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_ Imagine a world in which any intellectual property holder can, without ever appearing before a judge or setting foot in a courtroom, shut down any website's online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The credit card processors and the advertising networks would be required to take quick action against the named website; only the filing of a “counter notification” by the website could get service restored. It's the world envisioned by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) in today's introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US House of Representatives. This isn't some off-the-wall piece of legislation with no chance of passing, either; it's the House equivalent to the Senate's PROTECT IP Act, which would officially bring Internet censorship to the US as a matter of law. Calling its plan a “market-based system to protect US customers and prevent US funding of sites dedicated to theft of US property,” the new bill gives broad powers to private actors. Any holder of intellectual property rights could simply send a letter to ad network operators like Google and to payment processors like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal, demanding these companies cut off access to any site the IP holder names as an infringer. The scheme is much like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) "takedown notices," in which a copyright holder can demand some piece of content be removed from sites like YouTube with a letter. The content will be removed unless the person who posted the content objects; at that point, the copyright holder can decide if it wants to take the person to court over the issue. Here, though, the stakes are higher. Rather than requesting the takedown of certain hosted material, intellectual property owners can go directly for the jugular: marketing and revenue for the entire site. So long as the intellectual property holders include some “specific facts” supporting their infringement claim, ad networks and payment processors will have five days to cut off contact with the website in question. The scheme is largely targeted at foreign websites which do not recognize US law, and which therefore will often refuse to comply with takedown requests. But the potential for abuse—even inadvertent abuse—here is astonishing, given the terrifically outsized stick with which content owners can now beat on suspected infringers. Blockade One thing private actors can't do under the new bill is actually block a site from the Internet, though it hardly matters, because the government has agreed to do it for them. The bill gives government lawyers the power to go to court and obtain an injunction against any foreign website based on a generally single-sided presentation to a judge. Once that happens, Internet providers have 5 days to “prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site.” The government can also go after anyone who builds a tool designed for the "circumvention or bypassing" of the Internet block. Such tools already exist as a result of the US government's ongoing campaign to seize Internet domain names it believes host infringing content; they can redirect visitors who enter the site's address to its new location. The government has already asked Web browser makers like Mozilla to remove access to these sorts of tools. Mozilla refused, so the new bill just tries to ban such tools completely. (Pointing your computer's browser to a foreign DNS server in order to view a less-censored Internet still appears to be legal.) Search engines, too, are affected, with the duty to prevent the site in question “from being served as a direct hypertext link.” Payment processors and ad networks would also have to cut off the site. Finally, and for good measure, Internet service providers and payment processors get the green light to simply block access to sites on their own volition—no content owner notification even needed. So long as they believe the site is “dedicated to the theft of US property,” Internet providers and payment processors can't be sued. "Industry norms" The House bill is shockingly sympathetic to a narrow subsection of business interests. For instance, buried deep in the back of the >70-page document is a requirement that the US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator prepare a study for Congress. That study should analyze “notorious foreign infringers” and attempt to quantify the “significant harm inflicted by notorious foreign infringers.” (Talk about assuming your conclusions before you start.) The report, which is specifically charged to give weight to the views of content owners, requests a set of specific policy recommendations that might “encourage foreign businesses to adopt industry norms to promote the protection of intellectual property globally.” Should the bill pass, the US government would be explicitly charged with promoting private “industry norms”—not actual laws or treaties—around the world. In the request for the report, we can also see the IP maximalist lobby preparing for its next move: shutting off access to US capital markets and preventing companies from "offering stock for sale to the public" in the US. Call it what it is Not all censorship is bad—but we need to have an honest discussion about when and how to deploy it, rather than wrapping an unprecedented set of censorship tools in meaningless terms like "rogue site," or by calling a key section of the new bill the "E-PARASITE Act." You don't have to support piracy—and we don't—to see the many problems with this new approach. Just today, the RIAA submitted to the US government a list of "notorious markets." As part of that list, the RIAA included "cyberlockers" like MegaUpload, which are "notorious services" that "thumb their noses at international laws, all while pocketing significant advertising revenues from trafficking in free, unlicensed copyrighted materials." It's not hard to imagine how long it would take before such sites--which certainly do host plenty of user-uploaded infringing content--are targeted under the new law. Yet they have a host of legal uses, and cyberlockers like RapidShare have been declared legal by both US and European courts. Not surprisingly, the new bill is getting pushback from groups like NetCoalition, which counts Google, Yahoo, and small ISPs among its members. "As leading brands of the Internet, we strongly oppose offshore 'rogue' websites and share policymakers' goal of combating online infringement of copyrights and trademarks," said executive director Markham Erickson in a statement. "However, we do not believe that the solution lies in regulating the Internet and comprising its stability and security. We do not believe that it is worth overturning a decade of settled law that has formed the legal foundation for all social media. And finally, we do not believe that it is worth restricting free speech or providing comfort to totalitarian regimes that seek to control and restrict the Internet freedoms of their own citizens." Dozens of law professors have also claimed the original PROTECT IP Act, which contains most of the same ideas, is unconstitutional. But the drumbeat for some sort of censorship is growing louder. Photograph by Tyler Menezes Further reading
