Seattle Tech Recruiter Provides Career Advice, Makes Prediction
As technology companies watch the debate in Congress on visas, one fact remains: They need skilled workers. Amid the debate, a top Seattle tech recruiter answers questions – from career advice to a prediction on future trends.
May 21, 2013
As an advocate for technology companies, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) has reached agreement with Democrats on visas for skilled workers. In a bill now headed for the Senate floor, the cap on H1-B visas would increase from 65,000 to 110,000. And the bill has provisos that would increase the number even higher – to 180,000.
He’s been at odds with Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and unions over the formula that calculates the number of visas for foreign technology workers.
Sen. Hatch’s goal is clear. He wants to make it possible for technology firms to be able to hire more high-skilled foreign workers.
Amid all this, what does a Seattle tech recruiter think?
“Our country needs to improve our immigration program so we can bring on more H1-Bs and allow them to become U.S. citizens,” says Jim Ange, CEO of ExecTap (www.exectap.com).
“They come here to our universities and then we have to send them home; this is a major loss to our countries IP,” he adds.
Launched in 2010, ExecTap has emerged as a top-notch boutique recruiting firm in competitive Seattle. That’s a noteworthy achievement considering Seattle ranks first in the nation in high-tech job growth, according to several published reports.
Seattle has nearly 130,000 tech workers and ranks in the top five for high-tech wages. But Seattle companies still need more skilled tech employees.
From an interview, here’s an edited excerpt of Mr. Ange’s answers:
Q: When and why did you launch ExecTap?
A: In 2010, after years of using recruiting firms to help me find top talent which were mostly unsuccessful, I saw a hole in the market around the high-tech sector as many recruiters could not understand specifics around skill set and talents that are required in the variety of roles from CxO to a security engineer.
I felt there was a need for a focused firm in this area that could understand the client’s needs and find the exact talent to fill the role.
Q: What is the ExecTap business philosophy and/or mission?
A: Philosophy: Trust, honesty, value with both the employee candidate and the employer.
Q: How many people are in your firm?
A: Three.
Q: How has tech changed in human resources?
A: They have more automated tools, more ways of gathering information on their employees so they have become much more powerful.
Q: What job descriptions do you fill the most?
A: Senior sales and sales-engineering roles, director of development, cloud and or SaaS related services and CxO levels.
The sales roles are the hardest to fill due to there are very few truly talented sales execs and sales engineers in the market.
Q: In what part of tech are the most jobs? Why?
A: That’s easy, development due to most high tech companies require some level of coding ether building something new or fixing an existing tool that the company cannot get rid of. Good developers are king!
Q: Generally speaking, what traits or attributes make a successful tech applicant?
A: They write their resumes to fit the job description and if they don’t fit they don’t apply with honesty, transparency and interest.
Q: What mistakes should candidates avoid?
A: Don’t post your resume for a job that you’re not qualified for; you waste your time and the recruiters.
- Have your LinkedIn profile and the resume match up.
- Don’t talk about what you want to be when you grow up.
- Don’t make your resume too long, use short sentences or bullets and then use that as a deeper conversation during the interview.
- If you get the offer don’t be greedy and try to negotiate after you have already agreed to the general comp package.
Q: What do applicants do right?
A: Respond quickly; be direct, speak up and act interested; follow up via email or phone with a thank you; and be humble.
Q: In what should college students major for a successful tech career?
A: Computer sciences with a finance and or business degree. This is the make of any true entrepreneur, write code and be able to sell.
Q: Because technology is so dynamic with ever-changing developments, how can tech professionals stay current?
A: With the information age we have choices galore. I like:
- Something local depending your city
- Venture Beat
- Tech Flash
- Wall Street Journal
Q: What trends do you see in technology’s future?
A: The Cloud and everything around it, this is a long term mass migration that is becoming the standard.
(BI) Business intelligence and artificial intelligence and other tools that learn from your daily input; imagine having your own assistant that is taking care of all of your ongoing needs from booking your flight to ordering food with all verbal commands.
We are just scratching the surface but this one will be here very soon.
Q: What’s your branding/value proposition? Why is ExecTap a leading firm?
A: We want to understand our clients business as if we were becoming an employee directly. Our objective is to become one with our clients in every possible way.
