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Saturday, October 12, 2013

Increasing Traffic Online Marketing Business

Making cash on the Internet, but everything pales in comparison to Internet marketing. Given below are a few simple tips to help you market your product better on the web.

Each Internet Marketer has one main goal: to make as many sales as he or she can make. Learning everything you can about building traffic for your websites is important: it comes before you can make a single sale. You don't want just any traffic; you want traffic that converts. Even though there are literally dozens of different methods to get potential buyers to your site, pay per click marketing is one of the fastest and easiest methods to take advantage of. 

When it comes to PPC, one tip that many Internet marketers find useful is "go one step at a time". For further elaboration, consider this: there are a lot of risks involved in PPC because you will have to spend money for every click you get. To make your PPC campaign a success, all of those clicks need to result in a sale or a lead. In order to find the success you crave, you should do some research before you jump into PPC.

You will have to take each step as it comes and slowly or it could mess things up. Your first decision is whether you have the budget to get into pay per click or not. You are going to have to get used to the idea that, when you are starting out, you will probably lose some money because you lack experience. Third, don't invest all of your money in one go, but instead run a few test campaigns and see how well they're converting. 

Once you figure out which is the best converting campaign, you'll know where to put your money. The bottom line with PPC is, no matter what, don't rush into it. Take some time, do your research and grow your campaigns slowly.

If you want to get successful with Internet marketing, you need to see that promoting products online is something that takes hard work. You must be consistent and you have to work steadily until you find success. The more you delay in taking action, the higher will be your loss of time. 

So it's necessary that you put in the effort to act on the right techniques, learn from your mistakes and above all to get results. You need to be an Internet marketer who isn't afraid to work. You need to ensure you take the proper risks if you want to earn what you want to.

Always to remember to work at your online business full time and not like something to do in your spare time. Many new marketers make the mistake of viewing Internet marketing as a part time work and end up giving it less attention. 

This only makes it more difficult for you, which is why you should treat your Internet business like a successful business in the very beginning of your journey. One of the great things about Internet marketing is that it is so easy for anyone with a computer and Internet connection.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Better And Basic Negotiation Skills Needed In Business

You know everything is negotiable as long as people have the charm and persuasion to make things happen their way. In sines, there is a pressure to get the most out of relationships and get the most value possible out of deals. Understanding the art of negotiation will increase the chance of a favorable outcome for the company.

Being prepared is the most important part of negotiating well. Going in without a plan and thinking it will be like the movies where characters simply wing it will only backfire. It is important to know the audience, what they want, and what questions they could ask. Understand what is driving the party the company is negotiating against where their priorities lie.

Having a response custom tailored for the audience is very helpful in negotiation. Like the previous point, figure out what type of people the company is dealing with and speak in a language the recognize. This is how to push their buttons. There are four kind of basic people to deal with when negotiating.

First is the formal, precise individual who is analytical and needs mass data before a decision can be made. Second is the purposeful, demanding person who is more competitive and intuitive. Third are the caring, relaxed, and patient people who do not rush things. Fourth are the persuasive people who are warm, expressive, and sociable.

Adapting the approach is easier when the businessman understands the different categories of people. The first person needs lots of information. The second just want a summary. The third and fourth types need stories or diagrams. The person negotiating needs to understand themselves as well so they do not butt heads with people of their own kind. 

Believe it or not, listening is an important negotiation factor. Conduct an initial face-to-face meeting before going into specifics. At this meeting, ask the other party what they want out of the negotiation. The more the negotiator says, the more they will give away. This gives the other negotiating party leverage.

Confidence and being mentally prepared before initial meetings is key. 55% of how people communicate is through body language. If the negotiator feels subordinate, the other party will pick up on it and use it against them in negotiation.

Understand that everyone negotiating needs each other. Know the value of the offer and how it helps the other party. This will give enough confidence to clear the head and be in control, taking the lead in questioning.

