Company Profile:

Company Profile: Think Beyond the Label

About Think Beyond the Label

Think Beyond the Label is committed to making the business case for employing people with disabilities. We are a partnership of health and human service and employment agencies with federal grants, coming together to build a uniform national infrastructure and approach that connects businesses to qualified candidates with disabilities. Our goal is simple: to raise awareness that hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense. Employees with disabilities have unique, competitively relevant knowledge and perspectives about work processes, bringing different perspectives to meeting work requirements and goals successfully. Hiring someone who “thinks outside the box” might be thinking too small when there’s an opportunity to hire someone who lives outside the box.

Health & Disability Advocates (HDA), is a national nonprofit organization that promotes income security and improved health care access for children, people with disabilities, and low-income older adults. HDA is spearheading the Think Beyond the Label campaign on behalf of more than 40 states and various national and regional organizations by serving as its fiscal agent.

Company Website:

http://www.thinkbeyondthelabel.com/Default.aspx

About People: Seth Godin

Seth Godin (born July 10, 1960) is an entrepreneur, author and public speaker.

At 14, Godin took his first steps into entrepreneurship printing Biorhythms at the local university and selling them for $30 each. At 16, Godin founded a ski club and took a group of 50-60 children to ski by his house in Buffalo every week. Around this time Godin is also known to have worked at a fast food outlet and in media sales.

Godin graduated from Tufts University in 1982 with a degree in computer science and philosophy. Godin earned his MBA in marketing from Stanford Business School. From 1983 to 1986, he worked as a brand manager at Spinnaker Software. For a time Godin commuted every week between California and Boston both to do his new job and to complete his MBA.

After leaving Spinnaker Software in 1986, Godin became a book packager. It was in the same offices that Godin met Mark Hurst and founded Yoyodyne. After a few years Godin sold the book packaging business to his employees and focused his efforts on Yoyodyne, one of the first online marketing companies. It was with Yoyodyne that Godin came up with the concept of permission marketing. For a period of time, Godin served as a columnist for Fast Company

Godin and his wife Helene now live in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

I have read a couples of his book:

1. Godin, Seth (2010). Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?. Portfolio Hardcover

2. Godin, Seth (2005). All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World. Portfolio Hardcover.

You know what? Both of the books are amazing. I have read them twice.

Meanwhile, you should check on his blog or website:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Obama Defends Spill Response, Says Drilling Risks Will Rise

President Barack Obama defended his administration’s response to the BP Plc oil spill and said Americans one day must decide how much risk they will tolerate to keep drilling for fossil fuels.

While domestic oil production remains an important part of U.S. energy policy, the “unprecedented disaster” unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico should be “a wake-up call” that will spur the transition to alternative energy sources, Obama said.

“We as a society are going to have to make some very serious determinations in terms of what risks are we willing to accept” in extending exploration into ever more remote locations, Obama said at a White House news conference today.

In the aftermath of the BP spill, Obama is suspending exploration in two areas off Alaska, canceling pending lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and proposed sales off Virginia’s coast, extending by six months a moratorium on deepwater drilling permits and suspending operations at all 33 exploratory wells being drilled in the Gulf. He also said more must be done to wipe out the “cozy and sometime corrupt relationship” between oil companies and federal officials who regulate them.

Obama’s decision to delay leases signals that two decades of “pro-drilling sentiment appears to have reached its turning point,” Kevin Book, a managing director at ClearView Energy Partners LLC, a Washington-based policy analysis firm, said today in a note to investors.

Taking Responsibility

Obama, who is scheduled to visit the Gulf coast tomorrow, said the federal government is fully in charge of stopping the oil leak and cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico, after weeks of criticism, including from some Democrats, for not acting more forcefully since the disaster began April 20.

“I take responsibility,” he said. “It is my job to make sure that everything is done to shut this down.”

He rejected criticism that he’s let BP run the process.

