Catching Up On Readings: 2011 The Year Of 1M/1M

Happy New Year to all readers! The 1M/1M initiative has come a long way this year, and we have a lot planned for 2011. We also have a number of Top 10 Trends posts covering various aspects of technology. Click on the full article to read the past week’s posts. >>>

Gary Cohen On Just Ask Leadership (Part 2)

By guest author Gary Cohen

[The first part of Gary’s post focused on improving vision, one of the five categories of Just Ask Leadership. This second and final installment is about ensuring accountability. To learn more about the rest of Gary’s approach – build unity and cooperation, create better decisions, and motivate to action – read his book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions.]

Ensure Accountability #1:

Who’s to blame—the employee or the job description?

When an employee isn’t performing well, leaders often ask:

• Why didn’t you reach your sales targets?
• How come you didn’t finish that report on time?
• What skills do you need to add or improve?

>>>

Gary Cohen On Just Ask Leadership (Part 1)

By guest author Gary Cohen

[The end of the year is a time for people and businesses to reflect on the past twelve months and think about goals for the future and changes that need to be made. With, among other problems, the financial crisis, the BP oil spill, and, for many U.S. companies, record profits at a time when joblessness remains high and wages stagnant, it is vital that business leaders continually assess their leadership and decision-making skills and strive to maintain long-term vision. One way to do this, believes Gary Cohen, is to ask rather than tell. Cohen’s book, Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions, aims to help leaders change their mindset through asking the right questions in the right way to get more engaged employees and higher-quality decisions.] >>>

New Year’s Resolutions For Your Brand: 10 Things To Try In 2011

By guest author Shawn Parr

[Shawn Parr, CEO of a design and innovation consultancy, offers ideas for companies of all stripes to assess and strengthen their brands for 2011.]

1. BE COURAGEOUS, OFTEN

Take bold steps to stand out from the crowd. Reflect on 2010 and look at what you did well and what you could have done differently. Take courageous steps to help your brand stand out in 2011. >>>

Catching Up On Readings: Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to all readers. We have a few end-of-the-year posts coming up this week, so stay tuned. Click on the full article to read the past week’s posts. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Alan Perkins, CIO of Altium (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: Well, there are fairly hairy issues around some of the security aspects of the cloud. Through this vault concept of yours, you make designs available to be hosted in a public repository, right? What is stopping people from copying designs? What are the intellectual property issues? I’m not talking about physical security but I am talking about securing the intellectual property, securing the re-use of those designs and all those sorts of issues around it such as how do people get paid their dues and royalties. Can you share with us insights on how are some of these hairy issues around your vault architecture are dealt with? >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Alan Perkins, CIO of Altium (Part 4)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Shaloo Shalini

SM: That is interesting to know. You are saying that for large file transfers you, don’t use any of the services like youSENDit?

AP: Typically not. Obviously, there are a few places within Altium where people individually use such services. Some of my IT team use a range of different utilities. Frankly, I don’t know what some of these newer utilities are. But I know our development and R&D team, they use a number of such utilities as well, it is not a particularly big issue for us. >>>

Merry Christmas

To all those who celebrate Christmas, let me wish you a wonderful holiday weekend with lots of good food. I am making a Moroccan lamb tajine for Christmas lunch tomorrow. Do feel free to share what you all are making this weekend.

And while on the topic of food and cooking, I want to share with you some pictures of various meals we have shared with friends this year … do feel free to do the same … share links to food pictures.

Enjoy!