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_Being unemployed at the C-level can be the kiss of death. Of course, I have been accused of exaggeration and hyperbole, but not in this case nor by executives in that situation. They tend to confirm that finding a new similar position can be seemingly an insurmountable challenge. I am not referring to the nose-bleed section of CEOs that collect a king's ransom in severance after they are let go such as the CEO's of HP, Burger King and New Yorks Bank Mellon. They can afford to retire or buy their own company. The early (50 something or younger) CEO or c-level executive is usually not in that position. The serial CEO, CIO, CMO needs the next opportunity as much as wants it. How do you continue to look viable after losing a C-level job and better position yourself for a new opportunity? It depends on your net worth and network. Some of the ideas suggested here require significant capital while others rely on a substantial Outlook database of connections. Your age and geographic location can be a determining factor as well. Obviously the ideal scenario is a job lost due to an M&A or buyout with no negativity that trails after you. The biggest pitfall with that scenario is that it happens often in a sector where acquisitions are driven by industry commoditization. Thus, executive career options are limited going forward as the positions are correspondingly eliminated as well. And you can't count exclusively on executive search firms despite prior placements through them. Many executives report that search consultants unfortunately cannot consider them or do so as a last resort because typically their clients are expecting that the position be filled by a candidate who ideally matches all requirements, including current employment. However, if you still want skin in the game and crave the next challenge of running an organization, then here are potential strategies to pro-actively, and as triage, mitigate the damage of a lost C-level position to your career. Be on Boards You can't do this soon enough in your career. Start early and at lower levels to work your way up while you pick up valuable networking contacts along the way. Don't wait to be CEO to entertain the idea of a board-level appointment. Many start-ups, and small companies seek out top executives across multiple business sectors to fill their board positions. Typically, these are paid in stock vs stipend or salary. Board positions are worthy to assume a greater role at the top of your CV to fill in for a current lack of employment. The network derived from it will help open doors for your next opportunity as a board member or executive. Found Your Own Company or be a Serial CEO Serial CEOs actually are plentiful in the world today. The magic ingredients to making that happen are an outstanding network of colleagues who help to open doors. There must be available doors to open which requires a growing not contracting sector. Lacking that, the ability to expand beyond your original sector and move into adjacent industries is crucial. A key to staying relevant, current and therefore, employable is your willingness to expand beyond a sector comfort zone to take on challenges in affinity and tangential sectors. The other piece is the ability to build a case and sell yourself into that sector when you don't have the luxury to buy your way in. Try Politics Running for office or actively working to elect a successful candidate can provide new career stability. You may luck out get elected and be on a secure career track for at least the duration of the elected term. At the minimum, the visibility and connections you will have gained from the effort may enable a government appointment at the state or federal level to head up a commission, committee, or even be a diplomatic envoy. Once any kind of government experience is secured by appointment or election, leveraging that back to the business world is an easy step. Think Al Gore. Start an NGO During the dot.com crash, a top executive founded a weekly lunch group for fellow unemployed executives to keep him company. Attendance grew with a corresponding website, e-groups, corporate sponsorship and incorporation. He is now the salaried executive director of this well-established NGO. Of course it is not the money he had before but it fits his situation in life now. Another colleague readily tells the story of how she founded a women's professional association during the downturn that gave her a great network, and helped keep her niche search firm going. Become a Philanthropist If you leave with a small golden nest egg, then setting up a little foundation as a replica to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would be in order. Beginning with your own money can be a small capitalization when you reach out to the likes of a Warren Buffet-types to support the endeavor. This would not only do good in the world but provide job security indefinitely for you as the head of the foundation. Be an Author You don't actually have to write the book as ghost writers have a purpose in life. But, authoring a topic that both is timely, attention-getting, and paves the way for a new opportunity is a good way to spend time during a search. Book tours have an amazing effect on leveraging your network, creating visibility and building credibility. You become an instant thought leader and can at least raise substantial consulting and presentation fees. There is no easy panacea to unemployment at the C-level. The search for a new opportunity is long, very long, with available openings less abundant, and the competition fierce. It demands of you the openness and flexibility to try new strategies and tactics, and the willingness to sometimes put aside your ego to think beyond titles. Most of all it requires taking stock of your dreams, goals and track record to envision a new future. If you are ready and willing to make a serious career move and not look back to the C-suite, then some of these ideas will suit you well. _You are busy being pulled in all directions from pillar to post. The only quiet time you get is on trans Atlantic flights. And, I ask you to write a blog to help build and promote your thought leadership online? You tell me you have no time; that you will get around to it. You never do. How can you find the time to write when you don't have time to update your resume, add connections to your Linkedin profile or have dinner with your family? How could you ever keep up with daily or even weekly posts? You use excuses that your company would has privacy requirements; that the PR department would want to approve all postings. Of course there are the issues of non-disclosure and protection of intellectual property that your company likes you to follow. Not to mention the issue of coming up with something to write about. A total brain freeze arises when you try to think of a topic. What really is the point of starting a blog that ends up an embarrassment, when not updated, left floundering in the Socialweb? Finally, you wonder, exactly what is the point really when nobody will read it anyhow? Most professionals mistakenly believe that have to actually write something if they post blogs. They also mistakenly believe that all they have to write about their company's products and services. In addition they think that somebody has to actually read their blog posts. The point of blogging is to establish in advance an ongoing base of credibility and demonstrated expertise. Thus, when you need it, you will have it. For example, if you are down to being one of the final two candidates for a job, your blog may and its content may just be the tipping point for you. There is a foolproof way to write a highly successful blog that is no hassle, no time, and non-interfering with your daily life. Taking 8 minutes to do this will help to brand, position, and market you. The secret is to not write much as that takes time. It's that simple. Here are the steps in 8 minutes or less:
You will look like a knowledge leader by basking in the glory of the writing of others when you simply add a small but observant comment, opinion or viewpoint preceding the article. I have a client who started with great zeal to write, long tomes for blogs. With every promotion and new position his blogs grew shorter and shorter. I suggested he try the article approach and he did. Now he is a Senior Vice President and his blog posts says "here read this great article". That is the extent of his blogging but they are all great articles that he posts. What's the ROI you may ask?
For examples of what I am talking about, read my previous 3-4 blog posts prior to this one. _Below is an extract from the Forbes article, " This One Leadership Quality Will Make or Break You". From the perspective of managing your career, this message resonates as well. Too often, we expect that all good things will come to us out of a expectation of deservedness.
