to 9.99 percent, depending on the size of deposits. In addition to its highly regressive design, this element sets aside decades of convention and laws that protect bank deposits below a certain threshold (100,000 euros, in the case of the European Union).
(Read More: Facing Bailout Tax, Cypriots Try to Get Cash Out of Banks)

The Rationale: European and Cypriot officials argue that, in light of an extremely challenging situation, this was the best among the unpleasant options available to them; and seemingly they could not ignore bank depositors all together since it is their funds that inadvertently enabled the careless over-expansion of the Cypriot banking system.

There is also a feeling among European officials that Cyprus could be a lax offshore jurisdiction that intermediates funds of dubious origins. The levy counters that. It also conveys a message to peripheral countries that have been getting more complacent on the back of ECB support, a signal that hardliners within Europe have been keen to send.

The Risks for Cyprus: Citizens are furious—towards their government, European partners and the IMF—with a bank levy that covers everyone, big and small. The specification of such a small differential (6.75 percent vs 9.99 percent) adds fuel to a fire of discontent. All this serves to increase political tension and the risk of social unrest.

Other Issues: There will be lots of talk about the potential for spillovers. Among the immediate ones: Will this weekend's noise disrupt the financial tranquility that has prevailed in Europe after the ECB announced its "whatever it takes" approach to stabilizing matters; and how will the ECB and other central banks react?
Will the negative contagion be contained (after all, Cyprus is a small country) or could it spread to global equity markets that have embarked on record runs?

How will this impact the phenomenon of growing distrust between citizens and established political orders and parties? And to what extent will this influence broader investment flows?
(Read More: Cyprus Rescue Not a Fit for Other Countries)

Next Steps: The parliament in Cyprus is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the bailout package. We should expect quite a bit of controversy, and quite a close outcome. The terms could be revised. There are also indications of some divisions within Europe. And the possibility of legal challenges cannot be excluded.

Mohamed El-Erian is the CEO and Co-CIO of Pimco, which oversees nearly $1.8 trillion in assets and runs the Pimco Total Return Fund, the largest bond fund in the world. His book, "When Markets Collide, " was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, won the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs 2008 Business Book of the Year, and was named a book of the year by The Economist and one of the best business books of all time by the Independent (U.K.).

Authored By: Mohamed El-Erian (Original Article Link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100561037)

CEO of PIMCO, Author of "When Markets Collide"

My Secrets: How I Learned That Selling Is A Key To Success

My Secrets: How I Learned That Selling Is A Key To Success

The one skill that everyone needs is something that college doesn't teach: selling.

Yes, I know that “selling” conjures up negative images of used-car salesmen peddling clunkers. But the ability to persuade people to believe in you is a necessity. That’s because selling is not just about exchanging things for money; selling is about life. Convincing the perfect soulmate to go out on a date is a sales job. Enticing your children to eat their vegetables is a sales job. Negotiating a raise with your boss is a sales job. And, yes, selling your company to Google is definitely a sales job. Each of these is a sales job in that you are listening to others, finding out what they want or need, and giving it to them in a form that they appreciate. And guess who the best salespeople in tech companies are? Your developers.

I didn't always believe this.

I started my career as a geek. I ended up as Chief Technology Officer of Seer Technologies, a software startup that we grew from zero to $120 million in annual revenue and took public in a short five years. And then I became CEO of my own very successful startup, Relativity Technologies (until I burned myself out and needed to shift gears). A number of skills helped me through this ascent. I learned a lot about motivating and managing people some of whom were smarter than I was; about understanding markets and communicating effectively; and also a few really boring things like accounting, finance, and law. But if I had not learned how to sell, then my company would never have made it past three guys in a room with a phone and some laptops.

I didn’t appreciate this in my youth. I thought that coding was the exact opposite of selling. I always associated “sales” with hustling and sleazy ways to convince customers to spend money on things they didn’t need—and having to work fast to get that check before the dupes backed away.

One day I was promoted to project manager. After thrashing through a few uncomfortable meetings, I understood that running a good project required a form of selling to my peers and managers. I also realized that perhaps sales was not so simple. In fact, convincing my staff that my ideas made sense was far more difficult than writing clean code. And persuading the company's managers to supply sufficient staff and funding to implement my ideas was harder still.

