Monthly Archives: April 2010
How do we work and live at Microsoft ?
At Microsoft, we welcomed 60 nearly young graduates from different Belgian Universities.
The idea was to share full experience on how we work and live and how technology enables innovation and flexibility.
I had the opportunity to make a presentation with Luc Van de Velde (DPE Lead) on the current Consumer (R)evolution.
Take a look at this presentation by clicking here-below
Student WOW April 2010
Eva Van Laere (PRODUCTS & SOLUTIONS MKT MGR) and Jan Smessaert (BG LEAD INFORMATION WORKER) shared then our way of working at Microsoft.
Natal Project (Xbox 360) tested by VTM (News) !
The natal Project (Xbox 360) has been tested by VTM, during a NATAL Test in Paris.
A good accoasion to see how you can play with your BODY.
This has been broacasted for VTM News !
To review this, just click HERE
By when Smatphones will be more sold than Feature Phones ?
Interesting reading in Nielsen Wire.
- Only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008.
- The share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone.
- This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.
How to optimize your BLOG ?
Some take-away.
- Make Your Goal and Target Audience Crystal Clear.
- If your blog is to be your business, treat it like that.
- It’s okay to use a personal voice but keep it balance. Don’t be too cold like a robot.
- If you are attempting to do real business via your blog, look for ways to convert readers into customers.
- Make a point of engaging your community often in the comments section, on their blogsand social networks.
- Beauty Is More Than Skin Deep
- Consider the design elements of your blog. They do change the way people perceive your work.
- Get your own unique URL.
- Consider moving to a hosted blog. ($10 USD for WordPress)
- Consider using a professional theme. e.g : Thesis by Chris Pearson. + customised logo.
- Consider getting a customized WordPress theme.
- Review unnecessary widgets and decide which add value to your audience.
- Is your layout readable? Are your fonts clean and easy to read?
- Several blogging platforms now have SEO plug-ins/add-ons to help SEO Optimisation.
- Make Your Content Top Notch
- Remove unnecessary words.
- Make your main point at the top of the post.
- Vary up post lengths.
- Read outside the blogosphere in order to find new and unique sources of information s. competition.
- Get on a regular writing/posting schedule.
- A great title drives visits, but also informs us as to what we’re going to learn.
- Consider video, audio, and rich media.
- Review your blog posts monthly to see if you’re covering the same ground.
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Promoting Your Blog
- Use a social bookmarking plugin like AddThis or Share This on your blog posts.
- Make a very prominent option to subscribe by email available on your site. More than 50% of my readers do so via email.
- Add your blog URL to your email signature.
- Make sure your blog URL is on your twitter profile, your facebook and linked-in profile.
- If you’re going to promote your blog via places like Twitter, be sure to do it tastefully instead of just dumping links into the stream. Consider asking a question.
- Make sure you’re doing the basics, like listing your site on major Search sites.
- Commenting on other well-known blogs in your same space in a not-spammy way is a great way for people who might like your work to discover you. Don’t put blatant links or otherwise be rude. Just be thoughtful and helpful to the community at that site, and leave a useful comment.
- Don’t forget posting the occasional blog post in LinkedIn’s status message. It reaches some interesting people from time to time.
- When someone adds a blog post of mine to Delicious, I often get lots more traffic than from other promotional angles.
Take also a look at this tutorial on wordpress.
How to solve problem : a simple book for SMART people.
Great reading during my holiday :
Problem Solving 101 : a simple book for SMART people.
About the author : Ken Watanabe studied at Yale and Harvard Business School and was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company for six years. He is now the founder and CEO of his own education, entertainment, and media company, Delta Studio. He lives in Tokyo.
About the book : Problem Solving 101 started out as a simple guide to teach Japanese schoolchildren critical thinking skills. But it quickly became an adult bestseller, thanks to the powerful effectiveness of Ken Watanabe’s problem solving methods.
Who is this book for : Entrepreneurs, artists, parents, and virtually anyone who is interested to find out more about problem solving in a clear, no fuss manner. From finding a new university, to increasing sales of your product; everything can be solved if you learn how.
The tools in this book come from the author’s experience as an elite McKinsey consultant. But you don’t need an MBA or complicated computer software to use them. You’ll learn how to broaden and organize your thinking about a problem, so that more possible solutions become clear.
While the characters in the book are mostly children, don’t be fooled into thinking that this book is purely for kids. There’s charts, diagrams, and graphs to illustrate the process; which is broken down into manageable chunks. Ken does a wonderful job of explaining his concepts in a clear and concise manner – taking readers step by step through a scenario to arrive at the best probable choice. He demostrates this via several problem-solving toolboxes: Logic Tree, Yes/No Tree, Problem Solving Design Plan, Hypothesis Pyramid; and through Pros/Cons, Criteria and Evaluation.
Best of all, you’ll discover these tools through fun and accessible examples:
- The Mushroom Lovers are a rock band without an audience. They drive up attendance at their shows by figuring out the root cause of their problem and developing an effective solution.
- John the Octopus uses his problem solving skills to budget for a new computer and pursue his dream of becoming a famous CG animator.
- Kiwi is a soccer star who wants to take her game to the next level. She evaluates the pros and cons of two soccer schools to determine the best option for her needs.
Problem-solving oriented thinking can help us take control of our lives, deal with the challenges we encounter, and even change the world. Once you’ve mastered the skills in this book, you’ll wonder how you ever got by without them.
Full of useful diagrams and quirky drawings, Problem Solving 101 is simple enough for a middle schooler to understand but sophisticated enough for business leaders to apply to their most challenging problems.
You will find here-below a link to few toolboxes used in this book.
http://www.problemsolvingtoolbox.com/index.php?page=toolboxes
