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Why You Need to Tell Your Employees (and Maybe Yourself) About Prize-Linked Savings Accounts

Posted: 15 May 2019 03:00 PM PDT

Of course, odds are that your employees who are playing the lottery are just throwing their money down the drain. Right now, the odds of winning Powerball's Jackpot are 1 in 292 million. Even the odds of winning Powerball's lowest prize – a $4 payout – are 1 in 38.2, on a $2 ticket. So, on average, you'd need to spend $76.40 to win that $4 prize.

Taken as a whole, state lotteries offer a negative return of $0.52 for every dollar spent. If one of your employees spends $600 on state lottery tickets, they're likely to end up $288 in the hole.

Not a great investment strategy, but why should you care what your employees do with their money?

Well, because research shows that financially stable employees are better employees. Studies show that financial stress decreases productivity, is associated with poor health and causes missed work days. On the flipside, employers who care for their employees' financial health earn loyalty and can give themselves more flexibility in overall benefits packages.

Don't think your employees are experiencing financial stress? You might want to think again. A study last year found that 40% of Americans don't have enough savings to cover an unexpected $400 expense.

So, how can you help? By pointing your employees toward tools that make saving easy and that can turn the money they're wasting on lottery games into a healthy emergency fund.

A new type of savings account – called prize-linked savings accounts – is designed to do just that.

How it works

The idea behind a prize-linked savings account is that the more money you deposit into your savings account, the more chances you earn to win cash prizes.

Take the recently launched Big Prize Savings account from American First Credit Union in California. Under their program, every $25 in your average balance (once you've reached the $500 minimum for eligibility) earns you a shot at monthly giveaways of $1,000, quarterly giveaways of $10,000 and an annual drawing of $50,000.

The best part is that even if none of your employees are a lucky winner, they'll still win by building their savings account balance, helping to reduce financial stress and improve overall employee satisfaction.

Let's imagine that one of your employees is a lottery player who spends the average $600 per year on tickets. That's just under $12 per week. Now, imagine if they took that $12 every week, and put it into a prize-linked savings account. After five years, they'd have over $3,100 in their savings account – instead of having donated it to your state lottery fund.

With the American First account we mentioned above, that employee would have also earned over 3,400 chances to win prizes of between $1,000 and $50,000. They even have a calculator that lets you do the math for how much you think you could save, and how many chances you'd earn at winning.

The history of prize-linked savings accounts

When it comes to prize-linked savings accounts, America is a bit late to the party. A study from the Harvard Business School mentioned that 20 countries beat ours to the punch.

Sometimes, by quite a while.

The first proto-prize-linked savings account was called the "Million Adventure," and launched in 1694 to finance England's fight in the Nine Years' War against France. For a £10 investment, you'd get a 10-year return of 6.15%, along with chances to win prizes of between £10 and £1,000 per year for the next 16 years.

Instead of financing wars against Louis XIV, more recent prize-linked savings accounts have been targeted at promoting healthy savings habits. As early as 1918, prize-linked savings accounts in countries like Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, New Zealand and Germany (among others) have been shown to promote savings in the citizens who need it the most.

What took the United States so long? The threat of legal trouble. In most states, it's illegal for anyone but the state itself to run anything that might be deemed "a lottery."  

But, supported by research from leading institutions, state by state, laws are starting to change. Now, more than 30 states specifically allow credit unions and banks to offer customers this valuable tool.

Are Your Employees Eligible?

If your employees live in one of the 30+ states that now allow prize-linked savings accounts, there might be a financial institution near you where they can start saving.

The good news for residents of other states? You have options.

While most prize-linked savings accounts are targeted at local customers, a few institutions have gone the extra mile to make sure that their accounts are open to potential savers around the country. American First's Big Prize Savings is one such example.

What else can you do to reduce financial stress in your workforce?

Beyond bumping up paychecks, there are plenty of ways that you can help to make your workforce more financially stable.

There's no one-size-fits-all. Larger employers may benefit from a fully integrated financial wellness program that includes access to financial advisers, education and planning tools. For smaller employers, a more DIY solution might be appropriate, with recommendations for valuable products and local service providers.

No matter what route you take, nvesting in the financial well-being of your workforce is an investment that will no doubt pay off in the long term.

5 Reasons Remote Teams Are More Engaged Than Office Workers

Posted: 15 May 2019 02:00 PM PDT

But what about for businesses? In an effort to retain talent, attract candidates and stand out in today's tight labor market, more organizations than ever are allowing members of their teams to work from home some or all of the time. In fact, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests the pattern will continue, with 73% of all teams having remote workers by 2028.

What's less clear is the impact of these arrangements on organizations' bottom lines. Do remote environments impact worker productivity? Is it possible to nurture both flexibility and increased engagement within your organization?

The short answer: yes. Remote workers regularly meet and exceed objectives, identify new processes, and contribute to company culture just as much as anyone in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting. In fact, they tend to accomplish more. According to a two-year study by Stanford University, remote workers are, on average…

  • 13.5% more productive than their office-based counterparts,

  • 9% more engaged in their jobs, and

  • 50% less likely to quit    

This may seem counterintuitive, but the stereotypical image of a virtual worker – someone sitting around in their pajamas, prone to distractions, and in desperate need of a shower – has little basis in reality. Instead, imagine a diverse community of empowered, autonomous, and entrepreneurially-minded professionals.

Consider a few reasons why remote, at-home working arrangements increase team engagement – and, by extension, organizational productivity:

1. A remote workforce is a more inclusive, higher-quality workforce

Common human resources wisdom states that engagement starts with recruitment. To maximize job satisfaction (and therefore, job performance) you need to hire the most qualified, relevant candidates. Unfortunately, businesses are frequently limited by their local talent pools.

