Sunday, January 31, 2016
Karnataka investment meet on Feb 3 amid infra, traffic concerns
Friday, January 29, 2016
Chevron dividend cut expected
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Brent hits $35 on expectations of production cut
How To Be An Inspiring Manager
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
2016 ABFF Honors Honorees and Awards Announced
On February 21, 2016 at the Beverly Hills Hilton, ABFF Ventures will present ABFF Honors, a celebration saluting excellence in motion pictures and television. With ABFF Honors, black culture will be recognized for the impact and accomplishments black artistry has had on American entertainment. Hosted by actor and comedian Mike Epps, this ceremony will bring together hundreds of the industry’s most influential filmmakers, executives, and actors.
[RELATED: Open Letter to Hollywood: Because Hollywoodn't]
With a plethora of exceptional talent and creation budding and thriving in the black community today, it is with great pleasure that ABFF Honors announces this year’s awards nominees and honorees.
2016 Honorees
Distinguished ABFF Alumni: Will Packer
Excellence in The Arts: Regina King
Excellence in The Arts: Don Cheadle
Rising Star: Ryan Coogler
Hollywood Legacy: Diahann Carroll
Television Show of the Year Nominees
black-ish (ABC)
Empire (FOX)
Power (STARZ)
Being Mary Jane (BET)
How to Get Away with Murder (ABC)
Film of the Year Nominees
Beasts of No Nation (Netflix)
Chi-raq (Amazon Studios, Roadside Attractions)
Concussion (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Creed (Warner Bros. Entertainment)
Dope (Open Road Films)
Straight Outta Compton (Universal Pictures)
The winners of the television and film categories will be determined by the 2016 ABFF Honors Awards Jury, which is comprised of top tier actors, filmmakers, film critics and industry executives.
Produced by Film Life and Black Enterprise, ABFF Honors looks to be one of the highlights of the Hollywood Awards season and Black History Month, despite recent exclusion in mainstream Hollywood’s ‘black art' recognition. “I have always believed that the black artists in Hollywood would be more empowered if they were more committed to supporting one another, attending celebrations of their culture, and relied less on mainstream validation of their work,” says Jeff Friday, president and CEO, ABFF Ventures and Creator of ABFF Honors, “I hope that the success of ABFF Honors will change things.”
ABFF Honors will set the precedence for black excellence in filmmaking as writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, and producers gear up for the 20th Anniversary of the American Black Film Festival hosted June 15-19, 2016, Miami Beach, Florida. This year the festival takes its talent back to South Beach to celebrate two full decades of nurturing black art and culture by means of exposure, networking, showcasing and uplifting upcoming and existing African American artistry.
Book your ABFF festival passes now. For information on the American Black Film Festival, to purchase pass packages, or to book your hotel for this year’s festival, June 15-19 in Miami Beach, Florida, be sure to visit www.ABFF.com.
For more information on ABFF Honors and the 2016 ABFF check out Black Enterprise (@BlackEnterprise) via social media for constant news and updates. Use hashtags #ABFFHonors and #ABFF20 to remain in the loop.
British Tax Deal With Google Puts Government on Defensive
How India lost the plot in global iron ore trade
UPDATE 1-Falling coal, commodities hurt Norfolk Southern profit
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Ratan Tata invests in TeaBox, comes on board as advisor
Australia shares fall as oil retreats, NZ stocks edge up
0.7 percent on Wednesday, led by losses in energy and banking
stocks, while New Zealand and much of Asia put on modest gains
on Wall Street's strength.
How To Shift From a Product Focus to a People Focus [Podcast]
Time to Shift From a Product Focus to a People Focus? (image courtesy of Steve R, Flickr)
These days even product manufacturers are realizing that they need more of a service orientation if they are to succeed; more of a people focus. Lexmark, a printer manufacturer with a worldwide staff of about 15,000, is making that shift.
In today’s podcast episode, Phil Wright, Lexmark’s Director of Global Customer Experience and Enterprise Excellence, discusses how they are approaching it and what some of the challenges have been.
People Focus Is A Change For Many B2B Companies
Wright, who came from the product side himself, recognizes that helping staff see things from the customer viewpoint instead of an internal process viewpoint is a major challenge. One thing that really helps is exposing his colleagues at all levels to the voice of the customer (VOC) — the actual words their customers are using.