Every role to us is very important as we know the levels we are fulfilling will affect the clients’ bottom line. Our goal is to keep this a small focused firm and have very satisfied customers.
Q: What else would you like to add?
A: This industry drives all other markets and thus why we haven’t seen a drop during the recession.
We also must simplify the tax code and lower the business tax rate to compete with other countries. This will attract more companies to build their business here in the U.S., which will benefit our economy.
From the Coach’s Corner, more HR-tech tips:
- How CIOs Can Get More Respect in the C-Suite
- Two Studies Indicate Need for IT Pros to Get Businesslike
- Study – CFOs Still Calling the Shots in IT Decisions
- Tech Planning: What If There’s Another Downturn?
“Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born.”
-Alan Kay
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Are You Underperforming in Marketing / Sales? Evaluate Your Culture
If you’re not happy about your company’s revenue, it’s time to evaluate your culture. That’s the lesson from a study by Temple’s Fox School of Business.
May 20, 2013
If you’re dissatisfied with your revenue, it’s time for an assessment of your culture’s operation. Why? Superior cultures drive business performance.
Specifically, two key elements of culture – innovation and responsiveness – have a direct impact on your company’s sales success. You must be a Ninja innovator to beat the competition, and your teams have to respond and execute strategic planning with cohesion.
They “have to work in tandem…to drive performance,” says George Chressanthis, a professor of healthcare management and marketing, who was the lead author of a Temple University study.
He was joined by assistant professor Eric Eisenstein, PhD, and doctoral student Patrick Barbro in the study: “What is the Role of Commercial Operations Effectiveness on Improving Pharmaceutical Company Business Performance?”
True, it was aimed at the pharmaceutical sector. But the lessons and applications are universal – the study’s authors provide the empirical documentation in the link between revenue and culture.
“We studied company self-reported data on their own commercial operations, totaling 26 biopharmaceutical firms in the U.S. for the period 2005 to 2011,” wrote the authors. “The sample of companies included large, medium, and small-sized pharmaceutical companies, and specialty and biotech companies.”
They said the “sample included companies that are headquartered in U.S., Europe, and Japan.”
Sales value
The report shows that the average company that improves its cultural innovation by just a .5 standard deviation of improvement is huge – a 17 percent increase in sales – $314,000 for each sales representative.
In a zero-sum game environment, the implication for under-performing companies is dour. Sales will go down every time a competitor achieves higher sales performance.
The study is ongoing and will take into account other variables, such as product differentiation.
“This will help us understand what, if any, changes we need to make in our analysis before submission of our work to an academic peer-reviewed journal for publication consideration,” explains Dr. Chressanthis.
For example, the study’s results have salient repercussions in the biopharma sector. In particular, he referred to companies looking for merger opportunities because they’re worried about their expiring patents.
Such companies should be investigating their target companies for evidence of a strong culture for a healthy merger ROI.
What if such a jewel is found? “What you don’t want to do is disturb that,” advises the professor.
Conclusions
“A commercially successful pharmaceutical industry is crucial to society for the future development of new drugs to address unmet medical needs,” wrote the authors.
“This research demonstrated the importance of executives being concerned not only about the level and placement of resource investments, but also in formulating a strategic vision that creates and fosters cultural organizational attributes necessary to sustain peak business performance,” they concluded.
And that’s true for any sector. If you’re not achieving strong business performance, see the six steps to implement a cultural change for profits.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks for more information:
- Four Tips to Motivate Employees When You’re Facing Adversity
- Overcoming Obstacles for Business Turnaround — 13 Steps
- How’s Your Strategic Planning? Here are 6 tips
“If your culture doesn’t like geeks, you are in real trouble.”
-Bill Gates
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
11 Web Site Strategies to Grow Your Professional Service Firm
To retain clients and customers, and to grow their practices, trust is a key factor for Web sites of professional service firms.
May 17, 2013
If you want to grow your professional-service firm, don’t ignore your most-visible marketing vehicle – your Web site.
Differentiate your firm with compelling thought-leadership and trust.
Here’s how:
1. Don’t be complacent on quality. Assess your strategies in providing cutting-edge content. Then, develop goals and implement an action plan to attract and keep readers.
2. Demonstrate stability with a consistent style. Convey an authoritative, but consistent, thoughtful approach with the same content traits.