These traditional axioms have embedded in them an expectation of deserving or being entitled: if we study hard, get good grades, work hard, meet our goals and objectives, dot the "i's" and cross the "t's" then great opportunities and career success will come to us. It is difficult to believe that there is an expectation of entitlement in those beliefs until for some reason they are not fulfilled. The shock of realization arrives when we find that exemplary performance is simply insufficient. Nowadays that can often be the case. In Lewis Carroll's children's story, "Through the Looking-Glass", when Alice was running with the White Knight through the woods, she asked him why they were running. His puzzling reply was that running was done to stay in the same place and to get anywhere they needed to run twice as fast. The essence of pursuit is to not expect that benefits will come to us if we do the right things. They don't anymore. There is too much competition for job openings, promotions, and opportunities. We need to be in active aggressive and continuous pursuit of our dreams and desires. We need to do it purposefully, with focused intent, and clear deliverables in mind. It is an interesting article: One of the most often overlooked aspects of leadership is the need for pursuit. Great leaders are never satisfied with traditional practice, static thinking, conventional wisdom, or common performance. In fact, the best leaders are simply uncomfortable with anything that embraces the status quo. Leadership is pursuit – pursuit of excellence, of elegance, of truth, of what’s next, of what if, of change, of value, of results, of relationships, of service, of knowledge, and of something bigger than themselves. Smart leaders understand it’s not just enough to pursue, but pursuit must be intentional, focused, consistent, aggressive, and unyielding. You must pursue the right things, for the right reasons, and at the right times. Perhaps most of all, the best forms of pursuit enlist others in the chase. Pursuit in its purest form is highly collaborative, very inclusive and easily transferable. Pursuit operates at greatest strength when it leverages velocity and scale. Read more at Forbes.com This may be just plain horse sense but I have been in the careers business for eons compared to freshly minted MBA graduates. Further having resided in Silicon Valley since before it had that name, I have seen many a CEO gain the title virtually overnight or, at least, with the launch of their start-up. Titles are inflated and virtually free here but making good on them becomes the challenge in high tech. However, the Forbes, "How to Become a Fortune 500 CEO" article addresses a much bigger pond for that title. Still the studies showed that a tech company CEOs had a much shorter timeframe to reach the top and were more likely to be recruited from outside the company. Other industries had much longer slogs to the top with the average executive arriving at about age 50 compared to a tech executive of 40 or less. It's not for every executive but for those that do succeed, the ROI is well worth the effort as well all know. Forbes article : read more here _I just found a new cool bright shiny thing to play with! And I may even turn out better presentations as a bonus. Take a look at this. Prezi - The Zooming Presentation EditorPrezi is a cloud-based presentation software that opens up a new world between whiteboards and slides. The zoomable canvas makes it fun to explore ideas and the connections between them. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
_I speak heresy here as "transferable skills" have been the mantra of career changers since Dick Bolles wrote What Color is You Parachute in 1972. But they just don't completely work anymore. They are supposed to convince an employer that you can do his job though you have experience in a different function or a different industry or both. This has worked through at least 3 decades and 3 recessions up to the dot.com bust and 2001 recession. Then the game started changing. Back story first. What are transferable skills? They are a list of action verbs that best describe your abilities. Google it or look in Wikipedia. You will find lists galore or better still buy Parachute as it is the absolute best source. It really helps to be able to pinpoint exactly which skills are your best ones that you love and excel at using. It used to be that well a articulated set of skills were enough to convince an employer in an interview and on a resume that you were a good fit for the position. Or at least worth consideration. Fast forward to 2008 and the Great Recession. With an abundance of talent to choose from, employers now demand that a potential employee have a unique set of transferable skills and have used them specifically in their particular industry or field. They have a list qualifications they want and they check it off with every candidate's resume or profile they see. At the top of the list is knowledge/experience in the industry or field.
The stakes are raised, the options are narrowed, the doors are closing. Or are they? Not if you lead with the relationship and not the resume. People hire people they like or get to like by meeting them informally not in an interview situation. If you approach your job search in that fashion then your resume won't end up in some recruiter's file 13 (trash bin). That means you don't bare your soul and entire resume on social networking profiles like Linkedin.com, but rather use the sites to exhibit a well crafted and branded advertisement about who you are instead. People expect you to have profiles online so manage the message and talk about yourself in a way that minimizes the transition or career change you are trying to make. When you lead with the relationship then you can speak to your knowledge about the sector. You can demonstrate your experience by being able to "talk shop" about the sector and industry. That means you do in-depth research to be able to demonstrate your knowledgeable competency. Being able to drop names, mention studies, refer to articles, speak about key products and talk about trends makes you "one of the group". The effort it takes to explain and justify how your skills transfer doesn't measure up in comparison to the impression you can make just "talking shop". I have seen professionals hired without ever providing a resume. They finally filled out the employment application during the interview process. Leading with the relationship allows you to talk about your accomplishments and the sector you are trying to break into in a way that makes the impression that you can do the job. It is the best tactic to use to skip past your lack of actual experience in a specific industry. __A professional website's purpose is to raise your name search to the top of Google, provide a controlled, managed platform to deliver well branded information about you compared to Linkedin's cookie-cutter template. It utilizes great photography, graphic imagery and well-done content to paint the most flattering portrait of you, your talents, your background, and your value proposition. It is interesting how actual web development for individuals and small businesses is now a commodity and many template driven sites offer a both a platform and hosting to build to build a professional website not just a blog. I use the term professional website instead of the cutsy word online portfolio because that is what it is. I believe every professional needs one now to control their brand, Google ranking, and the message and image they project. A website will do that for you. Unless you are a big ecommerce site or online data repository, having a custom built website long-term costly as keep on paying with charges for every update and change. Use the free template-based sites provided by Google, Yahoo, GoDaddy, Yola, Wix and Wenode. What really matters now is content: both visual and written. And that makes photographers, web/graphic designers and expert content writers the key value contributors for websites. The ability to write great marketing and branding copy for beautifully photographed and illustrated products, services, and people is now king. What are the key things to consider when building a professional website and blog?