Being a successful project manager meant learning to listen closely to what others thought, to make them feel included, and to give them what they wanted and needed in order to succeed. It meant constant communication that was honest yet finely nuanced. It was hard work, but ultimately very rewarding. I could listen and focus on helping others in achieving their goals and at the same time advance myself quite easily. When I was able to focus on a global view of helping my company succeed, I found it much easier to avoid destructive departmental politics. I rose through the ranks to become a vice-president of technology at Credit Suisse First Boston—one of the world’s five largest investment banks.

Then I got the chance to become chief technology officer (CTO) of a startup that would market software that my team had built. Selling became an even more important skill. With limited funding from investors, we were all living on borrowed time, and the only thing that would give us more time was sales to put money into company coffers. We had a truly amazing product, much better than that of our competitors. But the stark reality was that unless we could really sell well, our competitors had a big advantage. They were a known quantity. They were not going out of business tomorrow. They took our prospective customers out for golf, beers, and lunch.

My guru and mentor was my boss, Gene Bedell. One of the first things Gene did when we launched our company was to put everyone through a sales-training boot camp. Gene had run billion-dollar businesses and reached the executive levels in investment banking. He had even convinced IBM to seed-finance our company, a software spinoff from Credit Suisse First Boston.

At first my technology team protested at being taught to learn about qualifying prospects and closing sales rather than the latest version-tracking software tools.

Within months, we were closing multimillion dollar sales with blue-chip customers across the globe. We did this with only two experienced sales reps and part-time sales support from our development staff. That’s because developers with sales training are incredibly valuable as a part of the sales process. They have two essential ingredients that make people persuasive—credibility and trustworthiness (for the most part). So, although prospective customers may not really believe a salesperson when, for example, he says a system is reliable, they’re likely to believe a developer they respect. This is a very powerful ingredient in the sales process, and one we used regularly. We competed with some of the largest software companies in the world—and won the sale almost every time. As CTO, I also took it upon myself to sell strategic partners. My biggest catch was a deal with IBM Japan worth $8.6 million.

With a culture that put customer support and sales above everything else, we grew into a profitable $120-million-a-year revenue machine. Our developers formed long-term bonds and friendships with our customers. They went to great pains to understand customer requirements and to build products that would sell. More often than not, new development projects would be funded directly by customers. Whenever there was a customer-service problem, our top engineers would voluntarily work around the clock and fly all over the globe to personally provide support.

So how do you learn sales? It’s easy. There are literally hundreds of books on selling. My personal favorite book (and I am a little biased here) is one by Gene Bedell himself, titled Three Steps to Yes: The Gentle Art of Getting Your Way. The methods vary, but in essence all of them teach you the basics of understanding customer needs and honing your message. There are also hundreds of “selling seminars” conducted all over the world. Be wary of any that teach you to sell things a customer doesn’t want. It is one thing to persuade people to buy something that they need, and another thing to con people.

This is really important, and you would figure that, at the least, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley would get it. Yet a quick conversation at any networking event in the Valley yields the simple observation that most technology workers don’t think that selling is part of their job description. The smartest technology entrepreneurs realize that everyone in the company is in sales; the sooner they embrace that reality, the easier it will be for that startup to grow and prosper. Coder; biz dev; PR; QA—nope. You’re all in sales. It’s all about selling for survival.

Article Authored by: Vivek Wadhwa (RSS'ed in from Linkedin.com)

Fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University "This is an adaptation of articles that I’ve written before. I thought it would be particularly interesting to LinkedIn members. You can read more of my writings at www.wadhwa.com. And you can follow me on Twitter: @wadhwa."

Pinterest Launches Web Analytics to Help You Pin Down Traffic

Pinterest Launches Web Analytics to Help You Pin Down Traffic

By:  Brian Patrick Eha for Entrepreneur.com

Until now, Pinterest, the world's third-largest social network, has been lacking one big thing: analytics. Users could rack up followers and repins of their content, but there was no way for business owners to find out what had been pinned from their sites, or, in the other direction, how many people were coming to their sites from Pinterest.

But today the company announced that it has introduced an analytics dashboard to help website owners -- whether they're running a small business or a big brand -- gauge the popularity of their content.
The analytics will show how many people have pinned content from your site and how many users have seen those pins. It will also track visitor traffic from Pinterest, and you'll be able to see recent pins and your most repinned content of all time, so that you can get a sense both of what is currently trending and of what is most popular overall.

Related: 3 Ways to Turn Social Media Followers Into Promoters of Your Brand

"We think that these tools will help website owners understand what's working for them and what’s not so that they can create even better pins in the future," writes Tao Tao, a Pinterest software engineer, in a company blog post.