3. Your substantive content should be the right quantity. Contrary to the advice you’ll often see on the Internet about brevity, your articles should be thoughtful enough to pique interest of your readers. Quantity includes frequency considerations. Use the right proportion in frequency vs. value.
4. Use rich media and other tools.Demonstrate that you’re a contemporary firm with an interesting site. That means professional-looking videos, white papers, e-books and graphics.
5. Don’t be ostentatious. You need to convey credibility and expertise in your bios and “about us” page. Be accurate but human and humble about it. Avoid an academic or technical tone. Third-person descriptions help in this regard.
6. Use state-of-the-art search engine optimization (SEO). Make it easy for prospects and clients to find you with the right keywords and use of social media.
7. Be organized in your use of relevant links. Make it easy for your users. Link your content to other relevant content.
8. Use the right tools for better branding. That means a slogan and knowing the best characteristics for a standout logo and a favicon. (A favicon is briefly explained among the eight best practices in small business marketing.)
9. Hire the right talent to enhance your site. If you don’t have the necessary online skill sets, hire the right right marketers for traditional and experiential expertise.
10. Use the right calls to action. Ensure that your content makes it easy for readers to see how your services meet their needs, and prompts them to contact you. Don’t overlook the capabilities available via Web site priming.
11. Continue to analyze your site’s effectiveness. It’s a never-ending process. If your site is losing visitors, use best practices to fix the trend.
From the Coach’s Corner, additional resource links:
- Best Practices to Optimize Your Brand, Manage Your Web Reputation
- What Successful Marketers Know About Lead Generation
- 6 Tips to Increase the Quality, Quantity of Your Client Referrals
“The Internet is the most important single development in the history of human communication since the invention of call waiting.”
-Dave Barry
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Attracting Investors – Crowdfunding vs. Venture Capital
Despite its democratic approach, how crowdfunding – a vehicle to help entrepreneurs raise money – is remarkably similar to venture capital funding.
May 15, 2013
Crowdfunding is getting a stamp of approval – as a stable source of raising capital for both established companies and startups – following a study by Wharton management Professor Ethan Mollick.
The trend is made possible by Web sites. The sites make it affordable and easy for entrepreneurs to raise cash. Ironically, crowdfunders are just as savvy as traditional sources of funds – venture capitalists – in picking the winners in which to invest.
“They are looking for similar signs of quality,” says Dr. Mollick. “There are things that increase the chance of being [crowd]funded if your backers don’t know whether you’re going to be successful yet.”
He examined Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site, for clues in how donors evaluate possible investments.
Entitled, “Swept Away by the Crowd? Crowdfunding, Venture Capital and the Selection of Entrepreneurs,” he studied 3200 projects – hardware, product design, software, and video games.
Funding priorities
The professor examined the funding priorities of investors:
“Does the project creator have experience in the field? Do they have a prototype? Do they have an endorsement from a prominent organization or individual? Those factors increase the chance a company is going to be successful, and they’re things a venture capitalist looks for as a signal of success. They seem to be the things crowedfunders look for, too.”
For example:
“You either believe that we have an existing system that makes sure the best computer science people work at Google and the best entrée funding is given by venture capitalists … or you believe that talent and opportunity are more widely distributed and that because of differences in opportunity, geography and background, people don’t have similar chances,” states the professor.
“What makes crowdfunding so interesting is that this puts the possibility of creating things in the hands of more people,” he adds.
Veronica Mars
The movie, “Veronica Mars,” is a good case study.
Creator Rob Thomas set a $2 million goal. Warner Bros. pledged n marketing and distribution support for a limited theatrical run.
The objective was attained in just 11 hours on Twitter. Later, 91,585 backers funded $5.7 million in a 30-day period.
Twitter’s role is not a surprise. Here’s how Twitter levels the playing field for small cap companies.
Kickstarter touts more crowdfunding successes: 10 percent of this year’s entries at Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival.
“Something’s happening: There’s a lot of money flowing, there’s policy and there’s promise. It’s the culmination of a bunch of things we care about,” adds Dr. Mollick.
“Trends like this have been coming together for a long time now,” he says. “Is it more democratic? Yes. But quality seems to matter, and that’s important and interesting. There are still a whole bunch of interesting questions that we don’t have answers to.”
Read his paper here.
From the Coach’s Corner, millions of entrepreneurs, investors and job seekers are still waiting for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s crowdfunding rules.
