The Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs Taught Us

a reprint from Forbes.com 

Here are the Top Ten Lessons Steve Jobs taught us:

1. The most enduring innovations marry art and science – Steve has always pointed out that the biggest difference between Apple and all the other computer (and post-PC) companies through history is that Apple always tried to marry art and science.  Jobs pointed out the original team working on the Mac had backgrounds in anthropology, art, history, and poetry.  That’s always been important in making Apple’s products stand out.  It’s the difference between the iPad and every other tablet computer that came before it or since.  It is the look and feel of a product.  It is its soul.  But it is such a difficult thing for computer scientists or engineers to see that importance, so any company must have a leader that sees that importance.

2. To create the future, you can’t do it through focus groups – There is a school of thought in management theory that — if you’re in the consumer-facing space building products and services — you’ve got to listen to your customer.  Steve Jobs was one of the first businessmen to say that was a waste of time.  The customers today don’t always know what they want, especially if it’s something they’ve never seen, heard, or touched before.  When it became clear that Apple would come out with a tablet, many were skeptical.  When people heard the name (iPad), it was a joke in the Twitter-sphere for a day.  But when people held one, and used it, it became a ‘must have.’  They didn’t know how they’d previously lived without one.  It became the fastest growing Apple product in its history.  Jobs (and the Apple team) trusted himself more than others.  Picasso and great artists have done that for centuries.  Jobs was the first in business.

3. Never fear failure – Jobs was fired by the successor he picked.  It was one of the most public embarrassments of the last 30 years in business.  Yet, he didn’t become a venture capitalist never to be heard from again.  He didn’t start a production company and do a lot of lunches.  He picked himself up and got back to work following his passion.  Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and told he only had a few weeks to live.  As Samuel Johnson said, there’s nothing like your impending death to focus the mind.  From Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

4. You can’t connect the dots forward – only backward – This is another gem from the 2005 Stanford speech.  The idea behind the concept is that, as much as we try to plan our lives ahead in advance, there’s always something that’s completely unpredictable about life.  What seems like bitter anguish and defeat in the moment — getting dumped by a girlfriend, not getting that job at McKinsey, “wasting” 4 years of your life on a start-up that didn’t pan out as you wanted — can turn out to sow the seeds of your unimaginable success years from now.  You can’t be too attached to how you think your life is supposed to work out and instead trust that all the dots will be connected in the future.  This is all part of the plan.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

5. Listen to that voice in the back of your head that tells you if you’re on the right track or not – Most of us don’t hear a voice inside our heads.  We’ve simply decided that we’re going to work in finance or be a doctor because that’s what our parents told us we should do or because we wanted to make a lot of money.  When we consciously or unconsciously make that decision, we snuff out that little voice in our head.  From then on, most of us put it on automatic pilot.  We mail it in.  You have met these people.  They’re nice people.  But they’re not changing the world.  Jobs has always been a restless soul.  A man in a hurry.  A man with a plan.  His plan isn’t for everyone.  It was his plan. He wanted to build computers.  Some people have a voice that tells them to fight for democracy.  Some have one that tells them to become an expert in miniature spoons.  When Jobs first saw an example of a Graphical User Interface — a GUI — he knew this was the future of computing and that he had to create it.  That became the Macintosh.  Whatever your voice is telling you, you would be smart to listen to it.  Even if it tells you to quit your job, or move to China, or leave your partner.

6. Expect a lot from yourself and others – We have heard stories of Steve Jobs yelling or dressing down staff.  He’s a control freak, we’ve heard – a perfectionist.  The bottom line is that he is in touch with his passion and that little voice in the back of his head.  He gives a damn.  He wants the best from himself and everyone who works for him.  If they don’t give a damn, he doesn’t want them around.  And yet — he keeps attracting amazing talent around him.  Why?  Because talent gives a damn too.  There’s a saying: if you’re a “B” player, you’ll hire “C” players below you because you don’t want them to look smarter than you.  If you’re an “A” player, you’ll hire “A+” players below you, because you want the best result.

7. Don’t care about being right.  Care about succeeding – Jobs used this line in an interview after he was fired by Apple.  If you have to steal others’ great ideas to make yours better, do it.  You can’t be married to your vision of how a product is going to work out, such that you forget about current reality.  When the Apple III came out, it was hot and warped its motherboard even though Jobs had insisted it would be quiet and sleek.  If Jobs had stuck with Lisa, Apple would have never developed the Mac.

