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Lots of Career Paths in Mobile

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

Is 2012 the end of the world or just the advent of total dominance of mobile devices in our daily activities?

The revolution is underway but I’m not sure it will fully hit in 2012, maybe a bit later, but for career opportunities, the timing is now!

There is a school of thinking that we tend to overestimate short-term impacts of change, meaning 1 year, and underestimate long-term impacts meaning 10 years plus. If this is the case, after 10 years of broadband mobile at mainstream consumer pricing… your life will change big time. The Internet took 10 years from the mid-90s to shakeout weak businesses and weak business models, as broadband internet access became affordable and deliverable. It takes time, and this is a complex landscape.

According to Silicon.com While until recently the mobile apps market had been dominated by the mobile operator, now there is greater competition between handset companies, operators and application developers who are all wrestling for control of the users’ mobile experience – and their cash. As a result, there’s now fierce competition for domination of the mobile apps space.

Revealed: The apps you’ll have on your phone in 2012

1. Money transfer
2. Location-based services
3. Mobile search
4. Mobile browsing
5. Mobile health monitoring
6. Mobile payment
7. Near field communication services
8. Mobile advertising
9. Mobile instant messaging
10. Mobile music

Of particular interest to me, is the convergence of location-based technologies and solutions with all delivery channels inc. mobile. I look forward to some innovative uses of interaction that enhances consumer experiences as we are driving or moving about. Also the issues of privacy and security will continue to challenge the raw potential of location-based mass customization in marketing, content delivery, commerce and communications.

Pour yourself a hot toddy and reflect on…. “What I Can Do For You!” in this new mobile-centric world. Could this be a career path for you?

Tags: 2012, careers, conversations, jobs, Marketing, mobile, mobile commerce, silicon.com, Social Networks, target marketing, Web/Tech
Posted in Internet Marketing, social media, social networking, zenpeak, zenPeak more | 3 Comments »

Do’s and Don’ts for hiring from Fast Company

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Here are some Do’s and Don’ts for hiring from Fast Company that are good common sense for small to mid-size growth companies (the kinds of clients we have at zenPeak for the most part).

Of course, picking the right person who will be a peak performer in your company is still an art and a science. Our system includes assessments that use position benchmarks, and examine the EQ competency scores that will lead to peak performance… and… IT WORKS!

Fast Company's The Do's and Don'ts of Hiring

Tags: fast company, hiring, hiring tips
Posted in assessment, emotional intelligence, EQ, peak performance, tests, zenpeak, zenPeak more | 1 Comment »

Location Based Marketing – gonna be big big big (and that means jobs)

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Location Based Marketing is not flavor of the month technology. In fact it has been kicking around for years, and still there is a ways to go for the business side to solve the problems ranging from privacy to the profusion of platforms and devices.

Potential Gold Mine for Marketers

The mainstream media inc. Business Week is all over it and you will be hearing more and more about companies making inroads getting traction and even making $. Watch for companies that are not trying to “organize” the world but are leveraging existing content, user-generated content and offering light open-source solutions – ideal for rapid success.

I especially like this space having a strong interest in data-rich target marketing.

Skyhook Wireless

Check out skyhook wireless You can try out the location-based “loki” system right on their website.

Tags: cellular tower triangulation, gps, location-based, loki, target marketing, wi-fi, wireless, WPS, XPS
Posted in zenPeak more | No Comments »

Growth Industry for the next 5 years… Search Engine Marketing

Friday, July 10th, 2009

If you are looking for a great career path this is one of the best!

Coming out of this economic collapse, many Internet business processes and business models for small and mid-size business will take shape and REPLACE past efforts – In other words, bye-bye printed Yellow Pages AND bye-bye online Yellow Page type portals.

Proximity marketing (geo-marketing, location-based marketing) is going to be big as new applications using GPS or cellular location technologies empower mobile devices and PCs. This means that an SME operator, even with just one location, can spend her money reaching, engaging and transacting with her target market, without buying a yellow pages ad.

It’s basic stuff, and it will drive the need for more talented people who can create and execute Search Marketing campaigns.

If you are looking for a great career path this is one of the best!

Tags: business, conversations, google, internet, search, SEM, SEO, SEO careers, Social Networks, technology, Web/Tech, yellow pages
Posted in Internet Marketing, social media, social networking, zenpeak, zenPeak more | No Comments »

SES Toronto – Are Internet Marketing career opportunities bigger than ever?

Monday, June 1st, 2009

SES 2009 Toronto – Search Engine Strategies Conference arrives in town next week.

Thinking about a career in Internet Marketing? Your timing is good!

