How to Start a Startup March 2005 (This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard Computer Society.) You need three things to create a successful startup: to start with good people, to make something customers actually want, and to spend as little money as possible. And that's kind of exciting, when you think about it, because all three are doable. If there is one message I'd like to get across about startups, that's it. The Idea In particular, you don't need a brilliant idea to start a startup around. Google's plan, for example, was simply to create a search site that didn't suck. There are plenty of other areas that are just as backward as search was before Google. For example, dating sites currently suck far worse than search did before Google. An idea for a startup, however, is only a beginning. Another sign of how little the initial idea is worth is the number of startups that change their plan en route. Ideas for startups are worth something, certainly, but the trouble is, they're not transferrable.
Duties and Responsibilities of Cooperative Board Members | Cooperative Grocer Members of the board of directors of a cooperative have the same duties and responsibilities as do board members of any other business. In addition, they have a few other responsibilities that are unique to cooperative board members. Unique Duties and Responsibilities. Cooperatives are member organizations, unlike most other businesses. One important function of the cooperative board is to educate members about their organization. General Duties and Responsibilities. (a) A director shall discharge his (sic) duties as a director, including his (sic) duties as a member of a committee: (1) in good faith; (2) with the care an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would exercise under similar circumstances; and (3) in a manner he (sic) reasonably believes to be in the best interests of the corporation. (c) A director is not acting in good faith if he (sic) has knowledge concerning the matter in question that makes reliance otherwise permitted by subsection (b) unwarranted. Duty of Care.
Rewards and Recognition | Engaged Employees | 10 Essentials Hewlett-Packard Idea Generation The Golden Banana Award is one of Hewlett-Packard's most prestigious honors for inventive employees. It began when a company engineer burst into his manager's office with the answer to a problem they'd been struggling with for weeks. The manager searched his office for a way to mark this accomplishment, but all he came up with was a leftover banana from lunch. AT&T Employee Recognition At AT&T Universal Card Services in Jacksonville, Florida, paper is the key element for World of Thanks, one of their most popular programs. Walt Disney World Employee Recognition There are 180 different employee recognition programs at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Producers Assistance Safety Program Producers Assistance Corporation provides contract personnel to the oil and gas industry, an area where employee safety is critical. Pharmaceutical Merger Reward Program
30 Financial Moves Before 30– Ideas Worth Trying January 13, 2011, 6:00 amby:MD Category:Miscellaneous I started reading the Art of Non-Conformity the other day and the idea of the life list/bucket list got me thinking again. I started thinking about my bucket list for what I want to accomplish before I turn 30 (in 7 years). Since every financial bucket list is unique to your own situation, I decided to outline 30 financial moves that might be of interest to your unique financial situation before you turn 30. 1. Keep a buffer in a savings account because you never know when a rainy day will hit you out of nowhere. 2. You can debate good debt vs bad debt, but at the end of the day you should try to kill off your credit card debt before you turn 30. 3. The sooner you start planning for your retirement, the sooner you have compound interest working on your side. 4. You may not try to do this deliberately but it’s bound to happen. 5. When you make a major mistake with your money, learn from it. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.
Preparation for Nonprofit Micro-eMBA(SM) Program Free Management Library's Online Nonprofit Organization Development Program Module #1: (includes recommendations to large amount of free, online resources) © Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. (This module is in the nonprofit organization development program. However, this module can also be used by anyone to improve their self-directed study habits and/or become aware of free, online information for nonprofit organizations.) Also seeRelated Library Topics This module helps you get ready for the program by providing guidelines to get the most out of the program, along with suggesting numerous free, online resources of which you might take advantage. As with any learning module in this program, you'll get the most if you read all materials, consider each question for discussion and reflection, discuss information and materials with others, complete suggested activities and apply assessments as appropriate. Also seeRelated Library Topics 1. 2. 3. 4. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Barbara Khozam's Blog | BAD Customer Service Money 101: 40 Financial Lectures to Prepare You for the Real World February 3rd, 2011 You may have taken accounting or finite math in your college, but most college students graduate with very little practical knowledge of finance in the real world. How can you brush up on what you need to know to survive? Take some time to watch these financial lectures. General Financial happiness, negotiation, and more can be found in these lectures. Mathematics of Finance: Check out this lecture to explore the mathematics of finance. Investment & Philanthropy Watch these lectures to see how you can make your money do more. Investment Risk: Investment Risk will teach you about uncertainty in investing. Credit & Loans These lectures will help give you an understanding of how loans and credit work. Payday Loans: Payday Loans discusses how payday lending works. Retirement It’s never too early to start retirement planning, and these lectures can help you get off to a good start. Traditional IRAs: Study traditional IRAs in this lecture. Entrepreneurship & Business
Flow Charts - Problem Solving Techniques from MindTools How often have you thought about streamlining a process in your organization but not been sure where to start? Or perhaps you've struggled to understand a process when it's described to you in detail. Flow charts are a useful tool in these situations, as they make a process easy to understand at a glance. Using just a few words and some simple symbols, they show clearly what happens at each stage and how this affects other decisions and actions. In this article and video, we look at how to create and use flow charts, and explore how they can help you to solve problems in your processes. Click here to view a transcript of this video. What Is a Flow Chart? Flow charts are easy-to-understand diagrams that show how the steps of a process fit together. Flow charts tend to consist of four main symbols, linked with arrows that show the direction of flow: 1. 2. 3. 4. Tip: You can use many other symbols in a flow chart but remember that these diagrams are used for communication. Define a process.
Invisibility | Dennis Snow There are very few truly cruel managers in the business world, in spite of what we see on television and in the movies. Yes, there are managers who are incompetent, neglectful, and uncaring. But real cruelty is rare. How many times have you stepped in to a boss' office to discuss some matter and he/she takes a phone call in the middle of your discussion? I believe that this feeling of invisibility is a real problem in today's work environment and is the cause of a lot of frustration, unhappiness, and employee turnover. Most of us don't purposely treat people as invisible. It doesn't take a lot of effort to make sure people feel noticed. For the next 30-days, make a conscious effort to ensure that your employees don't feel invisible. Who in your work group do you imagine feels invisible? About the Author Dennis Snow is the president of Snow & Associates, Inc. © Snow & Associates, Inc.
Facebook's Privacy Issues Are Even Deeper Than We Knew Questions about what social networks mean for personal privacy and security have been brought to a head by research at Carnegie Mellon University that shows that Facebook has essentially become a worldwide photo identification database. Paired with related research, we're looking at the prospect where good, bad and ugly actors will be able identify a face in a crowd and know sensitive personal information about that person. These developments mean that we no longer have to worry just about what Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and other social sites do with our data; we have to worry about what they enable others to do, too. And it now seems that others will be able to do a lot. As reported in various privacy and security outlets like Kashmir Hill’s Forbes blog and Paul Roberts at ThreatPost, and demonstrated at last week’s Black Hat conference, the CMU researchers relied on just Facebook’s public profile information and off-the-shelf facial recognition software. There’ll be an app for that.