8. Find the most talented people to surround yourself with – There is a misconception that Apple is Steve Jobs.  Everyone else in the company is a faceless minion working to please the all-seeing and all-knowing Jobs.  In reality, Jobs has surrounded himself with talent: Phil Schiller, Jony Ive, Peter Oppenheimer, Tim Cook, the former head of stores Ron Johnson.  These are all super-talented people who don’t get the credit they deserve.  The fact that Apple’s stock price has been so strong since Jobs left as CEO is a credit to the strength of the team.  Jobs has hired bad managerial talent before.  John Sculley ended up firing Jobs and — according to Jobs — almost killing the company.  Give credit to Jobs for learning from this mistake and realizing that he can’t do anything without great talent around him.

9. Stay hungry, stay foolish - Again from the end of Jobs’ memorable Stanford speech:

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960′s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

10. Anything is possible through hard work, determination, and a sense of vision – Although he’s the greatest CEO ever and the father of the modern computer, at the end of the day, Steve Jobs is just a guy.  He’s a husband, a father, a friend — like you and me.  We can be just as special as he is — if we learn his lessons and start applying them in our lives.  When Jobs returned to Apple in the 1990s, it was was weeks away from bankruptcy.  It’s now the biggest company in the world.  Anything’s possible in life if you continue to follow the simple lessons laid out above.

Boil the HR Ocean - Internally

I am sure you have heard that term before and if not, it was derived from group process thinking at IBM.


I had a conversation with a good friend who is working in Houston who said he is changing everything the company is doing from an HR prospective. He is boiling the ocean and has the support of the CEO. But not so fast, does he have a strategic plan on changing how HR operates. Certainly there is a strategic plan for how HR integrates with the company strategy but the day -to-day stuff, is there a plan or is he going about it as he looks at each element of what the HR team does?


My thought is he does. So I will ask each of you do you have a plan when you go into a new organization on how you change the day-to-day operations? I hope so. I would think that the process or outline on the strategy would first be based on the following in descending order after you get buy-in from the executive team:

1. What does the company need or want 
2. What non-technical programs/systems can stay as is
3. Do you have a budget
4. what software programs/systems will support the change and subsequent changes
5. Do you have the right people in the right jobs
6. Are you prepared to hire the right people
7. Will the changes dramatically change the face of the department and value to the employees/company
8. Can you implement this in a timely and effective manner
9. Do you have measurements in place to determine the net effect?

I am sure you have all looked at this, but how many of you have truly implemented an internal change plan in a gross and effective manner? 

Please let me know your thoughts at wgstevens2@gmail.com 

Are You Up, Down, or Sideways?

There are no guarantees in life. We can be proactive, but there are some things that are completely outside of our control. So if we can’t be proactive on everything, we can, Mark Sanborn suggests, be interactive. We must learn how to interact with the forces in our life that are bigger than we are to create the outcomes we desire. No matter where we are—up, down, or sideways—there are things we can do to mitigate the downs, take advantage of the ups and maximize the sideways times in our life.

Up, Down, or Sideways by Mark Sanborn is a thoughtful book born of experience and based on sound principles. It would be a mistake to think of this as another business book. It is, in fact, a lifebook that will deeply impact your business.

To be interactive, you first need to define your scorecard for success. Most people don’t live the life they imagined because “they are stuck using a scoring system that doesn’t fit the game they want to play.” Sanborn guides you in developing a scoring system that is meaningful, long-term, and personal.

Besides a clear scoring system, your success also depends on your attitude. You must develop an optimistic attitude. “The way you look at yourself and the world around you affects your success regardless of the circumstances.” We can choose what we focus on.

Another important mindset is that of the lifelong learner. “The more you learn, the more prepared you are for whatever comes your way. And the more you learn, the more you develop behavioral flexibility that provides a distinct advantage over your competition.”

Sanborn offer six methods to succeed when times are Up, Down, or Sideways.

