Should CFOs Network Online?

Social networking on the Internet is all the rage these days, if the mushrooming of CFO-focused groups in sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter is any indication. A simple search will turn up such professional groups as “Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Network,” “China CFO,” and “Super CFO” on LinkedIn and “Indian CEO, CFO, CA, CS, ICWA, CFA, Finance, Corporate & Legal Professional” on Facebook.

It’s the digital equivalent of the face-to-face networking that business folks have always done, whether in industry conferences, Rotary clubs, cocktail parties, golfing trips or other social occasions. Tech-savvy executives see e-social networking as an additional tool for this time-honoured rite, and also invaluable as a free marketing vehicle for the business and for maintaining business contacts.

Read complete article at Social Media: Should CFOs Network Online?

Cutting Free

自我追寻

在某些时段，想放弃安全的工作去追求自己的梦想。你怎样知道这是对的？而什么令这个决定更有意义？

来看看自由撰稿人Alexandra Wong 走过四年的心历路程。。

全文：The Star: Cutting Free

Social Networking at Work Costs Employers Big Bucks

So there you are at work with the computer right in front of you. The browser is already up because you were doing some research for your boss. What would be the harm in quickly checking in with Facebook or maybe Twitter? Then why not check your email. It will only take a few seconds more. Oh, but there's that quick reply you have to dash off to your friend. O.K., so what's the harm in spending just a few seconds more tending to personal matters. Before you close down your browser, you remember that you thought of a really funny status update you wanted to post. Back to Facebook. You'll be done in a jiffy. By the time you close down your browser, you've spent more than fifteen minutes not working — make that 20.

Your social networking activity could be costing your employer a lot of money. Morse plc, a U.K. company, released the results of a survey that indicated U.K. businesses are losing £1.38 billion each year because of their employees' use of social networking sites at work. I wonder how much would be added to that figure if you also included other online activities, such as checking email and shopping. Half of the 1,460 office workers who were surveyed admitted to spending "40 minutes on these sites each week, equating to just under a full working week being wasted each year by employees using social networking sites at work." They don't think they are as bad as their colleagues who, they reported (in a classic case of pot meet kettle), spend almost an hour a day on these sites.

By Dawn's Career Planning Blog
Read on: Surfing the Net on Your Boss's Time

Tribalisation of what?

如何让你的社区产品更有价值

在线社区已经成为目前最主要的网络应用之一，很多企业和组织都建立了相应的在线社区，但如何才能让你的在线社区为你产生更多的价值呢?最近一项名为“The 2008 Tribalization of Business”的研究针对这个问题，对140多家拥有在线社区的不同的组织进行了调查。

2008 Tribalization Of Business Study

研究的结果显示，在线社区对于这些组织最大的价值在于增加口碑(35%)、增加品牌认知(28%)以及增加客户忠诚度(24%)。毋庸置疑，网络社区对企业来说是一种有效的营销及客户管理工具。

而阻碍在线社区这种工具产生它应有价值的最主要因素，既不是技术也不是资金，而是如何吸引用户(51%)、如何增加管理社区的时间(45%)。

而在调查中，这些组织认为在线社区的重要元素包括：类似人群的连接能力(54%)、可以帮助他人(43%)、是否有热点话题(41%)、社区管理的质量(33%)等等。

本次调查还发现了一个有趣的现象，就是这些组织建立这些社区的初衷和他们实际的实施内容普遍存在着差异。

所有的调查结果都表明，已经建立的大部分在线社区都能为企业带来不可忽视的价值，其很多企业本身也已经意识到在线社区的重要性。但是在具体实施的过程中大部分还缺乏经验，策略和方法的选择有很多不确定因素。

这里的问题可以尝试用这两种对策：

首先是专职人员的配备。 目前大部分企业中和在线社区相关的工作，都是由市场部门的人员来兼任或者索性是外包。对公司品牌和产品的了解和对网络社区文化的专业知识是在线 社区的管理人员必备的条件。这样，公司内有专门的人来负责这部分工作才是一个比较好的解决方案。关于这方面的内容，也可以看看Mr.6最近写的一篇关于“社群经营经理”的文章。

其次是新技术和新服务的运用。随着网络服务平台化和各种数据的不断开放，有很多问题也可以通过技术来解决或者改善。例如Google OpenSocial、Facebook Connect等等都将可以帮助企业非常方便的吸引用户、并方便的管理用户间的关系。即使企业没有特别高的技术实例，很多网站提供的各种便于使用的API 也可以帮助企业提高在线社区的互动性。

The Star: What does "tribalisation" mean in business?

Entrepreneurship requires four areas of mastery

There is a myth that entrepreneurs have special traits that distinguish them from other people or they have some sort of secret method to success. No entrepreneur, including Richard Branson, has a secret formula. Entrepreneurship is not easy. But, it can be learned and should be taught to everyone.

Based on a research of 500 entrepreneurs, they found four areas of similarities among the majority of successful entrepreneurs: personal mastery, business mastery, entrepreneurship mastery and leadership mastery.

The key to personal mastery is self awareness. The best entrepreneurs know what their strengths are and they leverage on them. In addition to knowing oneself, the best entrepreneurs learn from an early age how to create, communicate, influence, and develop their personal effectiveness.

Business mastery is the ability to think strategically, understand industries, new trends and changes and innovate in new spaces. Business mastery is about developing “a vision of extraordinary possibility.

Entrepreneurship mastery is the technical skills needed, including the day-to-day mechanics of running a business, producing products, delivering services, making money and managing people.

The final key is leadership. And at the heart of leadership is decision making. Entrepreneurs must learn to make good decisions quickly. Entrepreneurs bounce back quickly and learn from bad decisions made. The main reason for most failed start-ups is leadership failure.

Likewise, many start-up leaders fail due to lack of leadership to engage, encourage and develop their employees.

To master these four areas requires learning and practice which many new entrepreneurs don’t invest in. Nearly 95% of all entrepreneurial efforts fail. If we closely study these failures, it is usually a lack of mastery in one or all of these areas.

Every great entrepreneur was once an amateur. There is an old saying that goes, “there are three kinds of people in the world: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen and those who don’t even know anything is happening.”

It’s never too late to learn and become a person who makes things happen in this world. Yes, you can dream.

Source: Now everyone can dream by Roshan Thiran