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College Degrees With the Highest Starting Salaries

April 17, 2013 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

A new salary survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has some good news for 2013 college graduates. The average starting salary for 2013 grads earning bachelor’s degrees has risen to $45,000, up 5.3% from the average starting salary for the class of 2012. (I’ve rounded NACE’s numbers to the nearest $1,000).

Image via Google Image

A Bethlehem, Pa. non-profit, NACE links college placement offices with employers. Its employer members tend to be large companies. For its salary survey it went beyond its members and combed through data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau and a master set of data developed by a compensation measurement company called Job Search Intelligence. The new survey is NACE’s first look at starting salaries for the class of 2013. It will put out an updated survey in September.

“The sizable gains in several disciplines—particularly in health sciences and business—have helped to drive up the average starting salary for the class of 2013,” said NACE Executive Director Marilyn Mackes in a statement.

Health sciences grads are enjoying the biggest increase, 9.4%, over 2012, with a starting salary of $50,000.The gain for business majors is 7.1%, bringing the average salary for the discipline to $54,000. Salaries are also increasing for education and computer science grads. Education majors are making $40,000, 5.1% more than in 2012, and computer science grads are earning $60,000, a 4.3% hike from 2012.

Though salaries for engineers didn’t increase as much as salaries for other specialties, engineering is still the top-earning degree, with an average 2013 starting salary of $63,000. That’s up 4% from 2012. Computer science majors come in second. Business majors make the third-highest salaries at $54,000.

See Full Article (Forbes): Here

See related articles here:

The Value of a Major « Citizen Economists – … for its own collapse. And this collapse will come at the hands of those who have fully committed themselves to the government’s own propaganda. How fitting. Economic Theory · civil unrest, college, education, salaries …
The Real Benefits of a College Education | – Blogs@Baruch – CUNY – These articles and blogs normally discuss average salaries of college grads, and compare them to people who did not go to college, and then compare the costs of colleges to these stats; however, these discussions normally …

Filed Under: Business, Education, Featured Tagged With: college, degrees, making money, online college, online education, salaries, tuition

The Barriers To Innovation, And How To Break Through

April 11, 2013 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

This is a a very good, thought provoking article and I would love to know what you think. When you think of Innovation in business, “Does the US lead the rest of the world in Innovation?” – Rusty

This article is by Janie Curtis, lead brand architect for The Telocity Group, a strategy and innovation company.

In an economy that desperately needs a kick-start, why is innovation still not playing the central role that it needs to play? GE’s 2013 Global Innovation Barometer returned results that indicated that over 90% of global executives and 88% of U.S. executives believe that innovation is a strategic priority and that 92% said that it was the main ingredient for a more competitive economy. At the same time, over 90% of all new products introduced to the U.S. market every year fail, and the U.S. ranks only 10^th in innovation behind countries such as Finland and Hong Kong.

Image via Google Images

With innovation so important to the general health of our economy and the ability of our businesses to compete in a global environment, why are U.S. consumers not being introduced to a plethora of exciting new products and services? Most of us in the United States tend to feel that quality of life and the innovations that make life easier are miles ahead of those in other countries. Yet, I recently was exposed to a Korean innovation where busy people can buy products from a pharmacy by taking pictures of those products on a computer screen right on the store window. I am sure that most people would be surprised to hear that such innovations exist in Asia that don’t exist here. InBrazil, international clothing retailer C&A recently introduced hangers that have digital displays showing how often each item has been liked on Facebook. Very cool!

However, if you ask the average consumer in the U.S. to name an innovative company, the first name that will probably come to mind is Apple. If you ask them to name innovative products, they will probably mention the iPhone or the iPad. Surely with the thousands of companies in the U.S. that are pursuing innovation programs on an ongoing basis, a few more should rise to the top?

So even though U.S. companies continue to place a high priority on innovation, much of it ends up being manifested in small tweaks on current products, rather than ideas that represent significant steps forward–think the light bulb or even the good old wheel. Somehow a new type of washing powder seems to pale in comparison. So does this mean that there is no more room for really significant, life-changing innovations, or has the business environment changed to the degree that it is almost impossible to innovate on that level?

