HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY 2013

Dear GW Professors, Colleagues and Friends !!!

224 years of Thanksgiving, brought to you by President George Washington.

Original Thanksgiving Proclamation, published October 3, 1789:

By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation—for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war--for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed--for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted—for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions— to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually—to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed—to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord—To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

with The George Washington University, GW School of Public Health and Health Services, The George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences,George Washington University Hospital, The George Washington University, George Washington Today, GW Americas Alumni Network, GW Alumni and Gwu Hsml.

Strategic Management (Part 3):

Four Ingredients for a Winning Company Culture

by Ben Kirshner

When Elite SEM was named the Best Agency of 2013 at the inaugural U.S. Search Awards (associated with PubCon Las Vegas, an event supported by SEMPO), our entire team was proud to have our leadership in the search space recognized. But personally, I’m even more proud that the recognition helps validate our people and our company culture.

It feels like all the hard work and sacrifice of the last nine years is paying off in a big way: we are now well on our way to accomplishing our company’s core purpose, which is to create great lives for great people.

Any  business owner knows, that’s easier said than done. How do you get great results while also creating an environment people actually want to work in?

Here are a few facets of our culture that you too can use to motivate your team to succeed — today, and hopefully, for years to come:

Put core values first

As the founder and CEO of Elite SEM, I believe that hiring for culture is just as important as, say, hiring for online marketing and account management skills. A large part of being a business owner and running a successful agency is making sure your employees are happy and being compensated well. You can train and hire the top talent in your space, but retaining those people is what will make your clients and customers successful.

I believe that core values provide the framework for real company success.

Empower your employees to manage their schedules

I strive to make my employees happier than they would be at other companies or agencies in many ways. But the first thing any employee of Elite would probably tell you about is that our company allows unlimited vacation time, personal days and sick days.  Want to take a two-week trip to India or Tokyo? Or want to take a Friday off to head to Gainesville to see the Gators play on Saturday?

No problem — as long as all of the work you are responsible for is completed or accounted for, and someone else on your team will be able to cover and is up-to-date on your clients and projects, take as much time off as you want!  This policy has been in place since day one, and remains one of the benefits hires get most excited about.

Whatever specific policy your company goes with, the bottom line is that you need to empower your employees to own their results, actually increasing productivity and improving morale.

Give them free lunches

When employees aren’t traveling, they are provided free lunch as well as unlimited coffee, tea, and healthy snacks. We agree with top tech companies like Google and Twitter, where free lunch definitely keeps employees happy, feeling valued and forming closer bonds with other coworkers.

A lot of readers will probably see this and think, “I can’t afford to do this.” But let’s do the math:

20 days a month x $12/day= $240/month per employee

Now, do the math on replacing an employee who is poached by another company.  I know it costs me way more than $10,000 to replace, rehire, find and onboard alone — not to mention the lost hours of productivity when people leave and buy their own lunch.

Don’t hire employees — look for owners

Every employee of Elite SEM is also an owner of Elite SEM.  In addition to employees holding equity in the company, we compensate account managers better than the industry average by giving them a percentage of the profit they generate for the company. Bonus: this keeps their goals in line with their clients’ goals.

Consider a compensation plan or an employee ownership arrangement that will not just attract great people, but inspire them to work hard for the long haul.

* * *

My goal is for every person at Elite to feel they are part of a successful, coordinated and supportive team. I also want them to feel a sense of gratitude and humility at the chance to work with some of the best online brands, but that has to start with leadership at the top. A commitment to happy people is our top priority.

What perks do you offer that help keep employees motivated at your company?

Fuente: Forbes


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PRESENTATION, according to Dilbert

PRESENTATION, according to Dilbert

PRESENTACIÓN, según Dilbert

 

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

Strategic Management (Part 2):

Cultural Differences in Business

In this article, we will focus on cultural differences in communication and in valuing time before briefly touching on some general guidelines which are worth observing regardless of all cultural differences.

Cultural Differences in Communication.

If you have traveled a lot before, you know that there are huge cultural differences in communication between people from one country to another. In some cultures, people are loud, direct or even blunt and tend to interrupt others during a conversation. In others, people are typically soft-spoken, use flowery or indirect language and wait patiently for others to finish their sentence.

During a business meeting, cultural differences in communication are likely to come to the fore. Try to adjust to the way your business partners communicate. It is essential for you to be aware of cultural differences in communication, e.g. to know the correct way of addressing and greeting your business partners, your boss and your colleagues. Always use last names and titles unless you are invited to do otherwise.

Cultural differences in communication can be strongly influenced by hierarchies, so it is important to keep an eye on this. The most senior business partner may be the one who is making the decisions at a meeting. Failing to acknowledge their status within the company or to greet them with due respect can leave a bad impression.

Cultural Differences: Valuing Time.

Cultural differences also become apparent in differing concepts of time. Is the scheduled time frame for a meeting set in stone, or does it allow for some flexibility? Will you jeopardize a business deal by arriving late, or is it perfectly acceptable to let family matters, for example, take precedence over business appointments?