Wal-Mart beat K-Mart and Sears because they invested in data-rich marketing and merchandising technologies. Companies that think only 10% of marketing budgets should be online are in for a shock to their core! as they play catchup for years to come.

SEM is part of Internet Marketing; a growth industry that is about to explode. This all began with a handful of visionaries like Dr. Ralph Wilson back in the mid-1990s. It has taken 15 years, inc. a few business shakeouts, to bring us to a point of complete transformation.

Social and economic changes usually take at least 10 -15 years, and are often under-estimated in depth of their impact because the growth and retrenchments are only easily recognizable looking back in hindsight, with a “time lapse” perspective. And the future?…

A top “peak performer” career path for the future is VP of Internet Marketing, with the future responsibility of managing 90% of a company’s marketing dollars AND… demand for senior-level marketers will continue to be high. A broad expertise in Internet Marketing web, social networks, and mobile is rare!

If you have been paying attention to the terrible condition of newspapers in North America, you have to ask yourself is this just the economy? and when business picks up, the advertisers and subscribers will return?, or is it a major transformation?

We are inside the transformation, so its hard to see it. Today’s generation has always been plugged in and online. It is no longer cute or charming to be a luddite and announce you don’t use a computer or a mobile device. You will just get shrugs and blank stares.

Digital, interactive, on-demand, high-definition, data-rich media is where its at. Newspapers and newsmagazines are in decline, with just a few destined to survive in some fashion. They are slow, labor-intensive, high-wage, energy gobbling, analog industries with an insatiable desire to cut trees and burn fossil fuels, just to drop printed pages on your doorstep. Much of the information they deliver is stale (sports scores, stock listings) and their strategic knowledge of their readers (preferences and behaviours) is almost nil or dependent on surveys, and is rarely granular, actionable business intelligence.

From an advertiser’s point of view, the content isn’t really important but rather the ROI of Marketing. Can Internet Marketing deliver ROI? Yes, and Search Engine Marketing is a key component.

So now we come full circle back to the prospects for a career in Internet Marketing. Yes, your career prospects and your timing are both excellent!

Tags: Internet Marketing, SEM, SES, SES 2009
Posted in Internet Marketing, peak performance, social media, social networking, Web Development, zenPeak more | No Comments »

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives – I LOVE THIS SHOW on The Food Network!

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives

This is a great show about fun food. If you are a wine-sniffer or crazy for white tablecloths and over the top service, don’t tune in. The food showcased is often created by amazing chefs, without pretense but with tons of innovative talent.

This recipe for Mona Lisa pizza looked amazing – I’m gonna try it.

Tags: food!
Posted in zenPeak more | 1 Comment »

Think Positive! How Bank of America began – 1 man with guts.

Friday, February 20th, 2009

Think Positive!

We are well down a slippery slope of panic solutions that are just throwing taxpayer money at what appears to be ways to instill confidence, loosen inter-bank credit etc. Nothing seems to be working as fast as needed, and it appears that everyone is running for the hills. Obama is only human and in spite of the best of intentions has a formidable task just to fill his cabinet posts.

Feb-20-09

Today, Bank of America hit new lows – down over 90% in a year! I was in a waiting room a few years ago at Bank of Montreal and was reading about the history of VISA. What I took away from my quick read was that Bank of America (originally Bank of Italy) operated by Amadeo Giannini, emerged as a San Francisco institution when the owner recovered the bank’s hard assets out of the earthquake damaged building in a vegetable push cart, and then went down to Fisherman’s Wharf and set up a table in the open air, and began extending credit and resuming operations to help the city recover from the earthquake. The Company later went on to be a founder of the Visa card (BankAmericard).

Wouldn’t it be a shame if BAC is nationalized by the US Government as suggested by Sen. Chris Dodd – Bloomberg

Somewhere out there is another Amadeo Giannini, a man who can be trusted to get things moving without the government bailout, maybe running a small regional bank that in 25 years could be the world’s largest!

Tags: Amadeo Giannini, BAC, Bank of America, recovery
Posted in peak performance, risk, zenpeak, zenPeak more | 1 Comment »

One alleged Fraudster returns to the US, the other goes missing!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

boots With his cowboy boots stuffed with cash, platinum, a fake passport in his own alias name and swiss bearer notes, the dimwit alleged mortgage ponzi schemer Christopher Warren took a cab from Toronto airport to the US border. Huffington Post reported that as Warren was on his whirlwind adventure, he showed flight crews a stash of gold.

