SAN FRANCISCO - September 12, 2006 - Apple today introduced the new iPod shuffle, now the world's smallest digital music player with Apple's pioneering shuffle feature that lets music fans serve up a continuous mix of their favorite songs anywhere they go. Nearly half the size of the original, the new iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce and features a stunning all-new aluminum design and a built-in clip which makes it the most wearable iPod ever. The new iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs, and is more affordable than ever at $79.
"It's hard to believe the new iPod is a real music player when you first see it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "But it is real, and holds up to 240 songs in an incredibly compact and wearable design that weighs just half an ounce."
iPod shuffle is based on Apple's super-popular shuffle feature which lets users enjoy their songs in a random order. Or listeners can simply flip a switch to listen to their songs in order, such as when listening to a new album. iPod shuffle features up to 12 hours of battery life.*
Users connect the new iPod shuffle to their Mac or PC with the included dock, and iTunes' innovative AutoFill feature automatically syncs the perfect number of songs from their music library. Seamless integration with iTunes 7 and the iTunes Store allows customers to choose from a selection of over 3.5 million songs from the world's most popular digital music store.
The new iPod shuffle is expected to be available worldwide in October through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for $79 (US). iPod shuffle includes earbud headphones and an iPod shuffle Dock.
iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
* Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Music capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; actual capacity varies by content.
http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/article_info.php/articles_id/6?osCsid=97603c3977800a2c923225d52ed81af8
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
How To Tell Which iPod You Have?
SAN FRANCISCO - September 12, 2006 - Apple today introduced the new iPod shuffle, now the world's smallest digital music player with Apple's pioneering shuffle feature that lets music fans serve up a continuous mix of their favorite songs anywhere they go. Nearly half the size of the original, the new iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce and features a stunning all-new aluminum design and a built-in clip which makes it the most wearable iPod ever. The new iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory which holds up to 240 songs, and is more affordable than ever at $79.
It's hard to believe the new iPod is a real music player when you first see it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "But it is real, and holds up to 240 songs in an incredibly compact and wearable design that weighs just half an ounce."
iPod shuffle is based on Apple's super-popular shuffle feature which lets users enjoy their songs in a random order. Or listeners can simply flip a switch to listen to their songs in order, such as when listening to a new album. iPod shuffle features up to 12 hours of battery life.*
Users connect the new iPod shuffle to their Mac or PC with the included dock, and iTunes' innovative AutoFill feature automatically syncs the perfect number of songs from their music library. Seamless integration with iTunes 7 and the iTunes Store allows customers to choose from a selection of over 3.5 million songs from the world's most popular digital music store.
The new iPod shuffle is expected to be available worldwide in October through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for $79 (US). iPod shuffle includes earbud headphones and an iPod shuffle Dock.
iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
* Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Music capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; actual capacity varies by content.
http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/article_info.php/articles_id/6?osCsid=db83547bae1b07dff3391ecf78265b0c
It's hard to believe the new iPod is a real music player when you first see it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "But it is real, and holds up to 240 songs in an incredibly compact and wearable design that weighs just half an ounce."
iPod shuffle is based on Apple's super-popular shuffle feature which lets users enjoy their songs in a random order. Or listeners can simply flip a switch to listen to their songs in order, such as when listening to a new album. iPod shuffle features up to 12 hours of battery life.*
Users connect the new iPod shuffle to their Mac or PC with the included dock, and iTunes' innovative AutoFill feature automatically syncs the perfect number of songs from their music library. Seamless integration with iTunes 7 and the iTunes Store allows customers to choose from a selection of over 3.5 million songs from the world's most popular digital music store.
The new iPod shuffle is expected to be available worldwide in October through the Apple Store, Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for $79 (US). iPod shuffle includes earbud headphones and an iPod shuffle Dock.
iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port and Mac OS X version 10.3.9 or later and iTunes 7.0 or later; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) and iTunes 7.0 or later. Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended.
* Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Music capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; actual capacity varies by content.
http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/article_info.php/articles_id/6?osCsid=db83547bae1b07dff3391ecf78265b0c
Play iPod's Movies In Dvd Quality On A Tv
HomeDock Deluxe now lets iPod owners enjoy their new iTunes movies on their home television and entertainment systems in DVD quality resolution.
With Apple® Computer's recent announcement of its new iTunes movie service, the DLO HomeDock Deluxe's impact on an iPod owner's ability to enjoy all that an iPod has to offer is greatly enhanced. Notably, now that Apple's iTunes movies and TV shows feature higher resolutions (640 x 480), the HomeDock Deluxe will play a person's movies or video from an iPod on a big-screen TV at near-DVD quality. It does this while giving owners the ability to control their iPod's video from the sofa with an included full-function remote control.
The HomeDock Deluxe also adds a new twist to the iPod by displaying music content onto a television screen and allowing users to navigate, select and play their songs using an included remote control. The HomeDock Deluxe simply connects to a person's TV and home stereo via standard A/V cables or S-video cable, and allows control of iPod's iTunes movies, television shows and videos, photo slideshows and, of course, music - all from the comfort of the couch. Browsing through Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres and more from the sofa with the HomeDock Deluxe is a completely new experience for iPod owners. Users can control over 14 playback functions with the remote control.