It's never too late to make a great first impression online with your own professional website! If you want to learn more about putting together a well-branded website, contact me for a free consult on my website http://www.pattiwilson.com _An engineer from Slovakia has loyalty to the American company he works for in Australia because he is waiting for his Australian green card. This is the global twist on the job=citizenship situation that has run rampant in the USA for years with immigrant professionals. Now it seems with many professional seeking opportunities out of their home countries that this type of hostage employee is global. The term wage slave has has taken on a new meaning with a scarcity of good employment opportunities in some countries while more plentiful in others, greater numbers of job seekers are being held for visa ransom by some company in Brazil, Singapore, Canada. The worse offender used to be the USA but more professionals are seeking opportunities elsewhere now given the decline of the US economy. Interesting I met an Indian executive who wanted advice on a job search in India from the USA. He had spent the last 12 years in the US working for the top Fortune 500 companies. He was finally just getting his green card and decided to just leave it all behind and go home for better opportunities. He was fortunate as he loved the company he worked for. The funny thing about employee loyalty is that it is engendered by either a scarcity of jobs or a devotion to the employer and the product. However, if a professional needs a company to employ and sponsor them to obtain a visa to stay in a country then enforced loyalty is tantamount to being held hostage to the job.
Most professionals I have met in this situation felt powerless to control their destiny but I have a few simple suggestions to at least mitigate the impact of visa situation on your employment.
_Maybe I should just leave this blog post to the title and leave it at that. Everybody gets it or do they? My mantra to my clients has been, "the key to standing out and getting ahead is to create a clear message about who you are and what you have to offer". I am just finishing up processing about 30 requests to join a linkedin.com group I founded awhile back. I have been amazed with the self-descriptions on the linkedin.com profiles and headlines that I reviewed. They were either job titles or a vague gushing exuberance of descriptive prose that could possibly define many professional including me. Here are some examples: "visionary leader and motivator of teams" "deadline driven project manager" "builds, transforms and leads global operations for technology companies" "premier relationship manager" You get idea. What surprises me, in the age personal branding banter that seems to be happening in chats, forums, and posts online, is that working professionals have not learned how to express their key attributes, and abilities in a clear, specific, and unique style. Many seem to resort to fluff and buff descriptions that lack substance and worthwhile information.
I would suggest whenever you write self-descriptions or personal marketing that you ask yourself if the wording is so vague, generic and superficial that is could define your competition. If that's the case, then work with someone to draw out and make note of your unique contributions through accomplishment stories that you tell them. It's an age old practice, the doing of accomplishment stories but it really works. I have never subscribed to the hire-a-resume-writer/brander who takes your 4 page filled out personal data form, goes away and writes a flourishing description of you. The trouble with that is that you don't own it and will not be able to easily to speak to those statements with greater detail and depth. Tell stories, take notes, get friends to listen and provide feedback and input. You will be pleased with the results that will translate into a resume, an elevator pitch and social profile. _If not your career, then your network should be global. No, this interest on the part of Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba, is not more off-shoring. This is part of the vast sea change in the global economy where your employer can be anywhere. Where do you want to work? Well you can pick a country, a region, or a hemisphere. A client of mine works for Carls Jr. in Asia, and no, he is not flipping burgers. Language is not a barrier especially if you speak English as one of your languages but an international perspective and inclination is absolutely essential. The interesting thing about Yahoo being owned by a company located in China vs Microsoft is that it probably will save US jobs. Think about it. What ever can be outsourced or off-shored has already been done at Yahoo. If Microsoft buys Yahoo, there are obvious top down consolidations and cost savings just because of the easy geographic proximity of Redmond. I doubt Jack Ma will be able or willing to move HR, Finance, Legal, or any other business function out of the USA. He needs them all right where they are for continuation and business growth. This is an Alibaba foothold in the USA marketplace and the Western Hemisphere. Yahoo employees should be cheering this one on. We get too xenophobic in our thinking when it comes to being owned by foreign companies. Much of it is not common knowledge, otherwise people would be shocked at how much of the US GDP is owned by British companies.
What does this mean to you? Maybe nothing but probably a lot. We are all affected by everything everywhere. Don't kid yourself. Your best insurance in a global economy that's going more global daily is to build a global network. Expand your contacts off-shore. Network with people in your field or profession in other countries. Connect to colleagues in your industry and sector in other regions. Use social profiles everywhere. It's not just all about Linkedin.com. That's just a good start. Try Orkut, Viadeo, Xing. The article was published in the Stanford GSB News, September, 2011, and a link to the site is at the end of the excerpt. China's Alibaba Wants to Acquire Yahoo, Says Jack Ma Jack Ma, chairman of China's Alibaba internet giant, told a Stanford audience his firm is "very interested" in acquiring Yahoo. Ma was one of the speakers at the "China 2.0" conference sponsored by the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Sept. 30. September 2011 STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS – In a wide-ranging talk, Jack Ma, chairman of China's Alibaba Group, publicly declared his interest in acquiring troubled U.S. internet giant Yahoo, while also reflecting on his 12-year journey building an internet powerhouse that has transformed commerce for small businesses and consumers in China. The Chinese e-commerce billionaire addressed a Sept. 30 conference at the Stanford Graduate School of Business on the rise of China's internet. The gathering, "China 2.0: Transforming Media and Commerce," was sponsored by the Stanford Program on Regions of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SPRIE). With more than 600 registered participants, the event featured talks by leading Chinese internet entrepreneurs and venture capitalists active in Asia as well as a look at ongoing Stanford research on venture investment patterns and networks in China. Speaking without prepared notes, Ma revealed that he plans to spend the coming year in the United States. "After 12 years, I need some time to rest. This year has been so difficult for me. I'm now coming out for a year," said the Alibaba chief, whose company is based in Hangzhou, China. Ma was asked if he wanted to acquire Yahoo, the struggling U.S. internet pioneer that owns 40% of Alibaba. "Yes. We're very interested in that. We're very interested in Yahoo because our Alibaba Group is so important to Yahoo and Yahoo is important to us. We are interested in the whole piece of Yahoo," he said, adding that Alibaba also has talked with other prospective buyers. However, a deal would be very "complicated," Ma cautioned. "I cross my fingers and say that we are very, very interested in that." Alibaba's takeover of Yahoo would represent something of a role reversal, symbolizing how much China's internet—and to some degree, its economy—has eclipsed that of the United States'. In 2005, Ma sold a 40% stake in the fledgling Alibaba to Yahoo in exchange for $1 billion and control of Yahoo China. The Alibaba-Yahoo relationship has been strained in recent years and Ma has telegraphed his desire to reduce or buy back Yahoo's stake. "We appreciate yesterday, but are looking for a better tomorrow," Ma told the Stanford audience. He described Jerry Yang, co-founder and board member of Yahoo, as "a good personal friend." Ma added, "Without the Yahoo investment, we wouldn't be that successful today. Yahoo is one of three companies that woke me up to the internet. Without the internet, there would be no Alibaba and no Jack Ma." Ma downplayed recent investor concerns that Chinese regulators will clamp down on the "variable interest entity" (VIE), a vehicle that has allowed foreigners to indirectly invest in Chinese internet companies and for those firms to go public in overseas stock markets. "The VIE is a great innovation," but "we've got to make the VIE really transparent," said Ma. "I don't see that the government is going to shut it down," he added. Read the entire article here. Thanks to Macstories for this list.