One of the interesting statistics coming out of the GE study was that over 50% of U.S. executives believe that new innovation models or processes are needed in order to accelerate the rate of introduction of market-changing ideas. In some ways, I’m surprised this number isn’t higher, and this is why. Based on some of the innovation processes that are in place at some of the Fortune 500 companies, I would make the observation that these processes are thorough but perhaps not exactly inspiring. When it comes to steps within the process and the checks and balances that are in place to make sure that sub-standard ideas don’t move forward, there is a great deal of rigor. However, within those same processes, there is often a lack of rigor around the need to engender a level of inspiration and creativity that would enable the members of the innovation team to launch new products that are more than tweaked facsimiles on what is already on the market. Frequently, the idea-generation part of the process doesn’t go beyond getting a group of smart people in the room with a pad and starting to put ideas up on the wall. This can work very well in terms of generating those marginal adjustments on the existing category reality, but often does not provide enough fodder for real leaps of the imagination.

See full Article (Forbes): Here

See more great article:

Stimulating Business Innovation – New Economy Working Paper … – The New Economy report launched this week provides a solid foundation on which to build Manchester’s prominent position as UK’s second City. We now need to move policy and strategic thinking into tangible activities that generate a pipeline of gazelles and gorillas. These are the terms that define businesses, which employ skilled people, generate foreign earnings and help to create vibrant and thriving local economies.
How Facebook Finds The Best Design Talent, And Keeps Them … – digital stories about people, music and the industry…historias demacondo.

Filed Under: Business, Featured Tagged With: business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, small business

Coca-Cola’s content strategy video to gain more customers

March 29, 2013 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

If you haven’t seen the content marketing strategy from Coca-Cola, then you should take a look. It will give you insight into how traditional marketing is being disrupted and changed by social media. As you well know, I make my living in a world of disruptive technology and this fits perfectly into the message that I hope my customers hear in education.

How you connect and share with your customers has changed forever. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, it’s the way to grow your business.

- Rusty

Do you think Social Media has changed what you pay attention too and the products you buy? Leave me a comment in my comments section.

Filed Under: Business, Featured, Technology

Is Your Org Chart Driving Customers Away?

March 23, 2013 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

I heard a quote one time that said “Culture eats Strategy everyday”! It really is true that most companies still make decisions in a vacuum with a narrow view. Are you still more interested in ogr. charts or are you looking outside your comfort zone to understand the reason “Why” you are serving your customers? What’s your Purpose?

- Rusty

Image via Google

Companies today accept an abhorrent level of dysfunction as the status quo. Studies show that knowledge-workers spend half their day in meetings and employee engagement is at an all-time low. More people than ever hate their jobs and many feel they are drowning in bureaucracy and politics.

It affects everything: the top-line, the bottom-line and employee esteem.

When company culture encourages employees to seek performance feedback from their peers instead of customers, reporting is skewed to impress rather than assess; problems that impact customers are hidden instead of fixed. Departments play blame games between each other to save their own derrières rather than fix problems and serve customers. Knowledge workers spend more time collaborating than getting work done and are measured by how well they play politics instead of customer satisfaction and repeat purchases.

It all started when the division of labor proved triumphant for manufacturers in the early 1900s. This established an accepted status quo that stronger specialization improves productivity, leading to the hierarchical structure of organizations we all know today. We treat knowledge-workers like an assembly line and force, unnatural, extreme specializations using the same rationale as the division of labor. This obsession with specialization has become an engrained part of our thinking since childhood, but the assembly line doesn’t translate well to modern work environments.

The assembly line utopia many think of as being the target for work processes, except that each person has to have a meeting with their neighbors before any task can be completed. As the company grows, your neighbors grow from a few, to a few dozen and before you know it ten meetings need to take place before you complete a simple task.

We have to abandon the assembly line mindset and adopt new models of organizing employees; one that is organized around the customer. Specialization is needed to an extent, but what we need more of are experts on individual customers and markets. Generalists with cross-functional experience and diverse backgrounds improve organizational agility, productivity and decision-making.

Just as technology and business culture have evolved since the early 1900s, so must our antiquated organizational structure. Dion Hinchcliffe’s model of pods of employees, who are each organized around a business process or customer interaction offers a much better model by putting workers into smaller, more functional teams that are organized around the customer.