1. Produce Value. Value keeps you in the game. But value is a moving target, so “if you want to mitigate the downsides and increase the upsides, you need to recognize that value is the currency that gets you a seat at the table....keep your pipeline full of the things people value and the people who value them.” Continue to create value in an ever-changing environment.
2. Create and Keep Connections. “When we create value and deliver it with service and love, we develop connections that increase our value to others and we multiply their impact on our value.” While creating connections is easier than maintaining them, take special care of the relationships that matter.
3. Continuously Innovate. Best practices are not enough. Better to work on “better practices and next practices.” Sanborn asserts that the “purpose of innovation is distinction.” But, and this is important, “it’s not enough to be different. Being different without being valued is being weird. Distinction is being different and valued.”
4. Build Reserves. “You protect what you value by building reserves.” We need to build financial, physical, psychological, and spiritual reserves.
5. Practice Gratitude. Gratitude is the antidote to negative thinking. In Sanborn’s insightful way, he writes that gratitude is a gift. It is the gift of perspective, energy, guidance, and resilience. Make gratitude something you do and not just feel.
6. Embrace Discipline. “Success isn’t based on what we know, believe, or intend; it’s a result of what we consistently do.” Consistently act on your intentions until they become habits. Make time for the most important things.

Sanborn gives some final reminders: When you’re Up, you need humility and perspective. So surround yourself with people who keep you grounded. When you’re Sideways, you need a boost. So surround yourself with people who challenge you to keep moving in the right direction. And finally, when you’reDown, you need hope. So surround yourself with people who life your spirits.

Certainly this is an important book for these times, but this book is meant to help your thrive no matter what life throws your way. You need this book—young people need this book—to prepare for the rest of your life, whether you are Up, Down, or Sideways. Read, reread, and refer. 



a reprint from Leadershipnow.com 

Decision Outliers- Their Impact on Team and Organizational Effectiveness

 guest post from Beth Armknecht Miller


In the book Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, many of the stories focus on those outliers who were successful, often due to circumstances and luck. What if you have an outlying preference that holds you back? A behavior that if modified, moves you closer to the norm and makes you more effective?

Let’s take a look at Decision Outliers. We’ve all experienced someone who either makes decisions too quickly or too slowly and for some of us we actually may have one of these tendencies ourselves.

Some of us are quick to decide while others take a much longer time to decide. In either case, our personality preferences and past experiences have a strong influence on how we make decisions. If we tend to be an outlier on either side of the bell curve, decision making can be holding us back from being successful and getting to the next level of leadership. Do you know if you’re a Decision Outlier? And if you are one, how is your decision making style impacting your relationships and job performance?

Slow Decision Outliers

Those who are slow decision makers often need a lot more data and information than others, before making a decision. Making a decision without all the data creates too much risk for the slow decision outlier. The data needed can come in the form of hard and soft data. Hard data being metrics, facts, and measurements and soft data being feelings and the impact a decision will have on others. Slow decision makers who are driven by how others will feel about the decision, look for and desire a consensus decision making process. They want all in agreement before making a decision.

And in the extreme, Slow Decision Outliers can become No Decision

Outliers, stuck and unwilling to make a decision based often in fear of change and letting go of what is known and fully understood.

How does slow decision making impact you and your performance?

In this rapidly changing world, slow decision makers can be at a huge disadvantage. New information is coming at them faster than ever before and without self imposed time limits, opportunities will pass them by-both personally and professionally. If they are working in a team environment, they are probably frustrating their team members who want to move forward with the project.

If you consistently meet the description above then here are some tips to move out of the outlier range of decision making. Thoroughly explore all the benefits of making the decision which would create change. And realize that not making a decision brings its own set of risks. Identify these risks of maintaining the status quo.

Fast Decision Outliers

Fast Decision Outliers can find themselves making decisions with not enough data. These decision makers don’t like lots of detail; they are often driven by the end result. And if the decision is about something that doesn’t have a big impact on them, details get in the way.

Change is not stressful for them, yet they often are oblivious of the impact that change has to others around them. They can be creating stress with other tema members

These decision outliers can be viewed as autocratic if they aren’t willing to listen to others ideas and information that would be helpful to the decision making process.

Outliers’ Impact on Team and Organizational Effectiveness

Slow Decision Outliers can slow down progress and create frustration with other team members. If a leader is a Slow Decision Outlier, miss market opportunities, slow to change, will often want to decide using consensus-can’t please everyone

Are you a Decision Outlier? And if so what changes can you make to be a more effective leader?



