10 years ago if you were to tell someone that they needed to pay over $50K for a Jeep Grand Cherokee, they’d probably laugh at you. This however isn’t 10 years ago, it’s 2013 and this new Jeep Cherokee EcoDiesel is hands-down worth every penny. Not long ago I had the opportunity to test drive the new Grand Cherokee EcoDiesel in Austin, TX and truth be told, it’s a wonderful vehicle. The 2013 Volkswagen Touareg is also a decent SUV. Not wonderful mind you, but decent. The interior feels bland and stagnant compared to the Grand Cherokee, but on the road it’s a little more compliant in my opinion. Motor Trend’s Jonny Lieberman recently got these two trucks together for a little off-road showdown and I’m happy to say that his conclusions about both vehicles were very similar to my own.
This is the fifth article in the Data Center Knowledge Guide to Modular Data Centers series. Modular solutions can benefit a variety of businesses and requirements — but not all. Similar to any data center project, proper planning is paramount. While predicting future IT requirements can be more guessing than science, it is still a vital part of the larger strategy. Investigating a modular approach means optimizing your research and making that perfect fit for realizing your objectives. Here are some items to consider when investigating modular products or providers.
Modular Products
• Is the product UL and/or CE certified? What local or state codes may be applicable to bringing this type of device to your site?
• Will you need additional protection for the module? While many of the modular solutions are able to withstand a great deal of outside conditions, there are security factors to consider as well as how to optimally fit the modules into the structure or site you have.
• On-site integration — can your facility/site accommodate modules and the overall power requirements?
• What voltage distribution is required to the module and how will you provide it?
• Do you require true mobility in a modular solution?
• Does disaster recovery play a major role within your organization?
• Integrated modular data center or separate power and cooling modules?
Modular Providers
• Where do you need the modular solution provided? On-site, dedicated site or colocated with the provider?
• What integration options are available to manage and automate IT and infrastructure within the module?
• What type of monitoring and security is required?
• What data needs to be collected and reported?
• Are you providing some type of distributed cloud solution?
• Does the modular solution have a solid DCIM or DCOS option capable of spanning multiple data center modules?
• Are there provisions for future management technologies such as DCOS?
In both approaches the foundational data for eval-uation is power. Match the IT needs and forecasts for power consumption with the right-sized modular implementation in 100 – 500kW increments. Additionally any energy efficiency or environmental guidelines for the organization should be followed. Invite facilities, IT and all pertinent parties to the table to select the best fit for a holistic, optimized data center strategy.
To Summarize this article series, in some regards the decision about modular mirrors that of build vs. buy. The choice is to put a lot of up-front capital into constructing a facility that you estimate will fulfill IT requirements for the next decade or so, or to build (and expense) modularly in increments that will match IT needs in years to come. Similarly there are cost analysis exercises to look at between the operational costs of running a large facility with matching infrastructure, or the cost per module or modules deployed and the efficiencies in both. Modular data centers are somewhat of a disruptor to the traditional build vs. buy decision, as it offers an alternative approach to building that can save significant capital expense and operational expense over the constructed data center.
Although modular data center solutions are relatively new; cloud computing and the power of distributed technologies have made this type of platform a viable option. Managers are able to quickly understand the cost of a solution and deploy a data center which can directly integrate with the needs of the organization. Second generation modular designs are purpose built around today’s IT 2.0 environment.
While modular solutions are increasingly taking market share, they are still not a perfect fit for every need. Like all other aspects of a data center strategy, it requires knowing what IT needs are now and in the future, and what the specific requirements are for efficiently optimizing the sup¬porting data center infrastructure. In many cases the modular product or provider are a perfect fit for a retrofit, expansion or new data center project. Finding the right modular solution means knowing which one will benefit your needs the best. Taking a modular approach toward data center design is an innovative way to tightly integrate IT and facilities, and deliver it with extreme agility.
Facebook Home will never be available on the iPhone — at least not as we know it on Android. The software that turns every Android phone into a “Facebook Phone” is simply too intrusive to get around Apple’s strict developer guidelines. Facebook brought one of Home’s more intriguing features to the iPhone earlier this week, however, when it updated its app with support for “chat heads,” the small round avatars that pop up on the screen when a Facebook friend messages you. Chat heads obviously only work while iPhone users have Facebook’s app open, but a new jailbreak tweak launching soon bypasses Apple’s restrictions and makes chat heads available on any screen.
SD Retail Consulting, a unit of Hilco Trading, said Thursday that Dick Lynch was named Senior Vice President of Merchandising and Strategy. Lynch previously served as The Sports Authority’s president and COO, interim CEO of Sur La Table and CEO (post-bankruptcy) of Hechinger.
PRESS RELEASE
SD Retail Consulting, a leading strategic retail advisory firm and unit of Hilco Trading, LLC, today announced that it has named Dick Lynch Senior Vice President of Merchandising and Strategy. In his new role, Mr. Lynch will be responsible for helping retailers create shareholder value through process, organization and technology enhancements in the key merchandising and inventory management functions. He will also play a key role in assisting management, owners and lenders in shareholder value creation assignments.
With more than 30 years of retail experience, Mr. Lynch brings extensive executive leadership expertise, having served as President and COO of The Sports Authority, interim CEO of Sur La Table and CEO (post-bankruptcy) of Hechinger. In his ten-year period at The Sports Authority, Mr. Lynch played a significant role in growing the company from a two-store start-up to a publically-owned, multi-billion dollar retailer listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Mr. Lynch also served as President of Paperchase US, where he was responsible for all facets of operating more than 500 Paperchase stores inside Borders book stores and standalone stores on both coasts.
Mr. Lynch rejoins SD Retail President Antony Karabus, having previously served as a senior retail advisor at Karabus Management for more than 10 years. During this time, he focused on solving retailer financial performance and strategic issues, covering merchandising, inventory management and store operations.