Here are more resource links:
- What Should You Divulge When Asking for Investment Capital?
- How to Attract an Angel Investor
- Eight Strategies to Consider Before Starting A Tech Business
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
-Walt Disney
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Why Innovation Isn’t Working at 82% of Surveyed Companies
An Accenture study explains why increased innovation investments haven’t resulted in competitive advantages for companies – and why their executives are disappointed with the companies’ innovation performance.
May 14, 2013
When you make a major investment in innovation, you want a good return on your investment, right? Well, hundreds of senior executives admit to disappointment over their innovation efforts despite making increased investments, according to global consulting firm Accenture.
Only 18 percent are satisfied and the consulting firm says the reasons are obvious.
The moral: If you want strong results from your investment in product and service development, don’t use a risk-averse approach. That’s the conclusion from a major Accenture study of 519 companies in France, Britain and the U.S. – of which 51 percent have increased their investments in innovation.
Ironically, 93 percent of responding executives because their sustainability hinges on innovation, and 70 percent say innovation is one of their five salient goals.
The report entitled, “Why ‘Low Risk’ Innovation Is Costly,” shows 46 percent of respondents admit to being risk averse in new initiatives.
“Additionally, only 46 percent of the companies had an effective, holistic approach to the development and introduction of new products or services, and 64 percent of them tend to pursue product line extensions rather than the development of totally new products or services,” according to an Accenture news release.
Jeopardizing results
“Many companies take a low-risk approach to innovation that can jeopardize results because they lack a prudent, disciplined approach for innovation risk management,” says Wouter Koetzier, who is managing director for Innovation and Product Development at Accenture. “It’s a situation compounded for many by an inability to rapidly scale inventions.”
“However, the research suggests that those companies that have a formal, end-to end management system to nurture, scale and launch innovations tend to be more satisfied with their results as they achieve stronger outcomes,” he maintains.
Indeed, such companies are more satisfied with their capabilities than those that haven’t installed formal programs by 43 percent to 24 percent, respectively.
Companies that have formal systems are generally in these sectors: Consumer goods and services, electronics and high tech, and health providers.
ROI
Such companies tend to experience competitive advantages, introduce new processes and products, and are ahead of the curve in being first to market in new products and services.
“The bottom line is that innovation can work better when a formal system exists to streamline processes, manage risks and mine the data needed to generate new products, services and business models to foster growth,” says Adi Alon, a managing director in the Accenture Innovation and Product Development practice.
“Approached correctly, innovation can be executed at scale, with speed and balance between renovation and game changing initiatives; driving higher strategic and commercial value,” the consultant explains.
Accenture’s recommendations for creating a formal innovation system:
- Develop end-to-end processes that contribute to speed and flexibility
- Create unique, personalized customer experiences that can foster loyalty and enhance revenues
- The application of risk management to help drive innovation with analytics, processes and tools
- Integration of the customer voice through the use of big data and social media
- Frugal innovation that can reduce complexity to shorten time to market, reduce the cost of innovation, disrupt business models and serve the emerging middle class in developing countries
Read the report.
Accenture’s study is reminiscent of a report on strategic planning – profit lessons from companies that focus long term.
From the Coach’s Corner, suggested reading:
Increase Your Business Value with 5 Basic BPO Strategies
How to Avoid Failure in Risk Management and Strategic Planning
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
-Peter Drucker
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Trends: Attracting Start up Tech Capital, Exit Strategies
Valuable insights on start up capital were revealed at two venture-capital panel discussions at a major entertainment and technology conference.
May 13, 2013
Good news if you’re concerned about obtaining capital for your startup, as long as you’re in mobile or other technology. Money is available.
That’s one of the conclusions according to the chair of two venture-capital panels at Digital Hollywood, the entertainment and technology conference.
“There is plenty of capital available now for starting and growing a new business, particularly in technology and mobile,” says Joey Tamer, the chair of the two VC panels.
“The rash of IPOs last year (2012) seems not to have encouraged a strong IPO market, as the hype did not match the results, in many instances,” she adds.
The IPO trend impacts the type of exit strategies a company can implement.
“There are always many more exits by merger or acquisition than by IPO,” says Ms. Tamer. “And this year (2013), with the IPO market limited, we are seeing a flood of companies ready to be sold, because all the companies that were ready at the end of 2007 (and onward for several years) and which have survived, are on the market now.”
