As the popularity of online communities continues to spread, it's becoming big business - and not just for the 20-somethings selling their creations to the likes of Google for 10 figure sums. (Google bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in a stock for stock transaction.)
Now, as MySpace and Facebook continue to grow, a new community has emerged over the last two years as the leading online forum for business people: LinkedIn. With the basic account settings coming free, your LinkedIn profile is basically an online resume. What's more, is it shows your "connections" - that is, not just who you know, but who they know. Call it two degrees of separation.
What makes these connections that much more important to collect is that it's been proven that more job opportunities come from "soft" contacts (people you've only met once or twice) than "hard" ones - either friends or past colleagues. A recommendation from a past employer, also visible on your profile, will help you that much more.
Check out LinkedIn... because if you're not in touch, you're out of touch.
Jun 4, 2007
Jun 2, 2007
Canadian dollar hits 30-year record
While the Canadian dollar has been "strong" for some time now, it hasn't been this strong in nearly 30 years; the dollar yesterday topped 94 cents US. As reported by CBC News, CIBC Chief Economist Jeff Rubin projects parity with the American dollar by year-end.
Many fear manufacturing jobs will be hurt as exports are negatively impacted; evidence does not yet support this claim, though. Canada's economy continued to grow at an annual rate of 3.7% in the first quarter, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1%, a decline of 0.3% from 12 months prior. The situation appears to have been well-managed by the Bank of Canada, and thus far, I see little cause for concern.
To the contrary, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday to the CBC, the strong dollar "is a reflection of the underlying strength of the Canadian economy." He went even farther to say that to intervene to avoid potential job losses in the manufacturing sector would be a "huge mistake."
What do you think?
Many fear manufacturing jobs will be hurt as exports are negatively impacted; evidence does not yet support this claim, though. Canada's economy continued to grow at an annual rate of 3.7% in the first quarter, and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1%, a decline of 0.3% from 12 months prior. The situation appears to have been well-managed by the Bank of Canada, and thus far, I see little cause for concern.
To the contrary, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday to the CBC, the strong dollar "is a reflection of the underlying strength of the Canadian economy." He went even farther to say that to intervene to avoid potential job losses in the manufacturing sector would be a "huge mistake."
What do you think?
Jun 1, 2007
HBS Working Knowledge
Wow, full day today... a few meetings and a seminar course in negotiations. Interesting stuff.
Don't have a ton of time to write tonight, so I've got a recommended read for you.
Harvard Business School has a great website called HBS Working Knowledge. Half blog, half website, it's full of great articles by their over 200 faculty and global business leaders. Be sure to sign-up for the weekly newsletter, too.
Speaking of Harvard, I'm off to go prep a Harvard case for one of my classes...
Don't have a ton of time to write tonight, so I've got a recommended read for you.
Harvard Business School has a great website called HBS Working Knowledge. Half blog, half website, it's full of great articles by their over 200 faculty and global business leaders. Be sure to sign-up for the weekly newsletter, too.
Speaking of Harvard, I'm off to go prep a Harvard case for one of my classes...
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