Who you Hire Today Will Determine You're Future of Tomorrow

Today's companies are suffering from poor hiring practices of talent. Companies are more interested in hiring someone from a resume versus the person themselves. It all starts with the talent you hire for your HR Department and Talent Acquisition.

The managers in charge of Talent Acquisition need to be competent and need to be more resourceful in today's war for talent. They need to do much more than just going through the motions of a hiring process.

The other talent that seems to be a lost art is doing references on the individual. If it is an impact position for your company, you need to take special attention to this matter. References should not be done by your Admin Assistants. They should be done by either the hiring managers or someone that is well versed in knowing how to ask the right questions.

Asking the right questions is the key to hiring top talent. Too many companies either don't take much stock into this and just ask the basic questions re: How do they get along with their fellow employees? or just don't understand the potential for disaster by hiring a bad employee.

The other area they need to be aware of is that today's middle tier in companies is disappearing. What I mean by that is that you have your managers who are baby boomers and maybe retiring in a few years and you have your newbies that really aren't that impact employee who have the potential to be your future leaders.

Similar to the vetting process that John McCain did on Sarah Palin. Companies cannot afford to continue making very bad hires. In fact one CEO of a fortune 500 company told me the biggest mistake his VP of HR could make, and something he would not tolerate is for that person to make a very bad hire.

Companies wake up! With the economy in the toilet you need to really make good decisions on hiring based on how these people will fare in the company's environment. It all starts with the quality of your hiring process which needs to result in hiring the best person for that particular company not based on pedigree.

And they say we're not in a recession when their are layoffs of 100 or more employees at 4 different stores in the OC alone. You also have the President of a retailer Quicksilver who is getting a severance of 2 million plus a 60,000 a month retainer for 6 months and then another 100,000 for another 6 months on a consulting basis. This is the same President who had the company quadruple in size in reference to staffing. It that doesn't outrage you as an individual then there is something terribly wrong. I'm sure those 270 people who will be getting laid off will be quite irate once they find out how much the guy who is the cause of the problem is getting to go away.

Epiphany Dream

Last night I had a kind of epiphany that I needed to get back to work. It wasn't the same as the ones I normally have with me in the grocery store #487 in the Produce Department. No this one was very different. It was a clothing retail store and I was building displays with sweaters. The other part of the dream I saw a family friend who died quite a while ago and she was asking if I was going back with her. I told her no. Although I was dreaming, it was a lucid dream so I was able to control my actions, but still letting the dream take its course. It seems like I might of even had an out of body experience because I remember seeing myself and yet another self floating through a kitchen and seeing my aunt and her daughter making breakfast. You ever get one of those dreams where you have a dream within a dream. That is what I've had for a few days now. I think they call that REM sleep.

Miracles still happen

This past Tuesday was a very big wakeup call for all of us. It started with a phone call from mom that Juliana was very sick and would not be able to attend our annual New Years day with the family. We never had a New Years where we didn't have the whole family present and Juliana and Teresa had left a very big void in that day for all of us.

Wednesday morning was even worse news when I was told Juliana had been taken to Emergency due to something going haywire with her diabetes. A few hours later she was transferred to ICU in St Josephs Hospital which is part of the CHOC family. I met mom and Kathy at the hospital and when we first walked in it was very depressing. Juliana was being asked questions by the doctors and she was non respondent. It reminded me of the time when she was at school and she got really sick. They had to take her to Emergency and discovered later that she was a Diabetic, but this time it seemed worse since she couldn't even respond to the doctors questions. Alot of things were going through my head as the doctors were talking to her. Was their brain damage? Did she have a stroke and she couldn't talk? All of these things were going through my head and I was just hoping that everything would turn out alright.

An hour went by and still no response so we relieved each other for lunch. After Teresa and mom went to lunch and the doctors left I sat their watching Juliana as they had Hanna Montana on the hospital TV. I then noticed her moving around so I decided to see if I could talk to her. After numerous attempts to get her to talk she let me know that both her arms were hurting and that this was a good episode of Hanna Montana and I should watch it. As soon as I heard her say that I knew everything would be fine and that she would be back to her old self before long. That was a great sigh of relief to hear her respond and in her usual very definitive manner. I'm a strong believer in fate, and at that moment I realized that miracles still happen.

Reflection

Today I was looking at my old yearbooks from junior high school (what is now called middle school) and High School. What I realized now is I lost contact with alot of my friends from that era because the people that were in my 7th grade yearbook went to other middle schools right after 7th grade.
Some of them were very good friends in elementary school and in 7th grade, but after that some of them moved away and therefore attended a different Jr High School.
Its interesting when you think what might have been. I look at the pics of these people and I could tell you a story about almost every one of them. Some of them were very popular in Jr High School and High School and were the noisemakers of the graduating class. Now, not a peep.
The other interesting concept is what they scrawled in my yearbooks. Some of them made their entries in my yearbook after one of our graduation parties so you can just imagine what they wrote and why I refer to it as a scrawl.