I’m not sure these were the boots Warren was wearing (they are gorgeous huh?) when he got busted at the border, but “Court documents alleged they defrauded investors and mortgage companies of $100 million since 2006. The fraudulent deals involved 500 homes and condominiums in California, Florida, Nevada, Illinois, Colorado and Arizona” ——-

News today that Venezuela seized Stanford Bank , reminded me that Allen Stanford is missing after allegedly scheming 8 Billion out of 50,000 customers. Huffington Post reports that Stanford’s damage could match the Madoff ponzi scandal, and lists the “most shocking” allegations…

Stanford posted identical returns two years in a row, in 1995 and 1996, indicating the fraud has been going on for at least 13 years.
Stanford and CFO James Davis have “wholly failed” to cooperate with the SEC investigation.
There was no army of analysts combing through Stanford’s multi-billion-dollar portfolio. Rather, the only research conducted on companies in which he was investing came from Stanford himself, and CFO James Davis.
Stanford told at least one client that the SEC was freezing CDs, a blatant impossibility.
Stanford lost money from the Madoff ponzi scheme, “despite the bank’s public assurances to the contrary.” One analyst puts the loss at $400,000.
Despite repeated calls from the SEC to Stanford’s Antigua-based accounting firm, the accountants never answered their phones.
And as if the SEC couldn’t put it any clearer, Stanford’s public statements about its investments “are false.”

Bloomberg reports that Michael Zarich, a senior investment officer with Antigua- based Stanford International Bank, in a sworn deposition, described how “Stanford told investors the program had positive returns for periods in which clients actually lost money. The firm claimed a return of 18.04 percent in 2000 when actual investors lost as much as 7.5 percent, according to the complaint. In 2008 client pitch books, Stanford presented hypothetical data under the heading “Historical Performance” alongside the audited 2005 through 2008 figures, the complaint said.”

- Frank Abrams is the founder of zenPeak Inc., helping companies find and retain peak performers.

Tags: Allen Stanford, Christopher Warren, fraud, mortgage fraud, ponzi, zenpeak
Posted in emotional intelligence, EQ, risk, rogue trading, zenpeak, zenPeak more | No Comments »

Here’s why today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!

Thursday, January 8th, 2009

Today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!

Clients are unhappy. If you call a prospective client with a simple and safe investment such as a deposit, they will listen and give you an appointment, because their current financial adviser has either stopped calling, or is explaining why portfolio values are down. They might switch, but 2 years ago, it would have been impossible to compare yourself against their broker’s success with the client portfolio.
The advice you give today , and the products you recommend today, are more likely to make clients $ tomorrow. The most successful brokers, planners and advisers don’t try and pick winners, they follow a system and rely on others to make those tough decisions. Fact is whoever is selecting and packaging product for you today has a better chance of being right, as the tide of the market rises. The investments that focus on the stock market, which is currently low after a 50% correction, will likely do well in coming years.
Where you work is important! Who you know, historical performance, projections no longer carry much weight with clients. What counts is knowing you are personally service-oriented, that you can be trusted, and that the company you work for has survived the credit crunch and is getting stronger, (not just barely surviving or still losing money)
The potential market is huge! Most people have trouble saving money. They carry credit card balances at very high interest rates, and they have the wrong kind of life insurance. Ignore the tv commercials about wealth management; the vast majority of clients need basic help to solve these problems.
Hard work and honesty is respected today. Today, financial success is measured in lowering your risk and credit exposure, eliminating debt, understanding exactly what you are investing in, saving carefully for your future, and having independence. If you are ready to work hard and be straight with people… Today is the best time to join the Financial Services business!

- Frank Abrams is the founder of zenPeak Inc. , helping companies find and retain peak performers for high-trust and high-integrity positions.

Tags: broker, investing, PFS, primerica
Posted in Optimize, peak performance, zenpeak, zenPeak more | No Comments »

Scum Dog Millionaire – now he’s stuck in the outsource outhouse

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Satyam founder, Ramalinga Raju has admitted to being a liar and a cheat. His company name, Satyam means “truth”

Lying in public

He has admitted to falsifying the financial records of SATYAM a leading Indian publicly traded company. Ramalinga Raju, is not a slumdog millionaire but a man who took his family’s agricultural roots, and grew them into a successful conglomerate, most notably as a computer services offshore outsourcing powerhouse. Now Raju and his company are in the outsource outhouse. Ramalinga Raju was an Indian hero and has delivered The Mea Culpa – “what I did and why” to the Board of Directors.

- Frank Abrams is the founder of the zenPeak Inc. , helping companies find and retain peak performers.

Tags: accounting fraud, fraud, India, Satyam
Posted in peak performance, risk, zenpeak, zenPeak more | No Comments »