Avoid being a salesperson. Discussion is key to negotiation as it is how parties reach a mutually agreeable outcome. Instead of saying how much the company can do for the other party, discuss what the company does and offers and ask how it can help the party. Identifying things that are low cost to the company is important to have prepared in case of a trade-off.

Do not be afraid to take a break during negotiations. This time is often needed to collect thoughts and get the negotiator's head back in the game. This time is also used to reconsider the offers on the table. The only time this is not okay is if the negotiator is on an absolute fixed deadline.

Lastly, it is good to understand the company's position and the negotiating party's position as well. Know what the company can get away with (usually the opening bid), what the company expects to get based on market knowledge, and what the deal breakers are. If the relationship with the other party continues after the negotiation, everyone needs to win.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Content Marketing In Practice Captivate. Convert And Cultivates

Content Marketing that Breaks Through the Barrage of Information

Content marketing is a difference maker. It can help your business stand out from the crowd, generate leads, and nurture customers. That may sound like a tall order. But it's doable.

In today's world, you're saturated with information. There's direct mail, email, web content, Tweets and other social media. All compete for your attention. It's relentless.

Fortunately, useful marketing can help you combat this onslaught. But what exactly is useful marketing? More importantly, how does a marketer write B2B content that captivates prospects, converts customers, and cultivates customers?

Useful marketing meets current and future customer information needs by publishing content on multiple levels that benefits prospects and customers. It builds trust and helps build relationships.

With that in mind, B2B marketing communications must address three conditions.

· Content must be needs-focused and address a targeted audience.

· Communications must be relevant.

· Messaging must be presented in the prospects' and customers' preferred format and platform.

Content that captivates prospects

To break through the mass of information, you must publish B2B content that's compelling. Old media marketing methods like broadcast mass media are out. Personalized marketing is in. You can personalize marketing content with needs-focused messaging that speaks to a targeted audience. This one's a no-brainier. Nothing works better than content focused on a prospect's needs, wants and desires. This re frames selling into problem solving, according to Wordsworth and Holland. It also entails addressing prospects rationally and emotionally. To further personalize content, you must segment your audience. Jay Baer points out in Utility, that meaningful content helps build trust, which keeps customers coming back.

Content that converts customers

Your goal is to convert prospects into leads and leads into customers. Relevant B2B content helps you do that. Relevant content is informative and timely. You accomplish that by narrowing your scope and digging deeper into solving your Leda's pain points. You don't know when your prospect will need your products or services. But providing content that offers a relevant solution in a timely manner will resonate with a prospect. A powerful way to do that is to frame your solution as a story. As Joe Pulizzi said, "A quality story that is told to the right person at the right time will always cut through the clutter." 

Content that cultivates customers

You can cultivate customers and help them move along the buying cycle with content. That includes lead generation, conversion and nurturing customers. To do all of these effectively, you should develop content that considers the way in which your customers consume content. And it must be available where your customers gather. Where do they hang out: on your website, on YouTube, Twitter, or your company blog? Don't forget mobile. A 2011 study commissioned by Google revealed that mobile phone use exceeded PC use. Take the time to uncover how your customers consume their content. Some like print, some like video and others prefer podcast.
Making a difference with B2B content marketing

A properly planned and executed content marketing strategy can get you in front of the competition. Today's new methods put you in control. You can control your message. You can control the type of content you publish. And you can control your content distribution.
And just as important, useful B2B content benefits your prospects and customers. Content that's transparent and engaging builds trust and long-term relationships. You'll establish your business as a "go-to" resource and gain competitive advantage. You'll be "Useful".

Content Marketing has changed the future of marketing.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Your Marketing Results

You are focused on your niche
Your marketing results is to stay focused on your niche by narrowing your focus to market only one service at a time. You may have multiple modalities you are offering, but you can't effectively market them all. The more you are clear of what your focus is, the more effective your efforts will be.

When you have to decide about what to do with your marketing, decide first what niche you are offering. If you are a nursing staffing agency, you might decide whether to market your company with Hospitals, nursing homes, or ICU vs. Med surge. Each one of those might be a good niche to pick, depending on what you are offering.