During his retail consulting career, Mr. Lynch has led the implementation and enhancement of assortment planning and inventory management organizations, processes and related systems at numerous retailers and played a key role in the identification of overhead cost reduction and re-organization opportunities. Mr. Lynch has also earned great respect from retail lenders and private equity firms over the years for his work in assessing retailer profitability and financial positions.
“Dick has an impressive track record of solving complex retail issues, having played a key role in successfully enhancing sales and margins, improving field and merchandising effectiveness and reducing the cost structure for numerous retail chains,” said Antony Karabus. “Partnering with Farla Efros, EVP/Chief Operating Officer of Merchandising and Strategy, Dick will be invaluable as SD Retail continues to expand its merchandising and strategy practice, and deliver innovative client solutions to meet the challenges and opportunities created in the current retail environment.”
“I am very excited to be joining SD Retail and to be working alongside many former colleagues,” said Mr. Lynch. “Today’s landscape poses many opportunities and challenges for retailers, and I look forward to working with the talented senior management team at SD Retail to identify and implement strategic growth opportunities to enhance the businesses of our clients.”
ABOUT SD RETAIL CONSULTING
SD Retail Consulting is a leading strategic retail advisory firm that helps retailers unlock value across multiple operating segments; including merchandising, planning and allocation, the in-store customer experience, supply chain, inventory, real estate, the support infrastructure, technology effectiveness and the raising of capital required to support growth strategies. The company is a unit of The Hilco Organization and operates in New York as well as at Hilco’s headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois. For more information on SD Retail Consulting visit http://www.sdretail.com.
ABOUT HILCO TRADING LLC.
Headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois (USA), Hilco is a privately-held, diversified financial and operational services firm whose principal competency is understanding and maximizing the value of business assets, including retail, consumer and industrial inventory; machinery and equipment; real estate; accounts receivable; intellectual property; and, going-concern enterprises. Through 500 professionals operating on five continents, Hilco helps companies and their professional advisors assess asset value, maximize value for said assets through asset monetization solutions, and enhance value through advisory and consulting solutions. Hilco serves retailers, wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers, directly and through their lenders, investors and advisors, which can include private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks, law firms, turnaround professionals, accounting professionals, bankruptcy trustees and receivers. For more information please visit our web site: www.hilcotrading.com.
Marissa Meyer is bringing big changes to Yahoo and one of them is apparently getting the old search site back into the public focus with new mobile apps. That process begins today in the world of both Apple and meteorology — fitting since tornado and thunderstorm season is getting underway and hurricanes are on the horizon.
Today the company announces a sleek new weather app that is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod touch — uninspiringly named “Yahoo! Weather App”. Marco Wirasinghe claims the new app will “bring together beautiful images from our Flickr community to show you current local conditions, with all the details you want to know about the forecast”.
While this is a weather app at heart, it really is about the photos. You can simply tilt your device to scroll through images of weather in locations that you choose. However, you can still get details of current conditions and a forecast to let you know how to dress today and if you should bring along an umbrella.
Wirasinghe elaborates on the photos: “Our goal is to have amazing photos for every weather condition that cover the globe — morning, afternoon, and night — across every city in the world, and we want your help. Whether you’re simply a daydreamer or an avid photographer, submit photos of your favorite places to our Flickr Group and your image can be seen by tens of millions in Yahoo! Weather for iPhone”.
Yahoo! Weather is now in the iTunes App Store. The app is free and available in English, Bokmål, Norwegian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnames languages.
Xbox is due for a refresh this year and it’s a good time to write my wishlist. I’ve been accused of being a Windows fanboy, which I’m not. I’ve also been accused of being a Windows Phone fanboy. No again. But I’ve never been accused of being an Xbox fanboy, which I absolutely am.
With the Xbox, Microsoft has a stellar platform on its hands. The console has gone from a third place alsoran to a major player in the console wars: a strategy Microsoft desperately needs to adapt to Windows Phone, but that’s a different article. As the world of computing shifts to mobile, so is gaming, allowing companies like Apple to get into the business. What do vendors that build consoles need to do to adjust their strategy? I can’t say much for Sony or Nintendo because I don’t use those platforms anymore. For Microsoft, here’s my wish list for the next Xbox platform update that I think will allow it to remain a major gaming industry player despite the shift to mobile computing.
Fix Xbox Music/Video
This has to be my single biggest disappointment from the Xbox team. As a fan, I have never felt more let down then when this turd released. Zune worked very well, despite some key features like cloud music, or playlist syncing between devices. Xbox Music as it stands right now is almost useless and for those of whom were former Zune users, Microsoft owes an apology. Music match barely works. Playlist syncing issues/complaints/support requests go unanswered by Microsoft.
Xbox Music should be the service that takes down all the other players in this space. My wish is for a social component that lets me see what my friends are listening to and be able to share playlists with them. But here’s the problem with that. There aren’t that many people out there who actually use Xbox for music. None of my friends do. Almost all of them are on Spotify. So how do they get around this? Perhaps, hook into the Spotify service (assuming the API is open and will allow this) and expose what my friends are listening to or perhaps do it through Facebook for those friends who publicize their listening habits through that service.
Also, I wish for Microsoft to release a cloud music locker that allows me to stream my music to whatever device I am using. Fix playlist syncing because right now it doesn’t work. If I create a playlist on my PC it should automatically sync to my phone, Xbox or tablet.
For Xbox video, please release a service that allows videos I purchase on one device to be playable on others. Enable more SmartGlass capable content and make them easily discoverable, and if you need to charge a dollar more for it, that’s fine, but please add more content.
Can we get a subscription service for video? I realize Hollywood content producers are the major barrier here so I understand if this is a pipe dream that will never happen. But something has to be done to differentiate Xbox Video from all the other services out there.