Call center positions, for example, are typically entry-level jobs with high rates of turnover. It's not that employers don't care, but that few highly educated, experienced individuals are willing to take on low-wage, full-time work in traditional, regimented call center environments. Other would-be candidates have family commitments, geographical restrictions, or disabilities that preclude their ability to sit in an office answering phones for hours straight.

By shifting to a remote workforce, companies of all kinds can expand their talent searches to include parents, people who work multiple jobs, or out-of-state workers – whoever the best fit for the job may be.

2. Remote workers are happier – and more productive

Beyond better hiring and recruitment, consider the benefits flexibility offers to your existing workforce. Remote workers have more room to balance their jobs and personal lives. They can relocate, travel, care for their families, pursue hobbies and engage in other non-work-related activities without sacrificing their careers.

It should come as no surprise then that people who work from home at least once a month are 24% more likely to feel happy, according to a 2018 Owl Labs report. But virtual teams aren't necessarily looking to avoid work—quite the opposite. Notably, while respondents named "no commute" and "family/work-life balance" as major perks for working remotely, the number one reason was "increased productivity/better focus." In other words, workers care as much about their engagement as you do—which is why many of them prefer to work remotely.

3. Flexibility fosters self-determination

Given the nature of their jobs, virtual teams are not entirely confined to conventional working schedules. Someone in a creative field may be compensated based on the projects they complete rather than by the hours they put into those projects, while service-oriented professionals can work on an as-needed basis.

These kinds of arrangements not only help companies lower their overhead costs, but incentivize workers to take their careers into their own hands. This is evidenced in the so-called "gig economy," where Uber drivers, Airbnb hosts, and other professional, on-demand workers are in charge of their own revenue streams. That means they have as much to gain from a steady, dependable working relationship as the organization does.

4. Technology gives remote teams numerous opportunities to connect, collaborate, and contribute

One common concern among companies that haven't embraced remote, on-demand work is team cohesion. How do you ensure the members of your workforce don't become isolated? The truth is that companies should be more concerned about teamwork in their brick-and-mortar environments.

Thanks to a proliferation in communication technology, virtual teams tend to connect more frequently and on a deeper level than they would in person. In addition to everyday tools such as Slack, Skype, Dropbox and Google Drive – which make virtual collaboration easy for any team – remote workers benefit from self-paced and self-directed learning and gamification embedded in their workflows.

Collaboration is built into many remote working arrangements and talent networks. The most effective networks optimize virtual communication and productivity in tandem, bringing together skilled workers across states (and even countries), and allowing members to share tips and stories and forge connections with one another. These relationships simply wouldn't happen outside of a virtual environment.

5. Better working environments, fewer interruptions

By now, you've probably noticed a recurring theme: it's distractions, not distance, that hinders worker engagement. Think of all the distractions present in a typical, centralized working environment: office politics, gossip, idle conversation, unnecessary meetings, "check-ins" from micromanaging supervisors, multiple breaks for food and coffee, and so on.

These distractions can disrupt a worker's sense of focus, personal space, and well-being, impacting their productivity and morale in ways big and small. At best, someone loses a few minutes of their time; at worst, we're talking about potential harassment, bullying, and other forms of unsafe and illegal workplace behavior.

Once again, autonomy increases engagement. Remote workers have greater freedom – the freedom to avoid a troublesome coworker, to leave an unproductive conversation, to choose when and how to engage. They're in control of their own environments, and report feeling less stressed as a result.

It's important to mention that remote work isn't for everyone. Not every worker possesses the drive and discipline to transition out of an office job. More often than not, however, that's because the individual wasn't the right fit in the first place – it's hard to make yourself care about something you'd rather not do even with a supervisor standing over you.

Fortunately, plenty of people who do care are out there, just waiting to work for your business.

Entrepreneurship Defined: What It Means to Be an Entrepreneur

Posted: 15 May 2019 11:36 AM PDT

The road to entrepreneurship is often a treacherous one filled with unexpected detours, roadblocks and dead ends. There are lots of sleepless nights, plans that don't work out, funding that doesn't come through and customers that never materialize. It can be so challenging to launch a business that it may make you wonder why anyone willingly sets out on such a path.

Yet despite all these hardships, every year, thousands of entrepreneurs embark on this journey determined to bring their vision to fruition and fill a need they see in society. They open brick-and-mortar businesses, launch tech startups, or bring a new product or service into the marketplace.

So what motivates entrepreneurs to venture forth when so many others would run in the other direction? Though each person's motivation is nuanced and unique, most entrepreneurs are spurred on by one or more of the following motivators:

Autonomy – Entrepreneurs want to be their own bosses, set their own goals, control their own progress and run their businesses how they see fit. They recognize that their business's success or failure rests with them, yet they don't view this responsibility as a burden but, instead, as a marker of their freedom.

Purpose – Many entrepreneurs have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish and feel compelled to work tirelessly to make that happen. They genuinely believe they have a product or service that fills a void and are compelled by a single-minded commitment to that goal to keep pushing ahead. They abhor stagnation and would rather fail while moving forward than languish in inactivity.

Flexibility – Not everyone fits into the rigidity of a traditional corporate culture. Entrepreneurs are often looking to free themselves from these constraints, find a better work life/balance or work at times and in ways that may be viewed as unconventional. This doesn't mean they are working fewer hours – oftentimes, especially in the early stages of growing a business, they are working longer and harder – but, rather, that they're working in a way that is natural and instinctual to them.

Financial success – Most entrepreneurs realize they aren't going to be overnight billionaires, but that doesn't mean that they aren't at least a little bit seduced by the potential of making a ton of money. Some may want to establish a financial safety net for themselves and their families, while others are looking to make a huge profit by creating the next big thing.

Legacy – Entrepreneurs are often guided by a desire to create something that outlasts them. A segment of this group is led by ego and a craving for notoriety. Others want to create a brand that has longevity and becomes an institution. Another group wants to pass on a source of income and security to their heirs. And, there are those entrepreneurs who hope to make a lasting impression on the world and leave behind an innovation that improves people's lives in some tangible way.