See Full Article (Forbes): Here

Filed Under: Business, Featured Tagged With: business, ceo, companies, corporate, leadership, money, org. chart

Your Life is Not an Accident!

March 4, 2013 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

I’m usually the last person to find a program or to get on board with the latest movement but I finally decided to look up the “I am Second” website that I had been seeing on local billboards around Nashville. Wow, was I surprised! It was truly one of the most inspirational sites I have seen in a long time.

The site is a faith based site, which I have great interest in, but it’s so much more than that. It a place that is full of real life struggles and how so many people have overcome those struggles through their belief in Jesus Christ. From real life people to premier athletes and business leaders, the struggles are all the same. It’s stuff that you and I face and the fantastic stories of how they overcame those obstacles with the power of Christ.

Image via I am Second

I know religion is a touchy subject but I challenge you to visit the site and see for yourself. If you’re a Christ follower, you’ll be amazed. If you’re not, you’ll still be amazed.

If you’re looking for purpose or just want to be a better person, this site is for you.

Question: Who is first in your life?

I am Second: Here

Filed Under: Business, Faith, Featured, Leadership Tagged With: I am second, Jesus Christ

Failure “______” Me

June 21, 2012 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

How do you fill in the blank?

Your answer to this question has a tremendous impact on the decisions you make, how you lead and ultimately the results you get in business and in life.

I have asked several audiences this question over the past few months, and the responses have been everything from failure defines me to frightens me to teaches me and aids me.

Watch this fantastic Nike video on failure with Michael Jordon.

I love his last line. “I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”

As we coach leaders, we see that there is a great deal of opportunity for them to improve how they lead by improving how they see and deal with failure.

Fear cannot hold us back but instead must be seen as a very normal (and necessary) part of our journey.

Here are four tips to help you deal with failure and get greater results as a leader.

Sweaty Palms: Do one thing every day to stretch yourself, to get uncomfortable and make your palms sweat. Do not allow yourself to fall into the routine of comfort and complacency. Think of who you should call, meet with, confront, terminate, invest in. Success can be dangerous when we stop taking risks and start trying to maintain and protect.
Solutions Mindset: Failures are an opportunity to come up with new and better solutions. Too many leaders allow failure to define and paralyze them. Lose your ego and embrace the learning that can come as a result of failure as you move forward and create solutions.
Expect and Plan for Them: What is your worst case scenario? If the project fails, if the client says no, then what? What’s your next move? Don’t be surprised by failures, but instead be prepared for them. Too many quit because they cannot move beyond the initial failure.
Bounce Back Mentality: The best in business are very much the same as the best in sports. When they fail, they reflect, self examine, look at the data, and get right back on the field, court or range. Or in your case, the conference room.

See Full Article (Daniel Harkavy): Here

Filed Under: Business, Leadership Tagged With: business, disappointment, failure, fear, help, love, success, test

What Will The New iPad’s Release Mean For Your Business?

March 16, 2012 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

As with many Apple product launches, today’s release of the new iPad is mostly a consumer event. But that doesn’t mean that the launch won’t have an impact on businesses. In fact, on Monday morning a number of new iPads may be walking into workplaces around the world. And users may be lobbying their employers to purchase the new iPad – if they haven’t stared doing so already.

So, what questions should businesses or IT professionals be asking about the new iPad? More importantly, what are the answers to those questions?

Should businesses order new iPads immediately?

Probably not. In fact, orders for new iPads already show a delay of two to three weeks. More important, as with any new piece of technology, buying and supporting a new device on day one isn’t a good idea. A better approach is to wait to ensure there are no issues with the new iPad and then buy one or two models to conduct an initial test of the new iPad in your environment.

Also, if you are planning a large purchase, it’s probably a good idea to have a conversation with your Apple business sales rep (or your tech reseller if you don’t deal with Apple directly) about exactly what the options are and how quickly your organization can expect to receive new iPads in quantity.

If companies are buying the new iPad, should they go for the Wi-Fi or LTE models?

This is a tough one to answer because each company’s needs are different. Similarly, LTE availability is a factor. After all, if there’s limited 3G/4G service, the extra expense may not get you much bang for your buck. There’s also the question about how corporate-owned devices will fit into your overall mobile and telecom budget.