With this development, she says “there are too many companies ready for exit for the demand of the buyers.”
More trends
In addition to the increase in available capital, she explained the trend since the Great recession:
- Some of this capital is available because other vehicles for investing capital are still limited (or perceived as too risky).
- This available capital is made more accessible in light of the reduced risks associated with start up tech companies, because there are so many more sources of capital: incubators, accelerators, angels, super angels, angel groups, boutique venture funds, and large, established venture funds, and well as private equity capital.
- Yes, there seems to be the “Series A crunch” which makes attracting professional capital difficult once your product is in the market but before it has significant market traction or share. But that crunch has always been there. Years ago I called it the Series B Gap.
(For more of her insights on the so-called Series A funding crunch and what she terms the Series B Gap, see this article: Are Startups Facing a Series A Funding Crunch?)
Exit strategy advice
Ms. Tamer says exits tend occur between six to eight years following launch.
“Venture capitalists need to create an ROI on each of their funds in a similar time frame,” she asserts. “Companies need time to launch, scale and fully realize their potential to scale, to drive up their valuation at exit. Predicting the conditions of the exit market that far into the future is difficult.”
She’s a strong advocate for developing an exit strategy, and “track that strategy just as they track their other business planning issues, adapting to market shifts as necessary.”
She differs with the opinions of VCs who advise entrepreneurs to “build your company for value and don’t worry about when and how to exit…But I urge my clients to watch for their exits, and plan their growth strategies with a clear eye on the end game.”
That’s great advice. You should always have an exit strategy in place – no matter what. (See: When Should You Develop an Exit Strategy? Now…Here’s How.)
Ms. Tamer, www.joeytamer.com, is a strategic consultant to veteran consultants in all practices, and she is widely acclaimed as a advisor to entrepreneurs in software, internet, technology, and digital media. (Disclosure: Ms. Tamer is a longtime valued friend and associate.)
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks for related information:
- 6 Patent Tips to Protect Your Inventions, Intellectual Property
- Eight Strategies to Consider Before Starting A Tech Business
- How to Attract an Angel Investor
- Angel Investor: Tips for Increasing Cash Flow, Profits
“Capital isn’t scarce; vision is.”
-Sam Walton
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Company Lawyers Reveal Their Biggest Concerns – Grant Thornton Study
In-house attorneys feel the threat of economic uncertainty the most – but regulatory compliance and enforcement aren’t far behind – concludes a 2013 Grant Thornton survey.
May 11, 2013
What are the salient concerns of in-house lawyers? Their two chief concerns are economic uncertainty, and regulatory compliance and enforcement – according to an authoritative Grant Thornton survey.
“The results of this survey indicate that regulatory concerns dominate the attention of in-house legal counsel,” said Brad Preber, national managing partner of Grant Thornton’s Forensic and Valuation Services (FVS) practice.
“This is particularly surprising when you see that in-house counsel believe regulation is a bigger threat to growth than competitors or sales to customers,” he added in commenting his firm’s “Survey of Current Organizational Threats and the Role of the In-House Law Department.”
Grant Thornton’s survey queried in-house attorneys on 45 different regulatory threats, but only three of them were named by at least 15 percent of the respondents.
The three issues: Labor law violations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and environmental issues.
Cross-section of respondents
Grant Thornton’s survey was conducted with approximately 243 in-house counsels at public and private companies with a wide range of revenues from across the United States.
Respondents were distributed relatively evenly across industry sectors, including manufacturing, distribution, banking and securities, energy, healthcare, technology, life sciences, retail, construction, real estate and not-for-profit.
For organizational growth, the attorneys’ top three responses generated at least 25 percent:
- Economic uncertainty – 57 percent
- Regulatory compliance and enforcement – 53 percent
- Global or domestic competition – 36 percent
Litigation concerns
Perhaps surprisingly, the Grant Thornton survey didn’t reveal litigation, as well as fraud and corruption among the top concerns.
However, the in-house lawyers are expressed concerns about litigation named their salient litigation concerns:
The issue identified as “regulatory,” was named by47 percent. Also selected by 30 percent or more were “contractual,” “intellectual property,” and “labor and employment.”
