Posts in category Economy

Building a personal development plan

Jan04
2012 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

Sometimes, though not frequently, we need to build a simple tool to address personal development needs.

What follows is a simple and reusable content you can use as a base to put in a form and be customized.

Section 1: Title and help sumup

Remember to give a title to your document
Give a synthetic (no more than 6 lines) view of guidelines. Prepare a separate document with detailed instructions and distribute in advance

Section 2: Demographic informations

Name and Surname
Performance Year PDP refers to
Organizational references:

Direct supervisor
Organizational unit

Section 3: Goals and actions

Goals and development needs
Actions to achieve each one of them
Training needed
Time and action dependencies (are objectives stand alone or do they come after a path? Are goals in short, medium or long term?)

Section 4: Job and company specific goals

Are there any actions you’re willing to do to help your company or job?
Which role are you playing (e.g. facilitator, owner,…)

Section 5: Your open points

Track any open point you would like to address during the year

Posted in Other, Work - Tagged build, content, demographic, dependencies, development, form, goals, guidelines, help, Information, need, needs, objectives, Organization, organizational, PDP, personal, plan, supervisor, unit

Evaluating people potential – What to look for

Dec18
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

In our previous episodes we covered where to start from and the objectives and tools that you’re going to set and use.

At this point you may be able to have all informations needed and you should focus on what to look for inside them.

Now we will focus on this last point.

The informations you collected help in determining different sides of people, ranging from experience, to possible development actions. All of this determine people profile that needs to have at least two dimensions:

the first is qualitative/descriptive
the other that is numeric and measurable (this second one cannot be an “absolute” measure, but should be “crafted” on the specific context people work into. In other words, stay away form absolute measures of “potential” and determine your specific ones.

But at the real end you should search for at different kind of persons

Those who can be developed autonomously having still in place all the skills, experience and behavior to go immediately through next steps in career.
Those who can grow immediately through next steps in career but need to be helped in sustaining the role.
Those who can go through a period of consolidation (e.g. horizontal growth) before going through “vertical” developments.
Those that can develop but that need an evident consolidation in some areas
Those who do not have the potential to grow

In doing this choice, that we all know is a difficult one, you should be able as a manager to strip of all “personal” sensations, because, remember, you’re deciding on who deserves most and not on “personal” aspects.

Posted in behaviour, Other, Work - Tagged evaluate, Information, management, performance, potential, profiles

The right kind of leadership

Nov19
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

Leading does not mean being rude nor forcing other people to do things they don’t want.

Leading is being a point of reference for the team, being at same time recognized as a valued team member and having the authority to take decisions for the group.

Both of the above statements seem simple statements, but is often unattended, because people tend to use their authority not to reinforce their leadership but to exercise it to prove they have power.

But by a paradox, those leading at best are those that are still capable to be enough humble to value the others and have them achieve results together.

Time for “lone rangers” is over, better go for strong leaders with team approach!

Posted in behaviour, communication, Other, Work - Tagged alone, authority, humble, lead, leader, leaders, leadership, lone, opinion, results, team, value

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

Aug25
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

Yesterday Steve Jobs, one of the most influential persons of all times in tech resigned from Apple.

Many sites have launched the news and the question of what will be the future of Apple (and technology) without this guru (among them Matthew Humphries at geek.com, Tim Stevens at Engadget.com, Michael Trei at Dvice.com, Ken Mingis at Computerworld , Geeks are sexy.net, Betanews.com).

As I wrote many times, first of all the first sign of respect should be towards Steve Jobs’ health and privacy. From now own there will be no reasons to continue invading is life.

On a operational and leadership POV, Steve leaves a company solid and well ahead of other players (a study from this days says that Apple has leadership on tablet market at least for another 2 years).

This means Apple managers will have enough time to strengthen their position.

On a financial POV Apple can rely on the first (or second depends on times) value in stock market with over 320bln USD.

Overall I’m confident that Apple will continue in its market leadership and envisioning new ideas, despite the absence of Steve Jobs.

This post also at geek.com , at Engadget.com, at Dvice.com, at Computerworld , Betanews

Posted in communication, Other, Tech, Thoughts - Tagged Apple, Computerworld, dvice, Engadget, future, geek, Geek.com, Geeks are sexy, Ken Mingis, leadership, life, Matthew Humphries, Michael Trei, privacy, Steve Jobs, technology, Tim Stevens

iPhone 5 is on the final

Aug25
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

Darrell Etheringhton at Giga OM reports that “[...] Sprint will be offering Apple’s iPhone 5 for sale beginning in October, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The iPhone will go on sale in mid-October at the No. 3 U.S. carrier, according to the WSJ‘s sources. [...]“ (full article here).

Again Apple is mastering the art of controlling the news about its new jewel.

Many rumors, too much informations and the world (including me) that is struggling to buy the new phone.

Chapeau!

See this comment also here

Posted in communication, Other, Tech - Tagged Apple, Darrell Etherighton, Gigaom, iPhone, iPhone 5, Sprint, Wall Street Journal, WSJ

Kids on Facebook? No thanks!

May21
2011 4 Comments

Written by hotrao

Different sites (among them Gizmodo with Sam Biddle and Cnet with Liz Gannes) report that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told to CNN (Here) that “[...] he would like to create a safe and educational social networking environment for kids younger than 13. (According to Consumer Reports, 7.5 million such American kids already use Facebook by lying about their age.)

