About Last Night…

What a busy night, I met some new friends Ed Kohler and Banjamin Higginotham of Technologyevangelist came down all the way from Minnesota to attend Techcocktail2!!! What wonderful people. Techcocktail2 was full of great conversation and networking about tech in Chicago. Afterwards, Robert Scoble was staying the night near O’hare airport and I got make a surprise visit with him and meet Maryam for the first time.

Some selected images of the evening:

Two Amsterdam tourists, Maryam Scoble and Robert “Will you link to me please?” Scoble

Lou Calamaras, Brad Spirrison and Katie Spirrison

Frank Gruber and Eric Olson

Ron “Can I have your card?” May


Just Where is Steven Berkowitz?????

Robert Scoble’s got a nice post about Youtube and Ballmer making comments…the post has some interesting detractors in the comments…I like this part the best he says: “The thing is, YouTube is two SEPARATE things: 1) the technology. 2) the community/brand.” I agree, most people focus too much on the technology.

But here’s my bigger question. Earlier this year, MSN hired Steven Berkowitz, the CEO of ASK. I have yet to see one meaningful interview in a five months now of this man, why hire him at all if you can’t delegate the spotlight properly to him?


Honda - Great SEM and SEO on Honda CRV 2007 Redesign Launch…

What can I say? It’s so rare to see a new vehicle launch and have the term rank #1 in Google and have the Adwords ad done right to boot! Bravo! If anyone from Honda is monitoring their brand and would like me drive one for a while and give it my review, my contact info is in my bio section… P.S. Why can’t I buy an EX without that headroom choking sunroof?


TECHCocktail2 is October 12th in Chicago

Just a reminder that TECHCocktail2 is Thursday!!! It will be held at Grammercy, 2438 Lincoln Avenue, Chicago - 6:30PM

See you there. Be sure to RSVP…. I’ll be wearing a bright orange shirt for the October season…

 


Recruting Best Practice : Brightcove

At 11:10PM EDT today, I got an e-mail from an actual Brightcove employee in Boston, yes actually living in the same time zone in the company, reading and then replying to my resume!

Let me repeat, a real live person was reading my resume and physically at 11:10PM!!! Wow!!!

This tells me some things:

1) The odds of Brightcove beign a long-term success just rose significantly in my view by the way they conduct business

2) They might find and hire thought leaders and not drones hired from keywords. Good for them.

3) My desire to be a part of this organization is stronger than it was before this interaction.

Thanks for the reply…I look forward to the next step in the conversation when appropriate. Jeremy Allaire should be proud.


Why Executives Are Like Blog Readers

Someone asked me this morning why posts with lists do better on Digg? It’s a good question. I myself have worked for considerable time on many posts I thought were deep, profound and interesting only to see them go nowhere.

Sometimes the post combines other elements like artwork.

My favorite grauduate school professor, James Schrager of the Chicago GSB, always preached conciseness in his entrepreneurship class so that executives and people funding your startup can understand it consistently. It makes things easier to digest. Especially if the concept is new to a person which is frequently the case in the blogsphere as you stumble upon a random blog.

That’s why executives are like blog readers, yet most executives don’t read blogs, interesting contradiction, isn’t it?


Google Acquires Youtube - 10 Unanswered Questions

Congrats to Michael Arrington on breaking the rumor and upstaging all of the rest of the media and business press in this matter that became a reality very quickly. Frederick Marckini of iProspect stated that Youtube would be acquired for more than Myspace was, I bet he didn’t think it would be almost three times as much as his guess stated in July! I joked with him that he held a position in Youtube during the session, he probably wishes that he did now…

10 Unanswered Questions:

1. Will users stay with the recently scrubbed and censored Youtube or will they migrate to other alternatives?

2. Why are the investment analysts and “major media” only allowed on the announcement conference call? Why not bloggers, why not the person, Michael Arrington, who broke the rumor and story in the first place?

3. Why can’t the Investor Relations, Press and Blogs at Google ever be in sync? The Official Google Blog still has no information about it. Instead there are posts on “Inside Macs at Google”…very strange.

4. This is what a multi-million dollar rat looks like, will the next of kin receive their fair share?

5. The Google Press Release states “This afternoon, we announced that we are acquiring YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock. YouTube will operate independently following the close of the transaction, which is expected in the fourth quarter of this year.” Why is this the first company that Google has ever kept independent?

6. There are a few theories on number five. I’m no lawyer, but if it’s kept as a separate legal entity, it might be able to limit any content liabilities to that entity?

7. How much is 44 seconds of everyone’s time (maybe a bit more now) worth?

8. Eric was forceful in the call about stating that these will remain separate entities and curiously he asserted Google Video will become even more important. Am I the only one that is mildly confused by this statement? Or is there some larger segmentation or story here?