A popular example of cultural differences with regards to time is no doubt this: Everyone would agree that Germans are well-known for their punctuality. In many African and South American countries, however, scheduled appointments are often treated like a general guideline rather than something one has to strictly abide by.

Given these cultural differences where some cultures are more time-conscious than others, it is always best to be punctual at first and simultaneously adopt a relaxed attitude towards time management. Even if you are always on time, your business partners may not take the appointed time for a business meeting as seriously as you do. After a while, you will learn to adjust to cultural differences such as your business partners’ unique pace at work.

Cultural Differences Aside…

Cultural differences aside, there are always a few generally valid guidelines you should pay attention to in order to make a positive impression in the business world. Being dressed appropriately for the occasion and arriving at a business meeting well-prepared are two very obvious ingredients for your success in international business. Whether you are in France or in China, your business partners will appreciate your efforts to make a good impression, regardless of cultural differences.

When you fly abroad for business purposes, jet lag is a factor that needs to be taken into account as it might inhibit your professional skills significantly. In such a situation, cultural differences cannot be used as an excuse. After all, who makes a great impression when they are sleep-deprived and stressed out?

To mellow the effects of jet lag, try to arrive a couple of days early to give your body enough time to adjust. It may help to set your watch to the new time before you leave and to act accordingly. If at all feasible, this could involve slowly adjusting your sleeping and waking hours to the new time zone. This may seem trivial to you, but a well-slept and alert traveler is much better equipped to deal with cultural differences than someone who is under-slept and exhausted.

Fuente: InterNations

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LEADERSHIP, according to Dilbert

LEADERSHIP, according to Dilbert

LIDERAZGO, según Dilbert

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

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The Most And Least Lucrative College Majors

Your college major has a bigger effect on your income than where you go to college.

We reported on this story last month, and ran a graph of the most and least lucrative college majors.

But the graph, based on research out of Georgetown, was limited to people who had only a bachelor's degree. People with graduate degrees were excluded from the data.

We were curious: How much would the picture change if you included all college grads — those with graduate degrees as well as those with bachelor's degrees alone?

The researchers at Georgetown's Center on Education and the Workforce were good enough to crunch the numbers for us. Here are the results.

All Graduates

Source: Georgetown Center On Education And The Workforce   Credit: Quoctrung Bui / NPR

For comparison, here's the graph we ran last month — the one that shows bachelor's degrees only.

Bachelor's Degree Only

Notes

Figures are median income for all full-time workers with bachelor's degrees in each subject. Workers with graduate degrees  are not included in the data.

A couple interesting details in this comparison:

1. Petroleum engineers don't get richer (at the median) when you include those who went to grad school. A researcher at Georgetown suggested this might be because those who go to grad school are more likely to work in academia, where wages are often lower than those in the private sector.
2. Health and medical preparatory programs are near the bottom of the list for those who have only bachelor's degrees, but at the top of the list when you include all grads. This makes sense — the major is to prepare students to get M.D.s and other graduate-level degrees. So when you only look at students with bachelor's degrees, you're missing a key part of the picture.
3. Counseling psychology — at the bottom of the list for those with only bachelor's degrees — also gets a big bump when you include all graduates. This is basically the same story as health prep programs: To pursue a career in the field, you basically need to get a graduate degree.

Fuente: NPR - planet money

RESPECT, according to Dilbert

RESPECT, according to Dilbert

RESPETO, según Dilbert

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

Global Economy: are Australia and Canada the Best Places to Live in the World?

The latest EIU ‘liveability’ report gives high scores to Australian and Canadian cities, whilst Europe and USA’s fall down the league table.

The recently published Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) global “liveability” study has placed an incredible 4 Australian cities in the top 10. Canada also scores extremely highly with 3, whilst Vienna and Helsinki were the only two European cities which managed to make the cut.

The survey takes into account things like the availability of goods and services, personal risk, and the efficency of a city’s infrastructure. It does not take into account climate or the cost of living as a factor in 'liveability. The scoring system also takes away points for things like high crime levels, the terrorism threat and the risk of civil unrest.

Australia’s high ranking in this particular survey comes down to a number of factors. Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey editor Jon Copestake says:

"Australian cities continue to thrive in terms of liveability - not only do they benefit from the natural advantages of low population density, but they have continued to improve with some high profile infrastructure investments,"

Melbourne's score of 97.5 per cent is close to the perfect score, with the city only losing points for things like, culture and petty crime. Adelaide lost points on culture and environment but new infrastructure in the city pushed it above Sydney. The harbour city (Syndney) scored well in healthcare, education and infrastructure but was regarded the least stable among the Aussie cities in the top spots. in a survey which takes away points considers crime, the terrorism threat and the risk of civil unrest.

On the other hand European and US cities did not fair so well. Manchester was rated as the UK’s most ‘liveable’ city at number 52, whilst London which has recently basked in Olympic glory could only manage number 55. Both city’s fall in rankings was partly due to last year’s riots.