Beth Armknecht Miller, of Atlanta, Georgia, is Founder and President of Executive Velocity, a leadership development advisory firm accelerating the leadership success of CEOs and business leaders. She is also a Vistage Chair and Executive Coach. She is certified in Myers Briggs and Hogan leadership assessment tools and is a Certified Managerial Coach by Kennesaw State University. Visithttp://www.executive-velocity.com  or  http://executivevelocityblog.com or follow her on twitter at SrExecAdvisor.

8 Stats and Facts - Jobless Recovery Here to Stay?

It seems that on this Labor Day weekend, the jobless recovery is here to stay. 14 million people remain unemployed. The unemployment rate remains at 9.1%. Politics aside, should we be surprised? It seems that many signs pointed to such a recovery starting with previous recessions and slow job creation since 2000.

1.     It took roughly 6 months for employment to recover to its pre-recession level after each postwar recession through the 1980s.

2.     It took 15 months after the 1990-91 recession and 39 months after the 2001 recession.

3.     Between 2000 and 2007, the U.S. posted a weaker record of job creation than during any decade since the Great Depression.

4.     Total employment increased by 9.2 million, or 7%, less than 1/2 the rate of increase in preceding decades.

5.     At the current pace of job creation, it will take a minimum of 5 years for employment to recover. (That calculation is based on total net job creation of 117,000 jobs per month.) More and more forecasts look to 2018 or later until we return to full employment.

6.     The unemployment rate for adults 25 years and over with a bachelor’s degree and higher remains constant at 4.4%, below the baseline of full employment.

7.     For adults over 25 with less than a high school education, the unemployment rate is 14.3; with only a high school diploma, the rate is 10% with not much light at the end of the tunnel. For teenagers between 16 and 19 years old, the rate nears 25%.

8.     This year, the share of young people who were employed in July was 48.8 percent, the lowest July rate on record for the series, which began in 1948.

By admin on Sep 3, 2011 in Facts and Stats, workforce trends

Source: McKinsey Global Institute, Bureau of Labor Statistics

Is Your Talent Pipeline at Risk? Engaging High Potentials

Organizations that effectively engage employees realize a significant advantage over competitors — including performance gains that lead directly to improved financial results. Without a strategic approach to talent that includes a focus on employee engagement, many companies fail to ensure employees are satisfied in their roles and committed to achieving key strategic goals — risking turnover of key players and the inability to meet overall business objectives. Adding to this challenge is the fact that many disengaged workers are actively seeking new opportunities as the economy grows, while competitors are looking for ways to gain an edge by actively pursuing your high performers.


a reprint from the Human Capital Institute

Global CXO Global Strategies Outlook for 2012

Over the past decade, the art of doing business has changed. Companies are re-shaping strategies to innovate and compete globally. New methodologies, new opportunities, new markets, new technologies, and new practices are being brought into play with an eye on boosting profits and curbing costs.



Forbes Insights, in association with Wipro, conducted an exclusive survey of more than 300 CEOs and other C-level executives at global enterprises ($500M-plus in annual revenue). The key findings of this survey include:


• Strategic innovation is more important than ever to driving growth. This commitment to innovation will impact how companies approach environmentally friendly, or green, business practices, as well as how they manage their expansion into global emerging markets. For example, in some cases, companies are using so-called reverse-innovation, taking innovative products and services from their emerging market efforts (such as in China) and commercializing them elsewhere in the world.


• C-level executives see innovation as a way to differentiate their businesses, particularly following the 2008-09 recession. Fully two thirds of the executives said they believe that innovation is more critical than ever because of the economic downturn of 2008-09.
• Speed-to-market is necessary for successful innovation. More than 80% of survey respondents agreed that getting a product or service swiftly out to market is a critical business innovation tactic.
• Cost remains the biggest hurdle to fostering innovation. It topped the list of innovation barriers cited by C-level executives, followed by issues related to the regulatory environment, and finding and retaining top talent.


• Paying attention to best practices is the most effective way to foster innovation. Other innovation tactics promoted by executives included technology, data-based decision making, and customer collaboration.
• Executives see a very clear business case for using “green” business practices. The most important factors they cited include reducing costs, improving operational efficiency, and meeting customer demand for more environmentally friendly products.
• Embracing green business practices as part of a corporate innovation strategy is essential to their success.