9. Many people have asked “Why didn’t Microsoft buy Youtube?” With a large stake held by the people who funded Google, it was clear that Google had the right to make the last bid. Microsoft also likely would have had to pay cash due to it’s lack of a high growth currency to purchase Youtube and it’s not certain they could monetize it as well.

10. How long ago did these talks start? I’d say around this time.

What do you think the answers to these questions are?

UPDATE: Due to the popularity of this post, it’s getting alot of spam thrown at it. Comments are closed as of 6/4/2007.


A Simply Beautiful Blog Post…Perhaps Best of 2006

I’d like to nominate Kathy Sierra’s post “Knocking the exuberance out of employees” for best blog post of 2006…

It’s interesting to see a few companies starting to change here, but it is too slow! It would be *great* to see a conversation on the solution to this issue.


Cutting Edge Sourcing at Fox Interactive Media

Human Capital Management, HR Technology Conference 2006 #9

Virtual Edge Software: Roger Coker – VE Pilot:
- Zero-Talent Outages
- Succession not Replacement
- 360 view of talent pipeline

Fox Interactive Media: Conrad McGinnis

50% Professional
35% College
15% Other

FIM Talent Sources
35% Employee Referral Program
25% Direct Sourcing
15% Job Boards
25% Our Career Website

1400 Employees based in the US currently

Traditional Sourcing Method
- Old Media Mentality
- Dated and geared to film and TV
- Limited to local universities

New Strategic Sourcing Strategy
- Targeted to Tech
- Tech tools for better communication
- Global versus local
- Recruiting structure – Personnel
- CRM – VE Pilot

Search Engine Marketing – overall has found Google to be most effective

Why Search Engine Marketing?
- Reach Active and Passive Candidates
- Inclusive and Broad Approach
- Pay for Performance
- Workforce Planning
- VE Pilot

Other Tools:
- Fox Careers Site
- Myspace Careers Site

Reference Checker and Sourcer are separate

Frees up recruiter to build relationships with hiring manager and candidates

Training and Networking Events:
- Recruiters must know the business
- Recruiters need to spend more time in front of the desk than behind it
- Recruiting teams are true partners in moving the business forward

Employee Referral Program
- Myspace friend branded
- Ticket themed logo for concert – B.Y.O.F.
- Increased cash incentives
- Teaser campaign

Tracking Referrals
- Keeping track of individual job referrals
- Link track (like affiliate marketing campaign


Creating Global Recruiting at Time Warner

Human Capital Management, HR Technology Conference 2006 #9, Time Warner - TWX

A fabulous introduction of Maggie Rubey Lynch, Corporate VP, Worldwide Recruitment & Executive Search, Time Warner by Deb Besner, CEO of Brassring opened the session (Time Warner uses Brassring for their employment/jobs portal), Lauren Levine a member of Maggie’s team also participated in the session.

Areas of best practice:
- Time Warner has an in house executive search practice
- Operate on a business unit basis, country specific candidate experience
- Outstanding partnership between IT and HR – a model for any other company

270 recruiters globally, no centralization prior to 2003

TM Divisional Feedback re Recruitment Needs:
- Quality Candidates
- Fast Fills
- Superior Service
- Ease of Process
- Client Group Ownership
- Strategic vs. Reactive
- Cost Savings
- Ability to Identify / Move Internal Talent
- Ability to Identify Top Tier Diverse Talent

Spend time on the front end selling and partnering with people to make it work

Business & Recruitment Feedback:
- Recruitment support at more levels that just senior
- Research support at more levels than just senior
- Diverse Slates
- Internal Mobility
- Tough to fill discipline specific

The mission:
- Create holistic recruitment team
- Leverage in-house expertise

Deeper Dive:
Attrition by Division
Types of roles by Division
Volume of Recruitment Efforts
Structure of Recruitment Teams
Expenses – Internally / Externally
Recruitment Systems

Action Steps:
Design and build scalable infrastructure
Identify top Recruitment Professionals to move the recruitment objectives
Streamline Processes and create efficiencies
Understand where investments are producing a return
Be true business partners
Know our business and identify growth areas to anticipate recruitment needs

Four Critical Areas:
Executive Search
Strategic Sourcing
Research
Recruitment Operations

Integrated Recruitment Teams
Recruitment Director (headquarters)
Client Group Recruiters (anchored in Operating Units)

“Beyond the resume” – transferable skills, diversity or experience – it’s about process and having a conversation about where you want the position to go. (Stated a different way, why use an ancient job specification?)

Results:
100% Utilization by all Divisions
1,496 Search / Research Assignments
Cost Savings of $48 Million
48% Females Hires
41% Diverse Hires
Increased internal mobility from 2% to 35%
Created a first time external revenue stream by conducting external search

Getting legal team to agree across divisions was the biggest challenge

(Human Capital Management, HR Technology Conference 2006 #9, Time Warner - TWX)


Hess Corporation Hopes to Strike Oil with a Talent Management Suite

Human Capital Management, HR Technology Conference 2006 #9***Standing room only session***

This was a great session where you learned about how to truly implement complex change across an organization.