To start using the analytics yourself, first get your website verified by Pinterest and then simply access the Analytics tab on the top-right menu. You can even download your analytics to study offline.
News of the analytics dashboard comes only weeks after Pinterest closed a $200 million funding round that valued the social bookmarking site at $2.5 billion. With Pinterest experiencing explosive growth, brands are taking a greater interest in it than ever before.

As of February 1st, 69 of the world's top 100 brands, as measured by consulting firm Interbrand, had Pinterest accounts. Large retailers are especially eager to capitalize on Pinterest's majority-female user base. Pinterest shoppers spend $169 on average per session, according to RichRelevance, an ecommerce consultancy. Nordstrom, one of the most popular brands, has nearly 4.3 million Pinterest followers, and L.L.Bean has 5.7 million.

Related: Pinterest: Now Is Time to Start Generating Revenue
Read more stories about: Social Media, Ecommerce, Branding, Pinterest



Three Deadly Career Traps, and How to Avoid Them



Three deadly career traps, and how to avoid them



One minute a business leader is master of the universe, and the next no one returns his or her calls. How can you avoid this sort of nightmare?

While there are no guarantees in life, there are classic errors that cause smart people to self-destruct. If you avoid these traps, you can protect your career and preserve your ability to be effective.
These principles don't just apply to CEOs. If you are hiring others, you have some degree of power over them. If you purchase goods from other businesses, you have a degree of influence over those vendors. But, yes, the more responsibilities you take on, the more these traps need to concern you.
1.The "ego-driven blind spot" trap: Like the rest of us, you are not perfect. One of the biggest challenges to acquiring power is that fewer and fewer people are willing to give you objective feedback.
If you suddenly are praised as a genius, your internal alarms should sound. You're not smarter than ever, you're just surrounded by people who dare not point out weak points in your reasoning. Everyone has flaws, and it is crucial that you both understand and monitor your own weaknesses.
Set up systems that enable you to detect potential dangers along the paths you are pursuing:

• Encourage employees to submit anonymous feedback.
• From time to time, hold meetings at which the sole purpose of all gathered is to play devil's advocate with regards to your existing strategies.
• Foster a culture in which it is a badge of pride to "beat the control," which means putting forth a strategy that can be proven better than the existing one.
• Engage objective and independent observers whose role is to second guess you. Even if 90% of the time they can't convince you to change course, those occasions on which they prevent you from veering off the road will be invaluable.

2. The "repeat past successes" trap: Successful people tend to repeat the strategies that made them successful. While this often makes sense for a time, the only constant in our world is change. It is difficult to name a company that has had the same level of success for ten years' running. Likewise, over a five to ten year period, your access to information and the sophistication of your technology changes radically; you have to adapt as these fundamentals shift.
I'm not suggesting you follow every fad. Hype and overblown promises abound. But never stop testing your own skills and strategies, even in ways that may seem silly to you. For example, I'd encourage even top executives to invest a little time in learning to code. You are not going to become a programmer, but you won't be able to understand the detail that underlies most businesses unless you understand the details involved in programming.

3. The "use power too personally" trap: It would be futile to count the number of leaders who fell from grace because they crossed a line and used power to have an affair or otherwise feed their own desire for pleasure. This may be the biggest trap of all.
If you want to not only maintain a successful career, but also help lead your company in the right direction, then use power for the benefit of others:

• Empower your employees, so that they can delight your customers.
• Enrich your investors, by viewing their faith in you as a solemn responsibility.
• Enhance the communities in which your organization operates, by understanding that your success is only sustainable if theirs is, too.

Putting things in perspective
The harsh reality is that career traps are just as common as career opportunities. Remain confident but humble, and don't step into an obvious trap.

Article Written by Bruce Kasanoff -
 

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Get your free copy of Simplify the Future, Bruce Kasanoff's short guide to a more successful career and rewarding life. Bruce is a ghostwriter for business leaders, and he blogs at Now Possible.
Image credit: Flickr member Niklas

The Best and Worst Cities For Jobs This Spring



Earlier this month we learned that the country added 236,000 new jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics—and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7%. That’s the lowest it has been since December 2008, when the rate was 7.3%.

These are all good signs that the labor market is strengthening and the economy is finally on the mend. And a new survey just released by ManpowerGroup, an employment services firm, supports such optimism.
The survey, released quarterly, reveals that employers in all 50 states intend to increase their payrolls during the three-month period ending in June. It also tells us exactly where they intend to increase them the most, and where their hopes lag behind.