If you're contemplating an entrepreneurial venture, you should first identify which of the above motivators serve as a guiding force. Then consider if you have the specific character traits and attributes that will enable you to thrive as an entrepreneur.

To help you determine if you've got what it takes, here's what 25 company founders and business leaders told Business News Daily about what they think makes a truly successful entrepreneur. 

  1. "Entrepreneurship is at the core of the American dream. It's about blazing new trails, about believing in yourself, your mission, and inspiring others to join you in the journey. What sets [entrepreneurs] apart is the will, courage and sometimes recklessness to actually do it." – Derek Hutson, president and CEO of Datical
  1. "Entrepreneurship is a pursuit of a solution, a single relentless focus on solving a problem or doing something drastically different from the way it is done today. [It's] aiming to do something better than it's ever been done before and constantly chasing improvement." – Blake Hutchinson, CEO and small business expert at Flippa
  1. "Entrepreneurship is … the constant hunger for making things better and the idea that you are never satisfied with how things are." – Debbie Roxarzade, founder and CEO of Rachel's Kitchen
  1. "At its core, [entrepreneurship] is a mindset – a way of thinking and acting. It is about imagining new ways to solve problems and create value. Fundamentally, entrepreneurship is about ... the ability to recognize [and] methodically analyze [an] opportunity, and, ultimately, to capture [its] value." – Bruce Bachenheimer, clinical professor of management and executive director of the Entrepreneurship Lab at Pace University 
  1. "The most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who possess grit. Grit is made up of persistence, passion and resilience. It's the passion to achieve long-term goals, the courage to try again in the face of rejection, and the will to do something better than it has been done before. The most successful entrepreneurs tend to be gritty ones … they do not give up until they exceed their goals. When the going gets tough and they get knocked down, gritty entrepreneurs bounce right back up and try again." – Deborah Sweeney, CEO of MyCorporation.com
  1. "The ability to listen, whether it be to the opinions of customers or employees, is also integral to success. While ... you must have the confidence to make your own choices, it is still incredibly important not to become detached from the people whose needs you are trying to meet." – Tirath Kamdar, founder and CEO of TrueFacet
  1. "Being an entrepreneur is like heading into uncharted territory. It's rarely obvious what to do next, and you have to rely on yourself a lot when you run into problems. There are many days when you feel like things will never work out and you're operating at a loss for endless months. You have to be able to stomach the roller coaster of emotions that comes with striking out on your own." – Amanda Austin, founder and president of Little Shop of Miniatures
  1. "To be a successful entrepreneur, you must have a passion for learning – from customers, employees and even competitors." – James Bedal, president and CEO of Bare Metal Standard
  1. "Entrepreneurship is, fundamentally, the art and science of building profitable systems to help people in ways that other systems do not. The core competency of the entrepreneur is not business acumen or marketing ability but rather empathy – the ability to understand the feelings and needs of others." – Logan Allec, CPA and owner of Money Done Right

  2. "Being a successful entrepreneur also means being a good leader. Leadership is the ability to bring people to a place where they want to follow you, not feel like they are forced to follow you. This takes investing in your team personally. They must know you're not only going to hold them accountable and drive them to be better, but [you will] also look out for them when they are struggling. It's not transactional, it's a relationship." – Steve Schwab, founder and CEO of Casago
  1. "Entrepreneurship is the ability to recognize the bigger picture, find where there's an opportunity to make someone's life better, design hypotheses around these opportunities and continually test your assumptions. It's experimentation: Some experiments will work; many others will fail. It is not big exits, huge net worth or living a life of glamour. It's hard work and persistence to leave the world a better place once your time here is done." – Konrad Billetz, co-founder and co-CEO of Offset Solar
  1. "A key skill an entrepreneur must possess is self-awareness. An entrepreneur must know who they are and what they need. Self-awareness is the first step for an entrepreneur to build their team." – Krystal Nelson, founder of impakt
  1. Entrepreneurs "have to be people-oriented. Your business will die without a good team to back you up. Study management techniques, learn from great leaders, review where you're succeeding and failing so you can help others improve. An entrepreneur has to be able to build a team who cares about its work, and to do that, you have to care about how you create your team." – Jonathan Barnett, president and CEO of Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning
  1. "To be a successful entrepreneur, you need perseverance. Most successful business people or entrepreneurs have never given up on their idea. When challenges arise, they have found innovative ways of overcoming them. You must be able to adapt to changing economic conditions, and innovate and embrace technological advances to keep your customers engaged. These things take determination and a strong focus on the end goal." – Stacey Kehoe, founder and director of communications of Brandlective Communications
  1. "Entrepreneurship is the mindset that allows you to see opportunity everywhere. It could be a business idea, but it could also be seeing the possibilities in the people who can help you grow that business. This ability to see many options in every situation is critically important; there will be unending challenges that will test your hustle." – Preeti Sriratana, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Sweeten
  1. "Entrepreneurs and business owners definitely need to get used to taking risks … You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Trying to grow a company or execute on an idea is difficult. It's not always going to be roses and unicorns. At some point, you're going to run into issues, lose customers and have financial constraints. It's at this point you need to get back on the horse and take another risk whether it's in the form of a new product, new marketing campaign or a new customer recruitment strategy." – Mathew Ross, co-founder and COO of Slumber Yard
  1. "Successful entrepreneurs look past [the] 'quick buck' and instead look at the bigger picture to ensure that each action made is going toward the overall goal of the business or concept, whether or not that means getting something in return at that moment." – Allen Dikker, founder and CEO of Potatopia
  1. "Being an entrepreneur is ingrained in one's identity. [It] is the culmination of a certain set of characteristics: determination, creativity, the capacity to risk, leadership and enthusiasm." – Eric Lupton, president of Life Saver Pool Fence Systems
  1. "Entrepreneurship is an unavoidable life calling pursued by those who are fortunate enough to take chances. [They are] optimistic enough to believe in themselves, aware enough to see problems around them, stubborn enough to keep going, and bold enough to act again and again. Entrepreneurship is not something you do because you have an idea. It's about having the creativity to question, the strength to believe and the courage to move." – Jordan Fliegel, managing director of Techstars
  1. "You may need to also be a bit of a contrarian. Sometimes it takes a person who thinks differently than the herd to start something new and defy the odds." – Akshay (Asher) Khanna, founder of CareClinic
  1. "Entrepreneurship is seeing an opportunity and gathering the resources to turn a possibility into a reality. It represents the freedom to envision something new and to make it happen. It includes risk, but it also includes the reward of creating a legacy." – Maia Haag, co-founder and president of I See Me! Personalized Books and Gifts
  1. "An entrepreneur must be able to accept failure. Everyone thinks they can accept failure until they come face-to-face with failing at a major thing they have put their everything into. To be a successful entrepreneur, you have to be someone who is able to risk failure at the deepest personal levels." – Steven Benson, founder and CEO of Badger Maps
  1. Entrepreneurs "must be able to pivot. If something isn't working, keeping at it won't make you successful. But changing your approach, changing your business model, changing your plans to make it work is the power of the pivot. You're adaptable regardless of what's thrown at you." – Michael Maher, chief idea officer of Matters of the Cart
  1. "Entrepreneurship is about always moving forward. Never stopping, never allowing self-doubt or fear to take over, and believing wholeheartedly that even a wrong decision is better than no decision." – Adam Sherwin, founder of Viakix
  1. "Entrepreneurs are the dreamers and the visionaries. Without them, the world stagnates and progress stops. Society needs entrepreneurs the same way the body needs air." – Cynthia Kirkeby, founder and CVO of Seasonally Fresh

Quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

Rethink Corporate Social Responsibility and Turn Social Good Into a Business KPI

Posted: 15 May 2019 10:00 AM PDT

They have generally shown earnest efforts to reduce their carbon footprints, improve equality in the workplace, and extend the sustainability of their resources.

That's no longer enough though. In a world of ever-widening social, economic, and environmental gaps, corporations must step up and take on much bigger roles to make a more meaningful impact on society. Whether it's tackling poverty, hunger, discrimination, education, healthcare, climate change, or sustainability, corporations can and should do exponentially more to improve these global conditions while still maintaining their competitiveness. Our future depends on it.

A perfect storm for more dramatic change is brewing. In a recent Edelman Trust Barometer survey, 73% of respondents stated that they expected a company they worked for to "take specific actions that both increase profits and improve the economic and social conditions in the communities where it operates." 

From research and personal experience, I know that employees, customers, and partners all want to work for and with organizations that share altruistic values to do more social good. And millennials, in particular, an increasingly larger percentage of the workforce, want to work for organizations that make a positive difference in their communities.

Unfortunately, while employees, activist investors and increasingly customers are driving large corporations in this direction, it is still hard to find Fortune 1000 companies (Dannon is a notable exception) among the 2,500 B-Corporations that balance purpose and profit. Moreover, we still see very few CEOs even mention social issues in their regular communications, and even fewer are integrating societal goals into their primary corporate strategies.

It's clear the time for a dramatic change is now. But how? I think the answer is to begin incorporating quantitative business metrics into CSR programs, whether it's key performance indicators (KPIs), executive incentives, or positive outcomes from technology and innovation programs. In order to make lasting, genuine change, companies need to start looking beyond the typical CSR initiatives themselves and instead link them with their top- and bottom-line business goals and metrics, and then work more collaboratively for the common good.

Below are three paths organizations can take to accelerate both business growth and social good at the same time.

No. Path: Link CSR goals to core business KPIs.

I recently read a book by Kate Raworth called Doughnut Economics, where she argues that societal goals, in addition to growth and profit objectives, need to find their way into corporate KPIs. This isn't a new concept. Pundits have been talking about this for years (McKinsey did a survey back in 2014 highlighting the noticeable shift from doing sustainability for the sake of cutting costs or managing corporate reputation, to aligning sustainability with overall goals, mission and values).

But now is the time to stop talking about it and make it a reality. Tying a corporation's socially responsible objectives to its core business KPIs must be the first priority. By closely linking the two, I am convinced corporations will have greater incentives to invest more efforts and resources to overcoming societal challenges, plus they will discover new avenues for improvement. For example, one CSR KPI that companies look at is the number of total miles reduced in their supply chains – an indicator of environmental impact. That's a great metric, but now they should take the next step and link how that is also a business benefit, such as reducing the cost of energy, transportation and labor. And by constantly monitoring and improving such a metric, companies can demonstrate how social good helps business performance over the long run.

Other typical CSR goals are to reduce the amount of waste or energy throughout operations. Great progress has been made in these and other areas, but few take the extra measure of looking at how extensively this can improve the performance or profitability of their overall business. Again, by linking the CSR goals with business KPIs, through scorecards, dashboards, spreadsheets, and other means, companies will be more incentivized to find broader solutions both inside and outside their operations to reduce waste and energy. By relentlessly making improvements, whether it's recycling, diversity, greenhouse gas emissions or health and safety, companies of all sizes and types can exert more impact on both their business and society at large.

Linking CSR outcomes to business KPIs also helps to ensure accountability and follow through on those efforts. For example, shareholders of the energy giant, Royal Dutch Shell, have criticized the company for setting long-term ambitions to halve their emissions of carbon dioxide by 2050, but failing to link those goals with binding targets. Now, Royal Dutch Shell plans to link executive pay with three- to five-year carbon-emissions targets.