Overall, nearly three quarters of C-level executives indicated their companies had incorporated environmental elements into their innovation strategies.
• Green IT is a priority for more than three quarters of companies. Their strategies in this area include reducing data center footprints, greater use of server virtualization, and greater use of cloud computing.


• Executives see investment and expansion into emerging markets as crucial to their strategies today and in the near future. More than half believe China holds the greatest opportunity, followed by India, Southeast Asia, and Eastern Europe.


• Expansion into emerging markets is being driven by lower costs and a higher rate of growth, according to executives surveyed. Potential barriers to strategic success in these areas include poor distribution channels, unstable political environments, and a shortage of skilled talent.


Do you agree with these findings? Let me know at wgstevens2@gmail.com  


reprint from Forbes Insight and Wipro. William G. Stevens is a contributing member of the Forbes Advisory Committee 

Are You In The Cloud?

Everyone is getting their heads in the Cloud and HR should be no exception. It may be the Cloud buzz (Cloud computing), and SaaS (software-as-a-service) and a host of other reasons, mostly to reduce expenses and increase IT department efficiency. The two major changes noted above are making inroads the way employees, individuals, and companies manage their processes critical to meet the competitive and innovative demands that businesses are challenged with daily.

For those not current on what the Cloud is here is a tactical definition: the Cloud is where data and apps ca be stored remotely and accessed via the web.

Human Resources is no exception and should not put their heads in the sand over Cloud computing. SaaS and iCloud are changing the way businesses operate and HR is no exception to this change.  These technology changes are driving traditional IT departments to rethink how they operate, save data, and utilize manpower and the constant fixed costs of software updates and security patches. SaaS can change a stagnate organization into a nimble, effective and innovative machine as well as controlling operational costs. It can also create improved service levels and eliminate SLAs that mean nothing.  Thinking farther, SaaS is scalable where some traditional organizations are not. That changes the competitive landscape dramatically.

So, if you as the HR executive think that only you or your company must have proprietary data storage, think again. Take a look at SAP, Oracle, and the other major players. The world will change and you better think differently and change with it or be left behind. To quote John Malikowski, "SaaS is an efficient way to accelerate HR transformation and capture value faster".

How 9/11 Changed HR

I am sure that there will be some HR practitioners who will not agree with me here but I have been struggling to put this piece together for 10 years. We will "Never Forget" and our hearts go out to the victims families as they continue to grieve every day.

The tragic events of 9/11 have changed us as a nation and individually forever. Life has not been the same since. Some will say for the better, and I mean being more safe domestically. Some will say that there has been over precautions taken that have slowed down our ability to move freely throughout the world. I agree with the former, I would rather be safe than not.

HR played a key role in the events following 9/11. I know from my own direct experience, facing the loss of two key employees on Flight 11 (Jeff Mladenik & Andrew Curry Green) and having to account for 50+ employees scattered from Battery Park to Brooklyn and to help move those 50+ employees from the devastation of the Ground Zero area from Rector Street and Trinity Place to our Park Avenue South office.  It is a role that they (HR) has really never had to play before. How to logistically coordinate the safety of an entire company as well as those traveling throughout the world. HR sat at the table that day even if they were not there before & some are still at the table today. What HR did was provide strategic information, leadership to the top, and overall communications coordination usually relegated to the PR/Comm groups not only to the corporation but to the employee's families.  

as I recall, I worked diligently with my Chief HR executive for all of that Tuesday until 10PM and then back at 11PM until 1 AM on Wednesday accounting for everyone. It was a task that I hope never has to be repeated.

So here is my call to all the HR executives, aspiring HR executives, and those at the middle ranks. You should get training on how to manage disaster situations, and they do not teach that in college or through SHRM. Learning and doing from a fire hose is not the best way to get experience. However, I was one of the lucky ones, I had that training on my prior roles at other companies and 10 years prior to 9/11.

So how did this change HR. HR managers, directors, and some CHRO's learned that there is another dimension to strategy, communications, and accountability that we never hope to have to use.

I welcome your thoughts on this sensitive topic.

Every Challenge is A New Opportunity for Change!!