“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” – via “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” – Wikiquote, as quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Summer 1993). “We’ve gone through the operating system and looked at everything and asked how can we simplify this and make it more powerful at the same time.” – ABC News, Jobs on Mac OS X Beta “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” “I want to put a ding in the universe.” “I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money.” “Unfortunately, people are not rebelling against Microsoft. They don’t know any better.” – Wikiquote, Interview in Rolling Stone magazine, no. 684 (16 June 1994) “Bill Gates‘d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” – The New York Times, Creating Jobs, 1997 “The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don’t mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don’t think of original ideas, and they don’t bring much culture into their products.” – YouTube “My job is not to be easy on people. My jobs is to take these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.” – All About Steve Jobs “We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.” – Wikiquote, as quoted in Fortune magazine (4 January 2000) “Click. Boom. Amazing!” – Macworld keynote 2006 “You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Inc. Magazine “That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works” – New York Times, The Guts of a New Machine, 2003 “Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?” - As quoted or paraphrased in Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own (2009) by Robert Tuchman “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – via “I mean, some people say, ‘Oh, God, if [Jobs] got run over by a bus, Apple would be in trouble.’ And, you know, I think it wouldn’t be a party, but there are really capable people at Apple. My job is to make the whole executive team good enough to be successors, so that’s what I try to do.” – CNNMoney “It’s not about pop culture, and it’s not about fooling people, and it’s not about convincing people that they want something they don’t. We figure out what we want. And I think we’re pretty good at having the right discipline to think through whether a lot of other people are going to want it, too. That’s what we get paid to do.” – CNNMoney “So when a good idea comes, you know, part of my job is to move it around, just see what different people think, get people talking about it, argue with people about it, get ideas moving among that group of 100 people, get different people together to explore different aspects of it quietly, and, you know – just explore things.” – CNNMoney “When I hire somebody really senior, competence is the ante. They have to be really smart. But the real issue for me is, Are they going to fall in love with Apple? Because if they fall in love with Apple, everything else will take care of itself. They’ll want to do what’s best for Apple, not what’s best for them, what’s best for Steve, or anybody else.” – via “We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we’ve all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.” – Fortune “Almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” – Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address “Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Think Different, narrated by Steve Jobs “In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains of the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a human-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.” – Fortune “So we went to Atari and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we’ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we’ll come work for you.’ And they said, ‘No.’ So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, ‘Hey, we don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet.” – Classic Gaming “The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.” – Macworld “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’ Stanford Commencement Address “I’m the only person I know that’s lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year…. It’s very character-building.” – Wikiquote, as quoted in Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company (2004) by Owen W. Linzmayer “I’m as proud of what we don’t do as I am of what we do.” – Businessweek “Quality is more important than quantity. One home run is much better than two doubles.” – Businessweek “I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.” – The Seed of Apple’s Innovation “It comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much.” - The Seed of Apple’s Innovation “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” – Businessweek, 1998 “Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R&D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.” - Fortune, Nov. 9, 1998 “I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” “It’s rare that you see an artist in his 30s or 40s able to really contribute something amazing.” – Playboy interview, 1985 “I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I’m only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I’ve got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that.” – Playboy, 1987 “I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” - Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address “Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” – Steve Jobs’ famous question to John Sculley, former Apple CEO “The products suck! There’s no sex in them anymore!” – Businessweek “The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.” - As quoted in Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company (2004) by Owen W. Linzmayer “If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago.” – Fortune, 1996 “You know, I’ve got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can’t say any more than that it’s the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me.” – Fortune, 1995 “Apple has some tremendous assets, but I believe without some attention, the company could, could, could — I’m searching for the right word — could, could die.” – TIME, 1997 _One of the largest placement companies in the world with 4000 offices worldwide was explaining their stock price. The key thing they said that interested me is that 85% of their business is not in the USA. They have growing markets in Asia especially. They explained that given a significant portion of that 85% is in Europe is the reason why their earnings are down but they touted that growing emerging markets in Latin America and Asia. If the USA's marqee employment firm is mostly offshore what does that portend for future hiring in the USA and should American job seekers who are of a mindset to reinvent themselves relocate globally to greener pastures? If you are vital at any age, willing to blaze a new trail and blend well into different cultures including languages then seeking out opportunities globally just might be a good idea. Daniel Pink's presentation is a witty, fast look at the true drivers of people in the workplace. The problem is how to create enlightened management that gets out to the way and lets people perform. But that's another further blog topic. Enjoy the video. "Sticking to the plan you have just because you have a plan is a recipe for being really, really wrong. We have to respond to changes in the world around us. The problem now is that we don't yet know what the changes are. ", said Peter Cappelli , the George W. Taylor Professor of Management and director of the Center for Human Resources at The Wharton School.