The HomeDock Deluxe features an original, customizable interface. It even has screensavers to prevent plasma burn. Song information is large and easy to read from anywhere in the room. The HomeDock Deluxe has two distinct modes: On-Screen Navigation Mode for music interface on a TV and iPod Mode to play movies, videos or photo slideshows on a TV directly from the iPod. A person can quickly switch modes on their HomeDock Deluxe with a push of a button to watch and control videos and photo slideshows from an iPod on their television, or browse and play their music with on-screen navigation.
http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/article_info.php/articles_id/9?osCsid=db83547bae1b07dff3391ecf78265b0c
With Apple® Computer's recent announcement of its new iTunes movie service, the DLO HomeDock Deluxe's impact on an iPod owner's ability to enjoy all that an iPod has to offer is greatly enhanced. Notably, now that Apple's iTunes movies and TV shows feature higher resolutions (640 x 480), the HomeDock Deluxe will play a person's movies or video from an iPod on a big-screen TV at near-DVD quality. It does this while giving owners the ability to control their iPod's video from the sofa with an included full-function remote control.
The HomeDock Deluxe also adds a new twist to the iPod by displaying music content onto a television screen and allowing users to navigate, select and play their songs using an included remote control. The HomeDock Deluxe simply connects to a person's TV and home stereo via standard A/V cables or S-video cable, and allows control of iPod's iTunes movies, television shows and videos, photo slideshows and, of course, music - all from the comfort of the couch. Browsing through Playlists, Artists, Albums, Songs, Genres and more from the sofa with the HomeDock Deluxe is a completely new experience for iPod owners. Users can control over 14 playback functions with the remote control.
The HomeDock Deluxe features an original, customizable interface. It even has screensavers to prevent plasma burn. Song information is large and easy to read from anywhere in the room. The HomeDock Deluxe has two distinct modes: On-Screen Navigation Mode for music interface on a TV and iPod Mode to play movies, videos or photo slideshows on a TV directly from the iPod. A person can quickly switch modes on their HomeDock Deluxe with a push of a button to watch and control videos and photo slideshows from an iPod on their television, or browse and play their music with on-screen navigation.
http://www.thegadgetlocker.com/article_info.php/articles_id/9?osCsid=db83547bae1b07dff3391ecf78265b0c
Monday, May 21, 2007
Apple iPod nano
Introduction
What’s small, white, strung together and used as Christmas lights in China? Alright, maybe they don’t have Christmas lights in China, and maybe not all iPods are white, and maybe they aren’t easily strung together, and maybe that wasn’t even the best of analogies to imply how common iPods are right now, but that’s what I was going for at least. The point is that Apple is dominating the portable media player market with their line of iPods, and today we’ll be taking a look at the iPod nano to see if all the slick marketing campaigns are actually backed up by a quality product.
The nano is currently Apple’s mid-priced iPod solution, falling between the iPod shuffle on the low end, and the new iPod video on the high end. The nano integrates a color screen and the patented iPod control interface into a much smaller design than its bigger brother. Of course, you sacrifice the vastly superior storage capacity found in the full size iPod, going from either 30 or 60GB down to 1, 2, or 4GB of storage for the nano. The nano is for those of us that prefer a smaller, more convenient device and don’t require video playback or massive amounts of storage space.
First Impressions
Although the iPod accessories market is very robust (as anyone who has walked by the portable media section of a Best Buy can tell you), you won’t find much more than the essentials included with a nano right out of the box. Of course you’ll get your standard earbud headphones, a USB cable that serves as a charger and uplink cable to your Mac/PC, as well as a dock adapter for use with other iPod accessories (all of which are sold separately). You’ll also get a couple replacement foam earbud covers, and a little custom fitted cloth "pocket" to protect your nano from scratches and the like. (This is something Apple began including shortly after reports surfaced of people easily scratching the nano in their pocket. - Ed)
The disc includes Apple’s iTunes software, but since you’ll need to update to the latest version upon installation anyway, you might as well skip the CD and just download the current version directly from Apple’s site. When you first connect your iPod to your computer, you’ll also be prompted to update the software running on your iPod. The installation of iTunes, and the iPod software is all fairly straightforward although if you’re using a Windows PC you might run into a fairly common InstallShield error. I say "fairly common" because I experienced the problem - Apple has a page dedicated to the issue on their support site, and there’s even a website called "error1607.com" which references the InstallShield error code which is, if you can believe it, "1607." While it was pretty easy to find a solution to the problem on the Internet, it definitely ruined the whole "plug and play" experience I was hoping for from an Apple product. (I own an iPod nano as well and when installing iTunes on a few of my PCs, I never had this error. Maybe just the crappy PCs have this error? Hehe. - Ed)
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/275/Apple+iPod+nano/
What’s small, white, strung together and used as Christmas lights in China? Alright, maybe they don’t have Christmas lights in China, and maybe not all iPods are white, and maybe they aren’t easily strung together, and maybe that wasn’t even the best of analogies to imply how common iPods are right now, but that’s what I was going for at least. The point is that Apple is dominating the portable media player market with their line of iPods, and today we’ll be taking a look at the iPod nano to see if all the slick marketing campaigns are actually backed up by a quality product.