I could write a story based on specific grad pics and who that person was then and who they are now. What memories good and bad, but always interesting. Some of the stories I could date back all the way to elementary school during recess playing kickball or being asked by the teacher to stand in the corner due to talking too much which is now referred to as "timeout". There would also need to be someone narrating in the background with probably 70's music in the background.

The Simple Things in Life
Its amazing as you get older how the little things in life seem to matter most.

It can be anything from:
Making a great cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and lots of whip cream
Reading a good book from cover to cover on a weekend
Taking a leisure stroll around the beach where you live
Watching an old movie in HD on an HDTV
Reading my journals of 10 years ago
Putting together CD's from iTunes
The time to play video games on my XBOX and PSP
Sleeping in till 10:00AM

I guess what it comes down to is time. Having the time to do the things that matter most to you. Why don't we do these things when we're younger? My guess is we're still trying to grab the brass ring and everything that goes with it so we don't make time for the things that really matter. I guess you can call it peer pressure or even what society expects of someone like me and we seem all too anxious to please these individuals almost to a stereotypical fault. Like its our duty or something.

Juice is the new MLM of the world

Today I researched 2 companies that friends of mine are currently distributors. The first is Mona-Vie which celebrates the acai berry in Central and South America. The other is Goji Juice which celebrates the Goji Berry in the Himalayans.

They both are in nicely packaged 1 liter bottles and range from $35-$40 per bottle. According to the research done it lasts about a week. So you would need 4 bottles to last you a month which is about $160 a month in additional disposable income.

Its amazing how the MLM’s have evolved from cleaning products to health powders to insurance to healthy juices in a nicely packaged bottle that looks like a really expensive bottle of wine. The packaging is really well done on the Mona-Vie and the price is not for your average joe.

The scary thing is this is probably going to be the future in reference to buying and selling products. With the growing population and not enough space to accommodate the growth companies will be selling their products through these types of channels. Going to the office will become part of the past. Those who have the selling skills and the entrepreneurial spirit will thrive in these times.

Dear Novice Fans League Players,

The results for last week puts BruinOneders as the only undefeated team in the league at 3-0. This week BruinOneders will be put to the test with BruinsRock as their opponent. Both teams have the Texas Tech Raiders offensive players so it should be interesting to see who comes out on top. The other results from last week was JamaicanQT's Quest 4 Glory catapulting to take the top spot in the West Division and BruinsRock and Da LBC getting their first wins of the season.

Here are this week's games:

Da LBC vs Buckeyeboy71
BruinsRock vs BruinOneders
JamaicanQT's Quest 4 Glory vs dk
roseboundbears vs PAC-10 Rules

Just a reminder below about the trade deadline. What this means is after this date you can no longer do any trading during this season.

Trade Deadline
Throughout the season, owners can trade units with other teams. In an effort to keep the integrity of the league, a deadline for trades will be imposed at 11:59 PM ET, Wednesday, 10/17/07. No trades will be allowed after that time. Any trades accepted by two parties before the deadline will be subject to the trade approval process.

You can still however continue to pickup players through free agency. Those of you who still need to beef up your lineups look on the free agency wire. There are still alot of good players out there for all positions.

See everyone on the field and good luck this week.

Watching the Red River rivalry between the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns brought back memories of when I was in Texas for the government contract project. I remember being in the lobby with all the college students and their respective alumni coming back from the game. That day you didn't need to know who won the game. They wore their emotions on their faces.

I never knew how a big of a deal this game was in College football. The funniest part is that Texas is considered the home team, but Norman, Oklahoma is actually closer to the Cotton Bowl, but since its in the state of Texas they are considered the home team for this annual game.

I learned that day this rivalry is one of the biggest and longest rivalries in the history of both universities as well as in college football. I saw alot of red/white and orange/white that day. Oklahoma killed Texas that day with a final score of 65-13. Since that time I've heard of players going to the respective schools specifically to play in that particular game every year.

It might be not only one of the biggest rivalries in college football but in all of sports. Some sports experts consider it right up their with the Boston Redsox vs New York Yankees.

Dear all,

This week in the Novice Fans League was another week of unpredictable play and in College football the week of major upsets such as Oklahoma being beaten by Colorado, Florida being beaten by Auburn, and West Virginia being beaten by South Florida. Congratulations to: JamaicanQT's Quest 4 Glory and roseboundbears for their first wins of the season. The other 2 winners: Buckeyeboy71 and BruinOneders have now won the first 2 games of the season. They happen to both be in the same division so are tied for first place in the East Division.

