You’re the CEO of your company. But do you look and act like a leader? Here are five ways to get started.Most members of a team know when they’re doing their work well. They often have a particular area of expertise, and they have deadlines and deliverables
There are seven key factors that change in scale in a “big deal.” Here’s how to identify them–and then take the necessary steps to land it.You don’t climb the biggest hill in your neighborhood the same way you would tackle Mount Everest. Changes in scale require a big shift in tactics.Let’s start with the seven things that make your big sale different than your average size sale:Size: Obvious, sure, but worth the mention. Adding a couple of zeros to the deal can change more than just the sweatiness of your palms.Complexity: The bigger the deal, the more moving parts. Moving from 100 loaves to 100,000 loaves may not change the recipe–but it increases the logistical complexity of getting the bread to the market.Decision-makers: Big sales choices are made by more senior people with different agendas (and budgets) than the front-line user.
22 best Twitter apps for 2012The microblogging service Twitter has become a very big deal, enabling everybody to depose dictators, mock X Factor contestants and lose their jobs for posting offensive things when they’re drunk. However, while the service itself is really simple the choice of desktop Twitter software isn’t.
Want to become an effective leader? Watch the way you sit, stand, and posture, says a Harvard B-School professor.We know how leaders are supposed to look. They stand straight and tall.
Friends in high places can help your company take off–but big endorsements cost big bucks. See how these companies found famous fans.When Shaun Neff launched Neff Headwear a decade ago, he knew his streetwear line could get a big boost if he could find some high-profile fans. But as a start-up, he lacked the cash needed to pay celebrities to endorse his products. So he reached out instead to users who’d have street (or ski slope) cred, giving away Neff beanies and headbands to amateur snowboarders.The brand took off, eventually picking up genuine organic interest from celebrities like Lil Wayne. And as the company expanded beyond the “surf, skate, and snow” niche, Neff was able to start paying celebs to wear his wares.
The cloud naturally represents the future of file storage beyond physical media, but the landscape is a little bit like International waters at the moment. Anything goes and everything is up for grabs.Google and Microsoft have both made bold moves towards commanding the arena this week, aiming to battle some of the early dominance away from pioneers like Dropbox, which continues to improve its service and lurkers like Apple, Sony and Samsung.Google’s service comes in the form of Google Drive, finally announced after months of speculation, which offers 5GB of service for free and up to 1TB for a considerable monthly fee, along with a host of neat sharing options. SkyDrive is Microsoft’s solution.
Oracle attorneys told a federal jury that Google knew as far back as 2005 that it needed to license Java when developing the Android OS.In an October 2005 email brought out in court, Google senior vice president Andy Rubin was cited as proposing a licensing agreement with Oracle chief executive officer Larry Page.Evidence was also brought forward showing that as of February 2006 Google was in negotiations for a Java license with Oracle. However, ultimately the deal fell through when Google didn’t agree to the terms of the license, Oracle’s attorney said.Oracle is now seeking $1.1 billion in damages as well as a license agreement for Google to continue distributing Android.“The creators of Java made it free and open, and cheered the launch of Android,” a Google spokesperson told TechRadar.“Oracle’s claims not only go beyond copyright and patent law, but also threaten the entire Java community, software developers, and the goal of making systems work together smoothly.”The cheering Google refers to came from Sun Microsystems then-CEO Jonathan Schwartz back in 2007, who praised Android at launch. That same blog post of praise mysteriously vanished after Oracle acquired Sun and became embroiled in the current copyright suit with Google.The two month long trial between Oracle and Google only just started today, which may finally bring closure to the long-standing patent dispute.
By Introducing the Lumia 900, Nokia is effectively bringing a larger, 4G LTE, version of their Lumia 800 to the market. It has just about all the qualities of its predecessor, but the larger size changes the user experience slightly, and the battery life seems to be better out of the box. The Nokia Lumia 900 builds on the new industrial introduced by the Nokia N9 which uses a single bloc of polycarbonate that effectively becomes a cradle for the rest of the phone. This makes it extremely resistant to shocks, while giving it a soft texture
Data and datingWith the rise of social networks and a trend to revealing more than we should about ourselves online, the stigma that used to be attached to online dating websites is fading fast.In fact, it’s now just as common for singletons to log on to find a partner as it is for them to go to the pub and sheepishly eye someone up in the corner.When it comes to dating sites, though, it’s not as much about love at first sight but love at first insight – and one website which reckons it has got this nailed is eHarmony.Founded in 2000 in the US by a marriage councillor who decided to turn his decades of experience with warring couples into a website, eHarmony is well known for its rather laborious sign up process.This equates to around 250 questions a member needs to answer before they even get a sniff of a date.According to eHarmony…1. Yoga is the most popular exercise among members2. Foodies have more of a chance of finding love3. Men prefer woman who don’t fritter money4
A founder of Women 2.0 explains how the start-up scene is evolving for women and offers networking advice for aspiring female founders.Silicon Valley may earn praise for its creativity and dynamism, but rarely is America’s foremost start-up hub held up as a model of diversity. The world’s engineers may flock to the area’s start-ups, but when Shaherose Charania moved to the Valley to explore becoming an entrepreneur several years ago, she often found herself the only woman on product teams and at networking events. These days, she and a few friends are doing something about this gender imbalance with Women 2.0, an organizaton that supports female founders and runs a host of women-friendly networking events around the world.