Honing in your efforts. Example, "This week I will work on getting more clients for med surge in hospitals within a five mile radius" As soon as you make that decision, you will have a strong focus to reference and make decisions. The path will reveal itself once you focus on your marketing tasks.

Stay focused on the moment:

At this moment what do you need? What is the one thing that you need to accomplish today? What is so important that needs to be addressed quickly? Answering questions like this will help you determine what your main objective should be for your marketing moment.

Example: Get a new client by next month or two new ongoing clients by the end of the year or send out a new marketing mailer to potential clients.

Make sure you include a deadline for your marketing moments. If you want a new client by the end of the month, it is unlikely it will happen by attending networking events or increasing your social media activity. You will need to focus your marketing moment on developing and enhancing relationships.

Narrow down your tasks to do:

Having a huge list of tasks can get difficult and overwhelming to do. This is especially true if those tasks are vague and general. Consider what your niche is and what you need to accomplish immediately. What activity can you do today that will most likely take you in a direction to give you results? Get very specific when doing this task.

Example: Contact three new potential clients this week and ask them if you can bring donuts in the morning for coffee.

Focus on only listing activities for that week only. Revisit the list next week or revise or add to it. Activities that are not producing results may need to be modified and or enhanced. Each week decide on what is working and what is not working. Don't keep looking at ideas or tasks you aren't currently working on: that is a sure road to overwhelm.
Marketing results are based on focusing on tasks that can and will produce results. All you need is a simple, targeted plan. Follow these ideas above and you'll soon find that your marketing efforts are producing results with less effort.

It is very easy to get completely overwhelmed when trying to market your staffing business. You have marketing plans, tasks and all the same time learning new skills.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Do You Keep Score In Your Company

Do you keep score in your company? Do you know the score on a daily basis or do you have to wait until the end of the month for the books to close on the previous month? What does it cost you to have to wait to know what the score is?

And what about your people? Do they know what the score is? Do they know which number is most critical and where that number stands today? Or are they standing in center field with no scoreboard (often called a dashboard in business) to look at, and no effective way to ask for that information?
If you were to put up a scoreboard in your office, store or factory, what's the one key number that would have to be on it? This may change over time, but for this quarter or this year, what is your critical number? Is it inventory turns per year, or profit per transaction, or transactions per hour or what?

Back to our baseball field, they don't just track the score, do they? They also display historical data (how many runs were scored each inning of the game we're playing now), the number of hits and errors for each team, and current status (balls and strikes for the current batter, the number of outs, and which bases are occupied). Some scoreboards also give you the name of the pitcher and batter, and perhaps who's next up to bat. The center field scoreboard also displays many other bits of information, like the status of other games being played the same day.

What's analogous in your business? Besides that one critical number, what else might be useful for people to have within their line of sight?

There's one other type of dashboard that successful companies are using, as a management tool. This dashboard (scoreboard) shows a row for each of the company quarterly priorities (rocks) with the name of the priority and the name of the accountable person. Each column has a date, and each quarter with therefore have 13 columns for the 13 weeks.

Each week, the person accountable for that priority (rock holder) designates a color for that priority. If the priority is numerical and we're on track, that's green. If we missed but are close, that's yellow. If we're red, that means we're in the unacceptable range. 

For a milestone based priority, if we've met the milestones for that week, that's green. If we've fallen a bit behind but think we can catch up without a major change or reallocation of resources, that's yellow. If something major needs to change in order to get back on track, that's red. 

If the priority isn't so easy to define, we should talk more about how to set good quarterly priorities, but in any case, the rock holder can simply give a color based on their own prediction about where that priority will end up at the end of the quarter. There's no incentive for someone to give an overly rosy picture, because if they're showed green for 12 weeks and then turned up red.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

It's Time To Move Forward

The hardest things to do is to accept the fact that something that you have worked so hard at has now come to an end. To many people it comes as a shock, to others, they could actually see it coming. I am sure that for USC coach Lane Kiffin who was terminated Sunday by USC athletic director, Pat Haden, it was something that he could probably see coming after the 7th loss out of 11 games. 

