Business Dollars Feed and Educate

On October 7, 2007, people with Internet access began improving their vocabularies and, soon after, starving people began receiving rice to eat. This win-win scenario has been made possible by ordinary people with some time to spare, bucketfuls of advertising dollars from businesses, and the ingenuity of American computer programmer, John Breen.

Breen created the not-for-profit Free Rice website as a fun, time-wasting way for people to combat world hunger. Here is how it works: the website quizzes your ability to guess synonyms and every time you are correct, 20 grains of rice are donated to people who need it. How? Advertising dollars from businesses sponsoring the website are used to buy rice that is, in turn, distributed internationally by the United Nations World Food Program. As of yesterday, 4,550,033,230 grains of rice have been delivered to people in some of the world's neediest countries.

The web quiz tracks how much rice you earn individually and, as you improve your vocabulary, it increases the level of difficulty so you remain challenged. An expansive vocabulary in business settings will improve your public speaking, written correspondence, sales pitches, interviewing success--the positive effects are wide-ranging. It may even help your love life! Or not.

Check out Breen's site, learn something, win rice, and save lives. Businesses could also take a very proactive approach and become a Free Rice advertiser!

The Future of Reading?

Imagine having access to every book that has ever been printed in less than one minute. This might seem improbable or too futuristic, but it may be closer to reality than we would think. In fact, this is the vision of Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, and his company has unveiled a product that he hopes will revolutionize how we access what we read. It is called Kindle and it can wirelessly purchase and download books, periodicals, and web content, among numerous other tricks and treats packed into its 10-ounce frame. It is not the first e-book to hit the market, but it aims to be the most successful and transformative.

While it is still early days, the potential impact of this gadget is boundless. Look at how iPods have shaped and legitimized the realm of digital music. If Kindle is able to capture mainstream attention in a major way, numerous industries may have to adapt in order to compete. Bookstores could take a huge hit, especially since Kindle is initially offering 90,000 electronic titles with classic novels available for $1.99. Publishing houses may find less demand to reprint books over the years. Newspaper circulation may lessen if millions of Americans grab their cups of coffee and read their morning papers on high-resolution viewing screens. Everyone from the printer to the delivery boy could be affected.

Now for the reality check. Do people want access to books badly enough to make Kindle the latest technological must-have? My guess is that most consumers will not be as keen to tote the New York Times best-sellers list as they are to carry their favorite digital music. Amazon, however, has proved itself to be a viable and hugely successful company, so we will have to wait and see if Kindle will soon find its place between the iPod and the Blackberry in the pantheon of digital devices.
Click here for a product overview and video demo of Kindle ($399).

Righting Skillz, NE1?

To piggyback on the "Boomers vs. Millenials" post, I thought it would be interesting to discuss a distressing by-product that many "millenials" and their employers must tackle. The newest generation to enter the workforce is comprised of computer-literate, tech-savvy Internauts that lack a crucial, fundamental business necessity: writing skills. While the surge in technological competence has delighted employers accustomed to training new workers in computer applications, the influence of quickened e-mail language, the brevity of text-speak and the free-for-all nature of blogs seems to have detrimental effects on young professionals' written communication.

An August New York Times article highlighted this trend and supported it by asking human resources executives to identify what skill entry-level job seekers most lack. The overwhelming answer was written communication, and it makes sense. Gone are the days when kids use card catalogs or encyclopedias in libraries. Rather, Internet search engines can produce limitless results in a matter of seconds. Dictionaries have been replaced with spell-checking software. Telephones are still used for conversing, though the format has shifted from speaking to text messaging. Happiness can now be communicated without words. :) How many fifteen-year-olds do you think could tell you the price of a postage stamp? I would bet far less than half could, lol.

The examples and benefits of technological advancement are manifold, but the repercussions may only be beginning to shake the business world. As more and more young professionals enter the workforce, it will be interesting to see if they can conform to those "old-fashioned" grammatical norms.