Regarding the amount of corporate resources spent on regulatory compliance and enforcement, Grant Thornton’s press release stated there was a large gap between the perceived significance of the threat (53 percent) and the resources spent to address it (38 percent).
This disparity widened significantly for regulatory-related litigation. Forty-seven percent of respondents said regulatory issues are a top litigation threat, but only 10 percent indicated that the majority of the resources provided by their organizations were spent on this threat.
“This may mean that organizational resource allocations are misaligned, considering the magnitude of regulatory threat,” added Mr. Preber. “Alternatively, it could indicate that regulatory litigation costs have not yet reached the levels of more traditional problem areas for in-house counsel.”
The attorney’s concerns aren’t surprising. It’s questionable whether we’re in true economic recovery as government is killing business.
For a copy of the survey findings, visit Grant Thornton’s Survey of Current Organizational Threats and the Role of the In-House Law Department.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s reading picks:
- 4 Tips to Save on Your Professional Liability Insurance
- Scary Reasons Not to Get Giddy over the Unemployment Numbers
- When Marketing Financial Information, Be Careful in Choosing a Medium
“Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying.”
-J. Paul Getty
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Adobe, Court Hackers Affect Up to 1 Million Washington State Residents
The Washington state court system has failed to protect personal data of as many as one million people.
- May 10, 2013 -
Hackers have compromised the Washington state court system’s servers exploiting a vulnerability in Adobe’s ColdFusion app server. This means personal data for up to one million residents, including access to at least 160,000 Social Security numbers.
The attacks affect residents who’ve been involved in three types of cases:
- Any type of traffic case that was filed in a district or municipal court from 2011 through 2012
- A DUI citation from 1989 through 2011
- A superior court criminal case in from 2011 through 2012
Two attacks were discovered last February and March of 2013, but state officials don’t know when the court system was hacked but suspect it was after September 2012.
The court system claims attackers had no access to financial information. But that’s a bogus conclusion any time Social Security and drivers’ license numbers are compromised.
The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) issued a technical explanation:
“Once the breach was discovered, AOC took immediate action to further secure the environment and begin investigation and analysis into the depth and severity of the breach. In addition, AOC collaborated with the Washington State Consolidated Technology Services (CTS) and the Multi-State Information Sharing & Analysis Center (MS-ISAC) for internet security, who provided valuable information in determining the scope of this security breach. MS-ISAC is a focal point for cyber threat prevention, protection, response and recovery for the nation’s state, local, territorial and tribal governments. The MS-ISAC 24×7 cyber security operations center provides real-time network monitoring, early cyber threat warnings and advisories, vulnerability identification, and mitigation and incident response. AOC has implemented significant security enhancements to ensure that our systems and data are secure and to prevent the potential for future compromise.”
Look or an Adobe patch for a vulnerability on ColdFusion next week. Hopefully, it will protect against the courts’ flaw.
You can read the court system’s full explanation here.
From the Coach’s Corner, related security tips:
- Internet Criminals to Pose Bigger Threat than Terrorists – FBI
- Security Precautions to Take Following Citibank’s Second Reported Online Breach
- Identity Fraud Escalates in Smartphones, Social Media
- 8 Tips to Avoid Being Victimized by Phishing Scams
- Tips to Protect Against Hacking of Your Bluetooth
- 4 Tips to Defend Against Hackers When Traveling Overseas
“You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.”
-Scott McNealy
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Scary Reasons Not to Get Giddy over the Unemployment Numbers
News reports on unemployment claims aren’t only misleading, they’re dangerously ill-omened. They fail to report what’s really going on.
- May 9, 2013 -
Curiously, the news media conveys optimistic stories, and Wall Street investors and others are jubilant over the federal government’s recent jobs reports. The Labor Department reported that initially 4,000 fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits to 323,000. That was ostensibly a five-and-half-year low.
For example, Reuters reported today: “Jobless claims hint at strengthening labor market.”
All day long, news-media companies supplied video reports to this Biz Coach portal’s Newsroom for the pages entitled Business and Stock Markets. But the philosophy here is not to censor reports – even if they are misleading by not telling the complete story.
No one appears motivated to dig deep enough. As a credentialed journalist, I’m also a business-performance consultant. I remain skeptical about the federal government’s policies because I experience firsthand the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs and their Main Street customers.
