Hub You - Business

When Are Background Checks A Good Idea?
Background checks can be used for a variety of purposes and are a good way to have confidence that someone with whom you are involved personally or professionally is disclosing all necessary information. Employers often use background checks to get verification of previous employment, driving records and to ensure there is no criminal activity. This is an important step in the hiring process especially in positions where employees may handle sensitive information or who may be working with the public or with children. Having the security that background checks were made will not only allow the employer to feel better about their hiring decision but it may also reduce the liability of the company should something happen in the course of employment and the company is sued.Background checks are not only for employers, though. People will do background checks on other before getting into a personal relationship with them. This is becoming even more common with the increasing popularity of online dating services. Because the Internet lends a certain amount of anonymity to a person, the other party can get information and check their story by doing a background check. This is a good safety precaution especially with the news stories of abductions and abuse

Outsourcing and Unions: Reality Check
Most Unions are completely upset that there are so many jobs headed offshore and to foreign lands. We have jobs slipping away from America to China and India, who together have over 2 Billion people who want jobs very badly and will work for under $3.00 per day.The Union Auto Workers have priced themselves out of a job in many parts of our country and companies like Delphi, General Motors and Ford are moving factories to places like Jarez, Mexico, just over the border. Delphi says it will move 20 automotive part-making plants there. General Motors, which already has many there will be moving 8 or more within the next 3-5 years.Why is all this happening? Well there are many reasons but most include the over regulation on American Manufacturing and much of that is caused by Liberal Democrats and Unions in their political quest to help unbalance the natural free-market wage controls, which are common to competitive markets.World markets for labor are now becoming similar to world markets for product prices and therefore outsourcing is leveling the playing field using a larger playing field. If US Automakers are to sell their cars World Wide they will need to compete by keeping the labor and parts costs more to a World Wide scale now. So, consider

As I’ve been reading the trade magazines recently, I’ve paid particular attention to the channel magazines. A big story for several months has been the change in leadership at HP, since Mark Hurd took over as CEO from Carly Fiorina. This change has been met with much interest and concern for two reasons: 1) HP is a VERY BIG supplier to channel and 2) The company that Mark Hurd formerly led, NCR, utilized the channel to a far less extent than HP. So the natural concern is Hurd may steer HP toward a greater percentage of direct business in their distribution model.

CHANNEL PROPAGANDA It was interesting, especially at first, to watch various editorials attempt to “read the Mark Hurd tea leaves.” This started IMMEDIATELY AFTER his very first press conference, which ANNOUNCED his appointment as the new HP CEO. The better part of one issue of a prominent channel magazine seemed dedicated to trying to decipher the impact on the channel by interpreting his earliest words. Hurd basically said, “I don’t know yet”. His appointment had just been announced within the last hour, so that seemed to be a pretty reasonable statement! While certainly not universal, many a columnist and channel spokesperson interpreted this simple, honest statement to be a putdown of the channel’s role at HP, with dire consequences certain to follow if this held true. These wags even went on to warn him of how the channel will turn on HP. They pretty much threatened that he had better live up to recent HP channel executives promises to make the channel even more prominent in HP’s distribution model. It’s pretty ironic considering many HP executives will tell you that most of their business already flows through channels, sometime hampering their ability to gather good marketing data. To quote a high profile (and somewhat silly) primetime TV reporter, “I say give me a break!”

Inspiring Lessons From America's Most Wanted!
You must be wondering what can America's most wanted teach me! Well, you will be surprised. The story behind this person has far reaching lessons that we can all learn from and use in improving our lives and help in finding our dream jobs and careers.Well Stanley 'Tookie' Williams did not quite make it to the list of America's Most Wanted, but he was responsible for cofounding one of America's most notorious gangs in South Central Los Angeles, California, USA. He cofounded 'the Crips' gang, the deadly rivals and enemy of the bloods which have both run riot and damage to the communities involved. But would you believe it, this man went from being a gang leader to being nominated for a 'Nobel Peace Prize'! Is that strange or what? How does someone so violent, on death row at San Quentin prison, go from being a gang member to potentially receiving one of the most prestigious prizes known on earth - simply remarkable. A Nobel prize nomination is something very few men and women ever get to achieve in their lives. And that is the story of Stanley Williams, narrated in his book 'Life in Prison' with writer Barbara Becnel.I thought the lessons from his book were so significant and useful for people in life outside of prison. He talked of the time growing up

s Hurd may steer HP toward a greater percentage of direct business in their distribution model.