“Every key decision and action that they take must be approved by us in advance,” he said. “This notion that somehow the federal government is sitting on the sidelines” while BP is making decisions “is simply not true.”

In the wake of criticism of the government’s oversight of energy exploration, the head of the Minerals Management Service, Elizabeth Birnbaum, submitted her resignation from the post she’s held since last July.

“This oil spill has made clear that more reforms are needed,” Obama said. He said he bears responsibility for the lagging efforts to overhaul the agency’s culture.

Policy Review

Obama’s comments and the changes in drilling policy follow a 30-day safety review on offshore drilling the president ordered from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar following the explosion and fire aboard a drilling rig leased by BP, which caused the massive oil spill.

His remarks didn’t quell criticism. The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a statement citing Obama’s “failed leadership” and saying he “continued to blame President George W. Bush” to avoid responsibility.

Republican Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana said the administration was slow to come up with a plan to protect coastal marshes.

“If all hands were on deck the president would have rolled up his sleeves Day One,” he said at a hearing. “It didn’t happen for over two weeks.”

Falling Short

Obama said the government response has fallen short in some areas. The effort to protect shorelines, for example, “hasn’t been as nimble as it needs to be,” he said. Government agencies may have underestimated how bad a “worst-case” incident on a deepwater rig might be, he said.

“Inevitably, in things this big, there are going to be places where things fall short,” Obama said.

BP continues to be taking the lead in the work to cap the leak 5,000 feet below the surface because the company has the “best technology” to perform the operation, he said.

The government is working on the surface cleanup and “we will demand they pay every dime” for the damage done to the environment and the hardship on Gulf businesses, Obama said.

Obama said he believes BP’s interests are “aligned” with the public interest in seeing that the leak is stopped. “They want this thing capped as badly as anyone does,” he said.

Where the company’s interest may diverge is in assessing the impact of the spill and “we have to verify whatever they have to say about the damage,” he said.

Obama said he still views domestic oil production as an integral part of the U.S.’s energy mix while the country moves toward clean-energy alternatives.

“Where I was wrong was in my belief that the oil companies had their act together when it came to worst-case scenarios,” he said.

BP began pumping mud-like drilling fluid into the well yesterday in a procedure known as a “top kill.” U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said the work has temporarily stopped the flow of oil and natural gas, though it isn’t yet certain that the technique will be a permanent fix.

Company Profile: Foxconn Technology Group

Guided by a belief that the electronics products would be an integral part of everyday life in every office and in every home, Terry Gou founded Hon Hai Precision Industry Company Ltd, the anchor company of Foxconn Technology Group in 1974 with US$7,500, a devotion in integrating expertise for mechanical and electrical parts and an uncommon concept to provide the lowest "total cost" solution to increase the affordability of electronics products for all mankind.

Today, Foxconn Technology Group is the most dependable partner for joint-design, joint-development, manufacturing, assembly and after-sales services to global Computer, Communication and Consumer-electronics ("3C") leaders. Aided by its legendary green manufacturing execution, uncompromising customer devotion and its award-winning proprietary business model, eCMMS, Foxconn has been the most trusted name in contract manufacturing services (including CEM, EMS, ODM and CMMS) in the world.

Latest News:

Travel: Yungas Road

The North Yungas Road (alternatively known as Grove's Road, Coroico Road, Camino de las Yungas, El Camino de la Muerte, Road of Death or Death Road) is a 61-kilometre (38 mi) or 69-kilometre (43 mi) road^[1] leading from La Paz to Coroico, 56 kilometres (35 mi) northeast of La Paz in the Yungas region of Bolivia. It is legendary for its extreme danger and in 1995 the Inter-American Development Bank christened it as the "world's most dangerous road".^[2][3][4] One estimate is that 200 to 300 travellers were killed yearly along the road.^[4] The road includes crosses marking many of the spots where vehicles have fallen.

A South Yungas Road (Chulumani Road) exists that connects La Paz to Chulumani, 64 kilometres (40 mi) east of La Paz, and is considered to be nearly as dangerous as the north road.