He should know, as well as you, that regardless of the turn tables that brought you to this point, reality has to sit in as you come to the conclusion that you have just been terminated from your job. Now what? Where do you go from here? How did this happen? Who is to blame? So many questions without knowing all the answers... but guess what... it's not the end of the world! As devastating as this situation may seem, you have the inner strength to move on and to rise above this circumstance and make the decision to move past this obstacle. 

Having the right mind set in times of opposition is very important and will help you to move pass unwelcome circumstances. If you have just been terminated from your job or laid off unexpectedly, the following mental exercises will release you from the mental stress that will try to hinder you from taking the next step of moving on to bigger and better things.

Exercise #1: Don't Blame Yourself

Whether you recognize that there are things that you did to contribute to your termination or whether your employer just decided that you were not the right person for the job, don't spend another second beating yourself up about it. What is done is done! I advise you to look at the circumstances surrounding your
situation and take note of all the mistakes that you may have made to contribute to your termination and then turn those same mistakes into an opportunity for self-improvement to help you to become a better employee for your next employer.


Exercise #2: Don't Blame the Employer

The first thing that comes to mind for many of us when faced with a termination or lay off is to blame the company for maybe being too strict on their policies, or not being compassionate enough towards personal issues; maybe they didn't appreciate you like they should have or maybe they placed too many responsibilities on you without providing the proper support... all of the above plus more. It is sometimes hard to look at things in the eyes of the employer. Blaming your past employer will only set you up for having an unstinting attitude towards your new employer. This is not fair! Let go of the past and appreciate all the skills that you were allowed to take away from your former employer that can be used to benefit your new employer.
Exercise #3: Be Determined!

Now is the time to make the decision to place one foot in front of the other and move forward. Without blaming yourself or your former employer, you need to prepare to put your efforts into action for your next employment opportunity. Update your resume and create cover letters that speak on your strength as a competitive candidate for the positions that you are applying for.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Answering Interview Questions For Job Change

To start with, let's accept the fact that a happy employee never quits, and a recruiter is not a fool to believe this statement. Every employee changes job for a reason. The reason can range from a variety of issues - issues pertaining to salary; supervisor; colleagues; management; company policies; market performance; branding; and many more that are, sometimes, personal and circumstantial.

Most candidates think that if they tell the correct reason, they could get rejected; hence resort to lying. However, lies don't help. The recruiters are trained to catch, and weed such candidates out of the selection process. Most people are perplexed as to why such a question is asked, because they don't understand the perspective that a recruiter wishes to gain by the answer to this question. Recruiters aim to hire employees, motivated by goals that are logical, long term, and mutually fulfilling. They also wish to understand the psychology and environment within which the employee must have been working. Environment and psychology have lately attracted a lot of attention with in job market as people have savored the consequences of not paying heed to them.

Unfortunately, most of the candidates look for a job change for all the wrong reasons. Listed below are all those wrong reasons, along with the explanation as to why they are considered wrong.

 For Better Salary: The biggest reason behind changing the job is dissatisfaction from the current salary. Quoting Salary as the sole reason for changing the job is never considered healthy. This shows that the candidate is not concerned with the job profile, and is greedy for only the short term desires. Such candidates reflect the tendency to hop, every time a better offer is thrown at them. Stability is a big issue with them. Most people are dissatisfied with respect to salary not because of their own lower salaries, but for the higher salaries of other people that they know of. It's the comparison, which creates the problems. No recruiter would consider salary as a valid reason if a candidate's salary is at par with the market standards, with respect to the industry, profile, and designation, the person is currently associated with. However, if in your case salary really is an issue, then you must frame your answers in way given below: "I am extremely satisfied with my role, and the company. Working with this organization has been a great learning experience. As evident from my resume, I am a very stable person, and for me, profile and the learning hold a great importance. However, given the market standards, my current salary is much lesser, and it has caused a little dissatisfaction. I have spoken with my company HR about this issue, and I am sure that they must have tried hard, but unfortunately, despite my consistent good performance and repeated reminders, they have not considered the possibility of giving me a raise. I am sure that they must have had their own valid reasons. However, I believe that I am ready for a salary raise. I applied with your organization, because the working environment and the learning process is the same in this company as well, along with the possibility of getting a better compensation, which would be as per the market norms." In this answer, you have actually addressed to a host of issues. You told the recruiter positive things about your current role and company, your expectations related to salary, your awareness and research about current market standards, and a valid reason for applying to this company. You have also justified your demand through research, while not demeaning the importance of long term goals, profile, and learning. This will definitely be considered.
 