Find this hard to believe?  Stay with me for a few minutes and just open your mind to the possibilities that there is a new opportunity regardless of the challenge you are facing today!

Now my head is not in the sand…I read the newspaper, listen to my friends, family, coaching clients and colleagues all facing insurmountable challenges in their life with major loss such as job, income, decline in their 401k, lost homes to foreclosure, serious illness, loss of a loved one, divorce…you name it…it is not good news!  Hopelessness, sadness, depression, fear, doubt and obstacles keeping us stuck!

Then you have some “optimist” that says…there is an opportunity here really!!!   Think about it-what goes up must come down, without success there is no failure, no pain- no gain, without bad you don’t experience good…you get it!  These things are the same just opposite sides of the spectrum and it is all how we perceive them…without one, we wouldn’t have the other!

This is not the view of an optimist (although we live by it) it is the “Law of Polarity”….a matter of fact no two ways about it.  It’s a universal law and like all universal laws…you cannot change that fact that they exists.  You cannot manipulate, fool or escape it so work with it!    So how do we create opportunity?

First step is awareness…really what is happening here?  Take a few minutes to assess your situation and ask yourself what do I want instead?  If I have what I want instead, what does that look like for me?  How will I feel if I experience the opposite of what I am experiencing today?  Now decide on what you want and make the choice….yes, it is that simple to make the choice to change your current outcome.  It all starts with this step!

The fastest and least painful path is the power of acceptance.  Did you know that acceptance of what you currently are experience acts as the polar opposite of resistance and will help you attract more of what you consciously desire!   One of my favorite sayings is ‘what we think about comes about’.   It starts with our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and actions.  And, I also believe our state of mind and thoughts change our outcome the second you change your thoughts.  There are times when I act “asif” it has already happened by working from the end result.I naturally assume it is happening and more times than not….the results show up!  It’s one of the major gifts of life that works like magic..really!

You have the power of choice to how you experience life.  Consider the possibilities, opportunities and change in your life you want and put your Intention, Attention and Action to changing just ONE thing that is challenging you today.  Write down all your beliefs about the situation and include all the frustration, anger and disappointment and release the negative thoughts.  Get a new piece of paper and create your desired outcome as if the choice is all yours (because it is!) and start creating what you want.

a repost from Caole M. Sacino's blog

Remembering 9/11 Ten Years Later

Our thoughts are with all the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day.

Crowdbooster Makes Social Media Campaigns Smarter

Brands are flocking to social media to extend and strengthen their relationships with consumers. But while many are happy to work with the flood of analytics information coming from their activity on social networks, some want more than just data and web monitoring tools. They want guidance and recommendations.

That’s the bet of Crowdbooster, a Y Combinator start-up, which is publicly launching a new social media optimization platform today that pairs analytics with tailored recommendations about how to employ social media. The company, which counts the Los Angeles Times, JetBlue and Ben and Jerry’s as customers, is looking to stand out by telling customers what to do and when. And it just raised an undisclosed seed round from some respectable names to expand its business.

Crowdbooster, which has been in private beta since November, will now surface the most popular links and find the best content for cross-posting based on content and fit for a certain audience. And it will tell customers when the best times to tweet and post are. It will notify customers when influential users according to Klout follow them and will allow customers to respond to missed tweets and thank engaged users all from one dashboard. Ricky Yean, co-founder and CEO of Crowdbooster, said the recommendations get smarter over time as customers use it more.

“Social media managers frequently suffer from information overload, preventing them from effectively engaging with priority customers. Analytics provide significant insight, but they are simply not enough,” says Yean. “Our customized recommendations surface the best content to share and suggests when to publish for maximum exposure.”

The new recommendation features work alongside Crowdbooster’s other analytics tools, which tracks the effectiveness of outreach on Facebook and Twitter. Crowdbooster graduated from Y Combinator in the summer of 2010 and has just secured a seed round from investors including Steven Chen, co-founder of YouTube, Esther Dyson, Charles River Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, StartupAngel and others.

Crowdbooster is just one of many companies like Hootsuite and Socialflow trying to capitalize on the opportunity in social media marketing. Some like Socialflow are also are putting more intelligence into social media marketing tools, helping explain when they most effective times are to target users with the right message. This is where social media monitoring is going, from analytics to a lot smarter decision-making for customers.