Brian Bohling, SVP HR, Hess Corp.
Hess, $18 million case with Authoria
86 of Fortune 100
$23 Billion in revenue
12,000 employees
Headquarters in NYC

Authoria provides enterprise-scale technology across all aspects of the talent management lifecycle.

Performance management process  Hess had been using 6 different systems. Our technology stuck. Revamped it from scratch.

Strategic map designed by employees. We changed 401K vendors. We are building transparency.

We got people to use the tool, redesigned rating metrics and emphasis on results.

Training, onboarding, objectives create performance, money, career paths, everything, etc.

Made certain to check with internal clients to make sure things worked along the way. Started with remote locations first then brought it to home office.

Feedback and buy in were critical. People like the intuitive an online support.

Tod Loofbourrow, Authoria, 9 year old company, 300 customers representing 4.2 million software installations…almost ten times salesforce,com

30 of the 300 clients are full talent management clients integrating all of those pieces in a simple and branded fashion is something Hess did well. Having a vision of the desktop. One less complicated system. Understanding key talent drivers. Look a the way business processes link. Career development and learning.

Is this stuff real. Remove silo problem perspective. This is a line of business and CEO issue. ERP, CRM, etc.

You need Integrated Talent Management drives client experience.

Example about Raytheon  they need to hire 11,000 engineers and scientists annually. A massive challenge given the constraints.

Competencies - keep it simple, yet learning is driving change in Hess process. Select on fit for purpose.

(Human Capital Management, HR Technology Conference 2006 #9)


Ebay Spoof Emails Pouring Into My Yahoo! Mail

I wrote a post the other day called e-mail crisis. I was e-mailed and asked for some examples. I wonder when they will address this serious problem?


Dusty Baker No Longer Cubs Manager

Personally, I won’t miss him, he’s destroyed pitcher’s arms, disrepected fans and made inappropriate comments during his tenure. Wait until next year…


Upcoming October Conferences

HR Technology Conference October 4-6, 2006, Navy Pier

Scheduled Speaker, eComXpo, October 24th-26th, please click on the link below to register for free…


Goolge Sitemaps, er, WebMaster Tools - Odd Behavior

Google Webmaster Tools tells me:
http://www.daviddalka.com/createvalue
Indexing summary
Pages from your site are included in Google’s index.    [?]
Googlebot last successfully accessed your home page on Sep 24, 2006 .
Potential indexing problems:
We do not know about all the pages of your site. You can submit a Sitemap to tell us more about your site.
————————————————————————————————————-
One problem, I already did that! Hey Matt Cutts/Vanessa Fox, if I already have an active Google Sitemap, er Webmaster Tool, how can you not know about all the pages of the site and give me an inaccurate message???


Costco (COST) - Needs Customer Focused Perspective - Post #2

On my last trip to Costco, September 3rd, I discussed some problems and things needing change.

My return visit today showed that they still haven’t changed any of the items mentioned, in fact some were worse today.

Neither the New York Style Texas Garlic Toast nor the Palmiers had been restocked.

The romaine lettuce all had expiration dates two days from today. Being in a single person household, I don’t mind buying the six stalks, but I expect there to be stock that has expiration dates of at least a week from today at all times, I mean I’m not buying wilted lettuce from a half price store.

The cashier experience was again disappointing. Somebody in front of me had a paper check (why do they even still allow that at all?). The cashier then forgot to ring up the juice in my cart. Worse, there were long lines *again* due to not enough cashiers being open, yet there was an army of folks at the manager’s station. I mean every week this place acts surprised and like it’s a new experience to have customers come up the registers ten minutes after the store opens. 

This store continues to be the most disorganized Costco I’ve ever visited, I wonder why they aren’t taking the customer feedback more seriously.   


Danny Sullivan Seeks the Elusive “S. Larson”

Why is Citibank using a fake name in letters to people after all? It’s a good question…


Email crisis!!!

Yahoo! and Gmail both need to put work into their e-mail software. I’ve outlined this in previous posts.

Yesterday was the last straw though.  My Yahoo! webmail lets spam through that it shouldn’t - all the time - while classifying real email as spam. Yet yesterday I was told that an email from a relatively new gmail account that I sent was classified as spam by a Yahoo! Mail account I sent it to. Gmail lets some spam through to my Inbox, while other e-mails not only haven’t made it to Inbox, they didn’t even go to the spam folder. Then inappropriately classifies one of my shared domain servers as spam.   

Alright enough! How in the world is is anyone supposed to communicate in a reliable fashion? Maybe you guys should have some people work on fixing this stuff?

It’s a serious problem whether you are in London, New York, San Francisco or Singapore. Regardless of what portal you apply, no matter what your job or career.


« go back