Because you don't get along with your manager or team: Another major reason to look for a change is, when an employee doesn't get along well with the manager or the team members. Now, as a rule, an interviewee can't gripe about the current company, manager or the team members, because that would make recruiter suspicious about the candidate's own behavior, and ability to gel with people around. Even if you are the only right person in the entire company, a recruiter can't promise you a favorable environment in the new organization, and I believe neither can candidate himself. It also negatively highlights the people handling skills of the employee. An ideal advice to such a candidate should be to go back, and stop applying. Sit back, and think; analyze the situation. Realign the focus from "Who's wrong?" to "What's wrong?" If there is a problem with the manager, fix up a one-to-one meeting. Take feedback, and understand the expectations. Sometimes, rather most of the times, no one is culprit, except the differences in perspectives and expectations. Make the notes or the minutes of the meeting, and assure your manager that you would work on the shortcomings. 

Once both of you will be on the same page, I am sure that you won't have to look for another job. Let's talk about the differences with team members. I understand that the problem is bigger, because the biggest hindrance is your ego. The first and the most difficult task, is to put your ego aside. Once it is done, go and speak to them, but only in separate meetings. Try, and explore if everyone thinks alike about you. Find out the reasons, but don't talk about the issues that you face because of them. The key is to change your own behavior, reasonably of course, and starting a spiral of behavior change in the rest for you. As an interview coach and a soft skills trainer, I have mostly observed that team issues vanish very soon if there is leadership support. Leader must always be kept in loop while doing all this so that he or she knows, and recognizes your steps and efforts. At the end of the day, the leader will garner the credits for entire team's coordination and performance. Ideas proposed above, were for people, who have a long term career approach, and wish to make things better through right channels. For others, however, the best way is to keep lying until someone believes you.

When your current company is not performing well: Times are turbulent, and any company may face such a situation, any day. People, especially the recruiters, are aware about every company's performance within their industries. A highly foolish thing that most candidates do is to keep avoiding the truth. I have even faced candidates, who insisted that their companies were performing greatly, and they were changing only because of the better opportunities. Such candidates never make it through, because from the recruiter's perspective, either they are lying or living in oblivion. There are candidates, who openly criticize the company policies, and management decisions. Now, they might be technically right, but an employee is not supposed to be judgmental. What happened with one company may become the fate of another. Judgmental employees spend most of the time in analyzing things beyond their scope, and view every management process and decision with suspicion. Suspicions cause arguments, debates, and battles, and no one wants any of that. A recruiter expects the candidate to first accept the situation at hand, while maintaining a non-judgmental attitude. The ideal way of handling this is by saying, "As you know that the company, I am currently working with, is facing a turbulent time, and the employees have got a clear indication from the management; hence, I am looking for a job change in order to secure my future." But don't think that this matter would end like this. The trail of questions would be more difficult, however, can be made easier by rational thinking and preparation. Candidates should be prepared for questions like, "Where do you think your company's decisions went wrong, because of which such a situation came up?" "Do you think you could have done things differently, if you were the CEO? What were those things?" "What if, God forbids, something like this happens to this company tomorrow? Would you leave us too?" I will surely tell you how to answer the above questions, but some other day. 