Of course, Dr Capelli was referring to what human resource executives should do for the executives to whom they report. However, the same goes for the rest of us in determining the next steps to manage our careers. Should you stay or should you go? Would a lateral move be preferable to a move up. Is it the right time to switch to a business/industry sector with different products/services. Is a move to growing global region worth the opportunity cost? Contracting/consulting vs being an employee. These core career decisions are questions my clients face daily. Often they are not directly articulated but disguised within issues, problems and circumstances such as a company reorganization, job/product obsolescence, industry commoditization, Spain's (for example) crashing economy, income short-falls, life balance and unfulfilled ambitions. Like Cappelli, I suggest a situational approach based on potential outcomes or scenarios. It used to be said that every professional should have a plan A, B, and C for their job moves and career choices. If it were so simple now but it isn't. There are many decision-making techniques to call upon. Relying on denial, blind faith and gut feelings, albeit of unique value, are not among them. I refer you to Robert Harris's website, Virtual Salt, where he offers a myriad of tools to help you figure out stuff. You risk your future and, perhaps, company's success if you don't endeavor to parse out scenarios and outcomes for all your options. At least you will have improved and refined your responses to the unknowns that descend upon you. To deal with the unknown unknowns, I like a matrix approach with two or three columns of potential unknowns and two or three rows of options currently considered (see below). You get the idea. This gives you a chance to play out each choice against the backdrop of an unknown, in this case the economy. Try with your own scenario and tell me what you think. Does this give you more clarity? Are you at least better prepared to make the necessary choices when they come up? Your feedback is welcome. just fill in a comment. _Lou Adler, the consummate "recruiter's recruiter" has identified the top keys to hire the Passive Candidate. Are you a Passive Candidate? Read the article below and check out his website. By definition you must be not looking for a job, you are currently working, and, of course, doing the exact work that the recruiter is hiring. That is just the way of it and it has been for a long time regardless of offline or online hiring. I work assiduously with my clients to get past this roadblock and it is exactly that. Who is to say that someone unemployed, working but actively looking, or is qualified but not in the exact function could not be an exemplary hire for a position? My goal with my clients then is to look the part: doing project work, acting like you are not looking for a job, and re-branding qualifications to align with the position. Is this being disingenuous? No, of course not. It is an appropriate response to a fallacious construct of parameters for hiring that exist only to ensure recruiters can command their fees. Unfortunately, hiring discrimination against the unemployed is not, yet, illegal as it is with women and minorities. Self-marketing and effective branding, with a deep and broadly developed network is the only successful response to recruiting search discrimination. The Key Tipping Points for Recruiting Passive Candidates – aka “The 6Cs”
Compelling: you must be able to capture the candidate’s intrinsic motivator on first contact. If you don’t know what this is, don’t bother connecting. Control: make sure your opening questions require the prospect to tell you about him or herself before you tell the person about the job. If you drop the ball here, you’ll need to make 5-10X as many calls to get one sendout. Career: during your first call you must be able to convert your open position into a career opportunity on the fly. Connect: The best passive candidates are typically only one degree of separation from your current candidate. Tapping into your candidates’ connections represents the future of sourcing. Conviction: Persistence is key. You must understand your job opening, why it offers a career opportunity and you must not take “no” for an answer. Close: You’ll never have enough money in the budget to pay the best prospects what they want. You can minimize the blow here by selling and closing on the career opportunity your position offers, not the compensation it pays. For more on this topic and to attend Lou's Webinar on it go here. More and more frequently, companies are hiring a significant number of employees on contract at all levels. At the executive level they are referred to as interim CEOs, CFO, etc. If the professional has found the position themselves, then the title is Consultant or through a broker, then Contractor. It still all boils down to what kind of tax from is filed: a 1099 or W4.
Regardless of title or tax status, the crucial dimensions of the engagement seem to be the leveraging of "just-in-time" talent for the duration of the need. This certainly keeps an organization lean and mean and hopefully competitive. In this age of information, the downside is that the company's intellectual property walks out the door in event of a workforce retrenching. Like Wall Street quarterly numbers, there is a short-term advantage, in this case cost savings, but a long-term loss to the corporate infrastructure. Apple, for example, at $400 a share is hiring with a 60-40 rule: 60% contractors and 40% regular employees with benefits, stock options, and 401K matching. Those 60% have no loyalty and great motivation to leverage their time and accrued cache at Apple to find a higher paying position elsewhere. Say goodbye to the intellectual horsepower and gleaned expertise as it walks out the door. Google does the same thing and even houses many contract employees in different buildings where they are easy to terminate contracts and make go away without any disruption of "the force, Luke". Many people in non-essential functions are hired this way: HR/finance/accounting/marketing/sales/recruiting functions. I have singled out these companies as they are high profile, easy to use as examples and I am in their hood so I have access to information. I am sure that other companies and industries elsewhere in the USA are behaving the same way. We aren't in that flat of an economy, viable talent that can get contract work is marketable and in demand in many industries and services that have stabilized and recommenced growing. The 14M folks unemployed do not all fit that category because of obsolete skills or no work experience, age discrimination, geographical region, a consolidating industry, or too long a tenure at one company. That is the topic of another blog post in how to remedy those road-blocks. The point is that companies are being incredibly short-sighted using a just-in-time talent pool due to the loss of productivity, a reliable knowledge-base, and eventual diminishing of bottom-line results. Further, this approach, combined with a lack of a viable national safety-net of health insurance and unemployment insurance for a contract workforce will ultimately drag down an economy and a nation built on an ever-growing pile of short-term solutions to systemic unbalances and unfairness. Google+ has the quality of adult audience that Linkedin has with the ease of conversation, collaboration and connection of a Facebook. But, it has an interface and setup that is 100 fold better. Currently by invite only, if you know my email address request an invite from me, it has over 20 million users. At that rate it will reach 100 million in 5 months. It took linkedin.com 5+ years to do that. Watch this fun video for a compelling argument why you should join now not later. Passion is a funny, quirky emotion that comes and goes. But sometimes, in love and life, when you do passion right it has staying power. Scott wanted more than anything to ski everyday all winter long. He left before the last crash burst to follow his passion. An banking executive by trade, he made the big jump to a large, high-profile Canadian ski resort as a financial consultant in order to satisfy his passion for the slopes. He reasoned that going to a dead-end, boring job that would earn a small living as a worthwhile trade-off for a great skiing opportunity.