The EIU report, which describes the concept of livability as simple, is compiled for business people from western countries and used to work out hardship allowances as part of an expatriate's relocation package. The report's authors say that the survey quantifies the challenges that might be presented to an individual's lifestyle in 140 cities worldwide. Seen from such a western perspective, it is therefore not surprising that the survey's top cities are all located in wealthy western countries. The cities that do best in this ranking are mid-sized conurbations in countries with low population densities. Such conditions are likely to result in low crime levels, functioning infrastructure and easily available recreational activities.

The best 10 cities to live in, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit global 'liveability' study are:

1. Melbourne, Australia
2. Vienna, Austria
3. Vancouver, Canada
4. Toronto, Canada
5. Calgary, Canada
6. Adelaide, Australia
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Helsinki, Finland
9. Perth, Australia
10. Auckland, New Zealand

Fuente: Study International

INNOVATION, according to Dilbert

INNOVATION, according to Dilbert

INNOVACIÓN, según Dilbert

Created by Scott Adams, Dilbert is about the world's most famous -- and funny -- dysfunctional office

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Strategic Management (Part 1):

InterCultural Communication

You might hear this phrase and go: “Intercultural communication? What’s that exactly? And why should I care?” At first glance, your reaction is entirely understandable…

THEORIES OF CULTURE: ICEBERG OR ONION?

A helpful alternative to the “iceberg model” is to imagine a country’s culture as an onion. Culture is not something you can measure. It is, mostly, invisible and implicit, but these invisible values guide behavior and interactions in the social world. However, like an onion, you can “peel” culture and strip down its layers.

The outermost layer of the “onion”, i.e. of a foreign culture, is indeed what you can see, hear, and touch: its artifacts, products, and rituals. For example, a Japanese Shinto shrine is an artifact from that culture, a bento box full of sushi is a typical product, and the tea ceremony is a traditional Japanese ritual.

The next layer of a culture consists of its systems and institutions. One could describe the US government, with its three branches and its principle of checks and balances, as an institution that’s clearly important to lots of US Americans.

Systems and institutions, in turn, are based on certain beliefs, norms, and attitudes. To stay with our previous example, the US government: The way it is organized has its roots in specific beliefs like the following: Democracy is a good thing, and every citizen should have a say in government. The government, however, shouldn’t have too much power and interfere too much in the life of its citizens.

These beliefs then stem from the core of the “onion”, the most basic values of any culture. In the US example, one of these values would be the freedom of the individual – something that might be of less relevance in the unspoken core values of other cultures.

Five Dimensions of Cultural Core Values

It’s that core that is both the hardest to get at and the most influential element of all. In the field of intercultural communication, it has become usual to profile the core values of a culture according to several dimensions:

1. Identity or individualism vs. collectivism: What matters more to a person from that culture – their own personal wants and needs or the social harmony of the group they are currently a part of? The United States and Japan could be seen as examples of an individualist and a collectivist society, respectively.
2. Hierarchy or power distances: Do people treat each other in a relatively egalitarian manner, or are status and seniority very important?  The Scandinavian countries are frequently cited as egalitarian cultures whereas Chinese culture emphasizes the importance of hierarchies.
3. Truth: This has nothing to do with truth in its philosophical sense. The dimension is also called uncertainty avoidance vs. uncertainty tolerance. People from the first kind of culture simply don’t like uncertainties. They want to know what exactly is appropriate and right. Rules and structures are essential, while ambiguity, unfamiliar risks, and differences may upset them. Germany would be a classic case of an uncertainty-avoidance culture. People from uncertainty-tolerance cultures tend to fare better with spontaneity, flexibility, and relativity.
4. Gender or masculinity vs. femininity: The original researchers found that some cultures appreciated values they (the researchers) associated with men while others valued things that the researchers commonly ascribed to women. Achievement-oriented vs. care-oriented would be a clearer way of describing these cultures. An achievement-oriented (or “masculine”) culture emphasizes competition and success. Care-oriented (or “feminine”) societies, on the other hand, prefer equality and solidarity. Among European cultures, for instance, the Netherlands are characterized as more “feminine” than Switzerland or Britain.
5. Virtue: Again, we aren’t talking about virtue in an ethical sense here. It’s more about which basic behavior a certain culture likes better: that which brings long-term benefits or what benefits you immediately. Therefore, the virtue dimension opposes “long-term oriented” to “short-term oriented” cultures. A long-term oriented culture holds hard work, frugality, fulfilling one’s goals, and never giving up in high esteem.  Short-term oriented cultures rather value a person’s dignity or “face” in a specific context, social demands, and immediate reciprocity.

Some researchers occasionally add a sixth dimension to this model, i.e. universalism vs. particularism. However, the five-dimension model is the most common one. There are even smartphone applications, such as Culture GPS Lite, which deliver the dimensional scores of selected cultures from Geert Hofstede’s original study to your mobile.

Fuente: InterNations

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VACATION POLICY, according to Dilbert

VACATION POLICY, according to Dilbert

POLÍTICA VACACIONAL, según Dilbert

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