 For an on site opportunity (in case of IT companies):There are two phases of IT recruitment - a desperate one and a non-desperate one. These times are largely governed by the requirements of particular skill sets, and the number of such requirements. During desperate times, IT companies do compromise on this term, in order to fulfill their project requirements. Candidates even have the courage to negotiate on the basis of on site opportunity with some companies. However, during the other times, when no such desperation exists, such candidates are rejected outright. The simple reason being that if the company you are working with, doesn't think of you as a deserving candidate to be deployed on site, how can they? It simply implies that for you, role, responsibilities, project quality, learning and development or any such organizational virtues weigh lesser than a simple on site opportunity, which is more of a short-term wealth accumulation mechanism. The
verdict is simple - 'you don't understand business'. While some may disagree, I have never shown a green signal to any such candidate. Change is a highly welcomed phenomenon, but only for the right reasons.

For an opportunity to work with a better brand: This answer is like a swamp; once you jump into it, you slide down with no comeback. Harder you try to come out of it, deeper you sink. The recruiter of a bigger company knows that he represents a bigger brand for which, there are valid reasons. However, he would be keen to know your definition and parameters of big brand. The term 'bigger brand' has different meanings for different people. For most, it is fatter pay packages. Some other shallow perceptions include larger teams, big market presence or share, swanky offices, and happening crowd. However, interviewer is searching for a person, who identifies and values true reasons like, well defined processes and systems, opportunity to work in cross functional teams, strong training and development platform, multifaceted learning opportunities, a bigger platform to showcase the performance, to gain enormous recognition, and finally, to achieve a comprehensive development as a professional human being. I hope you must have checked by now what factors you had included in the definition of 'bigger brand'. Remember one thing, though. No matter how strongly you establish the new company as a bigger and better brand, never ever demean your current organization. Always start your answer with praises for your current company, and the way it helped in your evolution as a professional. 
Being ungrateful is never appreciated. I once encountered an aspirant, who devoted 10 minutes to disgrace his first organization, and the many ways, in which it pulled his career down. My next question was, "But don't you think that this was the only company that gave you the first chance, and that too during recession, when most of the people were not offered jobs? Don't you think that, if not for that company, you, like many others, would have become a lecturer in some small engineering college in an inconspicuous town?" I know my questions carry a glimpse of my anger, however, the point to be noted is that he did not have any answer, and all he could come up with, was a sheepish smile.

There are weirder reasons like, the present company not allowing the pets inside the company premises, and this article won't be of much use to such candidates. But I am sure that this article will be circulated among those, who are truly trying to find the right answer to this inevitable question. In my next articles, I will discuss about the right reasons, which should instigate the job change. Till then, remember what not to say as an answer to this question.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Importing Of Holiday Season Cargo And Shipping

The December holidays are not yet here, retailers in the US are currently importing a majority of their goods from overseas in anticipation of the upcoming holiday shopping season. This occurs every year around this time. And many of these retailers depend on the best freight forwarders to help make their international shipping as efficient as possible.

A new report suggested that the importing of holiday season cargo is expected to increase in 2013. According to the report, there could be an anticipated 16.2 Million TEUs imported in 2013, up 2.5% from 15.8 Million TEUs in 2012. Retail importers in the United States are very excited about this news. Although the volume of containers being imported does not reflect the value of the cargo inside the container (and the value impacts retail sales revenue), this is very encouraging news. It is also predicated that holiday spending is expected to increase more than 11% this year.

Many analysts consider this report to be above their earlier low expectations that ocean freight imports were down after a lackluster start to 2013. Part of the reason that US imports were lower during the start of 2013 is due to higher than usual ocean freight rates.

One thing for shippers and retailers to consider during this time of the year is the usual peak season surcharge on imports that are shipped from Asia to the United States. This peak season surcharge is nothing new and is expected almost every year at this time, in anticipation of the holiday shopping season.

Consumers across the United States heavily depend on retail shopping during the holiday season in November and December. And the current trends suggest that more and more shoppers go online for buying their holiday items. So retailers should also plan their shipping and logistics online by working with trusted international freight forwarders who can supply instant freight shipping quotes online. With so many shippers offering free shipping, it is important that shippers receive their merchandise from overseas at a lower cost. That is why during the holiday season, a freight forwarder can consolidate your international freight. This will save you on the cost of importing the freight from other countries. In addition, these freight forwarders have built special partnerships so that you can receive special rates for shipping freight before the big holiday season. The point is that working with a freight forwarder can make a big difference in shipping.