Under-reported issues
The big-ticket sellers who need adequate numbers of credit-worthy customers in order to be profitable are finding it a big challenge. Actually, the negative trend was well underway at least a year before the National Bureau of Economic Research’s official declaration of the recession.
Red flags were everywhere — from auto dealers launching bad-credit sales departments – to the skyrocketing student-loan defaults and complaints about Sallie Mae’s questionable practices.
Seemingly, everyone involved in Main Street business was deeply challenged, and remains a reason why this portal has more than 140 public-policy articles and an economic-analysis Op Ed page that explain the issues.
But you don’t have to be a business consultant to understand the problems and solutions. For example, the accurate big picture about the economy and jobs was exposed in an article on RealClearPolitics. Citing government data, it was authored by Louis Woodhill – a successful engineer, software entrepreneur, and a Forbes contributor.
He points out the “BLS Establishment Survey, which reported that 165,000 payroll jobs had been created during April, the Household Survey* numbers told a much different story.”
Too-few family wage jobs
Mr. Woodhill wrote: “Total employment rose by 293,000 during April, but part-time jobs increased by 441,000. As a result, full-time jobs declined by 148,000.”
He further stated the number of full-time jobs only increased by 73,000. That, of course, means this “was not enough to keep pace with the growth of our working-age population, so the ‘FTE jobs ratio’ (the number of FTE jobs per 100 working-age Americans), fell according to Mr. Woodhill.
This gives us threatening information about the nation’s recovery.
“The April jobs numbers describe a mass replacement of full-time workers with part-time employees, coupled with a fall in the length of the average workweek,” he wrote. “This happens to be precisely what you would expect, given the perverse incentives baked into Obamacare, which took effect on January 1.”
More bad indicators
“During April, the FTE jobs ratio fell for the fifth month in a row, to 53.09,” he warned. “The earliest warning signal for every recession since 1955 (the first year for which the data is available) has been a significant, sustained decline in this ratio.”
He provided a history lesson:
“As of April, the fall in the FTE jobs ratio from its local peak was only 0.11,” he conceded. “This is not yet a strong indicator of an impending recession. Only one of the recessions since 1955 (that of 1970) was presaged by this mild a decline, and there were eight instances during the past 50 years where the FTE jobs ratio declined by this much over five months, and the economy did not fall into recession.”
Excerpts of his red flags:
“This having been said, there also has never been a case where the FTE jobs ratio fell for five months in a row and a recession did not follow. So the recent decline is definitely something to be concerned about.
“Based upon the historical record, if the current decline in the FTE jobs ratio were to continue, and to reach a cumulative 0.60, renewed recession would become a virtual certainty.
“In the case of the most recent recession, the decline in the FTE jobs ratio exceeded 0.60 five months before the recession officially started, and a full 15 months before the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) formally declared that a recession had begun in January 2008.”
Comparison of monetary policies
“It is now 76 months since our latest employment recession started. America’s FTE jobs ratio is still down by 5.10 from its peak, and is only 0.56 above its low point of the cycle,” he reminds us. “In contrast, at the same point during the Reagan recovery, the FTE jobs ratio was 2.01 above its prior high, having risen by 4.80 from its nadir.
“During the first 76 months of the Reagan recession/recovery, the value of the dollar in terms of gold actually went up by 6.47%. During the equivalent period during the Bush 43-Obama recession/recovery, the gold value of the dollar fell by 56.90%.
It’s a long commentary. He further explains the above points, the fallacies of the Federal Reserve’s continuous money-printing policy, and more. All of which slow down the nation’s economic recovery and the creation of jobs.
Do yourself a favor and read his full analysis here.
From the Coach’s Corner, editor’s picks for related reading:
- Why Federal Reserve’s QE3 Won’t Help U.S. Economy
- Why Is Transparency Crucial at the Federal Reserve?
- Obama’s Broken Promise for Transparent Government – Study
“We hope that you are enjoying having your children graduate from college and come home to live in your basements.”
-Lewis Woodhill
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Is Your Web Site Losing Visitors? Best Practices to Fix the Trend
If your site’s visitor numbers are falling, there are five possible reasons. The key is to know what’s wrong before you start applying solutions.