"Boomers" vs. "Millenials"

So, while I was doing research on the Internet today I came upon an article based on a recent "60 Minutes" segment about the newest generation entering the workforce: the "Millenials."
It seems that most sources define this generation (also known as "Generation Y") as those individuals born between 1980-1995. As a young Gen-Xer, I found it rather surprising that I had never heard this verbiage before in reference to the generation of employees trailing not too far behind me. When I went to google the term, I was inundated with a wellspring of information on this generation and their work ethics, which differ greatly from the work ethics of the Baby Boomers, many of who are rapidly approaching retirement. While I'm skeptical about shoving a wide variety of people that all happened to be born in the same 15-year timespan into one category with predictable, definable traits, I still think that there is insight surrounding this generation and how to deal with them in the workplace that is well worth paying attention to ... and apparently so do a lot of major companies such as Merrill Lynch, Ernst & Young, and Disney, all of which are hiring consultants to teach them how to deal with this newest generation entering the workplace.

Anyway, here is the "60 Minutes" clip and transcript that focuses on the impact the millennium generation is having on the workplace. It is well worth watching!

To the Anonymous Reader Who Left a Mean Voicemail Today

To the guy who called and left a rude message on my voicemail today without a name or callback number: I don't think we made a mistake. You said our October issue business report on New York State (page 13, or online here) got the Largest Cities all wrong. (We listed them as NYC, Hempstead, Brookhaven, Islip, and Oyster Bay.) Maybe you were expecting to see Buffalo or Syracuse? I'll never know, because I have no idea how to call and ask you. [Thank you to loyal reader Dennis Shea for catching my spelling error above.]

So where did we get our numbers? From a little place called the U.S. Census Bureau. Here's the link I used. And the only error I see is that we listed the date as 2004, when actually we cited 2006 estimates in our article (sorry, readers, I hate it when something like that slips by).

Blog readers: Am I wrongly interpreting this data?

Update: Okay, it's true--the four "cities" after NYC are not true cities...even I knew that...but as townships, should we be reporting them or skipping over them? One can argue that readers are more likely to be interested in setting up a business on Long Island than in Buffalo these days...does that warrant us renaming Largest Cities to Largest Municipalities? Largest Non-County Places, Except for in Virginia? Largest Urban Areas? I can see problems with each one, including the system we have right now.

When Incentives Look Like Extortion

Usually when a company chooses to relocate, it keeps everything hush-hush. Partly, the reason is because otherwise you're essentially announcing that hundreds of jobs are at risk, which is a PR nightmare as residents accuse you of having no loyalty to them and the town/state scrambles to offer you incentives to stay. If you take those incentives, you look like a greedy corporation extorting the people; it's a no-win. The proper way to handle this type of situation is to approach your local economic developers early in the process and quietly say, "We're looking at ways to reduce our costs and stay competitive, and the problem is that it looks like we can save a lot of money by relocating. We wanted to consult with you first." And if you do leave town, you treat your employees right, including communication leading up to your departure.

Piper Aircraft, Inc. of Vero Beach, FL is going about it the wrong way, based on the little I've read such as this article at tcpalm.com, an aggregate site for several local newspapers in that part of Florida. Apparently it's become public knowledge that Piper is looking at Albuquerque, NM and Oklahoma City, OK for relocation, but hasn't given up on Vero Beach, either. Presumably, they're reviewing the incentive package Vero Beach is offering them and running the numbers against the other two locations. Piper's new owners, a private equity firm, seem to be playing it strictly by the numbersÑtalk about reinforcing the negative stereotype of corporate raiders and heartless, wealthy bankers. To make it worse, the decision won't arrive until December. It must not be fun being a Piper employee right now knowing your job is up in the air while you're trying to prepare for the holidays.

I'm in favor of incentives, but I'm also in favor of showing respect to your employees. You wouldn't your employees, ÒI need to fire one of you to save money, but I'm not sure which oneÑI'll let you know next month,Ó would you? Beyond respect, it's just bad PR, and Piper's future employees in New Mexico or Oklahoma, should a relocation come to pass, may want to examine carefully how the company handles things in Vero Beach during its final days there.