Blogging Ahead

Get by with a little help from your Friendster

Most people who sign up for Friendster and its ilk are probably more interested in getting dates than in getting business. (We're not talking about the websites where getting dates is a business.)

But Xeni Jarden points to some interesting ways that small enterpreneurs can use social networks to make contacts that can help them build their company.

But there is growing evidence to support claims that some social networking services (SNS for short) can be a powerful professional ally to businesses — in particular, independent entrepreneurs and smaller companies, for whom each new personal connection is a significant business building block.

What's your dream?

We know thatyou love your job. (Hey, you're probably reading this at work, and we wouldn't want to give your boss the wrong impression.)

But maybe you have a, em, "friend" who's constantly dreaming of something different, the type of job that doesn't feel like work, a job that you'd almost pay someone to let you do.

Kiplinger's takes a look at people who have real dream jobs, like being a Lego artist, personal major league pitching coach or jewler to the stars.

Of course, most of us don’t actually expect to spend our work lives pitching to major leaguers, draping Gwyneth Paltrow with diamonds or living year-round in a national park. But we can all learn a thing or two about how the people who do these and other to-die-for jobs find themselves in such enviable positions.

The most important things to do: Hone your skills, show initiative and have a bit of luck.

Table for two?

I've never been much of a sim-game player (apart from a brief addiction to the original Sim City), but Restaurant Empire sounds like it could be fun, especially if you've ever thought about opening up your own eatery.

Restaurant Empire gives you a good sense of managing a restaurant. You hire and fire staff, construct a menu, place tables, decor, and kitchen equipment, and open the doors. Over the course of a day, people wander in and order. As is typical in games of this type, each customer's desires, wants, and reactions are tracked in detail, and you can click on any guest to see what he or she is thinking about (often, about the rudeness of staff or delays in their order).

I'd be curious to see what a real restaurant manager thinks of this. When I was playing Sim City, I knew a city manager who thought anyone going into municiple administration should play the game, saying it gave a decent look at the pressures of the job.

A bit nutty

Hey, Steve Denning has a blog!

Denning is the author of Squirrel Inc., one of the books we reviewed in our "quirky business books" package a couple of weeks ago.

In his blog, Denning is laying out excerpts of his next book, A Leaders Guide to Storytelling, which looks like it deals with the same ideas as Squirrel, but perhaps in a more academic sense compared to the former fable approach.

Management literature typically deals with the overt narratives of an organization, given their lack of access or interest in to the covert stories. The management of organizations also like to dwell on the stories that are overt and agreed. Other chapters of this book deal how to affect changes in the overt story, either with springboard stories (Chapter Three) or future stories (Chapter Nine).

More organizing tips

Last week's Getting Ahead section had an article on cubicle organizing, taking a look at one of the messier desks we had around the newspaper.

Johanna Rothman talks about her own stuggles with clutter and how she's dealt with it:

Emergent design also works for me as a way of organizing. Many of you have heard me complain about my messy office -- for the last ten years :-) I never could understand why my office was so messy and disorganized until yesterday.

The next whiskey bar

Well, show me the way
To the next whisky bar
Oh, don't ask why
Oh, don't ask why

Some of they lyrics to that famous Doors song seem particularly appropriate for this story: Well, show me the way/To the next little girl

In an attempt to attract 20- and 30-year-old drinkers, Scotch companies have turned to sex appeal and "simplified" whiskies, according to the Telegraph:

Ian Macleod Distillers, which manufactures Glengoyne malt whisky, is sponsoring an art exhibition in Glasgow, entitled "Sex and the Truss" which runs until July 24.

[snip]

The Easy Drinking Company, founded last October and part-funded by the owners of the Famous Grouse whisky blend, has brought out three whiskies in alcopop bottles with simplified labels. They are called The Rich Spicy One, The Smokey Peaty One and The Smooth Sweeter One. Critics have already dubbed them "maltopops".

Of course, the move has attracted some criticism from more old-fashioned drinkers, but as one noted, anything that saves the Scotch industry -- which has seen declining sales for years -- is a good thing.

I find this strategy interesting, but to really evaluate it, would need a case of, say, the Smokey Peaty One shipped to me immediately. If a bottle of Laphroaig, or one of the older Ardbegs found its way into the box (for comparision's sake, mind you), I probably wouldn't complain.

Getting Googley

There's not much there yet, but Google's Initial Public Offering page is now online. This will be the place to go for official information when it's available.