Even if you don’t yet have a formal VOC process, make sure that any customer surveys you do include an open-ended option for them to add comments, and read those carefully. Wright finds that when staff hear what customers are saying it makes it much easier for them to accept that they need to change the way things have always been done.
Other Customer Experience Improvement Takeaways
Phil Wright, Lexmark Director of Global CX and Enterprise Excellence
1. Dealing With Long-Term Leases
One interesting twist in the case of a company like Lexmark is that most of their clients lease their fleet of equipment for 5 years at a time. The result is that product problems can’t be solved quickly with hardware upgrades. So you need to look at how you can make the customer experience so good that they will put up with any product weaknesses until the end of the 5 year cycle. As Wright put it:
“The experiences that [customers] have with things that are outside the scope of the products are as important as getting R&D to put this widget in this next product.”
2. You May Be Surprised By What Upsets Customers
Another great benefit of VOC programs and open-ended feedback: you may be in for a shock from what customers tell you! For example, we all “know” it is better to talk to people using simple terminology, and explaining things carefully so that customers who call in for help understand what you are telling them, right?
Wrong. It turned out that because their customers were typically other businesses, often the person at the other end of a help call was someone who already had a lot of technical knowledge. They were insulted and annoyed by being treated like dummies when they called in. A true people focus includes thinking about what sort of people you need to focus on!
3. Customer Journey Mapping Is Crucial
A natural tendency, especially in traditional, product-focused companies, is to look at process improvements from an insider perspective. If we can just get more efficient, the customers will be happy and the company will save money. But if you only look at process improvement from the inside perspective, you may be more efficient but end up with customers even less happy than they currently are.
Once staff start mapping the actual customer journeys, they start to understand why change is so important. Wright found that many staff members had no idea how the whole process worked; they just knew about their part of it. Without understanding the entire customer journey, it is impossible to get all the processes right.
“Customer journey mapping opened a lot of eyes to how complex our business relationship is with a lot of our customers”
4. If Used to Lean, Compare Customer Journey Mapping to Value Stream Mapping
If your organization is already using a process improvement methodology such as lean manufacturing, they may well be comfortable with the concepts of process or value stream mapping. If you point out that customer journey mapping is a similar concept, but from the customer’s perspective, it may help them understand the importance and be more comfortable participating.
5. Start With Places Where You Can Have Big Wins
Often the biggest challenge in a new customer experience improvement program is simply knowing where to start. Many Frank Reactions guests suggest starting with a place where you can have a quick, easy win. Ideally, says Wright, look for a big win; something that will be so obvious and visible that it will make it obvious to your colleagues how valuable customer experience improvement is.
6. Focus on Handover Points
Passing the baton is where customer service often gets dropped
This is not a surprise to anyone familiar with value stream mapping: problems are most likely to occur at points where responsibility is handed from one person or department to another.
Look closely at those points to get some quick wins for your customer experience improvement programs.
“We have so many baton passes that there are so many opportunities to drop it and lose the race”
7. It’s Not All About Dollars and Tools
It is so tempting to keep buying and trying the latest and greatest tools. New ways to collect customer feedback, to share it within the organization, to analyze big data… The list is endless. But sometimes, says Wright, you “need to work on the action side, which is people and process, not necessarily dollars and tools.”
Does your organization struggle with people focus?
Please comment below.
Monday, January 25, 2016
International Paper And Packaging Corp. Stock Slumps After Citi Downgrades To Neutral
Friday, January 22, 2016
First GM ignition switch lawsuit is dismissed
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Government urged to act now to avert looming “investor strike”
Startup founders should brace for an “investor strike” in the next six months before the innovation statement taxation changes come into effect, with this transition period creating uncertainty and distortion in the market, AVCAL CEO Yassar El-Ansary says.
The federal government’s $1 billion set of policies including a 10% tax offset for capital invested in Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (ESVCLP) and the size of eligible partnerships increasing from $100 million to $200 million.
But these changes won’t come into effect until July 1st, and El-Ansary says this will lead to an “investor strike” in the first half of 2016.
“It’s quite possible that some investors will hold off putting money into startups for the next few months until July,” El-Ansary tells StartupSmart.