One advantage to choosing LTE iPads is that they may lead mobile professionals to avoid unsecured free Wi-Fi options, which has a certain data security value – although always requiring a VPN connection is actually a better security protocol. Another advantage for Verizon customers is the ability to tether other devices to an iPad’s LTE connection at no charge – essentially giving you an iPad and mobile hotspot in one device (this doesn’t apply to AT&T LTE iPads as AT&T doesn’t plan to enable this capability at this point).

That said, Wi-Fi iPads combined with 3G or 4G personal hotspot devices may be a more economical option for many companies, particularly when iPads are deployed to users with limited travel needs. In those situations, deploying Wi-Fi iPads to individuals and maintaining a pool of hotspots that various staff can check out when needed is likely to be a more economical choice.

If you are seriously considering or have already decided to buy LTE iPads, it’s probably a good idea to review your telecom or mobile expenses before negotiating the new iPad and its associated data needs into your mobile plans(s).

How much storage is enough for a company-owned iPad?

This is going to vary between companies and job functions. Many mobile professionals may have limited storage needs, but some professions will require an extensive collection of on-device data. Overall, for corporate-owned devices, the 16GB models will probably suffice. After all, it’s unlikely that such devices will store personal media collection (music, TV, movie, photos) and media files are what take up the most space on iOS devices.

Should business or IT leaders consider the iPad 2 as a less expensive alternative?

Absolutely – as noted in MacWorld’s initial review of the new iPad, the actual processor performance is similar to the iPad 2, though graphics performance was notably better. That isn’t to say that the retina display, camera, and graphics capabilities aren’t important. But from the perspective of a cost/benefit analysis, there isn’t a large generational leap between the business capabilities of theiPad 2 and the new iPad.

From a business perspective, the big advantage of the new iPad is its support for LTE. If LTE iPads are a consideration, then there’s no reason not to consider the iPad 2 as a less expensive alternative.

The one possible exception is when the iPad is used as a sales and marketing solution. In those situations, it may reflect better on your company to be able to show off the better screen quality of the newer device.

Does this mean companies need to consider a BYOD program?

BYOD is a major trend that is impacting virtually every industry. Regardless of the new iPad, most business should be exploring BYOD or similar trends like the COPE method promoted by Enterprise Mobility Forum. The new iPad may increase the pressure on a business to look at BYOD as an option, but the truth is that this is something every organization should already be considering. In companies that are avoiding BYOD and the consumerization of IT, there’s a good chance that employees are already using personal devices to some extent and just not telling management or IT that they’re doing it.

What management options are available for the new iPad?

The new iPad has the same mobile device management (MDM) capabilities as every other iOS 5 device. This includes the ability to manage with free tools like Apple Configurator and iPhone Configuration Utility as well as more advanced MDM products. There are also a number of options that allow companies to create a secure on-device data store for business use while allowing the remainder of the device to remain in an unmanaged state (useful for personally-owned devices). Products in that space include offerings from Good, Bitzer, and Quickoffice.

See Full Article (Cult of Mac): Here

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: apple, business, CIO, enterprise, New iPad, technology

iPad Ranks As First Choice For Doctors But IT Still Nervous About Privacy Issues

February 24, 2012 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

Healthcare was one of the first fields to adopt the iPad after it launched two years ago. As with other fields, the initial use of the iPad in healthcare came from doctors and other professionals buying their own iPads and bringing them into their practices or along with them on rounds – a move that predated most of today’s BYOD planning.

A recent study of mobile technology in healthcare clearly shows that the iPad is the number one device used by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers with significantly greater use than Android or BlackBerry devices or even the iPhone.

“Based on our conversations, they are feeling the pressure from the physicians and staff to support those devices,” Manish Rai, head of industry solutions for Aruba (the company that conducted the study) said of the 130 healthcare IT professionals surveyed.

Overall the study shows the 85% of healthcare organizations allow and support the use of personally owned devices. The iPad is clearly the most common personally owned device with 83% of organizations supporting it. As for other devices:

65% support the iPhone and/or iPod touch
52% support personal BlackBerry devices
46% support some version of Android devices

With physicians and other staff leading the effort for support of personal devices, it isn’t surprising that the iPad is topping the list. The device’s larger screen real estate makes it more useful for accessing data like electronic records, medical images, and reference material. It also makes the iPad a good choice for illustrating conditions and treatments to patients. It also presents less of a barrier to doctor/patient interaction that other electronic devices like laptops – a concern among some bioethicists.