There's A Salesman In Every HR Professional

There's a salesman in all of us. 

I downloaded this pic for another post and, in a desire to not offend all the sales representatives in the space, elected not to use it. It's been  in my picture folder sitting and waiting for just the right time.

That time is now.

Give me the best sales line you've used on a friend, child, colleague, boss or other HR professional. You were selling, they weren't buying and you were looking to close a deal. What stops did you pull out?

Here are a few of mine:

• To a community colleague discussing the pros of a local HR department, "It's a very progressive human resource department." What?! Tell me what organizational HR department is progressive.
• To my young daughter at the top of a water park body slide,"Just slide nd you'll be out and in the pool before you even know it. Nope, it's not too dark in there at all." Successfully hiding my own claustrophobic fears, this backfired on me as the 4 year old went down and I simply had to follow her down the tube of doom.
• To the Eddie Bauer sales clerk explaining how my husband's new shorts split up the side seam, rendering them unwearable,"I was pulling him behind the boat on a tube and overestimated the speed needed for a fun turn. Well, last thing I saw was him cart-wheeling across the water. Oh wait, that was the truth.

Your turn. Give me your best shot.

Photo credit iStockphoto
Blog by Lisa Rosendahl

Life - by Steve Jobs

Sometimes people say great things and they should be spread around the world. This I thought was brilliant.

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” --- Steve Jobs

The Phantom Has Returned!!!

Phantom stock – it's alive!  There are signs of a spectre walking the halls of Corporate America. A tool which has languished in obscurity at public companies – phantom stock – recently has shown signs of emerging. While the reasons for turning to phantom stock are varied – uncertainties in the financial markets and insufficient authorized shares for actual stock awards are two for public companies – we believe that the compensation device deserves more consideration. Phantom stock can provide valuable attributes of equity and can help with motivation, focus, and retention of recipients. What is phantom stock?The basic concept of a phantom stock program involves a company's agreement or promise to pay a recipient of an award an amount equal to the value of a certain number (or percentage) of shares of the company's stock. Commonly structured through the award of units, a phantom stock program enables a company to make an award that tracks the economic benefits of stock ownership without using actual shares. Since phantom stock is a contractual right and not an interest in property, the tax event for the executive and the employer occurs at the payment in settlement of a properly designed phantom stock arrangement. Phantom stock plans are shadows that mimic their real equity counterparts; phantom stock and shadow stock are terms that are often used interchangeably. Although shares of real stock can be traded at will, phantom shares or units take on value only when key contingencies or vesting conditions are met. A phantom stock plan typically does not require investment or confer ownership, so its recipient does not have voting rights. It is essentially an upside opportunity, as participants' investments are typically limited to their services; they stand to gain from any upside growth of the company. In making awards under a phantom stock plan, there is a determination of the value of a phantom share or unit in connection with awards to one or more participants. Valuations also will be needed for periodic reporting to participants (and to actual shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission if used by a public company) as well as for determinations of amounts payable at the time of settlement. Phantom stock programs can be simply designed. However, they should be created to meet the company's specific needs and objectives in protecting the unique knowledge and skill base that is represented by those key employees selected for awards. The two types that are most prevalent are (1) the 'appreciation-only' plan (much like a stock appreciation right), and (2) the 'full value' plan, where the award includes the underlying value of the unit (like a restricted stock unit). Generally a phantom stock plan or agreement spells out how the program operates and how payments are determined, along with various other details, often including:

Eligibility criteria

Vesting schedule

Valuation method or formula

Settlement and payout events

Handling of various termination events, including retirement, death, disability, dismissal and resignation

Restrictive covenants

Form of payment

Provisions for the sale of the company

Any funding vehicle

Spooky designs and accounting monsters...
One of the key challenges of inviting a phantom into your offices is that it may come with another ghoul – the accounting monster. Historically, phantom plans have been viewed as undesirable from an accounting perspective because of the resulting liability (variable) accounting treatment. This creates volatility on the company's income statement, which is something that concerns most chief financial officers. Generally, for financial accounting purposes, phantom shares must be treated as an expense over the required service period, and the company does not receive its income tax deduction until the benefits are paid out. This timing is similar to other equity awards but can prove to be not as advantageous in periods where the value of the award increases. With liability accounting, the accounting expense and corresponding tax deduction will be the same. When real equity is used, the company may get a tax advantage as the expense can be locked in at grant while the tax deduction can grow as the value of the equity grows.

