Focus on making a deal more than wining a deal

Have you ever dealt with some managers who all the care about is wining more than reaching a deal? I call this type of management “brute force” management, when some managers try to force their way through by making everyone under them abide by their rules, when they insist that 1+1=3.

I have found that there is no way around with these types of managers, you either learn to work with them or get out of the way because arguing with them will always lead to a dead end.

The lesson for smart managers is “try to make a deal rather than to win a deal”, it is much easier and far better to work with a “team spirit” and win everyone in your side than to force your way through and, in the process, you may lose everyone.

Passwords must become things of the past

In a pervious post, I wrote about the growing problems users have with remembering and figuring new passwords for the ever growing websites that require passwords from users.

An analysis of over 32 millions passwords discovered that over 290,000 users have the password of “123456.”

It also found the most popular passwords to be:

1. 123456 – 290,731 users
2. 12345 – 79,078 users
3. 123456789 – 76,790 users
4. Password – 61,958 users
5. Iloveyou – 51,622 users
6. Princess – 35,231 users
7. Rockyou – 22,588 users
8. 1234567 – 21,726
9. 12345678 – 20,553
10. abc123 – 17,542
See the full report at : http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/itdojo/?p=1473&tag=nl.e101

I think it’s time for a new and creative way to register users on-line without asking the user to chose a new password, re-type the password and the password must be at least 6 characters long and it must includes letters, number and some special characters, that is just too MUCH. I cant recall how many times I closed the browser while registering online when I was not able to come up with password that was good enough for the system to register me.

IT jobs outlook for 2010

IT industry experts predict that 2010 will see some slight improvement in hiring and in spending which I, personally, tend to believe.

I don’t, entirely, base my predictions on experts’ opinions or industry outlooks, but I also take into account my daily work with the industry.

Demands will be strong in the following areas of IT:

1- IT Security
2- Cloud Computing
3- Networking

Why? The growing usage of the internet applications such as (on-line transactions, social websites, on-line collaborations, remote file access, online storage, remote applications access etc) will keep the demand for IT security, Cloud Computing and networking strong.

Ease of Storage led to Massive Data Overload

Today, when buying airlines tickets online, you have the ability to know what type of airplane you will be flying in, you can pick up your seat and they type of meal you prefer. In addition, you will know how long the flight will take, what is the expected weather at destination and you can print your boarding pass.

The availability of date made it easy for airlines to provide such services to passengers as they book their tickets. This type of data would have not been available or it would have been costly if it were not for data availability made easy by ease of storage.

Look how easy it is to load 2GB or even 4GB of data into a small device called “flash drive.” This process, only few years back, would have taken a serious efforts and time to accomplish.

This ease of storage coupled with dropping princes of storage media, led to massive data availability and data overload. Ease of storage is a great thing but data overload could be a serious problem.

Skills….skills…skills, how to keep them?

This article was first posted 2 years ago….

One of the challenges faced as a manager in any firm is how to find and
retain employees with the right combination of skills.
The global demand for manpower is overwhelming. Countries such as the US,
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the European Union are competing for the
same combination of skills. One of the major providers of manpower, India, is
facing its own shortage of skills in certain areas and many Indians are
opting to remain at home where they are now receiving greater salaries than
previously.
Gone are the days when a manager or a firm has the final word in an
employee’s career. Today, an employee with the right skill mix, can compete
for positions at a global scale, where the demand is high and the
remuneration is competitive, as in today’s climate of employment suggests
that people can now map and forecast their own career path.
Countries who fail to retain their work force will face the challenge of
sustaining its growth.
As managers, you need to learn how to retain your top performers. These are
some of the areas you could focus upon, to give your employee a sense of job
security:
1- continuous job training
2- continuous job performance review
3- immediate pay raise for good performance
4- if you have any foreign employees within your team, ensure that you action
any legal matters in a speedy manner, as one of the top reasons for a high
worker turn-over, is that the employee does not feel secure about their
future in a new country
5- we are living in a world where borders are disappearing and we now discuss
manpower on a global market rather than a local one. The world employment
market awaits the talent you are willing to forego, it is in your best
financial and technical competitiveness to cultivate and educate your
existing employees in the culture of your firm, as you have already invested
in their future. It makes good business sense to hold on to the talent you
have created.