The nano is currently Apple’s mid-priced iPod solution, falling between the iPod shuffle on the low end, and the new iPod video on the high end. The nano integrates a color screen and the patented iPod control interface into a much smaller design than its bigger brother. Of course, you sacrifice the vastly superior storage capacity found in the full size iPod, going from either 30 or 60GB down to 1, 2, or 4GB of storage for the nano. The nano is for those of us that prefer a smaller, more convenient device and don’t require video playback or massive amounts of storage space.
First Impressions
Although the iPod accessories market is very robust (as anyone who has walked by the portable media section of a Best Buy can tell you), you won’t find much more than the essentials included with a nano right out of the box. Of course you’ll get your standard earbud headphones, a USB cable that serves as a charger and uplink cable to your Mac/PC, as well as a dock adapter for use with other iPod accessories (all of which are sold separately). You’ll also get a couple replacement foam earbud covers, and a little custom fitted cloth "pocket" to protect your nano from scratches and the like. (This is something Apple began including shortly after reports surfaced of people easily scratching the nano in their pocket. - Ed)
The disc includes Apple’s iTunes software, but since you’ll need to update to the latest version upon installation anyway, you might as well skip the CD and just download the current version directly from Apple’s site. When you first connect your iPod to your computer, you’ll also be prompted to update the software running on your iPod. The installation of iTunes, and the iPod software is all fairly straightforward although if you’re using a Windows PC you might run into a fairly common InstallShield error. I say "fairly common" because I experienced the problem - Apple has a page dedicated to the issue on their support site, and there’s even a website called "error1607.com" which references the InstallShield error code which is, if you can believe it, "1607." While it was pretty easy to find a solution to the problem on the Internet, it definitely ruined the whole "plug and play" experience I was hoping for from an Apple product. (I own an iPod nano as well and when installing iTunes on a few of my PCs, I never had this error. Maybe just the crappy PCs have this error? Hehe. - Ed)
http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/275/Apple+iPod+nano/
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Seeking Out "Next Practices," the Next Generation of Best Practices
Improve your recruiting by developing a process for identifying next-generation best practices
Many in HR proclaim a desire to be more strategic, yet most doom themselves by not acting any differently than everyone else. A clear indication of this can be seen in the speed by which documented best practices are mimicked and improved. Benchmarking has become a common practice in the profession of recruiting, which most organizations use to identify what must be done to emulate those who do something better. Unfortunately, most stop there with emulation, and that may doom them to mediocrity forever.
The business world once moved at a significantly slower pace, a pace that made benchmarking and emulating best practices prudent activities. However, things no longer move so slowly! By the time firms benchmark a best practice today, the situation that warranted the development or implementation of the best practice might have changed or may no longer be present. Instead of systematizing an effort to consistently follow the leader and mimic the soon-to-be-obsolete practices of others, I recommend adopting a proactive approach, one in which you develop your own "next generation" of best practices. I call these "next practices."
Next Practice Development Is More Common in Other Business Functions
Next practice development isn't about making something more efficient; instead, it is about a fundamental transformation of the core business activity. For example, Apple has long been a participant in the computer industry, in which the core best practices are predominately focused on refinement of manufacturing technologies that enable computers to do more. While Apple could have easily jumped on the performance bandwagon, it instead opted to develop next practices in the areas of product packaging and service.
With the introduction of the iMac, Apple demonstrated that computers don't have to be beige and gray boxes. With the introduction of the iPod and iMusic service, Apple demonstrated that product companies can develop sustainable long-term relationships with consumers. It abandoned efforts to compete on the nature of performance, long a computer-industry challenge, and reinvented the game with best practices that were unique to its business.
Next Practices Help You Create the Future
Best practices only allow you to do what you are currently doing a little better, while next practices increase your organization's capability to do things that it could never have done before. By jumping a level up to next practices, you're taking a giant step in that you are actually creating your future recruiting capabilities, rather than relying on the innovation of others.
Examples of Next Practices
If you are not sure of the distinction between best and next practices, here are some examples in several HR areas:
Practice Area: College Recruiting
* Average practice: Visit the top schools within your state.
* Best practice: Visit the top 10 schools in the U.S.
* Next practice: Recruit remotely (without having to visit) from the best schools around the world.
Practice Area: Next Job Hiring
* Average practice: Hire individuals who have the skills that are currently needed by "this manager."
* Best practice: Hire individuals who have the skills for both this and the next-level-up job (that the individual will likely be promoted to in the next few years).
* Next practice: Hire individuals who can do both this and the next job but also have the capabilities of reskilling rapidly into skill and competency areas that have yet to be identified.
Practice Area: Global Hiring
* Average practice: Hire the best from India and China, and bring them to America.
* Best practice: Hire the best in India and China and then move operations to India and China.
* Next practice: Find the very best performers in every individual country around the world and let them work remotely in their home countries.