Microsoft has officially announced that it is moving into producing their own content for Xbox. Hopefully this means the console will gain more TV-like services such as the ability to record live TV like a DVR. I would wholeheartedly welcome this. Netflix nailed it with House of Cards and producing content is the future for platforms that want to be taken seriously in the video space.
Make Skype Available
I don’t understand why there is no Skype app on the current console. Hopefully this is coming in 2013. But I don’t just want to be able to call my friends on their consoles, phones and other devices. I want you to take it up a notch and call another Xbox/PC/tablet in my own home. This would be awesome for a parent who needs to get in touch with a kid in another room to come eat dinner.
Let Xbox “See” More
Here’s what I mean. The console currently works very nicely as a PlayTo and SmartGlass enabled device. But for the content that I don’t necessarily have uploaded to SkyDrive, Xbox should be able to see and play all my content in the My Music and My Videos and My Pictures folders on all my PCs/Devices. I know I can currently on Windows 8 use PlayTo and shoot this content to my Xbox. But I don’t think the PlayTo interface in the desktop is the easiest interface to use.
Release a Smarter Xbox
The natural user interface in the current Xbox platform enabled by Kinect is a great feature that I actually use on a regular basis. Do I use it every day? No. There’s no way I would sit in front of my TV gesturing to it. As much as I use my Xbox, this would get really tiring. However, when I need it, the feature is there and ready to work. And it works quite well for me. This is what makes technologies like Kinect so “natural”. When I lose my remote, as I often do, I usually just end up talking to the console.
However, I understand this is not exactly ideal when you find yourself in a situation where you can’t find your remote but your room is so loud, there’s no way Xbox will accurately hear you. While gesturing is available, if you need to get to an app or a TV, the arms can tire quickly. A smarter Xbox will allow me to use my phone or other mobile device as a microphone to talk to my Xbox. This would reduce interference from other sources and allow the Xbox to clearly understand my commands.
A smarter Xbox will also allow me to control other wifi enabled devices in my home. Perhaps devs can write apps that hook into such devices.
Wouldn’t it be great if the console understood my usage behavior and adjusted the interface accordingly? Let me explain. Let’s say every day after I get home around 4:30pm the first thing I do is turn on my Xbox and open the HBO GO app, because I’m watching Game of Thrones Season 2. A smarter Xbox would observe this pattern and ask if I wanted this automatically done for me, so that when I get home it’s already cued up to the next episode or the spot where I left off. But what if for some reason, I’m working late one day. I wouldn’t want the console turned on and sucking up unnecessary electricity. To get around this, the console could enable the ability to log into my Xbox account online and turn off or reprogram it for another time.
Expand Kinect
Kinect should pushed to other platforms like Windows (Bill Gates has said this is coming) but my point in this article is about the console. If the Xbox team decides to release other devices (more on that next) these devices should include Kinect capabilities whether they be in gaming related scenarios or navigating the interface or both.
Not only should Kinect expand to other platforms, it should be improved for natural language scenarios. It’s time for Microsoft to put all that speech data it’s been collecting since the release of Kinect to work. It’s 2013 and computing devices like Xbox (or any other Xbox-enabled device) should be able to understand natural language. This capability should be made available to app developers as well.
Bring out More Devices
A 7-inch gaming/media consumption device should come from the Xbox team. It should be the ultimate smart device and should allow me to control my console and vice versa. This device should permit me to play games with others who are on the console (more on this later). It should have access to all the Xbox media apps, including apps from the Windows Phone and Windows stores. This device should cost no more than $200 and could potentially be sold in a bundle with the new Xbox.
Besides a 7-inch tablet device, the console needs a small TV streaming media only device with integrated Kinect. I love my console, and I have one in every room, but $300 is a lot to spend for a media device. Release a $99 (or less) media device that has access to all the media apps available on the console and also includes Skype and the ability to push/pull content from all Windows devices (phones, pc’s, tablets).
Open the App Platform
Apple is a serious threat. I know many people don’t think so but here’s why guys like Gabe Newell are correct about Apple in the living room. Apple already has a massive platform in iOS and the app catalog as far as gaming goes is tremendous. If all the company did in 2013 was open up Apple TV to developers and their app gaming catalog, that’s enough to do some serious damage to Microsoft’s living room strategy.
Xbox should get out ahead of this and open the app platform up to all developers for a nominal registration fee. This should not just be for gaming but for media apps as well. Xbox should be able to run on a new apps platform that gets as close to write-once-run-anywhere as humanly possible. A company like HBO should be able to write one app and have it be able to run on any sized screen from a phone all the way up to a TV screen.
This would require the Xbox having the same core as other Windows devices (phones/PC/tablet) but the rumor is that this is most likely going to happen (or why else would you move the NT guy to the Xbox team?) and I cannot help but think that one of the benefits of this is a more unified app development platform.
Create a Real-time Multi-player Multi-device Gaming Platform
I saved this for last because even if Microsoft does not come through on any of my other wishes, this is the one that I think will set the Xbox platform apart from any platform available today. Microsoft has already demoed the ability of a Windows Phone to interact with the console. Remember the YouTube video of the person sitting on the couch with a Windows Phone interacting with the Kinect dodge ball game while a guy in the same room played the game from the console?
What we have so far is pause/resume across devices. Skull of the Shogun is the best example of this. This game can be purchased on Windows Phone, Windows 8 (PC/tablet) and the XBOX. Users can play on one device, pause and continue play on another. While this is great, what is really needed is a way for users in games like Halo or Call of Duty can play multiplayer in real-time regardless of device. There are definitely challenges to this when you are on a screen the size of a phone, but that doesn’t mean those players have to be left out of the game. Perhaps players on the phone can operate in support roles.