In addition, coming up with cash to cover phantom payouts can be tricky. Phantom stock plan gains (in appreciation-only programs) or current fair value (in full value programs) must be paid by the company versus the public markets which is the case when using publicly traded equity. Finally, phantom stock programs typically are subject to the often complex rules applicable to non-qualified deferred compensation under Internal Revenue Code section 409A, so care must be taken in their design.


Why use phantom stock for LTI awards?Phantom stock can help in getting an executive team to think and act like equity partners. It creates a sense of ownership in the success of the business because having phantom stock means the participants have 'skin in the game.' The concept of being an equity partner by having phantom stock can create the same feeling of connection as the more traditional equity tools such as stock options and restricted stock.

In addition to its incentive components, a phantom stock program involves deferred compensation and can act like golden handcuffs in retaining key executives. Phantom stock most often is used by privately held companies, but some publicly traded organizations are using phantom stock or similar cash based long term incentives as well.

Phantom stock plans can be especially useful in providing the economic benefits of equity without diluting shareholders. Because recipients of phantom units lack voting rights, a company can issue these units without altering the governance of the company, or worrying about dilution issues. Phantom stock does not directly dilute the value of real outstanding shares. Phantom stock awards do, however, have a significant effect on cash flow at payout. This is why some plans have a conversion feature, and may pay out in actual stock.

Another advantage to a company is the ability to design an award so that an executive receives no benefit unless vesting conditions are met and, under the appreciation-only model, the company's value has increased. The fair market value of the stock is commonly used by public companies, while private companies have various approaches. For example, a professional valuation may be preferred but viewed as too costly; many companies then turn to book value. Other approaches include a formula using revenue, EBITDA, net income, or a combination of relevant measures; a formula also can help with consistency of the valuation over time.

There are many reasons a company would consider a phantom stock arrangement:

A public company may find that it has insufficient authorized shares to award the desired amount of awards that require actual stock

A company's leadership may have considered other plans but found their rules too restrictive or implementation costs too high

The owner(s) may desire to maintain actual and effectual control, while still sharing the economic value of the company

There may be ownership restrictions for certain types of entities (i.e., sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company), such as the S corporation 100-shareholder rule

The objective is to provide equity-type incentives to a restricted group of individuals      -  A corporate division that can measure its enterprise value and        wants its employees to have a share in that value even though        there is no real stock available      -  A desire to focus on an event or contingency, such as a sale,        merger, IPO, etc.

A phantom plan can typically provide a more flexible alternative that is not subject to the same restrictions as most equity ownership plans. For many, the simple desire to use an 'equity-like' vehicle without giving up true ownership may be reason enough to implement.

Pros and cons of phantom stock
Advantages	Disadvantages
Allows employees to share in the growth of the company's value without being shareholders No equity dilution as no actual shares are awarded Powerful retention tool when combined with vesting Board/compensation committee has flexibility to design plans based on their own discretion Can be tied to overall company or business unit results No employee investment required Can provide for dividend equivalents Design can permit phantom stock to be converted into actual equity No income tax until proceeds are converted to cash or real stock Potential tax deferral of employee compensation Retirement benefit opportunity	If paid in cash, can be a financial drain on the company's cash flow At a private company, may require outside valuation on an annual basis Company needs to communicate financial results to participants Payments to employee are taxed as ordinary income May impact the overall value of the business in a transaction IRC section 409A rules add complexity and difficulty in achieving objectives

Who is using phantom stock?Phantom stock is not only a private company phenomenon. According to our research of recent proxy filings, some well-known, publicly traded companies are using this tool to attract, retain, and motivate select groups of employees.

No need to fear the phantom
Phantom stock is a traditional long-term incentive vehicle, and not a fad du jour. While trends may come and go, cash based LTI plans do have a place in the executive compensation portfolio. While these plans are generally simple, and do provide flexibility to the company, they can also raise various issues that must be considered carefully. In the appropriate situation, a phantom stock plan can keep the company spirit alive in the executive suite.




a reprint from the Hay Group - August 2010