Practice Area: Recruiting Metrics
* Average practice: Cost per hire.
* Best practice: Measure quality of hire through performance appraisal scores.
* Next practice: Calculate the actual dollar impact on business results of each key hire.
Practice Area: Corporate Website
* Average practice: Post information on it, like it was a paper bulletin board.
* Best practice: Also include "sales" elements like streaming video and individual employee profiles.
* Next practice: Provide the capability to morph or mass-customize the information provided to visitors, so that it provides the right tailored information for this individual candidate, based on the background and interest profile he or she provided.
Practice Area: Recruiting Focus and Prioritization
* Average practice: Recruiters respond to all jobs equally.
* Best practice: Prioritize requisitions based on the potential business impact of that position.
* Next practice: In addition, assign recruiters, recruiting budget, and the appropriate sourcing approach, based on the actual success rates of recent hires in this targeted position.
Practice Area: Candidate Assessment
* Average practice: Conduct behavioral interviews with all candidates.
* Best practice: Add an online test as the first screen.
* Next practice: Replace the test with an online video simulation developed for this job, which both excites and more effectively assesses the candidate's skills, weaknesses, and capabilities.
The Process for Identifying Next Practices
Predicting which HR practices will become obsolete and what will be needed to supplant them in the future is obviously more difficult than merely calling up a great company and asking it what it's doing now. However, the impacts are significantly greater on the business, so it's definitely worth the effort.
The first step is to do some reading in the area of business change so that you can learn how to identify precursors to change points. Unfortunately, there are but a few authors who talk about what in business is known as "inflection points," where everything in a particular product line or industry changes. Start by reading Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove and the current best-seller, The World is Flat. Then, start reading forecasting articles in publications like BusinessWeek, Fortune, The Economist, Business 2.0, Workforce Management, and the McKinsey Quarterly. Individuals who might help you identify upcoming inflection points include individuals in product development, R&D, and strategic planning.
After you identify these inflection points where business will change dramatically, the next step is to identify which practices in recruiting and HR will no longer support the direction of the company post-change.
It's important to remember there are almost always precursors or warning signs that alert you to upcoming inflection points. These precursors are alerts that recruiting and HR must prepare for change by beginning to develop the appropriate next practice so that HR is adapting its own next practices at the same time and speed as the rest of the business. For example, if product design implemented changes to dramatically reduce time-to-market so that products were introduced once a quarter rather than once a year, workforce allocation models would obviously need to change. Speed of hiring might need to increase to match the firm's increased speed of product development.
Other approaches you might consider include reading CEO speeches and articles written by key industry thought leaders who have a track record of forecasting inflection points. Look for individuals who think outside the box and are consistently unhappy with current approaches.
The next stage of the process involves setting aside some time to think about the future. This thinking can be stimulated with if–then and what–if exercises that focus on what might soon become obsolete. Part of the process should also be to develop rules that prohibit looking at solutions that can only help you improve by 5-10%. Next-practice thinking, in essence, demands that you reject all solutions that don't allow you to improve by a quantum amount of, say, 25%. This quantum improvement rate is the key differentiator between best practices and next practices. If you want to make a quantum jump in business or recruiting, you simply must have to have tools and strategies that allow you to make a 25-50% improvement, all within a relatively short period of time. If you are really bold, just assume that every process must improve by, say, 25% (at the same rate of change in your company's product line) each and every year.
You can also seek out any developing next practices by networking with only the top firms that have been in the forefront of developing previous next practices. Instead of asking about current best practices, ask them what practices they are considering or developing for the future. Of course, they will be reluctant to share future plans, so you'll need to have done your own thinking and propose a trade of your next practice for theirs. Incidentally, you can't do this with 99% of the firms in your industry because most firms have never developed a process to begin thinking about next practices.
The final step, if your budget allows, is to consult with out-of-the-box thought leaders to help validate your thinking. Efforts should be made to network with individuals who have demonstrated their ability to accurately predict inflection points and the related next practices in recruiting and HR. Thought leaders like Kevin Wheeler, Michael McNeal, Michael Homula, Dan Hilbert, and even myself come to mind. Sometimes, these individuals can shock your team into thinking ahead.
Conclusion
If you want to become a leader in developing next practices, the first thing you need is courage. Think of all the sea captains who told Columbus he was nuts about his next practice! It takes tremendous courage to constantly argue that your firm's best practices could ever become obsolete. Another wise move is to commit yourself to becoming an expert in business change, so that you can begin to identify the precursors to business change. Finally, develop a mindset that assumes that every major practice is holding back your firm and the recruiting function. However, if you are satisfied with a 3% rate of change, don't bother with next-practice thinking. It's only for those that want to be first every time and to win big! Any questions?
About Author
Dr. John Sullivan (JohnS@sfsu.edu) is a well-known thought leader in HR. He is a frequent speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms. Formerly the chief talent officer for Agilent Technologies (the 43,000-employee HP spin-off), he is now a professor of management at San Francisco State University. He was called the "Michael Jordan of Hiring" by Fast Company magazine. More recruiting articles by Dr. Sullivan can be found in the ER Daily archives. Information about his numerous other articles, books and manuals about recruiting and HR can be found at www.drjohnsullivan.com. Dr. Sullivan is also the editor of VP of HR, an e-newsletter providing "out of the box" solutions for senior HR managers. Free subscriptions can be obtained on his website.