There are other games that are great for this scenario: racing games. We already play them on phones and they would be perfect for a new platform like this. Can you imagine Forza on Windows Phone? Microsoft already is seriously lacking in its attempts to push the Xbox platform to Windows Phone. I think it’s absolutely embarrassing that they have not successfully turned Windows Phone into a stellar gaming platform. You have the most successful game platform in the United States and you cannot leverage that onto your struggling mobile platform? Unacceptable.
Conclusion
So there you have it. My Xbox wish list for this year. I intentionally left off this list is specific games and media apps (like Spotify and Amazon Music) as I am sure Microsoft will come up with some pretty amazing solutions in this area. I’m sure there’s something you can add to this to make it even better. What do you think should be added to this list?
Update: As I was writing this article, GameLoft released a racing game for Windows Phone 8 called Asphalt 7. This game includes real-time multiplayer with other phone devices. This is a great start! Hopefully Microsoft plans more releases like this that are expanded to other devices as well.
The new feed looks a heck of a lot more like Facebook’s News Feed than a digital resume service. Gone are the weird folders a user used to see on logging in, which are now replaced with a stream of information that combines both professional updates (which of your friends have new LinkedIn connections or jobs), and news stories, as well as a top bar that shows “top stories for you,” and other customizable features. Users can like or comment on stories directly from the feed, which again, provides the service with more data on user interests.
While its stock price is doing well and it’s well on its way to becoming the digital resume of choice for a lot of professionals, LinkedIn still only has 200 million registered users, which isn’t all that significant when you consider that those aren’t active users — just people with accounts. (For a point of comparison, Twitter, which is a much newer company, has 200 million users — active ones.)
LinkedIn’s business model hinges on the “talent solutions,” or the corporate recruiting arm of the company, which brought in more than 50 percent of the revenue last quarter. But that business needs users to continue uploading information to LinkedIn. When users note when they get new jobs or list their skills, they’re providing more data for recruiters and companies to evaluate, making that section of the business more valuable. And if users never visit LinkedIn, that’s a problem, as we’ve written before.
Scrolling through this feed, it’s easy to see why adding news stories and content to the LinkedIn site makes it far more engaging for users. After all, people don’t change jobs and update their LinkedIn profiles often enough to populate a timely news feed, but if I checked the LinkedIn app to find an interesting mix of technology and media news, I might be more likely to come back for a visit — not just to accept a connection.
Sprint’s LTE rollout machine sprang back into action this week. It announced Thursday that its new 4G network is now available in 21 markets, including Los Angeles, and added a bunch of cities to its buildout schedule in the coming months.
Here are the new markets receiving LTE services: Albemarle, N.C.; Bloomington, Ind.; Charlotte, N.C.; Contra Costa County, Calif.; Denison, Texas; Greeneville, Tenn.; Joplin, Mo.; Kerrville, Texas; Lafayette, Ind.; Lincolnton, N.C.; Los Angeles; Mankato/North Mankato, Minn.; Memphis, Tenn.; Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Newport News, Va.; Palm Bay, Fla.; Port St. Lucie, Fla.; Rochelle, Ill.; Salisbury, N.C.; Shelby, N.C.; Tullahoma, Tenn.; West Palm Beach, Fla.
Sprint now has LTE service in 88 markets (you can see the complete list here), and while many of them are on the small side, the operator is readying some major cities for launch. The operator called out New York City, San Francisco and Washington in Thursday’s announcement, saying customers are already starting to get LTE signals in those cities. In the coming months, Sprint said, it will officially unveil networks in additional 120 cities and towns in coming months.
Recently AT&T has been turning on new LTE markets in small increments. For instance, on Thursday it said the 4G service has expanded to Cheyenne, Wyo.; Cushing, Okla.; and Florence, S.C. But it plans to make a big push this summer as well, launching in 77 new markets. By the end of the year it plans to have 250 million people under its LTE umbrella, which would put it about 50 million shy of Verizon’s footprint.
Epizyme, a six-year-old, Cambridge, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company that’s focused on researching treatments for tumors and blood cancers, has filed an S-1 with the SEC, in an offering whose underwriters include Citigroup, Cowen and Company, Leerink Swann, JMP Securities, and Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences.
Epizyme has raised more than $50 million over the years, including from Bay City Capital, Amgen Ventures, Astellas Venture Management,MPM Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, and GlaxoSmithKline.
When I first visited Facebook’s data center in Prineville, Ore., in 2011, I felt privileged to spot some figures on the facility’s power-usage effectiveness (PUE) on a screen affixed to a wall. The PUE number, which gives a sense of how much of the energy gets consumed by computing gear, wasn’t exactly what some reporters wanted to know — total number of megawatts would have been better than PUE, and that sort of information came later — but it was a start toward transparency. Now, the PUE data won’t be such a big deal to catch a glimpse of anymore.
The social-networking giant is giving the general public access to near-real-time dashboards on PUE and another key measurement, water-usage effectiveness (WUE), alongside humidity and temperature data for its data centers in Prineville and in Forest City, N.C. Previously, the PUE and WUE figures were released quarterly. The new dashboards show data down to the minute, albeit with a two and a half hour lag. In the future, Facebook will also post a PUE and WUE dashboard for the data center it’s building in Luleå, Sweden.
The facilities are still under construction, and, as a result, the data in the two dashboards can have abnormalities, but it should become more stable over time. The company detailed its plans in a Thursday blog post on the Open Compute Project site.
Facebook’s Power Usage Efficiency (PUE) and Water Usage Efficiency (WUE) dashboard
Facebook’s Power Use Efficiency (PUE) and Water Use Efficiency (WUE) dashboard
To prod other companies operating data centers to share more up-to-date power- and water-usage data, Facebook will open-source the code for the dashboards. Similar data from other companies could make Facebook look good, as Facebook (along with Google) is on the leading edge when it comes to PUE. eBay, for its part, has released a dashboard showing PUE and WUE as well as other measurements, such as the number of checkout transactions per kilowatt-hour.