“If there’s a significant benefit to be gained by investing after July this year rather than now, you can understand why some people might want to do that.”
The government should introduce some sort of transitionary policy to avoid this, he says.
“We’re in discussions with the government right now about how the risk of an investor strike can be avoided,” El-Ansary says.
“It’s not unusual for changes to tax laws to come with transitional arrangements which help to smooth out any bumps in moving from one set of rules to another, and I think that’s exactly what the government needs to do as part of implementing these changes.”
Having a sudden change will create “odd behaviour” in the Australian investor scene, OneVentures CEO Dr Michelle Deaker says.
“There are companies that need the money now, not at the end of the year,” Deaker tells StartupSmart.
“This is why having policies that will cover the transitionary period makes good sense.”
Uncertainty for VC funds
There are also concerns in the investor community that a lack of full details regarding the changes will create uncertainty for VC funds, El-Ansary says.
“We have to avoid an outcome which leads to a fund which finds itself in that situation from being unwound and then re-established after July this year simply to fall within the new tax rules,” he says.
The 10% offset will apply to “new” ESVCLPs, but it’s still not clear whether this will apply to funds that are currently in the process of closing.
OneVentures is on the verge of closing its $100 million Innovation and Growth Fund II, but Deaker says it now might wait to see how the taxation changes will impact it and if there’s an opportunity to vastly increase its size.
“They made the announcement that will come into effect sometime in the future, and that’s left people in a transitionary phase not knowing where they stand,” Deaker says.
“I’d like to see if there’s an opportunity to increase the fund.”
The concerns for OneVentures relate to how the government defines a “new fund” in the proposed legislation and whether the new cap of $200 million on ESVCLPs will apply to funds that are nearly closed as well as newly created funds.
If the tax breaks do apply to OneVentures’ fund, Deaker says it could bring in a further $20 or $30 million and possibly even attract large superannuation funds.
“If we got an indication from government that they were going to have some flexibility and it wasn’t just going to be for new funds registering after July we would hold off closing and could bring in additional investors,” she says.
“The government wants to encourage more money in the sector so it would be wise for them to say that funds still raising capital in this transitionary phase should be eligible for new legislation when it comes in.
“They should allow the 10% rebate to apply to any future-drawn funds to level the market playing field. We’d live to see whether we could extend this fund and if the offset would help our ability to do that.”
Deaker says this flexibility would ultimately benefit the Australian startup sector and economy in general.
“For every dollar we raise and put into a company we end up placing another three times that amount directly or with new investors,” she says.
“From an economic perspective for Australia, every dollar has such a great positive and magnifying effect for the Australian economy. It makes sense for the government to try to be inclusive.”
El-Ansary says that many other funds in Australia are facing the exact same problem as OneVentures.
“I know the issue OneVentures is trying to manage will be the same as others,” he says. “It’s a challenging one.”
Distorting the market
Having this “investor strike” in the lead-up to the big changes in July could also distort the market even once the new taxation system is in full effect, Deaker says.
“We’re also worried it will create market distortion, with people not committing to funds until the new legislation comes through,” she says.
This needs to be addressed by the government, El-Ansary says.
“We need to ensure we calibrate things in a way that avoids any market-distorting outcomes which will have downstream implications for high-growth Australian businesses looking for new investment capital,” he says.
Despite these concerns, Deaker and El-Ansary both say the statement marked a “major step forward” for Australia.
“We needed to make some of these changes two or three years ago but the positive thing is that we are getting on with it now,” El-Ansary says.
What to Watch in the Day Ahead - Friday, Jan 22
(The Day Ahead is an email and PDF publication that includes the day's major stories and events, analyses and other features. To receive The Day Ahead, Eikon users can register at . Thomson One users can register at RT/DAY/US. All times in ET/GMT) The National Association of Realtors is slated to report existing home sales for December, which likely rose 8.9 percent to an annual rate of 5.20 million units, compared to November's sharp drop of 10.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.76 million un
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
FTSE CLOSE: Footsie plummets deep into red in global markets rout
Deutsche CEO predicts cash will be gone in a decade
BRIEF-Orco Property Group to delist from Euronext Paris - Euronext