About Leader: Mikhail Dmitrievitch Prokhorov

Mikhail Dmitrievitch Prokhorov (Russian: Михаил Дмитриевич Прохоров; born May 3, 1965) is a self-made Russian billionaire entrepreneur and owner of the New Jersey Nets. After graduating from the Moscow Finance Institute he made his name in the financial sector and went on to become one of Russia's leading industrialists in the precious metals sector. While he was running Norilsk Nickel, the company became the world's largest producer of nickel and palladium. He is currently chairman of Polyus Gold, Russia's largest gold producer, and President of Onexim Group. Prokhorov is one of the richest men in Russia and the 39th richest man in the world according to the 2010 Forbes list with an estimated fortune of $13.4 billion.

In 1989, Prokhorov graduated with honors from the Finance Academy under the Government of RF, known at the time as the Moscow Finance Institute. From 1989 to 1992, Prokhorov worked in a management position at the International Bank for Economic Cooperation, and afterwards shortly served as head of Management Board of the International Finance Company (MFK). In 1993, aged 28, during the largely un-regulated privatization of former state-controlled industries after the fall of Communism, Prokhorov (together with Vladimir Potanin) engineered the acquisition of Norilsk Nickel by Onexim Bank, of which he was then chairman of the board

What is: Original equipment manufacturer

An original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, manufactures products or components that are purchased by a company and retailed under the purchasing company's brand name. OEM refers to the company that originally manufactured the product.

When referring to automotive parts, OEM designates a replacement part made by the manufacturer of the original part.

Confusingly, OEM may also refer to a company that purchases a component made by a second company for use in the purchasing company's products. For instance, under this definition, if company 'A Inc' purchases optical drives from company 'B Ltd' that will be used in 'A Inc' computers, then 'company A' is the OEM.

An even more confusing, contradictory definition for OEM is a company that sells the product of the second company under its own brand name.

Companies who follow the above practices are better termed VARs (value-added resellers) or resellers, respectively.

Article: Work Smart: Defrag Your Calendar by Batching Tasks

Every employee has certain obligations throughout the workweek on top of their core job: like attending meetings, taking phone calls, replying to email, and filling out paperwork. It's natural to want to tackle these things as they come up. But your core job requires solid blocks of time, when you can dive in, get creative, and think things through without interruptions.

When you've got a 10 a.m. meeting, a 1 p.m. lunch, and a 3:30 phone conference, your core work time gets fragmented into small chunks sandwiched between those obligations. A schedule fragmented by appointments means that you won't start that big project just now, because you've got a meeting in 25 minutes.

One of the more advanced (and obvious!) productivity techniques is to group similar to-do's and knock them all out at the same time. I call this task batching. It makes better use of your day by chunking similar activities into contiguous blocks of time.

You don't do laundry every time you throw a shirt into the hamper--you wait till you've got a full load to run. That's task batching. There are two ways to batch tasks: by action and by context.

To batch tasks by action, save up similar to-do's and set aside time to get them all done at once. This works especially well for repetitive tasks. For example, a freelancer I know gets requests for phone consultations by potential clients throughout the week. To avoid fragmenting his days with one phone call here and one phone call there, he blocks out Tuesday and Thursday mornings exclusively for these calls. That way he can easily get into and stay in client discussion mode. Having a set time helps reduce scheduling back-and-forth too: when someone asks to schedule an initial consultation by phone, he says "Pick any time between 10 a.m. and noon on any Tuesday or Thursday."

This same principle works for clearing out your email inbox. Set times every day, like at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., to process your mail. Then shut down your email program the rest of the time to work without the distraction of that "new mail" alarm going off.

To batch tasks by context, group the things you have to do by situation, surroundings, or the tools you have available. For example, keep a "to call" list on your cell phone. You can also keep a grocery list on your phone. Keep all the paperwork you need to file or discard near the filing cabinet, with folders, a label maker, and a shredder nearby. And before you leave work, collect paperwork you have to review into a folder that lives in your workbag, for easy access on the train or bus ride home. Productivity expert David Allen recommends including context with every task on your to-do list, like "Calls," "At Computer," "Errands," "At Office," "At Home," etc.