Many in HR proclaim a desire to be more strategic, yet most doom themselves by not acting any differently than everyone else. A clear indication of this can be seen in the speed by which documented best practices are mimicked and improved. Benchmarking has become a common practice in the profession of recruiting, which most organizations use to identify what must be done to emulate those who do something better. Unfortunately, most stop there with emulation, and that may doom them to mediocrity forever.
The business world once moved at a significantly slower pace, a pace that made benchmarking and emulating best practices prudent activities. However, things no longer move so slowly! By the time firms benchmark a best practice today, the situation that warranted the development or implementation of the best practice might have changed or may no longer be present. Instead of systematizing an effort to consistently follow the leader and mimic the soon-to-be-obsolete practices of others, I recommend adopting a proactive approach, one in which you develop your own "next generation" of best practices. I call these "next practices."
Next Practice Development Is More Common in Other Business Functions
Next practice development isn't about making something more efficient; instead, it is about a fundamental transformation of the core business activity. For example, Apple has long been a participant in the computer industry, in which the core best practices are predominately focused on refinement of manufacturing technologies that enable computers to do more. While Apple could have easily jumped on the performance bandwagon, it instead opted to develop next practices in the areas of product packaging and service.
With the introduction of the iMac, Apple demonstrated that computers don't have to be beige and gray boxes. With the introduction of the iPod and iMusic service, Apple demonstrated that product companies can develop sustainable long-term relationships with consumers. It abandoned efforts to compete on the nature of performance, long a computer-industry challenge, and reinvented the game with best practices that were unique to its business.
Next Practices Help You Create the Future
Best practices only allow you to do what you are currently doing a little better, while next practices increase your organization's capability to do things that it could never have done before. By jumping a level up to next practices, you're taking a giant step in that you are actually creating your future recruiting capabilities, rather than relying on the innovation of others.
Examples of Next Practices
If you are not sure of the distinction between best and next practices, here are some examples in several HR areas:
Practice Area: College Recruiting
* Average practice: Visit the top schools within your state.
* Best practice: Visit the top 10 schools in the U.S.
* Next practice: Recruit remotely (without having to visit) from the best schools around the world.
Practice Area: Next Job Hiring
* Average practice: Hire individuals who have the skills that are currently needed by "this manager."
* Best practice: Hire individuals who have the skills for both this and the next-level-up job (that the individual will likely be promoted to in the next few years).
* Next practice: Hire individuals who can do both this and the next job but also have the capabilities of reskilling rapidly into skill and competency areas that have yet to be identified.
Practice Area: Global Hiring
* Average practice: Hire the best from India and China, and bring them to America.
* Best practice: Hire the best in India and China and then move operations to India and China.
* Next practice: Find the very best performers in every individual country around the world and let them work remotely in their home countries.
Practice Area: Recruiting Metrics
* Average practice: Cost per hire.
* Best practice: Measure quality of hire through performance appraisal scores.
* Next practice: Calculate the actual dollar impact on business results of each key hire.
Practice Area: Corporate Website
* Average practice: Post information on it, like it was a paper bulletin board.
* Best practice: Also include "sales" elements like streaming video and individual employee profiles.
* Next practice: Provide the capability to morph or mass-customize the information provided to visitors, so that it provides the right tailored information for this individual candidate, based on the background and interest profile he or she provided.
Practice Area: Recruiting Focus and Prioritization
* Average practice: Recruiters respond to all jobs equally.
* Best practice: Prioritize requisitions based on the potential business impact of that position.
* Next practice: In addition, assign recruiters, recruiting budget, and the appropriate sourcing approach, based on the actual success rates of recent hires in this targeted position.
Practice Area: Candidate Assessment
* Average practice: Conduct behavioral interviews with all candidates.
* Best practice: Add an online test as the first screen.
* Next practice: Replace the test with an online video simulation developed for this job, which both excites and more effectively assesses the candidate's skills, weaknesses, and capabilities.
The Process for Identifying Next Practices
Predicting which HR practices will become obsolete and what will be needed to supplant them in the future is obviously more difficult than merely calling up a great company and asking it what it's doing now. However, the impacts are significantly greater on the business, so it's definitely worth the effort.
The first step is to do some reading in the area of business change so that you can learn how to identify precursors to change points. Unfortunately, there are but a few authors who talk about what in business is known as "inflection points," where everything in a particular product line or industry changes. Start by reading Only the Paranoid Survive by Andy Grove and the current best-seller, The World is Flat. Then, start reading forecasting articles in publications like BusinessWeek, Fortune, The Economist, Business 2.0, Workforce Management, and the McKinsey Quarterly. Individuals who might help you identify upcoming inflection points include individuals in product development, R&D, and strategic planning.
After you identify these inflection points where business will change dramatically, the next step is to identify which practices in recruiting and HR will no longer support the direction of the company post-change.