Innovations in hardware and software at Facebook’s data centers make lower energy use possible. Whether Facebook will be able to squeeze even more computing power out of its energy and water consumption is an interesting question, and now that more current data is being shared, it’s worth asking what innovations will come in the future. If Yahoo, Microsoft and others follow suit, the pressure will be on for data centers across the board to become more transparent. Those efforts could help data center operators respond to notions that data centers waste energy.
What talented people want has changed. They used to want high salaries to verify their value and stable career paths to allow them to sleep well at night. Now they want purposeful work and jobs that fit clearly into the larger context of their career. And that means they want jobs that are sensible parts of an ongoing journey through a series of professional endeavors — not some supposedly linear path toward “success”.
The difficulty is that companies haven’t quite figured out how to provide this. In fact, for all its accomplishments, business in the 21st century has a dirty little secret: Statistically speaking, companies aren’t sure how to hire the right people.
Recruiting, staffing, and hiring-support services is a $16B industry, yet 52% of U.S. employers report having difficulty filling key roles. A 2012 Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey found that 60% of CEOs did not believe they had the talent they needed to be successful, and one in four had to delay or forego market opportunities and strategic initiatives because they didn’t have the right talent.
The consequences of mediocre hiring go beyond lost opportunities. They include accidentally getting the wrong people (meaning the person resigns or is terminated within 18 months), which as any manager who has made this mistake knows, is very expensive. In 2012, Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ Saratoga team found that the combined costs of unanticipated turnover (including lost institutional knowledge, diminished productivity, and direct hiring and onboarding costs) are staggering: 20-200% of the employees’ original salary. For those companies on the high end of turnover (75% percentile), turnover costs are equivalent to nearly 40% of earnings.
The inverse is also true. Studies show that engaged employees are 50% more productive and 33% more profitable. They are also responsible for 56% higher customer loyalty scores and correlated with 44% higher retention rates, leading to great gains in productivity over the long run.
So the question is: How do companies find and cultivate those fulfilled employees?
At my company ReWork, we work with exceptional professionals who want to apply their expertise and skills to the most pressing social and environmental problems of our time. Having achieved mastery and at least some degree of wealth, they crave the one thing most companies still don’t explicitly offer them — purpose.
We’ve heard from associates at all the big management consultancies, analysts at the largest investment banks, developers at the most prominent technology companies, and senior managers from Fortune 50 corporations, and they all tell us the same things. They are not picking their next job based on the size of the paycheck. They are instead looking for a worthwhile mission and promising team to join. And, they are having a frustratingly hard time finding that.
And therein lies the opportunity. Employers who are watching closely see the implication clearly.
Offer purpose and career context, and the talent will come.
Take Moneythink, a Chicago-based financial literacy nonprofit, that pulled in a Fortune 50 business analyst to lead their expansion. Or The Eleos Foundation, a Santa Barbara-based impact investment firm that snagged an ex-Microsoft, Haas School of Business superstar to advance their investment strategy. And iDE‘s Last Mile Loo project, an ambitious vision for beyond-grid sanitation systems, that hired a team of seasoned fundraisers to help them win $100K from the Lipman Family Prize at the Wharton School. The list goes on.
Here’s where your company can start:
Get serious about impact. Determine the positive impact your organization is seeking to make in the world, and do that goal justice. You don’t need to be a social enterprise or a triple-bottom-line firm, but joining the 30,000+ ethical and sustainable brands in U.S. will mean you have a much more compelling purpose to offer, even if it isn’t completely unique.
Warning: You cannot fake purpose. That’s worse than not prioritizing it at all. People can tell the difference, trust me.
Tell that story, and tell it well. Once you know the mission you’re trying to accomplish, tell the world. Call it marketing or communications or storytelling or design, but make sure you’re getting across how much you care about your vision and how you’re working towards it. If you do so correctly, you’ll have their hearts beating before they’ve even heard the details. Things like start dates, vacations days, and even salaries and bonuses are then far less likely to be deal-breakers.
Make talent your #1 priority, period. Attracting, evaluating, hiring, and retaining the best people is serious business. Getting the best people builds a cultural momentum at your firm, making it easier to attract and retain them in the future. At the end of the day, that is how you make systematic progress. That is how you win. If you don’t have a dedicated talent team that is on the pulse of what the most dynamic professionals long for in their work, consider investing in one.
Design your roles for their future, not just yours. Recognize that many people now see each job as just one of many stepping-stones that they’ll visit over the course of their career. The best way to keep them with you indefinitely is to focus on making your stone as attractive and inviting as possible. Decent pay, rewarding perks, and large doses of autonomy (on top of a compelling mission) demonstrate that you take their professional development seriously. What networks, knowledge, responsibility, or skills can your company provide better than others?
Do these things, and you’ll see the most dynamic, effective, and inspired professionals you’ve ever worked with show up on your doorstep. If harnessed correctly they’ll be the best thing that ever happened to your company — and for society.
A look at the new Facebook dashboard reporting its data center efficiency metrics.
The era of real-time data has arrived for the data center industry’s leading energy efficiency metric. Facebook has launched a public dashboard that provides up to the minute data on the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of its first two company-built data centers in Oregon and North Carolina. The social network is also providing data on its use of water, a topic of growing interest in data center design and operations.
Facebook isn’t the first company to make its PUE data public, as Google has been publishing its data center metrics since 2008. But with the new dashboards for its server farms in Prineville, Oregon and Forest City, North Carolina, Facebook is presenting “near real-time” data that includes the temperature and humidity at both sites, which is useful for analyzing the impact of environmental variables on data center efficiency. The dashboard features detailed data on the past 24 hours, as well as separate charts that allow users to review performance data over longer periods, ranging from 7 days to 1 year.
