Jackson Library

If you want to get your point across, start a conversation. In the March 2008 issue of Jungle, Sally Hogshead points out that if you want to get noticed in today’s business environment you must become a conversationalist. There is a definite shift afoot in today's business environment from 'selling' to 'connecting'. For example, you can no longer march into an interview with a list of talking point based on your strengths; you must be ready to engage the interviewer in conversation. So how to get going? The author offers five simple steps:
1. Ask questions
2. Understand your audience's true motivation
3. Smile (an oft-forgotten basic)
4. Let go of some control
5. Google the #$%!! out of anyone with whom you need to connect
Read online or the print issue in Jackson Library.

The elegant sports car Bugatti (owned by Volkswagen VOW.GR) known for its speed and elegance, sells a model called the Veyron for a cool $1.7 million retail. Bugatti now in collaboration with Hermes is going to release 10-15 models of a special Veyron costing about $2.4 million, as mentioned in a report entitled the Worlds Most Expensive Car by Market Watch. To view some fun information on Veyron accidents and tickets see Auto Trader out of the UK.

Facebook at a Glance

The sixth-most trafficked site in the U.S. (according to comScore) has the following:

• More than 64 million active users

• An average of 250,000 new users registered each day

• More than 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks

• More than 14 million photos uploaded daily

• More than 65 billion page views per month

• More than half of users are outside college

• The fastest growing demographic of 25 and older

The U.S. has the most users, followed by the U.K. with more than 8 million active users, and then Canada with more than 7 million active users.

InformationToday.com, March 2008

India might have been part of the British Empire one hundred years ago but now India is doing quite well as seen by the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata motors earlier this week. Ford, which owned both brands, has made changes at both companies but they were not enough to propel sales and help a floundering Ford.
An article in Reliable Plant entitled Auto Industry Focus Continues to Shift to Emerging Markets talks about how, while production in mature markets is falling off, emerging markets are growing.

An interesting article about Netflix is published in the March issue of Wired magazine. In October 2006 the company offered a $1 million prize for building a recommendation engine that would be 10% better than the Cinematch engine, the one Netflix is currently using. The 10% might not seem to make a big difference but in reality, before the contest started, Cinematch allowed the fluctuation in rating to be one point, which is a lot on a 1 to 5 scale. After a year, the AT&T team called BellKor was leading the pack with a proposed engine which was 8.43 percent better than Cinematch. Around the same time, a new mysterious competitor came up with the engine model which surpassed Cinematch by 8%. At first, he asked to be called “just a guy in a garage”. Well, he turned to be not just a guy, and not in a garage. The new mastermind behind the project is a retired management consultant and psychologist Gavin Potter. Gavin Potter is also a co-author of a book called Business in a Virtual World. And he works from one of the rooms on the second floor of his home in Central London. You can read the whole story online or in print copy of the magazine in library’s periodicals section.

Looking to curl up on the couch with a glass of eggnog and some holiday reading? Can't help with the nog, but permit us to suggest some books, from our display racks in the Library.

McIlhenny's Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire by Jeffrey Rothfeder recounts the history of Edward McIlhenny, ruined Southern businessman who after the Civil War founded a dynasty, and the brand-name now known worldwide; What Made Jack Welch Jack Welch by Stephen H. Baum and Dave Conti traces winning elements in Mr Welch, son of a railroad conductor, and draws lessons for businesspeople everywhere; Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris, argues that the frontier for using data has shifted dramatically, and that analytics can help separate your firm from the pack in today's world; John C. Knapp's Leaders on Ethics: Real World Perspectives on Today's Business Challenges features first-hand presentations by CEOs and executives given to their peers at a forum on professional ethics; The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? by Leslie Bennetts, arguing that combining work and family really is the best choice for most women (and that it's doable), and America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again, where Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter challenges Americans to recommit themselves to pursuing equality and opportunity by preserving open minds, open markets and open borders.