It's important to remember there are almost always precursors or warning signs that alert you to upcoming inflection points. These precursors are alerts that recruiting and HR must prepare for change by beginning to develop the appropriate next practice so that HR is adapting its own next practices at the same time and speed as the rest of the business. For example, if product design implemented changes to dramatically reduce time-to-market so that products were introduced once a quarter rather than once a year, workforce allocation models would obviously need to change. Speed of hiring might need to increase to match the firm's increased speed of product development.
Other approaches you might consider include reading CEO speeches and articles written by key industry thought leaders who have a track record of forecasting inflection points. Look for individuals who think outside the box and are consistently unhappy with current approaches.
The next stage of the process involves setting aside some time to think about the future. This thinking can be stimulated with if–then and what–if exercises that focus on what might soon become obsolete. Part of the process should also be to develop rules that prohibit looking at solutions that can only help you improve by 5-10%. Next-practice thinking, in essence, demands that you reject all solutions that don't allow you to improve by a quantum amount of, say, 25%. This quantum improvement rate is the key differentiator between best practices and next practices. If you want to make a quantum jump in business or recruiting, you simply must have to have tools and strategies that allow you to make a 25-50% improvement, all within a relatively short period of time. If you are really bold, just assume that every process must improve by, say, 25% (at the same rate of change in your company's product line) each and every year.
You can also seek out any developing next practices by networking with only the top firms that have been in the forefront of developing previous next practices. Instead of asking about current best practices, ask them what practices they are considering or developing for the future. Of course, they will be reluctant to share future plans, so you'll need to have done your own thinking and propose a trade of your next practice for theirs. Incidentally, you can't do this with 99% of the firms in your industry because most firms have never developed a process to begin thinking about next practices.
The final step, if your budget allows, is to consult with out-of-the-box thought leaders to help validate your thinking. Efforts should be made to network with individuals who have demonstrated their ability to accurately predict inflection points and the related next practices in recruiting and HR. Thought leaders like Kevin Wheeler, Michael McNeal, Michael Homula, Dan Hilbert, and even myself come to mind. Sometimes, these individuals can shock your team into thinking ahead.
Conclusion
If you want to become a leader in developing next practices, the first thing you need is courage. Think of all the sea captains who told Columbus he was nuts about his next practice! It takes tremendous courage to constantly argue that your firm's best practices could ever become obsolete. Another wise move is to commit yourself to becoming an expert in business change, so that you can begin to identify the precursors to business change. Finally, develop a mindset that assumes that every major practice is holding back your firm and the recruiting function. However, if you are satisfied with a 3% rate of change, don't bother with next-practice thinking. It's only for those that want to be first every time and to win big! Any questions?
About Author
Dr. John Sullivan (JohnS@sfsu.edu) is a well-known thought leader in HR. He is a frequent speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms. Formerly the chief talent officer for Agilent Technologies (the 43,000-employee HP spin-off), he is now a professor of management at San Francisco State University. He was called the "Michael Jordan of Hiring" by Fast Company magazine. More recruiting articles by Dr. Sullivan can be found in the ER Daily archives. Information about his numerous other articles, books and manuals about recruiting and HR can be found at www.drjohnsullivan.com. Dr. Sullivan is also the editor of VP of HR, an e-newsletter providing "out of the box" solutions for senior HR managers. Free subscriptions can be obtained on his website.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Analysts: iTunes Would Get Short End of Stick in Beatles Deal
Putting Beatles songs on iTunes may give music lovers a thrill, but it won't pay iTunes' bills. The profit margins for songs sold on the No. 1 online music download vendor are razor-thin, and Steve Jobs has openly said the service is mostly there to boost iPod sales. Still, having an iTunes outlet would probably be a boon to Beatles publisher Apple Corps as well as the band's fans.
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Despite signs that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple may land a historic deal with the Beatles to make the band's entire catalog of music available on its iTunes store, analysts say that such a move would be a "non-event" in terms of the company's profits.
Rumors of such a deal have been circulating for years. Speculation grew to a feverish pitch Friday when ex-Beatle Paul McCartney told Billboard magazine that an agreement with iTunes is "virtually settled."
Currently, none of the digital-music merchants has rights to sell Beatles tunes online.
Rocky History
Apple's iTunes is by far the largest player in the sector, but the company was hampered by a long-running trademark dispute with the band's music-publishing arm, which is named Apple Corps.
The two sides reached a settlement in February, which many expected to pave the way for an eventual deal to sell Beatles songs.
Still, this won't do much to boost profits at Apple and other online sellers, analysts said Friday.
At 99 US cents a song, it is believed by most that Apple simply breaks even on song sales Free White Paper - What Retailers Should Know about M-Commerce.
Paltry Profit
Though the company does not disclose its actual profitability on music sales, chief executive Steve Jobs has said publicly that there is little in the way of profits in sales of music. He added that he started iTunes as a way to help boost sales of the company's popular iPod music player.
"Having the Beatles on iTunes is fabulous, but it's a non- event," according to W.R. Hambrecht & Co. analyst Matthew Kather, who has a buy rating on Apple.