Microsoft windows 7, Google Chrome and Cloud Computing

I am not sure if Microsoft Windows 7 will be as successful as Windows XP, although public acceptance of Windows 7 been positive. But computing environment has changed a lot since the early days of Windows XP. Today Microsoft Operating Systems has few new competitors, Mac Leopard and Google’s Chrome.

In the past, the competition was based on dominating the Desktop environment (with Microsoft always having the lion share), Microsoft controlled the market by selling hosts of applications based on its’ operating systems.

With the introduction of Cloud Computing, the end user is not limited to certain applications that are based on a certain Operating Systems, you could be running Windows, Linux or Leopard and could have access to the same applications over the Cloud Computing environment.

Google Chrome will definitely change the computing environment as we know it today, what kind of effects this will have on current Operating Systems and current desktop applications will be an interesting thing to see.

Windows 7 Cheaper and better

I still remember the early days of Window Vista, the first impression of most users was “I like XP better”, most users were frustrated by their new hardware “especially printers” not fully compatible with Windows Vista.

As per Microsoft, the new Windows 7 requires less “minimum hardware configuration” to run than Windows Vista. I asked a tech at computer shop “what do you like about Windows 7”? He said, “It is faster and feel much more like Win XP.”

Will Windows 7 make up for all the frustrating years of Windows Vista? Windows XP is one of the most successful OS Microsoft released and if Windows 7 will give the users the great experience they had with XP then Windows 7 will be the OS of choice for many years to come and for millions of users.

Management Information Systems, Skills needed by IT Managers

What is the difference between Management Information Systems (MIS) and Computer Information Systems (CIS)? MIS is a business major based on IT curriculum deigned to equip students with the latest skills in programming and networking coupled with business skills to manage modern work place.

CIS is 100% technical; it’s designed to give students the necessary programming, networking, hardware designing and troubleshooting skills.

Most CIS graduates spend their careers working on technical fields and never advanced to management positions, while most MIS graduates move quickly to management positions.

In general, MIS majors start with a higher salary than CIS majors and that because of the lack of management training for CIS majors.

In today’s corporate environment, IT managers must have the necessary management skills to run their department; MIS is the way to go for those who want to make it to the leadership positions in IT industry.

World’s Silicon Valleys

What first thing comes to mind when the world Silicon Valley is mentioned, two cities, “San Jose, California and Bangalore, India”.

There are some emerging Silicon Valleys around the world that not many people are familiar with, few cities that are worth to mention:

1- Santiago, Chile
2- Sao Paulo, Brazil
3- Oulu, Finland
4- Dresden, Germany
5- Southern Hesse / Rhine-Main-Neckar, Germany

Although San Joes and Bangalore are by far the leaders of Silicon Valleys, these other cities are attracting major players in the industry.

Eliminate stress on your business cycle

Business cycle consists of many elements such as (workers, equipments, business processes, management, and laws), all these and other components must work together to complete a business cycle.

A stress on the business cycle happens when one or more of the elements are not functioning efficiently. Faulty equipment such as slow computer systems may put a stress on the business cycle, a poorly trained employee may put a stress on the business cycle, outdated laws could put a stress on the business cycle, etc.

Finding and eliminating stress factors can greatly improve business cycle and make it more efficient.

Some areas to consider:

• Ongoing training of employees
• Ongoing maintenance and upgrade of equipment
• Ongoing review of business process to find room for improvements
• Work with the government and industry leaders to eliminate laws that stress the system

Management must continually review business cycle and look for stress elements that create stress on the cycle and work rigorously to eliminate these elements.