(The best unofficial source is probably Google-IPO.com, which has the latest news and a discussion forum. If you're more interested in staying on top of general Google news -- the technical side of things and such -- check out the (unofficial) Google Weblog and the official Google Blog)

Are you Ready 4 Work?

I'm working on a story about the Labor secretary announcing $10 million in funding for Ready4Work, one of the president's faith-based-type programs, this one designed to help ex-cons get jobs.

(Jacksonville's New Hope Foundation, which ran the Ready4Work pilot program so successfully that the idea has now spread to 14 other cities, will get about $1 million of the funding.)

Here's some more background on the program:

• The Department of Labor's backgrounder on Ready4Work
  
• The Web site of Public/Private Ventures, the group through which the federal funding actually flows. (Its Ready4Work section is here.
  
• Information about Operation New Hope, the Jacksonville organization that will actually use the money.
  
• How the Ready4Work program has worked in Camden City
  
• and in Philadelphia
  

Blowing bubbles

When the dot-com bubble exploded at the end of the 20th century, business writers began delving into history, particularly pointing at the South Sea Bubble, in which investors bid of the price of stock of the South Sea Company, despite it not really doing much of anything, and the Tulip Bubble, in which tulips first sold for astronomical sums and then, quite rapidly, for next to nothing.

The latter bubble has long been seen as a sign of how irrational investors can be, pouring their money into the latest craze even if no one could possibly think, for example, that one tulip bulb was worth 6,700 guilders when the average salary was 150 guilders.

But now a study done by a University of California professor and a Boston University graduate student says that investors might not have been that crazy after all. As Slate's Moneybox reports:

Tulip-bulb investors were neither mad nor delusional in 1636 and 1637. Rather, (Thompson) says, they were rationally responding, in finest efficient-market fashion, to overlooked changes in the rules of tulip investing.

The entire piece is slightly technical, but if you understand futures contracts and options, you can begin to see how Dutch tulip investors were acting in ways that made sense at least at the time, and perhaps even in hindsite.

We're partial to the "bar W"

Oh, wait, they don't mean those type of brands ...

Last week in Getting Ahead we spoke with Dan Cathy -- CEO of Chick-Fil-A -- about the importance of branding.

Now, in its upcoming issue, BusinessWeek comes out with a special report on the power of passionate consumers during its annual look at the best global brands.

But these days the relationship between brands and their customers has become much more complex. For one thing, consumers simply know more than they used to. The Internet opens up a wealth of information, allowing for instant price and quality comparisons. But consumers demand more from the brands they love than simple reliability; passionate consumers want their brands to become a form of self-expression. Increasingly, consumers are customizing products and services to achieve that -- whether it's tailoring colors on a pair of sneakers from Nike Inc. or adding items to their personal to-watch list on eBay.

Among the companies BW examines are Coca-Cola, Starbucks and McDonalds, all members of its 10 most valuable brands group. (Here's the complete list.)

Got game?

Ever dream of playing games for a living? Technology and culture Web site Kuro5hin examines the downside of professional computer gaming:

All is not fun and games in the world of professional gaming though as my friend has revealed to me. A lot of sweat, and sometimes blood is involved. The concept of e-sports is still far from being a reality and few people can actually earn enough to support themselves and secure their futures.

On the other side of the gaming equation — and on a local note — Florida Community College has two game programming courses, which appear to be part of the Computer Programming and Analysis associates degree program.

Insert prison decorating joke here

This isn't the weightiest news in the world ... but, hey, it is Friday ...

Turns out Martha Stewart might be hoping to get the prison door slammed behind her as soon as possible

Martha Stewart may surrender soon, despite her appeal, to get her prison stay over with. Is Martha Stewart ready to do her time? The domestic diva has resolved to surrender to prison authorities, perhaps next week, a well-placed source tells us.

"She wants to put this ordeal behind her," says the source. "She thinks that it's in the best interest of her company."

Military (and others) transitions

I mentioned CareerJournal in one of the first posts for this site, but thought an article they had today was worth mentioning on its own:

As important as it is to learn the language when you travel in a different country, it's even more important when you try to make the leap from the military to the civilian workforce. But it's not limited to just people in uniform -- this can also be a challenge for people leaving government service or the nonprofit world. And because turnabout is fair play, it's often a problem for corporate types who want to go into jobs in the public sector.