Manpower surveyed more than 18,000 employers in 100 metropolitan areas to find out who’s hiring, who’s firing and who plans to maintain their current staff levels in the second quarter of 2013. Of the surveyed employers, 18% anticipate an increase in staffing levels in their second quarter hiring plans, while 5% expect a decrease in payrolls. The difference between those numbers gives you what ManpowerGroup calls a net employment outlook of 13%–or 11% when seasonally adjusted, which is still up from 10% for the same period last year. Seventy-three percent of employers expect no change in their staffing, and the final 4% are uncertain.

 

Melanie Holmes, a vice president with ManpowerGroup, says U.S. employers remain cautiously optimistic about their hiring plans for the second quarter. “The optimism is widespread, with positive outlooks in the 100 metro areas surveyed, as well as all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Given the ongoing uncertainty in the global markets, this measured approach is in line with expectations.”

In Pictures: The Best And Worst Cities For Jobs This Spring

The survey found that the metropolitan areas with the most optimistic forecast of all for hiring this spring are San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif., and Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, Maine. Both regions enjoy a 23% net employment outlook, the percentage of employers that expect to add employees (25% and 27%, respectively) minus the percentage that expect to reduce their workforce (a mere 2% and 4%, respectively). Another 73% in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area said they anticipate no change. In the Portland region, 66% expect to maintain staff levels, while 3% of employers are undecided about their hiring plans.

“We have seen consistent improvement in the overall economy in Silicon Valley for over 18 months now and don’t see any signs of this changing in the near term,” says Steve Van Dorn, president and CEO of the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce and Convention-Visitors Bureau. “High tech jobs are still in high demand–but hospitality and other service jobs are being hired as the Silicon Valley economy continues to improve.”
Matthew Mahood, president and chief executive of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, adds: “While we never take anything for granted, the Silicon Valley is known for its entrepreneurism, hi-tech companies and a highly qualified, educated workforce representing many countries. Our employees work hard, collaborate and innovate. The products invented here are changing the world. Nearly 60% of all venture capital being invested in the U.S. is being invested in the Silicon Valley. In each of the last several economic cycles, the Silicon Valley has led the country in job growth–and in time that job growth spurs job growth in other regions where Silicon Valley-based companies have a presence or they have related vendors or supply chain operations. When the Silicon Valley’s economy is growing, it is usually not to long before the rest of the country follows.”

Some of the region’s biggest employers include: Apple, Microsoft, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed Martin, Applied Materials, Marvell, SAP, Oracle, HP, Adobe, Intel, Google, Facebook, Dell and Santa Clara University.
“Silicon Valley is an exciting and demanding region to live, work and play,” Van Dorn says. “It draws the best and brightest due to our track record of innovation and creating the next biggest idea. We also have excellent weather, diverse communities, excellent educational opportunities, a passionate arts community, strong professional sports teams and [we’re at] the center of innovation.”

Mahood adds: “San Jose is located next to the San Francisco Bay and on the Peninsula, a half-hour from the Pacific Ocean. It’s one of the prettiest environments anywhere and one of the kindest climates. Physically, it feels great to live in San Jose. That’s why people relocate here and businesses want to operate here. You won’t find an ocean or bay in the middle of Texas.  We have 300 days of sunshine; mild weather; amazing outdoor activities abound; great restaurants, museums, arts, and sports. We pretty much have it all.”

Chris Hall, chief executive of the Portland Regional Chamber, says he’s “very pleasantly surprised [to hear that the Portland area is one of the best cities for jobs this spring]–and happy to see that the momentum we feel here in the Portland region is justified by the numbers.”

Hall says he’s seeing “real competition for talent taking off in our region.”

“Just last week we heard the CEO of WEX talk about closing the skills gap in his economic sector by actively doubling the number of computer scientists coming out of the University of Maine system,” Hall says.

Information technology, bio-science and insurance remain strong sectors in the Portland area. “Of course the hospitality industry has been an historic leader in our economy,” Hall adds. “And professional services continue to come to the region.”

Hall says the region is being recognized as a “vibrant place to work, live and play.” He continues: “The number of national rankings we’ve recently received testifies to the growing strength of our region.”

 

Employers in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Tucson, Ariz., also anticipate a significant upswing in hiring for the next quarter.