He is now the IT manager, supervising 2 reports, and managing a whole system upgrade with new software installations to manage ski-lift ticketing and lift operations. It turned out to be the best of all worlds as he loves his job, and is well-paid and pursues his passion. Why is it that some people land a job within record time while others seem to linger in a search limbo, languishing without really looking? Yes, there are obvious external factors that impact the length of an job search: age discrimination, requirements of an industry, heavily impacted functions and a few regions in deep recession. However, external factors do not account for everyone in search limbo. Seems that your degree of passion and engagement helps to determine the ease and ability to be out there and involved in that business and to be known and connected. They are just driven to do it and will continue to turn over rocks, go down paths and do whatever it takes to be in the game no matter how rusty or inept at networking they are. Passion can be the crucial ingredient to future success when one is in a transition phase between employment, consulting engagements or startup opportunities. Passion generates the motivation and drive to act and to do with the requisite intensity and persistence in the face of adversity, obstacles and daily doses of bad news reports. Certainly money is a key motivator, but people leave substantial incomes every day because they were simply miserable going into work every day. Organizations change over time, new management teams are formed that may not be compatible. Haven’t you seen people more consumed by their philanthropic work than their current position? That they pursue the former with more zeal than the latter can be a guidepost to other possible futures. They frequently come to realize that it is possible to make the avocation into the main career passion. Certainly, it is often too easy to be discouraged and dissuaded from making that kind of transition because passions seem to present themselves as financial and career risks. Sometimes it is not an obvious route to monetize a passion but we tend to foreclose options by pre-deciding against them. A woman had a passion for gourmet food, cooking, and great restaurants. Fortunately she lived in San Francisco so they all were in abundance. After years of working in public relations in consumer brands, she segued into the hospitality industry. She started with small steps: writing articles, attending food events to network and doing some public relations pro bono work for a small ethnic restaurant in to promote their unique cuisine. She is now with an executive in a San Francisco public relations firm in their food vertical. Yes, there are trade-offs to consider, priorities to rearrange and terms to come to but sorting out your values and options to put meaning, and passion back into their work lives will be worth the effort. I subscribe to multiple global recruiting blogs and online recruitment and HR newsletters. Usually they tend to talk about how to find the A-players (see earlier blog) or using social media and other technologies. But sometimes an article will catch my attention as new and different that needs a response or strategy. This one in the June 15th issue of Recruiter Week grabbed my attention: Rise of the Micro-resume.
The article refered to a website and social service in China, Sina Weibo. This site in China will have more than 200M members soon and it is a cross between Twitter and Facebook. Here is an excerpt: On June 13, 2011, CNNgo.com reported that thanks to a massive February 2011 push by Sina Corp, China’s largest Internet portal, through the company’s “micro-blogging” site, Sina weibo—which means “Sina micro-blogging”, the Chinese are taking to 140-character “micro-resumes” like Peking ducks to water. (Visit Sina Corp’s English-language report.) Aside from the Groupon-type overly sardonic and cutesy metaphor, this was real news and a significant trend in the worldwide employment marketplace. Is this a precursor of things to come? Of course it is. Should you follow suit and reduce yourself to 140 character summary of accomplishments, skills, and abilities? Well, folks, I think its a beyond difficult to try to brand yourself in a one-line tag and not come out sounding like a slogan, but you have to try, at least. The better part of valor would be to follow the advice that is now nearly 4 decades old. Since the rise of the corporate man (or woman) the advice has been to identify and reach out to the hiring manager. I would say that this advice is even more relevant today. It's not enough to build a distinctive brand online with multiple social profiles globally, a website and blog. What is crucial is who sees it? To a recruiter you are a transaction until they decide you are the best fit for the job. But to a business friend and colleague, social media contact, or alumni that you have a relationship with then you are a real person that they know, and can vouch for. To a hiring manager you are tangible in the form of a resume or executive summary. What would give you the best chances of getting visible, heard, and interviewed: a 140 character summary or a fully branded online presence combined with a personal introduction? I build online branded presences for my clients all the time. They work. People as Cogs: perception drives performance
by Nilofer Merchant | With peers in a few CEO roundtables, I've heard things like: "I plan on hiring 3 biz dev people to get $345K per headcount in revenues." After publishing a book about closing the execution gap by focusing on the "peopley" stuff, CEOs of major companies took me aside (in a friendly way) to suggest I had made a major faux pas, and would be seen as having gone "soft." In spite of a forest's worth of academic papers and rafts of best practices published by the likes of HBR on the importance of the "soft" stuff, most companies continue to treat people as inputs in a production line. I've had leaders ask me if this "people engagement thing" is something that can be added on, after the core business stuff is done, sort of like adding frosting to a cupcake. For the rest of this article visit ( http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/people_are_not_cogs.html ) Harvard Business School Online This interesting short article pointed out the obvious persistence by the use of terminology in many executive suites and board rooms. However, even more engaging were the associated comments to the article. I believe the use of Web 2.0 has been the addition of comments to every article or news story. Further, that these comments can in turn be commented on by other readers creates a "just-in-time" community around that topic that embellishes, expands and enlivens the original far beyond the intention of the author. One detraction was the author's penchant to slang as in "gotta" when responding to comments. Two reader comments caught my attention. One placed the blame of the impersonal and objectifying language used such as "headcount" at the doorstep of business schools and their cirriculum. Given that most faculty had actual real world experience in the bowels of a company, I have to concur. One solution someone suggested was to put them on merit pay and remove tenure to see how quickly they start referring to themselves as "talent". But the other comment really was interesting and I take issue with it: I love the idea of the two camps being one - but the 'existence proof' you cite is, sadly, very flawed. Google and Apple are successful because they sell Market Leading - nay - World Leading products. The fact that they have different people-engagement approaches is, sadly, coincidental. By contrast, Henry Ford, also at a time when he was producing the World Leading Model T Ford, was treating his people like dogs. There is an enormous difference in perceived value between assembly line workers of Henry Ford's day and today's information/knowledge worker. Factory workers were treated as interchangeable parts and perhaps rightly so but, of course that doesn't justify the behavior. When someone leaves Apple or Google, part of the company's intellectual property just walked out the door. There is a reason that in tech companies in particular the term for Human Resources has been replaced by Talent Management. It seems fair to extrapolate that as work becomes more and more knowledge based, even manufacturing with AI, then regard for the talent that provides the intellectual horsepower will have to improve as well. And, yes, it will have to migrate to business school as well. The new tech bubble: Irrational exuberance has returned to the internet world.