The PUE metric compares a facility’s total power usage to the amount of power used by the IT equipment, revealing how much is lost in distribution and conversion. The Prineville data center has had recent PUE measurements as low as 1.06, while the Forest City facility has recent readings of about 1.10. Once the Facebook data center in Luleå, Sweden comes online, the company will begin publishing data for that site as well.
Facebook is also advancing the use of Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE), a metric that was developed by The Green Grid to measure a facility’s impact on the local water supply. Some approaches to data center cooling use large volumes of water that can impact the local supply of potable water and test the capacity of area sewage systems. Facebook was among the first companies to report WUE.
“We’re proud of our data center efficiency, and we think it’s important to demystify data centers and share more about what our operations really look like,” Facebook’s Lyrica McTiernan wrote on the Open Compute Blog. ”Through the Open Compute Project (OCP), we’ve shared the building and hardware designs for our data centers. These dashboards are the natural next step, since they answer the question, ‘What really happens when those servers are installed and the power’s turned on?’ ”
To encourage other data center operators to follow its lead, Facebook said it would make available the code used to create the dashboards.
“We’re excited about sharing this data, and we encourage others to do the same,” writes McTiernan. “Working together with Area17, the company that designed these visualizations, we’ve decided to open-source the front-end code for these dashboards so that any organization interested in sharing PUE, WUE, temperature, and humidity at its data center sites can use these dashboards to get started. Sometime in the coming weeks we’ll publish the code on the Open Compute Project’s GitHub repository … We encourage you to treat this as a starting point and use these dashboards to make everyone’s ability to share this data even more interesting and robust.”
European Capital Limited announced today that it has received €7.2 million from exiting its investments in Scaff’holding. European Capital realized a c. 1.8x money multiple on its initial investment, representing a 13% IRR. Scaff’holding, based in Paris, rents and sells scaffolding and shoring systems. The exit for European Capital — A Guernsey-based investment company for pan-European equity, mezzanine, unitranche and senior debt investments — comes as Scaff’holding and its majority shareholder, Equistone, have agreed on a tertiary buyout led by management and supported by minority equity investors.
PRESS RELEASE:
European Capital Limited and its affiliates (“European Capital”) announced today that they received proceeds of €7.2 million from exiting their investments in Scaff’holding (the “Company”). European Capital realized a c. 1.8x money multiple on its initial investment, representing a c. 13% IRR.
In April 2007, European Capital invested €7.5 million in the mezzanine facility, along with Capzanine, to support the secondary buyout of Scaff’holding by Equistone, formerly Barclays Private Equity. In October 2011, the Company partially repaid the mezzanine facility and European Capital received €3.1 million.
Scaff’holding, based in Paris, France, is the French leader in the rental and sale of scaffolding and shoring systems. Through its network of local branches, Scaff’holding offers a comprehensive range of equipment and services to meet all customers’ needs especially in terms of safety and compliance with regulations. The Company is active in the fields of construction, public works, industry, entertainment and temporary structures for public events. European Capital’s exit comes as Scaff’holding and its majority shareholder, Equistone, agreed on a tertiary buyout led by Management and supported by minority equity investors.
“We have been very pleased to support management and Equistone over the past six years,” said Tristan Parisot , Managing Director of European Capital Financial Services Limited (“ECFS”). “This investment illustrates our long-term investor profile and ability to offer flexible financing solutions.”
“Scaff’holding has a proven track record of resilience and cash-flow generation,” said Stephane Legrand , Managing Director of ECFS. “The Company has also demonstrated its ability to grow internationally, notably by expanding its presence in Brazil.”
ABOUT EUROPEAN CAPITAL
European Capital is an investment company for pan-European equity, mezzanine, unitranche and senior debt investments with €1.2 billion in assets under management. European Capital is a wholly-owned affiliate of American Capital, Ltd. (“American Capital”). European Capital is managed by European Capital Financial Services (Guernsey), a wholly-owned affiliate of American Capital (the “Investment Manager”). The Investment Manager has offices in London and Paris. As of 31 December 2012, the Investment Manager had 5 investment teams with 22 investment professionals and employed 27 support staff. European Capital and its affiliates will consider senior, unitranche and mezzanine debt investment opportunities from 10 million to 40 million and up to 400 million for One Stop Buyout®, in either in euros or in sterling. For further information, please refer to www.EuropeanCapital.com.
ABOUT AMERICAN CAPITAL
American Capital, Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACAS) is a publicly traded private equity firm and global asset manager. American Capital, both directly and through its asset management business, originates, underwrites and manages investments in middle market private equity, leveraged finance, real estate and structured products. American Capital manages $18.6 billion of assets, including assets on its balance sheet and fee earning assets under management by affiliated managers, with $117 billion of total assets under management (including levered assets). Through an affiliate, American Capital manages publicly traded American Capital Agency Corp. (Nasdaq: AGNC) with approximately a $13 billion market capitalization and American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. (Nasdaq: MTGE) with approximately a $1.5 billion market capitalization. From its eight offices in the U.S. and Europe, American Capital and its affiliate, European Capital, will consider investment opportunities from $10 million to $750 million. For further information, please refer to www.AmericanCapital.com.
One of Facebook’s steps toward becoming a mobile-first company has been courting third-party developers to build an ecosystem of apps around the service that gets users sharing more data and content on Facebook. On Thursday the company launched new features that let developers improve the way they sign up users through Facebook’s credentials and the type of data those users can share back to Facebook.
“We’re launching three important products that further our transition to a mobile-first platform. We’re making it easier to implement Open Graph on mobile, improving Facebook Login, and releasing a new Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS. We’re also announcing a new partner program to help developers integrate Facebook on a variety of mobile platforms.
More than 81 percent of top 100 grossing iOS apps and 70 percent of top 100 grossing Android apps integrate with Facebook. With the new tools we’re unveiling today, we’re excited to see even more high quality mobile apps integrate with Facebook to engage with our 680+ million mobile users.”