Global Forwarding is you best source for International Shipping. Global Forwarding, a trusted Freight Forwarder and NVOCC, offers instant freight quotes online. It takes just 10 seconds and then you are ready to ship. They supply dramatic savings and outstanding service. You can instantly compare prices from leading international ocean shipping carriers and access deep discounted freight rates.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Organizations And Crowds In The Clouds

The present culture's perception tends to hold us back. The concept that a business needs a bricks and mortar location with people working there still dominates despite more people free lancing and working at home. Indeed, certain business endeavors stake their hope for success on location, hence the famous marketing mantra: "location, location, location."

The automobile is a good example undergoing a paradigm shift.. If you life the hood on today's automobile, you can find different power configurations. You can find the traditional combustion engine that has been around for a long time. You can find a hybrid power source that combines the combustion engine with an electrical power source. We are just beginning to see the full paradigm shift to the fully electrical automobile engine.
 
When we lift the hood of today's organization, we can see a similar migration playing out. The evolution to the new organizational paradigm is playing out on two levels. One is the makeup of the organization itself in how it is structured. The other involves the people who do the work of the organization.

It is fair to say organizational tweaking on both these dimensions has been going on for a long time. The traditional hierarchical structure of the organization still tends to be prevalent today. It has been tweaked to try to improve communication, get teams to work across the various functions on various matters and to try to get more people involved in the quality of output and customer concerns. Nevertheless, the hierarchy, by its nature, has built in barriers.

When people work in the hierarchical organization, their perception tends to be "I do my job and all the rest of it is none of my concern." This can obviously inhibit progress and strain positive development in a rapidly changing world.

Clearly, the biggest driver that is laying the foundation for organizational paradigm shift is technology, specifically the computer and the Internet. Work tasks can be immensely seeded up by computer numerically machines that add flexibility and increase quality output at the same time. The Internet has opened up the vast potential of the human side providing the portal for social interaction. The way we organize work and do work is undergoing a paradigm shift.

Two key parts of the shift that is occurring have evolved from computing and the Internet. One is the "cloud," and the other is the "crowd."

The cloud is a technological platform outside the organization's location where the nuts and bolts of computing technology can be placed. Placing computer hardware, software, applications and processing ability outside the organization's location allows for flexibility and accessibility not possible when located inside the organization. It allows organization members to access work information from anywhere, anytime (at the beach, airport or home). The concept of the cloud is a stratification of the largest cloud of all, the Internet.

The crowd pertains to people assembled through the Internet to do work tasks that can range from very simple to very complex. It is like outsourcing on steroids. Crowds are an evolution of outsourcing but because it is done utilizing the technology and accessibility of the Internet, it allows for infinite scaling and incremental use in time.

Crowds are a way of maximizing the value of social networks. The social network is the technological advance of water cooler communication. The water cooler in the organization has been a place for less formal communication. While groups can be established on social networks, crowd groups are more formal. Crowds have purpose, need structure and willingness to contribute. Roles need to be defined and results evaluated.
In combining the cloud and crowd, the organization becomes devoid of boundaries and relevant information and collaborative work can flow back and forth with ease. The work is not controlled by time constraints.

While the technology platform of clouds and the concept of work done by crowds are evolving concepts, the human side of this paradigm shift needs to be considered. Are those inside your organization ready to play in this kind of arena? What will motivate them to make the transition? Perhaps the biggest motivator will be the realization that the organization is providing help for them to learn how work will be performed in the future. Is the organization's leadership seeing the emerging value of clouds and crowds and is leadership helping the members to see it and embrace it, as well?

Clouds and crowds are pushing the envelope of organizational structure and operation. These realities are bringing us to the brink of a real paradigm shift in concept and action. In looking to the future.