Managing Versus Doing - Getting the Balance Right
One of the biggest challenges facing those taking on a management or supervisory role is finding the time to manage. It can sometimes feel like that you have 100% of your time allocated to doing tasks and the only way to fit in the management part of the job is to do lots of unpaid extra hours. So how can you start to address this dilemma?Be clear on what is expected of youAs a new manager you need to get absolute clarity on what is expected of you and how your performance in the job will be measured. The last thing you want is to get to your appraisal and find out that you have been aiming for the wrong target.Set aside time for managingIf you do a 40 hour week and you know that management will take up about 40% of your time, block out 16 hours in your calendar each week and set up a schedule of things that you will work on. It might be appraisals, work planning, recruiting, staff training, customer surveys, management meetings to name a few.Let go of the jobs you do not need to doYou might love doing that piece of analysis work on excel that you have always done but you know deep down that someone else can do it. Train them and let go of it.Be accessible but manage interruptionsManagers love to talk ab

pact on the channel by interpreting his earliest words. Hurd basically said, “I don’t know yet”. His appointment had just been announced within the last hour, so that seemed to be a pretty reasonable statement! While certainly not universal, many a columnist and channel spokesperson interpreted this simple, honest statement to be a putdown of the channel’s role at HP, with dire consequences certain to follow if this held true. These wags even went on to warn him of how the channel will turn on HP. They pretty much threatened that he had better live up to recent HP channel executives promises to make the channel even more prominent in HP’s distribution model. It’s pretty ironic considering many HP executives will tell you that most of their business already flows through channels, sometime hampering their ability to gather good marketing data. To quote a high profile (and somewhat silly) primetime TV reporter, “I say give me a break!”

Fundraising Letters Are Easier To Write With AIDA
Learn a lesson from professional direct mail copywriters. They follow a time-tested format in their sales letters, a format that you can also follow when writing direct mail fundraising letters for your non-for-profit organization. All you need to remember is AIDA.AIDA is an acrostic for the four things you need to do, and the order you need to do them in, to write compelling donation request letters.ATTENTION The A stands for Attention. You need to grab it. Your envelope has to grab attention, and the opening line of your letter needs to grab attention. Your sole mission at this stage is to arrest their donor’s attention so that they ignore the television, leave the other mail on the kitchen table, and sit down and read your letter right to the end.You can arrest attention in a number of ways: start with a gripping narrative ask a provocative question state a seeming contradiction or paradox open with a scintillating (and relevant) quote crack a joke start with the word “you” INTEREST The I in AIDA stands for Interest. Professional direct mail copywriters who make their living by selling on paper know that arresting

the channel will turn on HP. They pretty much threatened that he had better live up to recent HP channel executives promises to make the channel even more prominent in HP’s distribution model. It’s pretty ironic considering many HP executives will tell you that most of their business already flows through channels, sometime hampering their ability to gather good marketing data. To quote a high profile (and somewhat silly) primetime TV reporter, “I say give me a break!”

Ethics - Or Code of Ethics (COE), APEX
Dear reader - this article was developed to explain in pray fully simple, basic words and with a universal understanding of why one COE does not fit all, why there are varied COE's, and the important question as to why different approaches are taken in administration. And why we have supported APEX since its inception in 1999.Approaches: Please see the second section on the Gnostic and the Knights administration. Both require background reading and there is no substitute for gathering accurate and factual information. As we read the varied backgrounds, explore the historical significance, seek meaning for certain words, we begin to form the basis for our own beliefs, rather than blindly following or taking an oath without meaning.Which ever approach is taken, an individual revisits a COE on a daily basis to instill the personal meaning and tempers understanding by application of honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and compassion. This is not a one time trip. It is a continuous journey the whole of our lives on this earth.One Does Not Fit All: Doctors, lawyers, web developers, forums and all others have a very different set of objectives and as a result, have very different COE's, but again and again...all contain

The whole thing was really jumping the gun, and frankly quite silly. As Hurd has had a bit of time to study the massive company he is taking over, these same channel players seem to be pleased with his follow-on statements, and the direction they believe he will lead HP with respect to the channel. I got quite a chuckle over a period of weeks reading the various stories. As I stated above, it’s ironic to me, since HP already pushes the great bulk of its $80B business through the channel. While doing this, their business is certainly not optimized, and the key competitor breathing down the company’s throat is Dell. Dell’s direct distribution model is clicking on all cylinders, moving down the line like a Japanese bullet train while attempting to blow HP out of the water. And if HP doesn’t make some fundamental improvements to its business model, it just might happen. You would think it might be wise to examine whether utilizing direct distribution more heavily might be good for HP to study.

Of course, my channel colleagues reading this will want to burn me at the stake for espousing such blasphemy! Go direct—how dare you say such a thing! That is the nature of channel conflict—all parties want the business for THEMSELVES. Much smoke is always blown by the various interested parties about what is right and fair, and commitments that were made and so on, but let’s face it—it’s basically self interest. They just want the business for themselves.

So what’s a company to do? Just sell direct, or just sell through VARs, or just sell through retail? Unless you have strict exclusive territories throughout your distributions system, problems will still arise. You’ll always have some kind of conflict (two direct reps or two resellers fighting over who should have an account), but at least you would eliminate cross-channel conflict, which can be particularly complex and nasty.

Well, limiting yourself to a single channel focus certainly may make your life less complicated, and less rife with conflict. But unfortunately, in most cases, you’ll be leaving a lot of money on the table. If you rule out natural channels that can sell your product, you won’t be maximizing your return on your heavy investments in IP, which should be one of the fundamental concerns of any business.

HAVE YOUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO

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Hub You - Channel Conflict in Technology Businesses

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