Nearly a quarter (24%) of Salt Lake City employers reported positive forecasts, while 2% drew a bleaker picture. Seventy-one percent said they wouldn’t be changing their employment levels and the remaining 3% were unsure of their hiring plans. With a net employment outlook of 22%, Salt Lake is the third best place for finding a job this spring.

“Utah’s economic success used to be one of the best kept secrets in the nation, but that has shifted significantly in the past few years,” says Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “We’ve been ranked as the best state for business and careers by Forbes three years in a row, and we consistently rank as one of the fastest growing and best managed states. We have something very special going on in our state. Our business community is organized, united and ready to work with our elected officials. And we have a very pro-business governor and Legislature. That combination is rare, and it is the primary reason our economy is performing as well as it has.”

Beattie says Salt Lake City has “a low cost of living and a high quality of life that you just can’t beat.”
He adds: “If you love the outdoors, there’s no place better. You can ski the ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’ at eleven world class resorts within an hour drive of downtown. There’s also plenty to do off the slopes from biking to fishing to kayaking—more activities than I can succinctly name. And downtown there is no shortage of art, culture and gourmet dining.”

Tucson enjoys the same rank as Salt Lake City. Twenty-seven percent of the metro area’s hiring managers anticipate a bright second quarter. Meanwhile, 5% expect to decrease their payrolls, 66% anticipate no change and 2% are uncertain. This yields a net employment outlook of 22%.

“The Tucson Metro Chamber works very hard to promote a strong local economy, so we are not surprised that our work has had positive results,” says Michael Varney, president and chief executive of the Tucson Metro Chamber. “At the same time, recognition of this nature is always a pleasant surprise.”

Which industries are doing particularly well in Tucson? Healthcare, technology and service sectors seem to be out in front, Varney says. “We have a number of excellent healthcare facilities in our region. Renewed in-migration seems to have picked up. With that influx of new residents will be a component of retired individuals who typically need higher levels of healthcare services. There has been a concerted effort to develop the technology and bio-tech sectors of our economy, which I think is starting to bear fruit. Our wonderful University of Arizona has made some very powerful strides to commercialize their research and to help tech companies get up and running. Certain service sectors are also doing well perhaps largely because employment has picked up and there is more demand for services.”

The University of Arizona is one of the city’s largest employers. Others include Raytheon Missile Systems; Davis–Monthan Air Force Base; University of Arizona Health Network; and various mining companies.
“We frequently hear from employers that they have jobs they need to fill,” he says. “The range includes very highly skilled to technical and vocational to manual labor. Tucson’s unemployment level is below the national average, so it is possible to infer that organic growth of our economy is at the root of this demand for employees.”

With 320 days of sunshine each year, and bright blue skies, Varney says Tucson is a wonderful place to live and work. “The climate and natural beauty in Southern Arizona is very unique.  Although we are a metro area of one million, there is still a little small town nature to the culture in terms of friendliness and neighbors helping neighbors.”

Unfortunately not all cities are as confident about hiring as Silicon Valley, Portland, Salt Lake and Tucson. The net employment outlook in Detroit, New Orleans and the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash area is a far weaker 5%–and those metropolitan areas aren’t even the worst.

The Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif. metro area yields a net employment outlook of just 3% for the quarter.

Only 10% of employers in the California metropolis plan to hire between April and June, while 7% expect to reduce their staff levels. Eighty-two percent expect to maintain their current workforce—and the final 1% is uncertain.

“The outlook in the Oxnard region has been gradually declining since the third quarter of 2012,” Holmes says. “Although the net figure indicated employers expect to hire, their plans are the weakest among the 100 metropolitan statistical areas included in the survey.”

The good news: Employer optimism across the nation has been steadily gaining strength since the fourth quarter of 2009. “U.S. employers remain more conservative about hiring today versus prior to the recession; however, we’ve covered a lot of ground in the last three years. Although this recovery is much slower than those following previous recessions, U.S. employers’ hiring plans remain on a slow and steady upward trajectory,” Holmes says.

“We also achieved a positive milestone in the second-quarter survey results,” she adds. “The overall percentage of employers who anticipate staff reductions is at 5%. This is the smallest percentage of employers planning to reduce headcounts since the third quarter of 2000, when a 5% rate was also reported. It’s encouraging to see such a small segment of employers anticipating staff reductions.”

Article Authored By: (For Forbes Magazine)

Jacquelyn Smith, Forbes Staff

If it has to do with leadership, jobs, or careers, I'm on it.

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