BI among top IT priorities in 2012

14 Things To Do at the Start of Every Day

The first few hours of the work day can have a significant effect on your level of productivity over the following eight—so it’s important you have a morning routine that sets you up for success. “Having a good start to the day where you have greater control is critical in achieving better results, and ultimately greater career success,” says Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and author of Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant. “How you begin your morning often sets the tone [...]

A Rant On Engagement

*A portion of this blog post is republished with permission from SiriusDecisions, Inc. To read the full post, please visit:http://www.siriusdecisions.com/blog/a-rant-on-engagement/*   I’ve got a gripe with the term engagement. I think it’s misleading. What most marketers are calling engagement is really content consumption. The content may be presented contextually; it may be presented dynamically by industry or role; it may be specific to a prospect’s buying cycle stage. Ultimately you’re serving up content for someone to consume. Personally, when I read [...]

From Keeping Score To Adding Value: Global CFOs on the Art Of Constructive Change

Changing times call for changing skills—in the CFO’s office, in particular.

During the downturn, companies pushed themselves to the limits of efficiency, becoming leaner and more productive. Most companies have little left to cut—leaving growth as the primary path to profitability. But grindinglyweak and uncertain economic conditions are pressuring companies to expand into new and unfamiliar markets in order to achieve that growth.

The Importance of Undisciplined Thinking

“This course made me realize that there are two ways to view myself and my life: From the outside looking in (how others see me), and from the inside looking out (how I see myself). Now that I’m aware of these two perspectives, I think about everything differently.”

What discipline solicited such a thoughtful, life-changing reaction from an undergraduate?

Psychology? Religion? Philosophy?

None of the above. It was managerial accounting.

The Dark Side of Goal-Setting

How many of you are sick of discussing the importance of setting goals?

Goal-setting has become a personal, corporate and political fetish. Modern workers are frequently subjected to performance reviews in which they must set themselves goals to work towards. The fact that these targets are frequently idiotic or meaningless seems to be irrelevant.

There are, however, some good ways to set goals and align them with your personal strategy.

A Little Knowledge Management Can Be a Dangerous Thing

The value of most organizations today is less determined by their physical assets than their intellectual assets. Intellectual property such as patents, technologies, ideas and designs are what keep leading companies like Bose, 3M, Medtronic and Boeing ahead of their competition. A big challenge for many organizations is to document and pass on important knowledge to others in their organization so that they can benefit from the discoveries of others. According to the American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), knowledge management (KM) is defined as: “a systematic process of connecting people to people and people to knowledge and information they need to effectively act and create new knowledge.”

The 2012 50 Chinese Global Challengers: End of Easy Growth

The era of easy growth for Chinese companies is coming to a close. Sales growth is slowing, while margins and profitability are under pressure. To reach the next level, Chinese companies need first to overcome a more challenging economy at home, where the days of relying on low labor costs, price competition, and a giant domestic market to fuel growth are over.

9 Top Economic Indicators for Hipsters

Various economic indicators have become proxies for the health of the economy.

But, how many times can you get excited following the durable goods report?

In that vein, we’ve picked out the economic indicators that are alternative, obscure and cool, and which can help you get a read on the economy in a way that most people don’t know about.

These are data that you should look to when more mainstream data has grown stale.