May 12th 2011 | from the print edition, Economist Some time after the dotcom boom turned into a spectacular bust in 2000, bumper stickers began appearing in Silicon Valley imploring: “Please God, just one more bubble.” That wish has now been granted. Compared with the rest of America, Silicon Valley feels like a boomtown. Corporate chefs are in demand again, office rents are soaring and the pay being offered to talented folk in fashionable fields like data science is reaching Hollywood levels. And no wonder, given the prices now being put on web companies. Read the full article in the Economist Far be it for me to take issue with the Economist as the article was mostly accurate in terms of facts delivered. I live here and went through the first so-called "bubble". Without rehashing the gory details of the first bubble, let me just point out that all the derisive, mockers of online pet store, grocery delivery, and auto sales need only look at Amazon.com, Safeway.com and Cars.com. I buy pet supplies, hair products, lawn furniture and massages online now. The Economist's focus in on shareholder and investor's ROI. They miss the far broader view. That there was an economic collapse in 2000-2001 in the tech sector is not disputed but how much of it was caused, egged on and goaded by Wall Street greed and the Fed policies that, by the way, enabled this last crash as well. Were those tech companies too soon to IPO? Yes. Were they overvalued by Goldman Sachs. Definitely. Are the dot.com companies to blame. Not even for 40% of what happened. Did Silicon Valley suffer for it, yes? But, Wall Street didn't in that giant IPO ponzi scheme unless you were one of the last ones in or didn't sell soon enough. Over 400,000 jobs were lost here and less than half have been recouped. In addition, 3000+ companies went under (source linksv.com). What was lost? Talent, jobs, productivity, new products and markets but not the will to keep on growing businesses out of nothing but an idea. What's different this time? Linkedin, Groupon, Facebook are all profitable. Linkedin's share price at $45 was in line with its profits and growth rate. Is Wall Street's cultivation of it's institutional investors and the day traders antics to run the stock price up 100%, based on pure greed? Yes. Is that Linkedin's fault? No. Will Linkedin's share price be back down to the original offering level? Yes, because that's where it logically belongs. Is there a bubble? On Wall Street, in Private Equity companies, and with the new Angel investors, yes, but not in Silicon Valley. Company leaders are taking their time to bring companies public or do an M&A. Linkedin was founded in 2003 or end of 2002. It just went public after 8+ years not 8 months. Here people are working hard to make a living and a profit building new products and services using and creating new technologies. What does this have to do with the rest of the economy and the world? Silicon Valley has replicated itself worldwide. There is job creation here based on bio-tech, nano-tech, clean-tech, software, Internet, alternative energy technologies, and consumer electronics. This is not going away but rather it is growing and expanding. Yes, it's nice to have it shovel ready but tomorrow bandwidth rules economic structures not more car lanes. The true story is that job creation, and business opportunities can be replicated world-wide and it is happening. The Economist just doesn't have the full perspective nor does it understand the ramifications beyond the point of view of the investment community. Word of advice? Don't buy the stock, rather, look for the job and business opportunities. Build a Groupon leveraged business like all those little E-Bay businesses. Uncover ways to make money for yourself not Wall Street and welcome this new boom for all it's worth. If you look in the Globalization section of this blog you will find the insertion of and link to an article in the Atlantic magazine. Reading if for the first time on the Atlantic's website, was an epiphany for me. I have been working with business professionals worldwide for awhile now and had noticed their distinct prediliction to stay global and not repatriate back to their home country. Their choice was predicated on a variety of factors but those all reflected the trends stated in the article.
They enjoy the lifestyle that an international experience affords. Many had their children in the international school system which is a US prep school equivalent education. Students on those campuses worldwide receive early solicitation and consideration at the top US universities who visit their campuses on a regular basis. There is a certain uniqueness living as a "guest" in another country at the level of these executives. No this is not guest worker status to say the least. There is an automatic entree into social circles that might not be as easily accessed by country natives. I know I have done it. Of course there is also the exclusive circle of expat communities where people from many countries, cultures and multi-national companies meet, build, and forge ties. The article aptly points out the ever widening chasm between a global elite group of professionals and the local business populations. However I would posit that are all country economies become more integrated into the global whole and salaries equalize worldwide, many more so-called local or regional professionals will be competing globally work and be willing to live where the opportunities are. If you are over 50 and reading this, you may find it hard to grasp, but educated professionals everywhere under 30 just get it. |
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