"It's not a needle mover," agreed Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, who also has a buy rating on Apple.
Wu and others believe that to significantly boost any music seller's bottom line, it would take a jump in online sales, and such a spike is unlikely to come from the sudden availability of the Beatles.
Settlements Here, There and Everywhere
Still, the development is sure to be a boon for music aficionados and for Apple Corps, the company that manages the Beatles' commercial interests, Wu said.
Apple Corps and EMI Group, which holds the rights to the band's recordings, in April said that they had settled a longstanding dispute over royalties paving the way for the band to release its back catalog through digital-music retail platforms.
A recent agreement between Apple and EMI to make EMI's artists available over iTunes without copyright-protection software, albeit at a higher price point, also has raised expectations that a deal will soon be reached to allow the Beatles' material to be sold digitally.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/GIeqhpDPkfPcMK/Analysts-iTunes-Would-Get-Short-End-of-Stick-in-Beatles-Deal.xhtml
Reduce Datacenter TCO
Complimentary Whitepaper: Enabling Technology by Blade I/O Virtualization, reveals smart TCO solutions for daunting server-complexity problems. Learn more.
Despite signs that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple may land a historic deal with the Beatles to make the band's entire catalog of music available on its iTunes store, analysts say that such a move would be a "non-event" in terms of the company's profits.
Rumors of such a deal have been circulating for years. Speculation grew to a feverish pitch Friday when ex-Beatle Paul McCartney told Billboard magazine that an agreement with iTunes is "virtually settled."
Currently, none of the digital-music merchants has rights to sell Beatles tunes online.
Rocky History
Apple's iTunes is by far the largest player in the sector, but the company was hampered by a long-running trademark dispute with the band's music-publishing arm, which is named Apple Corps.
The two sides reached a settlement in February, which many expected to pave the way for an eventual deal to sell Beatles songs.
Still, this won't do much to boost profits at Apple and other online sellers, analysts said Friday.
At 99 US cents a song, it is believed by most that Apple simply breaks even on song sales Free White Paper - What Retailers Should Know about M-Commerce.
Paltry Profit
Though the company does not disclose its actual profitability on music sales, chief executive Steve Jobs has said publicly that there is little in the way of profits in sales of music. He added that he started iTunes as a way to help boost sales of the company's popular iPod music player.
"Having the Beatles on iTunes is fabulous, but it's a non- event," according to W.R. Hambrecht & Co. analyst Matthew Kather, who has a buy rating on Apple.
"It's not a needle mover," agreed Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research, who also has a buy rating on Apple.
Wu and others believe that to significantly boost any music seller's bottom line, it would take a jump in online sales, and such a spike is unlikely to come from the sudden availability of the Beatles.
Settlements Here, There and Everywhere
Still, the development is sure to be a boon for music aficionados and for Apple Corps, the company that manages the Beatles' commercial interests, Wu said.
Apple Corps and EMI Group, which holds the rights to the band's recordings, in April said that they had settled a longstanding dispute over royalties paving the way for the band to release its back catalog through digital-music retail platforms.
A recent agreement between Apple and EMI to make EMI's artists available over iTunes without copyright-protection software, albeit at a higher price point, also has raised expectations that a deal will soon be reached to allow the Beatles' material to be sold digitally.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/GIeqhpDPkfPcMK/Analysts-iTunes-Would-Get-Short-End-of-Stick-in-Beatles-Deal.xhtml
The iPod: Almost the Best Thing Since the Printing Press
You have a massive library of music, easily organized into whatever categories you want -- country, classical, what have you -- and no shrieking ads. All in a tiny removable box that never breaks. Maybe it's not quite up there with the invention of printing, but I claim it's close.
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Today, thoughts on advertising Email Marketing Software - Free Demo and why the iPod constitutes a blow for culture, sanity and civilization.
Two types of advertising exist. One is demure, courteous and unaggressive. Newspaper ads are examples. I open the paper to read about some massacre or other, and an ad for a new camera is on the right half of the page. It tells me that the thing has 50 giga-pixels, great lenses, records movies and makes coffee -- in general, why it's a splendid camera and I should buy it.
Fine. If I want a camera, the ad is useful. Otherwise I can ignore it.
Variety of Ads
Also in the civilized category are the computer-generated ads from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Latest News about Google you see at the bottom or sides of many Web sites. These are technically slick.
The software analyzes the page and tries to offer ads that would interest the viewer. However, the ads don't do anything obnoxious. They just sit there.
The other kind of advertising, as for example on television, is force-fed, intrusive, unpleasant and usually electronic. These pitches are calculatedly loud, jump around a lot and never stop. Most people hate them (most people I know, anyway). The infrared remote Manage remotely with one interface -- the HP ProLiant DL360 G5 server. control with its mute button was some help, but a nuisance. Then came set-top boxes with hard drives that let people record shows and eliminate the commercials.
The advertisers went crazy, of course, because they make their money by forcing people to watch annoying ads.
Pesky Pop-Ups
In the same class are pop-up and pop-under ads on the Web that you have to close before you read the page.