Some of the tips are similar to a piece I did for Getting Ahead on military transitions a few months ago, but the CareerJournal column is especially nice in broadening that advice for anyone who is moving from one sector of the workforce to another.

Good governance good for shareholders?

Strategy+Business has a fascinating story (free subscription required) on how the "good governance" movement might actully be hurting investors:

But the sun is not yet shining on executive suites and boardrooms. For the first time in our research — the most comprehensive ongoing survey of the demographics and performance characteristics underlying chief executive succession worldwide — we are seeing evidence that the contemporary governance movement is presenting CEOs and boards with a leadership dilemma of “lady-or-the-tiger” dimensions. Despite the one-year respite, companies remain focused on firing overcompensated, underperforming chiefs — the rate of CEO dismissals increased by 170 percent from 1995 to 2003. Yet that singular obsession appears to be contributing to lower average shareholder returns.

The story is based Booz Allen Hamilton’s annual study of CEO succession, and the authors -- while not arguing against good corporate governence -- think that company leaders, directors, and shareholders should re-examine how such programs are conducted.

Surviving Wall Street

Slate is running an interesting series by Henry Blodget on how to survive the stock market. Blodget, of course, is an interesting choice to write such articles; he was one of the bad guys in the recent stock market scandals, with the SEC saying he issued positive research reports on companies that he then disparaged in private e-mails. (Blodget and others settled the case without admitting or denying guilt, but agreeing to pay a large fine and be barred from working in the securities industry.)

In the series -- which so far consists of part one and part two -- the former research analyst approaches Wall Street as a private customer and has to face the assumptions that brokerages use to snag clients:

When gazing at a presentation book filled with beautiful pie charts, graphs, and tables created just for you, it is easy to forget that projected returns are just black marks on a page. Far more important are the assumptions and logic underlying them.

Those assumptions, Blogdet says, are based on a long-term stategy that is longer than most of us plan on investing.

n the financial markets, the "long term" is long. Over the past 200 years, U.S. stocks have, on average, returned approximately 10 percent a year (about 7 percent, after adjusting for inflation). For many of those 200 years, however, stocks have returned nothing—or worse. The fallow periods, moreover, have not just lasted months or years. They have lasted decades.

Go read the whole thing. It's good.

MSFT's payback

The news that Microsoft plans to pay $75 billion to its shareholders in the next four years excited the stockmarket Tuesday night and had commentators chattering this morning.

The Chicago Tribune's Bill Barnhart wrote about what this could mean for other companies:

Drake Johnstone, an analyst at Davenport & Co. who tracks Microsoft, said the company can easily afford the payout without impairing its balance sheet or hampering future growth.

The news could have broader implications, he added.

"Certainly, this may put pressure on other companies that generate substantial free cash," Johnstone said, mentioning semiconductor-maker Intel as a prime example. "One would think that shareholders would start agitating."

Among those expected to benefit from the move are mutual fund companies such as Fidelity Investments and Pioneer Investment Management Inc. as well as retail merchants who like the Dec. 2 timing of the dividend disbursement.

It's also interesting to take a look back at Microsoft's decision to issue its first dividend ever, in January 2003. Back then, BusinessWeek wrote:

Gates and Ballmer are as paranoid about threats to their business as they come, and they've always rationalized the cash hoard, which now tops $43 billion, as a cushion against rivals. It gives Microsoft the ability to make multibillion investments and acquisitions without batting an eye.

[snip]

So why the reversal? Mostly because the cash hoard simply got too big.

As might be expected, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has been all over the story. The latest news, including the results of a P-I poll on what Microsoft should do with its money, can be found at the paper's Microsoft blog.

Faster than a speeding truck

I wouldn't expect to see these showing up at JaxPort anytime soon, but I am curious to see what type of impact a ship fast enough to compete with trucks would have on the First Coast's logistic industry.

If you take a polynesian canoe and add some creative engineering, futuristic technology and advanced calculations you get a pentamaran. A cargo transportation ship with the speed of a trailer.

Putting it all together

While this chart might not actually make everything clearer, it might be a good cautionary note to hang in, say, your CFO's office.

Browser Wars

Talk of new browser wars -- harkening back to the days when every other Web site urged you to go with one or another broswer -- might sound a little too much like inside tech baseball. What makes the subject so important is that the way that Microsoft and its competitors make their browser have a radical impact on how we interact with the World Wide Web:

The tiniest shift, history shows us, can signal the greatest change. News last weekend that Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) web browser had lost a single percentage point of market share might not sound all that significant today, but it could well mean the browser wars are back on. One percent is all it takes.