Guidance issued by the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (2012) stated that including environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in executive incentive schemes can help protect long-term shareholder value. Like the Royal Dutch Shell example, I have seen a rising tide of companies starting to put their social goals into action through the KPI framework. Other companies such as Walmart, Unilever and Dow Chemical, are also integrating sustainability metrics into executive pay incentive plans.

As pressure mounts to create authentic efforts, companies need to establish a strong relationship between sustainability, company reputation and factors such as executive bonuses and business KPIs.

No. 2 Path: Leverage technology innovation and the co-economy

Last year, I attended Our People-Centered Digital Future, which headlined internet luminaries such as Vint Cerf, Tim Berners-Lee, Ray Wang and others, who exhorted the technology industry and innovators to embrace a purposeful focus on solving epic social challenges.

Technology, innovation, and the emerging co-economy are powerful forces for change. New advances in interconnected technologies, especially the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence, blockchain, fog computing and 5G, have unprecedented potential to transform quality of life everywhere. Half the world is now connected to the internet, and the other half should be connected by 2030. With these five transformational technologies, combined with a fully connected populous, we are gaining the capabilities to make even greater progress in education, healthcare, food production, water quality, environmental conservation, and so much more.

Making innovation a core – rather than a fringe or edge project – strategy is also key. At my company, Cisco, I have led the formation of 14 co-innovation centers worldwide, where we co-develop digital solutions along with diverse ecosystems of customers, partners, governments, startups, academia and incubators. Many of our incubations are focused on social good. For example, we worked with a diverse consortium of more than 20 public and private organizations on the CityVerve project in Manchester, England. This IoT-driven platform has created a safer and cleaner city while also serving as a scalable blueprint for other tech hubs worldwide. The solution serves as a blueprint for other tech hubs worldwide. Far across the planet at one of our Co-Innovation Centers in Australia, the Farm Tough Decision Platform was made possible through a tight collaboration among multiple global, regional, and local entities combining their specialized expertise. Led by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, BRALCA and Cisco, the solution utilizes the low-power wireless network to improve crop management data and operations, helping address the global problem of shrinking arable land for food supply.

Because of the multifaceted impact, complexity of technologies and speed of change in the digital economy, no single company can create such solutions by itself anymore. Today, digital solutions require a tightly knit ecosystem of horizontal technology, vertical market and regional domain specialists collaborating with a single-minded purpose. This is what I call the emerging co-economy, a new paradigm for industry to leverage decentralized networks locally and globally both inside and outside the four walls of their enterprises in truly collaborative co-innovation projects.

A great example of the co-economy in action is a partnership among Oxford University, UNICEF, national and local government agencies and technology companies called, Oxwater, which delivers IoT-enabled smart handpumps across rural communities in Africa and Asia. These handpumps use sensors and cellular transmitters to remotely monitor groundwater levels, ensuring that people in the most remote areas have enough clean, safe water to drink. This local solution also can be scaled globally given enough collective willpower and resources.

We can build a better future together rather than alone.

No. 3 Path: Move beyond profit goals

Almost 50 years ago, Milton Friedman's book Capitalism and Freedom posited that if a company maximized profits and gave maximum returns to investors, the investors would, in turn, do the right thing. But the reality has turned out to be quite different. We need to rethink the order of making money first and doing the right thing later.

Positive quarterly earnings can no longer be the only long-term goal for industry leaders – bettering society at large with new solutions, products, and services are increasingly becoming an expectation for customers, employees, partners, and investors. It's clear we must start making social good a priority, not just an afterthought.

In our new co-economy environment, this will take a coalition of the willing across both government and industry. Government actions are needed to provide policies and incentives for industry to invest more in research and development to co-create new innovations to make life better for everyone on our planet. After all, if our daunting climate change, environmental and societal problems aren't solved soon, eventually there will be no markets, customers or profits at all. 

Bettering our future

While many companies are doing great things every day, there is still plenty of room for them to reflect on their role on this planet and how their outputs can improve society's overall quality of life.

I'm optimistic that more companies will resolve to focus on solving some of our world's age-old problems. But if we don't start tying actual metrics and KPIs to that end, then I fear that typical CSR efforts may go on in vain. I would challenge everyone across all organizational disciplines to reshape the metric stick and work more collaboratively toward societal goals that matter most at the end of the day: our planet and our people.

Whatever the future holds, it's clear to me that we need to take action now.

Salesforce Certification Guide: Overview and Career Paths

Posted: 15 May 2019 09:08 AM PDT

Salesforce.com holds the gold medal when it comes to customer relationship management (CRM) products for small business, though companies of all sizes utilize Salesforce for CRM. You'll find Salesforce products and services in use across a wide swath of industries, from automotive and healthcare, to nonprofits, retail, media/communications, and finance.

Initially offered as sales automation software, Salesforce is now best known for its Intelligent Customer Success Platform, which provides cloud solutions for sales, communities, service, analytics, marketing, platform, apps, the internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence. [Read related: The Best CRM Software 2019]

Salesforce also offers several other cloud-based products. One is Heroku, a platform as a service (PaaS) solution. Another is Force.com, a more specialized PaaS built specifically to integrate custom apps with Salesforce cloud offerings. Salesforce also offers Data.com (a cloud-based business directory), Desk.com (a cloud-based help desk system for small businesses) and Pardot (for business to business marketing automation), among other solutions.

These days, with the implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) back in May 2018, businesses may find Salesforce's Pardot offerings – which include auditing and configuration tools to foster compliance with GDPR – particularly compelling.

Salesforce certification program overview
Unlike other programs, you won't find certification tiers or hierarchies, such as associate, professional or expert, within the Salesforce certification portfolio. Instead, Salesforce certifications focus on various job roles, or tracks, common among Salesforce professionals:

  • Administrators
  • App Builders
  • Developers
  • Architects
  • Specialists (implementation experts)
  • Marketers
  • Pardot Experts
  • Consultants

Salesforce presently offers 23 credentials, most of which target Consultants and Architects. 