Pop-up blockers work pretty well to eliminate these, but once again we have the technological race between advertisers and those who want to protect themselves from ads. Now the Web suffers ads that move to obscure the page you are reading until you do something about them, or they finally disappear.
Radio is no better. Until recently, the only way to escape the unending yammer of advertising on a car radio was to play CDs instead. The problem was the nuisance of changing the CD, possibly causing a five-car wreck as you fiddled with the thing. Six-disc changers appeared in cars. Better, but not perfect.
But now -- aha! I recently bought an 8 GB iPod nano, from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple.
Music Free of Ads
For readers who are not teenagers, this is a gadget smaller than a Heath bar that holds music -- lots of music. The cute thing about the nano is that it is solid-state, without moving parts. You can get iPods and iPod clones with much greater capacity, but they use small hard drives. Things that move eventually fail.
Just now, I have 1,506 "songs" -- some are full symphonies -- amounting to four full days of music on my nano, and I've only used almost 6 of 8 gigabytes. Technology being what it is, in short order there will be iPod nanos with 16 and then 32 GB. At that point almost all of us will be able to carry in a shirt pocket all the music we ever actually listen to.
It's easy to use. Apple clearly thought a bunch about the design.
In the Car
Today, you can buy car adaptors for iPods. They are outrageously expensive (US$450 I have seen) since they can't consist of much more that a wire ("line out") and a tiny power supply. Presumably that will change.
Bingo. You have a massive library of music, easily organized into whatever categories you want -- country, classical, what have you -- and no shrieking ads. All in a tiny removable box that never breaks.
Maybe it's not quite up there with the invention of printing, but I claim it's close.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/PgJdrD002RrsAt/The-iPod-Almost-the-Best-Thing-Since-the-Printing-Press.xhtml
How to Choose the Right Payroll Firm
Get a free overview on the most important factors in choosing an outsourced payroll firm. Receive free quotes from pre-qualified Payroll Service firms. Learn more.
Today, thoughts on advertising Email Marketing Software - Free Demo and why the iPod constitutes a blow for culture, sanity and civilization.
Two types of advertising exist. One is demure, courteous and unaggressive. Newspaper ads are examples. I open the paper to read about some massacre or other, and an ad for a new camera is on the right half of the page. It tells me that the thing has 50 giga-pixels, great lenses, records movies and makes coffee -- in general, why it's a splendid camera and I should buy it.
Fine. If I want a camera, the ad is useful. Otherwise I can ignore it.
Variety of Ads
Also in the civilized category are the computer-generated ads from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Latest News about Google you see at the bottom or sides of many Web sites. These are technically slick.
The software analyzes the page and tries to offer ads that would interest the viewer. However, the ads don't do anything obnoxious. They just sit there.
The other kind of advertising, as for example on television, is force-fed, intrusive, unpleasant and usually electronic. These pitches are calculatedly loud, jump around a lot and never stop. Most people hate them (most people I know, anyway). The infrared remote Manage remotely with one interface -- the HP ProLiant DL360 G5 server. control with its mute button was some help, but a nuisance. Then came set-top boxes with hard drives that let people record shows and eliminate the commercials.
The advertisers went crazy, of course, because they make their money by forcing people to watch annoying ads.
Pesky Pop-Ups
In the same class are pop-up and pop-under ads on the Web that you have to close before you read the page.
Pop-up blockers work pretty well to eliminate these, but once again we have the technological race between advertisers and those who want to protect themselves from ads. Now the Web suffers ads that move to obscure the page you are reading until you do something about them, or they finally disappear.
Radio is no better. Until recently, the only way to escape the unending yammer of advertising on a car radio was to play CDs instead. The problem was the nuisance of changing the CD, possibly causing a five-car wreck as you fiddled with the thing. Six-disc changers appeared in cars. Better, but not perfect.
But now -- aha! I recently bought an 8 GB iPod nano, from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Latest News about Apple.
Music Free of Ads
For readers who are not teenagers, this is a gadget smaller than a Heath bar that holds music -- lots of music. The cute thing about the nano is that it is solid-state, without moving parts. You can get iPods and iPod clones with much greater capacity, but they use small hard drives. Things that move eventually fail.
Just now, I have 1,506 "songs" -- some are full symphonies -- amounting to four full days of music on my nano, and I've only used almost 6 of 8 gigabytes. Technology being what it is, in short order there will be iPod nanos with 16 and then 32 GB. At that point almost all of us will be able to carry in a shirt pocket all the music we ever actually listen to.
It's easy to use. Apple clearly thought a bunch about the design.
In the Car
Today, you can buy car adaptors for iPods. They are outrageously expensive (US$450 I have seen) since they can't consist of much more that a wire ("line out") and a tiny power supply. Presumably that will change.
Bingo. You have a massive library of music, easily organized into whatever categories you want -- country, classical, what have you -- and no shrieking ads. All in a tiny removable box that never breaks.
Maybe it's not quite up there with the invention of printing, but I claim it's close.
http://www.macnewsworld.com/story/PgJdrD002RrsAt/The-iPod-Almost-the-Best-Thing-Since-the-Printing-Press.xhtml
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