Facebook faces a tricky balance, though, between courting quality developers to build apps that integrate with its site and increase sharing and simultaneously maintaining quality control over the system. It also must prevent potential competitors from challenging it through its own services.
While the company previously saw great success letting companies like Zynga grow on top of the site, the issues with frictionless sharing that apps like Spotify faced, as well as recent challenges to Facebook’s core products, make that developer relationship a little more challenging. Still, the more that different apps keeps users interacting with Facebook inside the Facebook ecosystem, the better is is for the company’s bottom line.
Social Venture Fund, a student-led, Ann Arbor, Michigan-based “impact investing” fund that’s closely affiliated with the University of Michigan, has participated in a seed-stage financing for Mytonomy, a video storytelling platform for college and career advising. Other investors in the round include NewSchools Venture Fund and Kapor Capital. Social Venture Fund makes investments of up to $100,000. Terms of the Mytonomy deal were not disclosed. Two-year-old Mytonomy is based in Washington, D.C.
PRESS RELEASE:
The Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business today announced that its Social Venture Fund, the nation’s first student-led impact investing fund, has participated in a seed stage round of financing in Mytonomy, Inc., a video storytelling platform for college and career advising. The Fund joined lead investor NewSchools Venture Fund and Kapor Capital in the deal. This marks the student-led fund’s third investment and second in the education sector.
The Social Venture Fund makes early-stage investments of up to $100,000 in sustainable, innovative, for-profit organizations that deliver financial returns and place the generation of a significant social impact at the heart of their mission. It is managed by Gautam Kaul , Professor of Finance at the Ross School of Business and by 42 students who have wide-ranging experience in fields that include technology, investment and education. To date, the Social Venture Fund is the only university impact investing fund with active investments. Along with the Wolverine Venture Fund and Frankel Commercialization Fund, the Social Venture Fund completes the Ross’ trifecta of student-led venture funds, managed by the Zell Lurie Institute and which effectively immerses students in experiencing all aspects of venture capital investing.
A team of eight students led by Aamer Ali , MBA ’14, and Dan Rosen , MBA ’14, sourced the deal and conducted in-depth due diligence on the company. “Mytonomy addresses a key need in the education market and has social impact embedded into its business model, making it an ideal company for the Social Venture Fund to consider,” said Rosen. “In analyzing the opportunity more closely, we were impressed with Mytonomy’s initial traction and customer satisfaction, as well as the notable team, advisors and other investors. We are pleased to participate in this round with well-established players and deepen the Fund’s portfolio of promising edtech startups.”
Mytonomy aims to address the disparity in high school guidance counseling services through a video-based social network, with a special focus on First Generation college students and students studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. With an average caseload of 470:1, college guidance counselors are stretched beyond optimal capacity. Mytonomy helps bridge gaps in capacity by delivering complementary “video support” at scale and at low cost. The company’s video library, which already contains more than 2600 testimonials in both English and Spanish, enables high school and college students to watch videos from near-peers, getting advice on topics related to succeeding in high school, the college application process, and specific colleges, majors, and careers, all with their always-free student accounts.
In addition to the financial investment from the Social Venture Fund, Mytonomy will engage directly with the Fund and Ross on capacity building initiatives, such as high-impact consulting projects, research on the efficacy of its intervention, or development of curriculum related to STEM careers. The Fund will also have the option to participate in future rounds.
“We are pleased to partner with a respected roster of investors to deliver much-needed college knowledge, and to expose students to the careers of the future, especially those communities that are under-represented in the tech industry,” said Vinay Bhargava , Mytonomy CEO and co-founder. “We’re particularly excited to engage directly with the Social Venture Fund to tap Ross’ cross-disciplinary business students as well as those from the School of Education and College of Engineering to further our mission.”
About the Samuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies
The Institute and its Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance, at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business, bring together a potent mix of knowledge, experience and opportunities from the front lines of entrepreneurship and alternative investments. The student learning experience is further enhanced through internships, entrepreneurial clubs and events that serve to provide viable networks and engage the business community. The School’s three student-led investment funds, with over $6.5M under management, immerse students in the business assessment and investment process. Founding Board Members include Samuel Zell, Chairman of Equity Group Investments, and Eugene Applebaum , Founder of Arbor Drugs, Inc. For more information, visit the Institute at www.zli.bus.umich.edu.
About Ross
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan is a vibrant and distinctive learning community grounded in the principle that business can be an extraordinary vehicle for positive change in today’s dynamic global economy. At the Ross School of Business, our mission is to develop leaders who make a positive difference in the world. Through thought and action, members of the Ross community drive change and innovation that improves business and society.
The Ross School is consistently ranked among the world’s leading business schools. Academic degree programs include the Full-time MBA, Part-time MBA (Evening and Weekend formats), Executive MBA, Global MBA, Master of Accounting, Master of Supply Chain Management, Master of Entrepreneurship, BBA, and PhD. In addition, the school delivers non-degree, open-enrollment and custom executive education programs targeting general management, leadership development, and strategic human resource management.
It’s another week and that means another Nintendo Download update that brings new content to your Nintendo 3DS, DSi and Wii U. This week’s download is full of retail games and sales on some of the best eShop games the 3DS has to offer.
First up is LEGO City Undercover: The Chase Begins, the prequel to LEGO City Undercover on the Wii U. The game will be available starting April 21 at retail and on the eShop.
At the Nintendo 3DS Direct event yesterday, Nintendo announced that it would be localizing the next three games in the Guild series from Level 5. Before those come out, you can now grab the first games in the Guild series at a reduced price this week. Liberation Maiden and Crimson Shroud are both $4.99 while Aero Porter is $2.99. Aside from the Guild series, Dress to Play: Cute Witches will also be on sale for $1.99 this week.