Salesforce certification exams
Most Salesforce certifications are achieved by passing a 60-question, multiple-choice exam. Depending on the certification, you can expect the exam to last between 90 and 120 minutes. Exams for administrators, app builders, developers, marketers, consultants, Pardot experts, and CPQ specialists are highly affordable, with first attempts priced at $200 and retakes at $100. Many architect certifications fall into the architect specialization category, and those exams cost $400 each (retakes cost $200). However, the pinnacle architect certification – the Salesforce Certified Technical Architect – requires a special Review Board Exam, and costs $6,000 (retakes $3,000).

Training is not required for Salesforce certifications but comes highly recommended. You'll also find there are few, if any, prerequisites involved for most Salesforce certifications. When present, prerequisites are simply other Salesforce certifications.

Candidates can take proctored exams at a testing location or take online exams from home or work. Either way, candidates must sign up for certification exams through Webassessor (through Kryterion Global Testing Solutions).

Salesforce Architect certifications
Salesforce revamped its approach to Architect certifications beginning in 2016 to more closely align them with current and emerging customer needs. Upon visiting the Salesforce Architect Certifications page, you'll find three architect certifications with six specialization certifications (up from a total of four certifications in early 2016):

Architect certifications:

  • Salesforce Certified Technical Architect
  • Salesforce Certified Application Architect
  • Salesforce Certified System Architect

Specializations:

  • Salesforce Certified Data Architecture and Management Designer
  • Salesforce Certified Development Lifecycle and Deployment Designer
  • Salesforce Certified Identity and Access Management Designer
  • Salesforce Certified Integration Architecture Designer
  • Salesforce Certified Mobile Solutions Architecture Designer
  • Salesforce Certified Sharing and Visibility Designer

Architect certifications form a pyramid, with Salesforce Architect Specialization certifications creating the foundation. These are the designer credentials, as well as a few other closely aligned Salesforce certifications.

Salesforce considers the designer credentials to be the building blocks for a career as a Salesforce Architect and are designed to validate specific areas of expertise. Salesforce Domain Architect certifications  ̶  the Certified Application Architect and the Certified System Architect  ̶ recognize the breadth of platform knowledge in multiple connected specializations. Domain Architect certifications are achieved when a candidate meets specific requirements  ̶  namely, a set of four specific specialization credentials.

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At the top of the pyramid is the Salesforce Certified Technical Architect, the crème de la crème of the Salesforce architect portfolio. This pinnacle credential recognizes professionals who implement and design custom customer solutions on the Force.com platform.

To obtain this designation, you must first earn both Domain Architect credentials. At that point, you're qualified to take the Salesforce Certified Technical Architect Certification Review Board Exam. During the exam, you will be provided with a hypothetical scenario, with detailed customer requirements, and be asked to present and justify your recommended architecture solution. Candidates must complete each task in order and may not move on to the next item until the prior task has been successfully completed.

Salesforce Consultant certifications
Salesforce offers six certifications designed specifically for Salesforce professionals engaged in customer-facing roles and who design and implement solutions in their respective area of expertise. Available Salesforce Consultant certifications include:

  • Salesforce Certified Sales Cloud Consultant: A person with this certification designs and implements Sales Cloud solutions, including application and interface design, as well as manages and designs analytics for tracking purposes.
  • Salesforce Certified Service Cloud Consultant: This certification recognizes individuals who design solutions for contact centers, as well as analytic solutions for metric tracking.
  • Salesforce Certified Pardot Consultant: This certification aims at professionals who review business requirements, and then design, implement and maintain Pardot solutions.
  • Salesforce Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant: This certification validates a person's ability to configure and implement Salesforce Marketing Cloud Email application tools, as well as troubleshoot platform issues.
  • Salesforce Certified Community Cloud Consultant: A person with this credential implements Salesforce Communities applications, as well as helps customers configure and manage communities and troubleshoot platform issues.
  • Salesforce Certified Field Service Lightning Consultant: This certification recognizes professionals who design Salesforce solutions for customers and who administer and configure Salesforce applications on customer premises.
  • Salesforce Certified Einstein Analytics and Discovery Consultant: This certification recognizes a consultant's design and implementation expertise on the Salesforce Einstein Analytics and Discovery platform.
  • Salesforce Certified NonProfit Cloud Consultant: Certified NonProfit Cloud Consultant: Those who earn this cert have demonstrated skills and knowledge in designing and implementing Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud solutions.

Salesforce Administration, Developer, Pardot, Marketers and CPQ certifications
Salesforce offers several certifications aimed at administrators and developers, as well as those who work with Pardot and CPQ:

  • Salesforce Administrator certifications: This category includes the Salesforce Certified Administrator and the Salesforce Certified Advanced Administrator. The Certified Administrator certification targets experienced Salesforce professionals responsible for building reports, managing dashboards, workflows, security, data and users, and maintenance of Salesforce applications. The Advanced Administrator certification is designed for Salesforce administrators with extensive experience and advanced knowledge of Salesforce applications and how to leverage features for optimal productivity. The Advanced Administrator takes the lower level Administrator credential as a prerequisite.
  • Salesforce App Builder certification: Salesforce offers a single certification for professionals who build apps – the Salesforce Certified Platform App Builder. This certification is specifically designed for professionals who work with the Force.com platform and build, design, deploy and customize Force.com apps.
  • Salesforce Developers certifications: Three certifications are available: Salesforce Certified Platform Developer I and II and Salesforce Certified Commerce Cloud Digital Developer. The Developer I and II credentials target Salesforce professionals working with the Force.com platform. Validated skills include building and programming Force.com platform apps; leveraging Visualforce and Apex to develop custom apps; and the ability to design custom app data models, logic, interfaces, and security. Developer II credential holders are also able to develop solutions for complex interfaces and implement best practices. A Commerce Cloud Digital Developer has full stack experience developing e-commerce solutions.
  • Salesforce Pardot Expert certifications: Pardot credentials include the Certified Pardot Specialist and the Certified Pardot Consultant (described previously in the Consulting certification section). The Pardot Specialist certification is geared toward professionals who manage marketing workflows (build, design, implement) on the Pardot platform.
  • Salesforce Certified Marketing certifications: Salesforces offers three Marketing credentials: the Certified Marketing Cloud Consultant (described more fully in the Consultant section), the Certified Marketing Cloud Social Specialist, and the Certified Cloud Email Specialist. The Certified Marketing Cloud Social Specialist targets professionals using Social Studio to create posts as well as analyze conversations and prepare related reports. The Certified Marketing Cloud Email Specialist targets professionals who use the Marketing Cloud Email application to create campaigns, design emails, use email automation and track email data.
  • Salesforce Certified CPQ Specialist certification: This certification recognizes professionals who implement Salesforce CPQ solutions, as well as design and build quoting flows to meet customer requirements and troubleshoot platform issues.

Job opportunities and training resources for Salesforce
As the number one CRM company in the world, Salesforce professionals are in high demand. CRM professionals will not only find demand for Salesforce skills across all industry sectors but will also find a requirement for qualified and skilled Salesforce professionals in a variety of job roles.

How many Salesforce jobs are out there in the real world? A quick search on Glassdoor.com reveals more than 7,900 jobs for Salesforce professionals, including positions for administrators, engineers (hardware, software, platform, IoT, integration), developers, analytics, cloud professionals, technical support and more.

Job opportunities aren't limited to technical roles, either. Numerous Salesforce positions are available for project managers and program directors. It's safe to say that Salesforce is here to stay, and, regardless of your area of interest, you're sure to find opportunities in that niche.

If you're looking for Salesforce training, Trailhead (which has replaced Salesforce University) should be your first port of call. Here, you'll find a variety of learning options, including traditional classroom training, self-paced learning, virtual classrooms and private workshops.

Salesforce training courses are organized into two categories:

  • Classes by Cloud: sales, service, marketing, analytics, community and Salesforce1 platform
  • Classes by Role: administrators, end users, developers, marketers, developers, technical architects, service and sales management, and solution designers

Each certification's web page provides links to recommended training, an exam guide and sample questions. The exam guide also includes links to pertinent, documentation, tip sheets and user guides for those who want to attempt the certifications on their own without engaging in formal training. In addition, you can find study guides and online training courses through third parties by searching the internet.

Those interested in Salesforce Architect certifications should explore the Salesforce Architect Journey page and read the associated (and free) exam guide before attempting a Specialization certification.

How to Build a Successful Brand Strategy

Posted: 15 May 2019 09:00 AM PDT

Creating a brand is so much more than that and takes a lot of research to get right. The most important thing is that it appeals to your target market and solves their pain points.

The more detailed of a brand strategy you can create, the likelier the chances are of your business achieving its goals, building its email list, and growing as a whole. Your brand strategy should always aim to appeal to your target audience and cater to their needs.

Here's how you can start to build a successful brand strategy for your business.

Define your brand

It can be difficult to officially define your brand as this is a broad idea and can be expressed in so many ways. It helps to dive into the deeper layers of your business to determine more about your audience, your competition, the market and much more.

When developing your brand strategy and fine-tuning the details, consider these questions:

  • What niche and industry is my brand part of?
  • What's my brand's backstory?
  • Who is my target audience? What does my ideal customer look like?
  • Who is my competition?
  • What problems can I solve for my audience? What solutions can I bring?
  • How does my brand make my audience feel?
  • What is it about my brand that my audience likes? Why would they keep coming back?

It'll be so much easier to develop a practical brand strategy when you have the answers to these questions which map out the details and help you stay focused on what you want your brand to embody.

Research your target audience

Imagine trying to create a brand image knowing nothing about your audience and what interests them. It would be next to impossible to have a successful business because your target audience is what keeps it running. It's a must to create buyer personas of your ideal customers and determine different things about them.

You need to start by asking yourself these questions when creating your customer personas:

  • What are their demographics, such as age, sex, location, education, income level, and profession?
  • What is their highest level of education?
  • What are their occupation and income level?
  • What industry are they currently in?
  • What are their buying behaviors?
  • What frustrations do they experience in your niche or industry?
  • What are they currently struggling with?

The more you know about your target market, the better you can serve them with products and services that cater to their needs. When you do this, you build a community of loyal, paying customers who keep coming back, improving your ROI and increasing user engagement.

Develop a signature look

Your brand image is how your audience will recognize you and associate your products and services with your brand. This consists of different components that make up the aesthetics of your brand, such as color scheme, logo, conversational style, tagline, tone, mission and more.

When creating the physical look of your brand, refer back to your target audience and try to create a look that caters to them. Since they're your customers, it's all about creating a feel and experience that makes them feel relatable and excited. It's not about what you want or how you'd want it to look; instead, it's about what your customers want.

It's important to have creative guidelines so that everyone on the team is on the same page from onboarding onward. Everyone can refer back to it when they forget how something is supposed to look or operate. This is essential if your brand image is going to be uniform across your business and stay consistent over time. It's natural for brands to evolve, but it helps everything look exactly the way it should at that moment.

Wrapping up

Building a successful brand strategy is tough work because there are a lot of fine details you need to map out before you can create one that's right for you and your business. Your brand image is how your customers can identify you from the crowd and the competition, so you want to stand out in a significant way and build a brand you're proud of. How will you develop your brand strategy?

5 Tips to Improving Your Social Media Marketing

Posted: 15 May 2019 06:00 AM PDT

You already know your target audience is scouring these platforms and staying active sharing content and interacting with brands. What's important is how you leverage this information so you end up with the best results possible for your business.