The goal of task batching is to give yourself as much uninterrupted time to do your core work as possible in between meetings, phone calls, and email. When you can, top- or bottom-load your schedule, stacking meetings one after another at the beginning or end of the day, to reduce schedule fragmentation.

Task batching defragments your calendar and helps you take advantage of momentum to get done things more efficiently than switching between one-off to-do's.

Article

What is the Expiration Date on a Good Idea?

BY FC Expert Blogger Paul GloverWed May 19, 2010

This blog is written by a member of our expert blogging community and expresses that expert's views alone.

I recently began coaching a manager who told me “I have a million ideas a day.” My reply: “It doesn’t matters how many ideas you have, but how many good ideas you implement.” Success in the Knowledge Economy requires every Manager have:

1. a constant flow of good ideas about how to improve themselves, the people they work with and their operation, and
2. a high “Speed of Implementation” - the ability to put a good idea into action ASAP after having it or hearing about it (taking someone else’s good idea and putting it in to action is absolutely okay – just give them credit for having it).

However, good Idea Generation and a high “Speed of Implementation” only work under the following conditions:

1. You gotta have an Action Plan for Success! No Action Plan means no way you can know what ideas will or will not contribute to the Plan’s success.

1. You gotta have an Idea List! Carry a notebook. Write down every idea you have or hear about that you believe will move your Plan towards success.

1. You gotta Prioritize! Constantly prioritize your Idea List. Identify ideas you believe will generate the most success and implement them first.

1. You gotta implement only Ideas that will move your Plan forward! Only implement those ideas you believe will move your Plan towards success. Eliminate ideas that will not contribute to your Plan’s success.

1. You gotta ignore the Negativism! Every new idea will generate the “that will never work” response. Only pay attention to the opinions of a few trusted advisors who understand your Plan.

1. You gotta have the Skill Set necessary to implement the idea! If you don’t have the required skill set, find someone who does and involve them in the implementation process.

1. You gotta make Time! Once you have decided to implement an idea, give it the time, energy, and resources it needs to succeed. Commit to taking at least one Action Step each day to implement an idea.

1. You gotta be willing to Fail! Don’t fall in love with an idea! Most ideas are better in theory then they are in reality. Accept this and “fail fast” by realizing when an idea is not going to produce the ROI on the time, energy and resources needed to make it work, then stop investing time, energy and resources, and move on to the next idea on your Idea List.

1. You gotta stop being a Perfectionist! There is no “perfect idea.” Avoid the Analysis-Paralysis Trap by collecting only enough Facts to determine if the idea moves your Plan towards success – if it does, implement then improve the idea.

The Bottom Line: Good ideas have a limited shelf life – it may be a day, a week, a month or a year. But every day you do nothing to implement a good idea is one day closer to its expiration date!

Paul Glover Go to www.trainingeverydayleaders.com for more information about Idea Implementation in the Time of the WorkQuake™.

Company Profile: Nan Fung Group

Nan Fung Group (traditional Chinese: 南豐集團) is a privately held group of companies carrying on the business of property development as its core business in Greater China including shipping, textiles and financial services. It is also one of the leading property developers and largest privately held developers in Hong Kong.

Nan Fung was founded in 1954 by Ningbo-born businessman, Mr. Chen Din Hwa, as small textile firm in Hong Kong. In 1978, it developed its first major private housing estate, Nam Fung Sun Chuen, in Quarry Bay, Hong Kong.

Business:

1. Property Development

2. Property Management

3. Construction

4. Cotton & Textile

5. Shipping

6. Finance

7. Other investment

Recently, Nan Fung has also joined with HSBC to setup the HSBC NF China Real Estate Fund specializing in Mainland real estate investment opportunities.