The following games will also launch on the 3DS eShop this week:
Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns 3D (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS)
Mystery Murders: Jack the Ripper (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS)
Puzzler Brain Games (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS – Available April 23)
Puzzler World 2013 (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS – Available April 23)
Super Little Acorns 3D Turbo (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS)
Tetris: Axis (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS)
Witch & Hero (Nintendo eShop on Nintendo 3DS)
Puzzler Brain Games (DSiWare on Nintendo DSi – Available April 23)
Puzzler World 2013 (DSiWare on Nintendo DSi – Available April 23)
Working Dawgs: Rivet Retriever (DSiWare on Nintendo DSi)
On a final note, the season finale for BearShark will air on Nintendo Video this week.
Yesterday, confusion hit the media as conflicting reports seemed to indicate that authorities may have arrested a suspect in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings. Those reports were later denied by Boston police, but today it has been confirmed that images of two suspects have been obtained.
According to a Boston Globe report, the images come from surveillance camera footage taken on Boylston street, where the bombings occurred. The images reportedly show two men, each at one of the two bombing locations.
The Globe is reporting that officials are planning on releasing the images of the suspects in order to obtain the public’s help in finding them. The FBI had scheduled a press conference for 5 pm EDT on Wednesday but later delayed, and then cancelled, the event.
Reporters yesterday filled the street around the federal court house in Boston, waiting for news of an arrest. Instead, the court house was evacuated due to a bomb scare.
Boston police today secured the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, where President Obama attended and spoke at an inter-faith memorial service.
““I’m here today on behalf of the American people with a simple message,” said Obama. “Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city. Every one of us stands with you.”
Budweiser is looking to celebrate its iconic logo with a new can design this Spring. The Anheuser-Busch brand will unveil a new bowtie-shaped can on May 6th.
The can, will be a few drop short of the full 12-ounce can you’re used to – clocking in at 11.3 ounces. With the fewer ounces of beer comes fewer calories per can – 8.5 fewer to be exact.
“This can is certainly a conversation starter: eye-catching, easy-to-grip, trendy and – according to our research – very appealing to young adults,” Budweiser innovation head Pat McGauley said. “It’s a beer can like no other.”
“This can is incomparable, like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” said Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation for Anheuser-Busch. “The world’s most iconic beer brand deserves the world’s most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here.”
The cans will come in 8-packs.
Of course, the bowtie can resembles the long-time Budweiser logo, and that was the goal.
“Though there is no written documentation on the origins of the Budweiser bowtie, it is a brand icon found the world over. According to company lore, the bowtie was introduced when too many people were using the “Bud” bar call too frequently, so the double triangles were added to emphasize the full Budweiser name,” says Budweiser.
Goodwin Proctor, the law firm, has hired David Van Horne as a member of the firm’s business law department, in its San Francisco office. Van Horne will be working with emerging growth companies and venture capital firms. Van Horne was most recently a partner at the law firm Gunderson Dettmer.
PRESS RELEASE:
Goodwin Procter, a national Am Law 50 firm, announced today that David W. Van Horne, Jr. has joined the firm’s Business Law Department in its San Francisco office as a member of Goodwin’s Technology Companies Group. He will focus on representing emerging growth companies throughout their life cycle as well as advising venture capital funds and structuring investments from seed through growth stage. Van Horne joins Goodwin from Gunderson Dettmer, where he was a partner in its Silicon Valley office.
Van Horne has extensive experience with corporate formation and governance matters, venture capital financing and M&A transactions. His clients include leading venture capital firms as well as public and private technology companies in the Internet, software and entertainment technology sectors, including Accel Partners, August Capital, Kleiner Perkins, DotNetNuke, ForeScout Technologies, Livefyre, RetailNext and Zozi.
“David’s arrival is the latest example of our ongoing commitment to expand our services to the firm’s technology company clients,” said Regina M. Pisa, Chairman of Goodwin Procter. “We are delighted that he chose Goodwin as the platform to expand his practice, as we continue to deepen the strength of our team in Northern California and the Bay area.”
“David’s keen sense of trends, particularly in the expanding San Francisco/Silicon Valley market, will provide existing and prospective clients with an invaluable resource as they seek to grow and evolve,” said Bradley Bugdanowitz, Chairman of the firm’s San Francisco office.
Van Horne earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School and his B.A. from Dartmouth College. He is admitted to practice in California.
With more than 180 attorneys, Goodwin’s Technology Companies Practice is one of the largest in the United States. From advising on startup financing and corporate partnering to public offerings and mergers, the firm represents 800 emerging companies and entrepreneurs, 200 venture capital and private equity firms, and many of the leading investment banks. In 2012, Goodwin was the leading legal advisor on exits (M&A and IPOs combined) of venture capital-backed companies, according to Pitchbook. Private Equity Analyst’s annual ranking of the most active private equity and venture capital law firms in the United States ranked Goodwin fourth overall in total volume for 2012, with 629 venture capital deals and 302 private equity deals.
The firm’s San Francisco office opened in 2006 and includes more than 25 lawyers who focus on real estate, private equity, leveraged finance, technology, life sciences, patent litigation and complex business litigation involving antitrust, products liability and mass torts, environment, securities, labor and employment, false advertising, construction, patent, trademark and media law.
About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is a leading Global 100 law firm, with offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. The firm provides corporate law and litigation services, with a focus on matters involving real estate, REITs and real estate capital markets; private equity; technology companies; financial institutions; intellectual property; products liability and mass torts; and securities litigation and white collar defense. Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com. Follow us on Twitter @GoodwinProcter.
Marissa Meyer is bringing big changes to Yahoo and one of them is apparently getting the old search site back into the public focus with new mobile apps. That process begins today in the world of both Apple and meteorology — fitting since tornado and thunderstorm season is getting underway and hurricanes are on the horizon.
