The Amazing Resource

Along with "tell me about yourself," "describe your strengths" is one of the questions that you know you'll be asked in a job interview. At first blush, it sounds like an easy question. But because it's such a broad topic, it can actually be quite difficult to answer well. Below are a few guidelines to help you prepare for and deliver a great response. • Identify your strengths. You should think very carefully about your personal strengths well before you step foot into your interview. It's not unusual for even the most ambitious professional to be at a loss as to her own strengths. Try viewing resume samples and notice some of the strengths that come across. Do any of those apply to you? Another good source of "strength identification" is to ask your friends and family what they see as your positive attributes. Are you organized? Decisive? Detail-oriented? It's a good bet that these qualities come through at work as well. • Limit your stre

Virtualization is the topic du jour in IT today. The technology is cool, the attributes are slick and now the stock market even is tracking it. The adoption problem that is facing virtualization strategies stems from a bottom up IT driven approach versus a top down business aligned approach. Furthermore, the technology is limiting in value unless it is implemented as a “virtual service oriented platform architecture” with a dynamic operational model. In our experience, we took a business aligned approach and created a virtual oriented utility platform that incorporates the needs of the business, the control over execution and the leverage of everything virtual. This Virtual Oriented Utility Strategy can be implemented & leveraged by following the 9 step blueprint below. What can a Virtual Oriented Utility Strategy help organizations do… - become more flexible and responsive to the dynamic needs of the business - simplify & reduce the complexity of the IT environment - get more

SWOT Expert is the first multimedia software solution for conducting a Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats assessment for your organization. Listen and watch as a consultant guides you through a structured process that asks you the probing questions that will help you uncover new opportunities and fend off threats.

Graphical Analysis 3 arrives as an easy to use program that produces, analyzes and prints graphs that you make. It’s been a popular product for years and with this third version new features and capabilities are included as well as an updated look. Graphical Analysis 3 can do a lot of things. Create and print graphs, data tables, text, FFTs, and histograms. They are highly customizable; allowing you to perform automatic curve fits, calculate statistics, tangents, integrals, and interpolations. You can also adjust the parameters of your graphs. Putting data into Graphical Analysis 3 is easy. Type the values into the data table, import your collected data from a supported TI graphing calculator using the TI-GRAPH LINK cable or USB direct cable supplied with TI-84 or TI-89 Titanium Calculators. Then simply copy and paste the data from another program. New features abound, including video analysis of still photos, double-Y graphs, function plotting, and support for importing information fr

In a comment to my previous entry “How to Sell to a CEO” karishmak asked: “How do I reach the CEO? We can be very professional and act like a CEO but its very difficult to reach the CEO especially in the offshore software industry where you are restricted to talk through phones, emails and skypes. Can any one help?” Great question. There are three solutions to this problem: 1. Work with lower level contacts to gradually win access. 2. Enlist the help of a colleague, peer or friend of the CEO. 3. Trick the CEO into taking your call. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. Let’s start with the first method, because it’s the way that most customers would prefer you approach the situation. My description of the first method is based upon the wisdom of Neil Rackham, author of the classic sales book “Spin Selling.” He points out that in most companies the “decision” to buy (or not buy) an offering is often shared between three individuals: 1. The “budget owner.” This is the CEO o

By: Geoffrey James I’ve been harping on lead generation because that’s where sales pros need a lot of help. In fact, over 70 percent of sales leaders are not satisfied with their lead generation process, according to a survey of sales managers conducted by Jim Dickie , the head of the research and benchmarking firm CSO Insights. Actually, I’m surprised that number isn’t higher because I’ve never, ever heard a sales rep say: “Gee we’ve been getting plenty of great leads!” According to Tom Roth , president of Wilson Learning , the root of that dissatisfaction lies in the widely-held (but hilariously mistaken) belief that the best way to get higher sales volumes is to have the sales team call on as many prospects as possible. As a result, marketing groups tend to generate long lists of generic “prospects” in the hopes that the sales pros can turn those so-called “prospects” into real live customers. Then management turns the screws on the sales teams to make more cold calls. Howe

Founded 30 years ago at the dawn of biotech, Genentech is a legend in an industry where companies yearn to do what it does: to make billions of dollars off of novel drugs while remaining true to innovation and science. Unfortunately, it's also a legend being positioned for a fall. That's because the Swiss drug giant Roche, which has owned a majority of Genentech shares since 1990, wants to buy the 44 percent of shares in the company that it does not already hold. Late Thursday, Genentech said it had formed a special committee to evaluate the $89 per-share offer, which many analysts and shareholders believe is too low. At any price, this whopper of a deal could mean an end to Genentech’s distinctive culture of innovation, despite promises from Roche not to meddle. It would also provide more evidence that the days of “Big Biotech” – a relatively small subset of successful companies in an industry that takes years to develop products and to become profitable – are over. Big Biote

One of the qualities of a great leader is the ability to make a decision and to live with it. Some people are born with this skill, however most of us are incapable of making decisions and sticking by it. I believe taking the right decision is crucial for success. Here are a few points that can help you make the RIGHT decision and how to abide by it. Section 1 What is a decision ? Before we start it’s important to know what we are talking about: Decision making can be regarded as an outcome of mental processes (cognitive process) leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion. For this post I will mostly point out actions. Some of the decision making techniques that we use in everyday life include: * listing the advantages and disadvantages of each option This is a smart way to start * flipping a coin, cutting a deck of playing cards, and other random o

Discovering the four levels of performance consciousness is a defining professional moment. This consciousness isn't about being awake; it's about being aware of why you're successful or not. There are four levels of consciousness. 1. Unconscious Incompetent. This person doesn't know ... that he doesn't know. Also called a DK2, which is short for "Don't know, squared." A DK2 is not only incapable, but actually clueless about his inability. Before you say, "There, but for the grace of God, go I," it's important to note that everyone is a DK2 sometime. The challenge is to not live your life that way because DK2 is a terminal professional condition. Right now you're probably saying, "Oh, Great One, please, stop me before I DK2 again." Don't fret; we'll get to that. 2. Unconscious Competent. This individual lurches uncontrollably toward success without knowing how or why. Sometimes we call an Unconscious Comp