How are mobile devices being used?

58% are using virtualization technology for secure application access (this mirrors the overall high use of Citrix and other VDI solutions in healthcare due to the need compliance HIPPA and other privacy regulations)
8% provide complete access to their hospital network on personal mobile devices outside of a VDI or similar solution
24% provide some form limited access to hospital applications
30% support VOIP calling (video or audio-only) or medical imaging on picture archiving and communication systems

The results definitely show that healthcare IT professionals are willing to support physician needs when it comes to mobile device, but that their is a distinct concern for data security and privacy – not surprising given the regulatory issues when it comes to healthcare.

See Full Article (Cult of Mac): Here

Filed Under: Business, Education, Technology Tagged With: apps, business, doctors, healthcare, iPads, iPhones, medical, medicine, mobility

AirPlay Mirroring in OS X Mountain Lion: From the board room to the living room

February 17, 2012 by rustybo1 Leave a Comment

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion preview today ahead of the planned summer release and we briefly touched upon some of the more important features like the all-new Messages app,Gatekeeper anti-malware capabilities, enhanced local services for the Chinese, system-wide Twitter integration and brand new iOS-like Notification Center. Tucked away as a side-note in Apple’s press release is AirPlay Mirroring, another welcome addition to Mountain Lion’s arsenal of over a hundred new features (so claims Apple).

Yes, there are a few apps for that, though, I have yet to find one that works as seamlessly and effortlessly as AirPlay implementation on iOS devices. Eagle-eyed readers could point out that AirPlay support was long-planned for Lion until it was abruptly pulled last-minute without an explanation. Sure enough, it took longer than expected, so we are excited with full AirPlay Mirroring now a possibility on Macs running Mountain Lion.

Just as you would expect, AirPlay Mirroring in Mountain Lion lets you tunnel whatever is on your Mac wirelessly to your television through the Apple TV set-top box. Think web pages in Safari, kitten clips on YouTube, movies from iMovies, Keynote presentations or any other content displayed on your Mac, including your desktop. Yes, just like on the iPad.

Better yet, using AirPlay Mirroring on 2011 Mac notebooks does not need a local wireless network, because the machine can create an ad hoc wireless network to pair with the Apple TV. This is gold for road warriors and educators who only need a MacBook and an Apple TV to present their portfolio or teaching material on the big screen.

There are some caveats, though.

First, Apple advised matching TV resolution to your Apple TV to achieve a sharper image. Secondly, thepress release mentioned that AirPlay Mirroring sends a 720p video stream to your Apple TV— meaning large desktops are downscaled to a 1280-by-720-pixel resolution. This is likely a hardware limitation of the current-generation Apple TV that lacks 1080p video output. However, this downscaling business will tax your Mac hardware, especially at 30 frames per second, so you will need a decent graphics card and preferably one of the Intel Core CPUs that can handle AirPlay video compression in real-time.

Factor in a slight but annoying lag stemming from wireless networking and real-time video compression/decompression and you are unlikely to use AirPlay Mirroring to beam fast-paced action games from your Mac to your television. Now, Apple introduced new streaming APIs in the Core Graphics framework to help AirPlay Mirroring, and they make it easier to capture updates to the display in a real-time. These new APIs also provide for scaling and color space conversion services and they support viewing and modifying metadata for popular image formats.

AirPlay Mirroring is already present in the developer preview of Mountain Lion and it works as advertised – discovering your Apple TV automatically with no setup required. It was not immediately clear if AirPlay Mirroring works out-of-the-box with any existing app on the Mac. The wording of Apple’s marketing collateral indicates app developers will need to add support for AirPlay Mirroring—meaning some Mac apps may specifically prohibit content streaming through the Apple TV. Regardless, it is the last piece of the puzzle as AirPlay Mirroring is now available across the Mac, iPhone 4S, and iPad 2.

See Full Article (9 to 5 Mac): Here

Filed Under: Business, Technology Tagged With: apple, business, enterprise, Mountain Lion, OS X, technology