“That will be a fight we take on at some point,” Zuckerberg reportedly said of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which mandates parental permission and other protections for young users. [...]” (Full articles here and here).

I think that having a dedicated social network for kids is not a good idea.

And is not a good idea to have it lead by Mr. Zuckerberg who proved us to be so “capable” of ensuring privacy and security in the past.

I also think that children deserve the right to approach Internet under a protected approach to ensure that is a discovery and not a nightmare.

Have we all lost so much creativity in business we have to turn to kids to make money?

This post as a comment also here and here

Posted in behaviour, communication, Tech - Tagged CEO, children, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, CNET, CNN, discovery, education, Facebook, Gizmodo, kids, Liz Gannes, Mark Zuckerberg, money, network, Parent, Sam Biddle, security, social, Social network

Facebook tried to smear Google

May13
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

Again a problem with Facebook that reminds me more a high school joke than a 50 billion company behaviour.

Many sources, among them Ed Oswald at beta news (full article here) and Sharon Gaudin at Computerworld (full article here), report that “[...] Facebook found itself doing damage control Thursday after it was revealed the company had attempted to create negative press for Google. Two employees of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller had endeavored to pitch stories over the search giant’s privacy issues.

News of the botched effort was broken by The Daily Beast’s Dan Lyons on Wednesday night. Without specifying how, Lyons said evidence pointed to the social networking site as being the mysterious client of Burson-Marsteller’s, and the company admitted to doing so.

A spokesperson for Facebook said the company hired the firm in order to fight back against Google’s planned Social Circle, which uses some of Facebook’s data. In addition, it believes that the Mountain View, Calif. company’s efforts in social networking raise some privacy concerns. [...]“.

In love and business everything is admitted, but I think that especially if You have the kind of relevance Facebook has, a limit exists and cannot be exceeded.

Is the same old story told in security issues: a company should behave in a wise manner, either for ethics, either for investors.

And back talking others is for teens, not for IPOs.

This post as a comment here and here

Posted in communication, Other, Tech - Tagged admit, back talk, Burson-Marsteller, business, daily beast, Dan Lyons, Facebook, Google, IPO, love, privacy, smear, social circle, Teen

Sony knew of their weak security?

May06
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

This is the question asked by Chris Matyszczyk at Cnet based on “[...] The answer given by Gene Spafford, a security expert and professor of computer science at Purdue University, raises troubling thoughts.

In written testimony to the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, Spafford highlighted recent data breaches at Sony and at Epsilon.

He wrote: “Both companies are large enough that they could have afforded to spend an appropriate amount on security and privacy protections of their data; I have no information about what protections they had in place, although some news reports indicate that Sony was running software that was badly out of date, and had been warned about that risk.” [...] ” (full article here).

Is everybody joking? of course Sony knew they had a faulty and risky security system. Maybe they underestimated the impact in terms of damage and image, but I cannot believe they didn’t know…C’mon it’s a tech firm, spending billions in IT and security…

The problem is that fixing security is costly and times are bad also for giants…

This post as a comment also here

Posted in Other, Tech - Tagged Chris Matyszczyk, CNET, flaw, Gene Spafford, IT, PSN, security, Sony, Tech, weak

Windows XP long death path

Apr25
2011 Leave a Comment

Written by hotrao

Alan Henry at geek.com informs us that “[...] Even though it was only last week that news came out that Windows 7 has finally eclipsed Windows XP in market share, there are still a lot of people out there running Windows XP. That hasn’t stopped Microsoft from setting up a doomsday clock for those users, letting them know that Windows XP will no longer be supported after 2014: or according to the countdown clock, 1081 days from today. [...]” (full article here).

I understand Microsoft need for a move from XP to Win 7. Is a matter of support, compatibility, development.

But at same time is a demonstration of how much good was the idea and tech behind Windows XP. In 2014 will be more than a decade that the OS will be out.

I decided to move from XP to Win 7 in last days (for compatibility issues first of all) and I must admit that despite Win7 is really different from my source OS is a very good, fast and reliable OS.

But my heart is still there beating with xp…;-)

This post as a comment also here

Posted in Tech - Tagged Alan Henry, Geek.com, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Os, Windows 7, XP

White iPhone? No thanks!

Apr25
2011 1 Comment

Written by hotrao

I’ve been away (better: I’ve never went away but needed to fix my PC) for a while and when I started again reading RSS feeds I realized that there were at least 20 articles talking (again) on white iPhone.

TOC TOC TOC! There’s anybody in the house? But am I the only one to understand that is just a color (no new tech inside).

I understand all the articles on iPhone 5 (is some marketing blended with natural curiosity), but really I cannot tolerate anymore the rumors on white iPhone.

If someone would like to explain me the trill behind this myth, I’m here.

Posted in Other, Tech - Tagged curiosity, iOS, iPhone, marketing, myth, white

Posts in category Economy

Building a personal development plan

Evaluating people potential – What to look for

The right kind of leadership

Steve Jobs resigns as Apple CEO

iPhone 5 is on the final

Sony knew of their weak security?

Windows XP long death path

White iPhone? No thanks!

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