Updated May 9, 2013
It used to be that Web-site owners only had to worry about losing traffic in the summer. Instead of surfing, they found it more fun to enjoy the fresh air of the summer months, which prompted publishing solutions – five tips to deal with the inevitable traffic slowdowns.
But things have changed.
How’s your Web site traffic? Have you been suffering a decline in your visitors’ rate, but you don’t know why? If it’s any consolation, it’s ostensibly a perplexing problem for a lot of people.
“Slowly, but surely, you’ve been watching your traffic numbers decline, despite not having changed much of anything about the way you publish content or optimize your website for the search engines,” writes Michael Garrity, an editor of Website Magazine.
His article is entitled, “5 Reasons Your Search Traffic is Declining.”
Wisely, he suggests a “search result audit for your various keywords that will show you where you’re currently ranking on Google and its competitors for your most important keywords.”
He’s right. Your standing on your search engine results page (SERP) affects your visitors’ rate. If you rank highly, your visitors’ numbers are strong. If not, they’re weak.
In my experience, about 70 percent Internet surfers select a result from only among the first 10 on the SERP.
In addition, my sense is that the No. 1-ranked site attracts about 40 percent of the top 10 listings. (So, if you focus on content marketing, it’s important to use proven strategies for a No.1 rated blog.)
Mr. Garrity says Web sites falter in prominence for five possible reasons:
1. New Competition. He theorizes that too many search-engine optimization pros think they’re doing something wrong – without considering the possibility of increased competition – rival sites poaching their users.
“This is one of the reasons why conducting regular industry assessments and search audits is imperative,” he suggests.
2. Content is Out of Date. He believes the majority of content becomes old and declines in value, resulting in a SERP decline.
“One way to tell if your content isn’t as enticing to searchers as it used to be is to monitor that page’s analytics, and if something that used to get a consistently high influx of visitors now gets less and less, it’s likely that the content on the page is decreasing in value to most readers,” asserts Mr. Garrity. “A method for correcting this issue could be to produce a new, updated version of that content, and then to link to the new page on the old one.”
If I understand Mr. Garrity correctly, here’s where we slightly disagree on the solution to outdated content. Yes, you might have outdated content.
However, you’re paying for the bandwidth consumed by your users, and it’s best to save money. So, it you have new information to share — contrary to Mr. Garrity’s advice – simply update the old content and indicate it’s updated. Otherwise, Google will discount the value of the old page.
Google loves updating for fresh relevance and value, and so do readers. (Try not to delete the original post because Google will notice the 404 error and your site will be penalized for ranking purposes.)
Also, I’d make another suggestion: If you believe such pages are relevant, not to worry. You can use your social media and strategic press releases to boost traffic. Again, Google will notice.
3. Shifts in Algorithm Values. He points out the search engines might be making algorithm changes.
Agreed. Note: For you to stay popular on Google, be aware the search engine looks for its desired answers to 23 key questions about your Web site.
“If you notice that Google seems to favor certain types of content for one of your keywords or targeted search terms, maybe that means you should consider making a video or infographic the next time you consider writing a blog post about a that topic,” he suggests.
4. Caught Red Handed Being a Black Hat. Black hat artists use disreputable SEO strategies to trick search engines into a high ranking on the SERP. If you’re discovered using black hat techniques, you’ll be penalized.
“If you genuinely weren’t intending to be shady and just made a mistake, it’s important that you find out what your exact offense was and correct it as soon as possible, so that you can start trying to garner some good will with the search engines and make your way back up in the rankings,” Mr. Garrity says.
5. They’re Just Not That into Your Content. Ouch. Perhaps, your writing isn’t popular.
“To rectify this problem, you should be aware of the top sites and blogs in your niche or industry, and take note of what they’re regularly publishing content about (in order to understand emerging trends) and what their readers are saying in comments sections and on social media sites to see what they’re asking for, so that you have a better idea of what content will be engaging and valuable to the visitors you want to attract,” he recommends.
Furthermore, I’d add that the key for bloggers is to know the secrets for attracting and keeping readers.
Access his full article here. Website Magazine is a free publication, and provides excellent, timely tips.
From the Coach’s Corner, here are additional solutions:
- Checklist: 14 Strategies to Rock on Google
- Download Speed Matters for WordPress Web Sites – 5 Tips
- 5 Factors to Get Peak Google Results for Your Web Site – Study
“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”
-Bill Gates
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.