The following teams have byes this week so make sure you adjust your starting lineups:

Buckeyeboy71
JamaicanQT's Quest 4 Glory
PAC-10 Rules
roseboundbears
Da LBC

Here are the matchups for this week:

BruinOneders vs roseboundbears
dk vs BruinsRock
Buckeyeboy71 vs JamaicanQT's Quest 4 Glory
PAC-10 Rules vs Da LBC

Again, make sure you adjust your lineups for the coming week. The first game this week will be Thursday for those of you who have Kentucky or South Carolina.

Dear Holden,

I met with Jeremy Woodlee yesterday afternoon and he told me he thought you were a really good fit for the Real Estate Managing Editor/Producer position. He thought with your editorial background and progressing into the online world would make for a good match with our culture and this position.

Again this position will report directly to Meredith Artley who is the Executive Editor for Latimes.com (Latimes Interactive) and will be the Managing Editor/Producer for the Real Estate vertical.

This position would require you to relocate to our offices here in Los Angeles. I have relocated quite a few people in my career and people that never really thought about relocating. Based on the opportunity and after more chats with our team they decided it was the right move to make.

I know its a big commitment, so what I am looking for is not necessarily will you relocate today. But is there anything that would prevent you from relocating if and when an offer was made and is this the type of opportunity you are looking for in order to make a move from your current situation?

Depending on how you answer those questions, the next steps will be to do a phone conference with Meredith Artley Executive Editor (who you would report to), and Sean Gallagher.

Also let me know if Friday 6:00PM EST works for you in reference to a phone chat with me.

Dear all,

This week was an exciting week of Novice Fans League football. We had a high of 237 Fantasy Points by PAC-10 Rules, and a single player position (WR) by BruinOneders with 90 points. If any of you have ever played the NFL Fantasy Football you will know these type of numbers are non-existent, but with the points being tallied based on positions and not on individual players this is going to be a reality every week. Which means every week will be competitive.

Here are this weeks final scores and the winners for the week of 09/22:

dk 166.25 vs Da LBC 141.25
Winner: Dakotta Alex (dk)

BruinOneders 202 vs JamaicaQT's Quest 4 Glory 166
Winner: Randy Powell (BruinOneders)

Buckeyeboy71 165 vs roseboundbears 156.75
Winner: Chai Cai (Buckeyeboy71)

PAC-10 Rules 237 vs BruinsRock 197.5
Winner: Doug Yamaguchi (PAC-10 Rules)

For those of you who have a percentage point after your score ie: .25, .5 , .75 that is because you have a college team that played a non-division 1-A team. This week that occured for those of you who have Hawaii or Missouri.

The way that is calculated is the following example: If a Division 1-A team is playing a non-division 1-A team, the division 1-A team will only receive 75% of its actual points. For instance, in week 1 Maryland, who is a division 1-A team is playing Villanova, who is a non-division 1-A team. If you start the Maryland RB unit, and they score 32 points, your fantasy team will be awarded 24 points.

On a final note to those of us who were defeated this week. Remember winning this league is all based on Fantasy Points. It doesn't matter if the particular school you have wins or loses their particular game, its all about the Fantasy Points. You can click on each schools position and you will see a graph of the Fantasy Points they accumulated for that week. Also peruse the Free Agents that are available which can be found on your home page under the players tab.

Good luck to everyone this week and see you all on the field virtually speaking.

The thought is to have all types of speech technology fall under Kaku International. I don't think there is a company out there right now that does all aspects of speech technology which would include stuttering software, diagnostic software, etc.

Looked into building website from Verizon account. Server too busy right now need to try later. Also look into getting monogram golf shirts for Kaku with the saying "Who is Kaku Intl".

Agenda for Kaku meeting

Want to focus on strategy to get Product Manager position for Nate and Sales position for Katrina. Set a time frame of like March 1, 2002 as the target date.
The company that comes to mind for product manager is Havas Interactive who Miguel has contacts at including the CFO.

Need to look at building web page from Verizon account
Logo for Kaku being accent mark over the a in Kaku
Find company to make logo golf shirts

Marketing Research journals
Forrester Reports
Jupiter Media Metrix
Yankee Group Reports
S&P 500

According to George Jang the forums are a good place to do the market research. He has used these groups in the past and gotten what the objection questions would be for a particular product before taking it to market. He also talked about a division in IBM that funded Human interface products and used a special type of toothbrush as an example. Probably worth looking into this area and see if they do any software products.

Think about Associations and National organizations. Look to see if BBB has marketing information on accent reduction industry.

What was good about the picture front view but no english translation and side view of what the mouth is actually doing. The guy and a girl and they are exchanging conversation and pronounciation.
How to say it at the word level
How to say it at a phrase level
How to say it at a conversation level
It also has games which is a good thing to have to lighten things up a little especially for adults.