Here are five social media trends you should pay attention to if you are looking to boost your marketing strategy and put your brand on top:

Personalized content

Since each individual has different needs, it can be difficult to create social media content that's personalized to your audience. While it may be a tough task, it's not impossible. Taking time to analyze your analytics will tell you exactly what your audience wants, what interests them, and how you can cater to their needs. Personalizing your content to your target market will get you much further than spewing out generic posts that don't appeal much to anyone.

It's best to start with content that offers value for free. Beyond analytics, ask your audience what they want to see more of. Most social platforms allow you to set up polls and surveys so that your followers can answer questions or vote on a topic. This will give you insight into what they want more of so you can grow your following effectively while keeping your current followers happy and intrigued.

Live streaming

Over the last couple of years, live streaming video has taken off and worked wonders for brands. More and more social platforms are seeing spikes in user engagement and interaction by adopting live streaming as a way to connect with users.

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram all have live stream functionality. It's become the newest way to connect with your audience and increase traffic to your content. Viewers love getting a look behind-the-scenes of their favorite brands and getting to know more about businesses they could potentially invest in.

High-quality content

This one seems like a no-brainer when it comes to general content marketing, but too few social media marketers put the same effort into their social media content. How you represent your brand on your social channels determines your following, engagement rate and revenue. Your social media matters because it's the gateway to leading users back to your website and checking out more of your content.

If any content posted to your social media isn't high-quality and doesn't offer value or insight of any sort, it's time to rethink your strategy. Go through previous posts and gauge the value you're offering your audience. If they're boring, generic, and don't include actionable calls to action that drive activity, you're missing out on potential conversions and ROI. 

Influencer marketing

It's time all businesses are incorporating influencer marketing into their social media marketing strategy. Research from Twitter found that 49 percent of its users rely on influencers for product recommendations. This shows the type of impact influences have on people's buying decisions. 

Using influencers to promote your brand and its products and services is a great way to connect with your audience on a deeper level and show them that their favorite people endorse your business. It boosts your credibility and shows your audience you're worth their coin.

Monitoring analytics

While it might seem obvious that those running a business should be monitoring their analytics, too few actually are. Those that aren't don't have a clear understanding of how they can better market to their audience. Different metrics can mean different things between platforms, but for the most part, you can easily differentiate between them.

It's important to track the following metrics:

  • Engagement: How your followers interact with your content
  • Reach: The number of unique visitors to your account
  • Likes: The number of unique likes on a post or account
  • Impressions: How many times your post has been seen

Only by monitoring your social media activity will you be able to optimize your marketing strategy so you see a boost in conversions.

These days, having an optimized social media marketing strategy can make or break your business efforts. It's the key to connecting with your audience, growing a following, and leading them back to your website. Staying tuned to the trends can help you come up with ways to keep your audience interested, while still growing your business.

Facebook, Google Have the Highest Paid Internships

Posted: 15 May 2019 05:00 AM PDT

With a low unemployment rate and millions of job openings, today's graduates and other entrants into the job market are benefiting from a favorable economy that allows them to be more discerning about the positions they accept. As a result, many companies are upping their entry-level compensation packages, offering larger payouts and better perks.

But which entry-level positions and internships pay new hires and interns the most each month? According to a recent study conducted by Glassdoor Economic Research Analyst Amanda Stansell, jobs in tech, finance and consulting sectors offer the highest starting pay.

The study was conducted using salary data reported by Glassdoor users. Researchers focused on U.S.-based employees, aged 25 years old and younger, and the figures they submitted throughout 2018. Only jobs with at least 25 salary reports were considered. Similarly, internships were considered only if they had at least 25 submitted reports, though the data was collected from March 1, 2018, to Feb. 28, 2019.

Because compensation is a top factor when considering a new job offer, officials say they wanted "to shed light into which employers are offering the most competitive internship pay and which types of entry-level jobs command the highest salaries."

Entry-level tech jobs pay the best 

There are certain jobs that will always be in demand because of their importance to ubiquitous needs in our society. Plumber, auto mechanic, electrician and similar trades will never go away because of how important their skills are to our everyday lives. Looking at Glassdoor's list of the top five highest-earning entry-level jobs, we may soon include tech-based jobs in that list.

Technology has increasingly embedded itself in nearly every facet of our lives as a whole, and the jobs that help facilitate tech are important in 2019 and beyond. "Young students interested in these types of [tech-based] roles should start thinking about how they can prepare for these STEM emphases in their educations, whether that be informal academic settings or through alternative skill-building courses like boot camps," wrote the study's researchers.

According to Glassdoor's findings, entry-level data scientist positions have an average yearly salary of $95,000, followed by software engineer jobs paying an average of $90,000 per year. The next highest-paying positions are product manager ($89,000 per year), investment banking analyst ($85,000 per year) and product designer ($85,000 per year). Other high-paying entry-level positions include Java developer ($72,000 per year), software developer ($68,000 per year) and mechanical engineer ($65,000 per year).

Tech and finance companies pay interns top rates

Glassdoor's study also looked at which companies offer the highest-paying internships. Nearly half of the 25 best-paying internships were tech-based, with finance and consulting coming in as the second and third most represented industries.

According to Glassdoor's data, Facebook was the top company on the list, offering $8,000 per month to its interns. Following close behind is Amazon ($7,725 per month), Salesforce ($7,667 per month), Google ($7,500 per month) and Microsoft ($7,250 per month).

In fact, the top eight companies on the list offered more than $7,000 per month. If interns were paid that much as full-time employees, researchers said they would be paid more than the U.S. median salary.

"As part of their effort to recruit top talent, especially in today's tight labor economy, these companies are offering high salaries to their interns in order to attract the best of the best," researchers wrote.
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