As someone who spends much of his Web time on a Macintosh equipped with IE 5 (still using OS9, so no chance of going with Firefly), all I can say is I hope that either Microsoft gets standard compliant real quick, or someone ports one of the new Mozilla browsers from OS X.

What is 'fries' in Hindi?

Not to make this outsourcing day, but this story was too odd to pass up:

Pull off Interstate 55 near Cape Girardeau, Mo., and into the drive-through lane of a McDonald's next to the highway and you'll get fast, friendly service, even though the person taking your order is not in the restaurant - or even in Missouri.

The order taker is in a call center in Colorado Springs, more than 900 miles away, connected to the customer and to the workers preparing the food by high-speed data lines. Even some restaurant jobs, it seems, are not immune to outsourcing.

To be sure, we're talking about outsourcing, not offshoring here ... but with medical transcription and call center jobs already going overseas, why not drivethrus?

Following the jobs

Everytime we write about a Jacksonville company laying off technology workers, we hear from plenty of employees concerned about outsourcing, the new tendency of many companies to ship jobs to other countries.

This, however, is the first time we've heard of someone shipping themselves to another country because the jobs are there.

At one table, five friends from Singapore sat with a 6-foot-3, 23-year-old anomaly: Joshua Bornstein, perhaps the only American among the Bangalore-based employees of Infosys Technologies and one of the few Americans of his generation in Bangalore.

For all the complaints about American jobs migrating here through outsourcing, few Americans have thought to follow them. Eight months ago, Josh Bornstein did.

By design

The 130 winners of the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Award are online, providing a glimpse at how creativity can be applied to a range of products.

With the jury looking at a variety of categories, the winners include business tools like the Bloomberg Terminal (above), consumer devices such as the MovieBeam receiver (MovieBeam debuted in Jacksonville) and oddities like the blogospher favorite Circular Printer.

New Bagle Virus - Breaking News

I'm up to four of the virus-laden e-mails already ... opening my e-mail tomorrow going to be fun.

Bagle -- the virus, that is -- is back. Like the last version, Bagle.AG is spread via e-mail, usually coming in on "spoofed" address, making the message look like it comes from a trusted source. Of course, if you don't recognize the sender, or if it is a known name, but the message doesn't look authentic, there's no need to open the attachment. As NewsFactor Network reminds us:

(Bagel's) propagation depends on the actions of users. If they do not open e-mail attachments from unknown senders, the threat of infection is minimal.

Apple for teacher

Those of you white-headphone-types all het up about today's release of Apple's new iPod (which you can get here) might be interested in Newsweek's article on why the little music box is so revolutionary. (One major impact of Apple's entry into the music realm has been the affect on digitial rights management, which this article does a nice job explaining.

You also, by the bye, might be interested in Alpine's iPod-your-car kit, which is considered one of the better ones out there (yes, better than the built-in BMW version, although if you can afford a BMW, you're probably not complaining.), as well as this, which is so odd that we just like sharing it.

Career Guidance

In today's First Business section, we pointed you to CareerJournal, the Wall Street Journal's compendium of job-related articles in advice. A recent article the site had on career assessment tests reminded us of come of our favorite free tests:

• Career Focus 2000 Interest Inventory - Designed for students and career-switching adults, the career focus helps identify which jobs you'd enjoy the most.
  
• Myers-Briggs Personality Type Test - This classic test (or, more accurately, an informal version thereof, since full-fledged versions cost money) will help you figure out how you best deal with people and jobs.
  
• Kingdomality Personal Preference Profile - Wonder what you would have done in the Middle Ages? Ever think about how the personalities of the ideal king or perfect knight would fit into today's work world?
  

Of course, these are all business-related quizzes, ones that could perhaps actually help you in your career. Since this isn't a Livejournal, we'll refrain from telling you figure out which Buffy character you are or anything of that sort.

Welcome!

And thanks for stopping by.

This is the (Jacksonville) Times-Union's new Getting Ahead blog, a resource that will direct you to the latest business news, watercooler chatter and industrial activities. Aimed at the readers of the Sunday Business section, this site will (hopefully) but inform and entertain you.

We are, of course, open to suggestions and comments. If you have either, please send them to Timothy Gibbons.