When working hard is not enough…

The first months in my hotel entrepreneurship I used to work an average of 17 hours from Monday to Sunday. Crazy, isn’t it? Well, yes, it’s. The worst and most ironic is that I got no results at all. Unfair, isn’t it? Well, yes again, it’s. But I got a long life lesson from that: succeeding on running a business is not about doing it harder but is rather about persistence, strategy and efficiency. Definitely, I wasn’t superman!

Recommended: Yes! 50 Scientifically proven ways to be persuasive

Noah Goldstein’s, Steve Martin’s (no, not that Steve Martin‘s) and Robert Cialdini’s Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive is a pop psych book, where a bunch of research in psychology is distilled into one readable volume.

50 scientifically proven ways constitute 50 chapters of the book, longest of which take 7 pages. The authors take the position that persuasion is a science, not art, hence with the right approach anybody can become the master in the skill of persuasion. So, what are the 50 ways?

To read the full article click on here.

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When building the company team is not (only) about money

One of the good things (not the only one!) that I learned once founding and running Terra Extremus Hostel in Santiago of Chile was that when the time of building the company staff came, money wasn’t the only one variable that keeps people motivated and willing to give their best out.

What does productivity really mean for the company?

This world is fast. Knowledge, technological advances and information grow to exponential rates, and to catch up with them is a challenge on its own. The dilemma for organizations is critical but what’s the solution? Fully renovated staff every single year that can bring new insight into the company? That’s an approach: expensive, unsustainable for the long term, and questionable from an CSR –Corporate Social Responsibility- perspective. Here I suggest some practical changes in the way we perceive productivity management inside the organization.

Recommended: Six interesting examples of gamification in ecommerce (published on econsultancy.com)

The video game industry is worth more than $100bn worldwide, so it's no surprise that businesses are using gamification to try to boost sales.

The idea is that by adding gaming elements to the sales process, such as small challenges and rewards, you can increase customer loyalty and advocacy. If you want to read the full article by David Moth on eConsultancy.com just click on here.

Recommended: Five ways to work with content on ecommerce sites (published on eConsultancy.com)

Content is a common cause of headaches on ecommerce websites.

Hundreds and thousands of individual products, all with their own URL, all lacking any form of unique content to help them stand out both to users and search engines: this is an all too common occurrence in ecommerce.

I'm going to show you five simple ways to work with content to help it stand out, both on-page and in the search results.

If you're interested in the full article by Peter Meinertzhagen on eConsultancy please click on here.

Recommended: 5 Things Founders Don't Talk About (published on Forbes.com)

Last week I had a dozen business founders over for beer and pizza to catch up and talk shop. It’s one of my favorite things to do, because I think when you get a group of fellow founders in a room together, there’s instant fraternity among them. People let their guards down. When surrounded by peers, Founders talk about things that no one else can appreciate or understand...

Great article by Wil Schroter contributor of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) on Forbes.com. If you want to read the full article just press here.

Recommended: The Big Data and HR

I'd like to share this interview with Andrew Gadomski by Peter Clayton on how the Big Data is disrupting the HR business. This interview has been published on the Datasciencecentral.com page. If you want to know a bit more you can just click on here. Enjoy!

Recommended: Early Riser? What You Should Do When You Wake Up

Margaret Thatcher was famous for needing only four hours of sleep. That's the popular wisdom, at least; her critics might argue that chronic sleep deprivation explains some of the crazier policies of her latter year.

Read the full article of Inc.com by Margaret Hefernan

Recommended: Low-cost smartphones to account for 46% of market by 2018

Sure, everyone would like to own the latest and greatest Android handset – Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One are such examples – but many buyers choose instead a budget smartphone or even a feature phone. While budget smartphones account for 28% of the market right now, ABI Research says low-cost smartphone market share is in for a reasonable rise, to 46% of the market by 2018.

Read the full article on  Androidauthority.com

Data Science: The End of Statistics?

Data Science: The End of Statistics? (Posted on the Normal Deviate Blog)
As I see newspapers and blogs filled with talk of “Data Science” and “Big Data” I find myself filled with a mixture of optimism and dread. Optimism, because it means statistics is finally a sexy field. Dread, because statistics is being left on the sidelines.
The very fact that people can talk about data science without even realizing there is a field already devoted to the analysis of data — a field called statistics — is alarming. I like what Karl Broman says:
When physicists do mathematics, they don’t say they’re doing “number science”. They’re doing math.
If you’re analyzing data, you’re doing statistics. You can call it data science or informatics or analytics or whatever, but it’s still statistics.
Well put.

 Read the full article here

A Little words and tears on Google Reader

I can’t stand. I need say something about Google Reader death. I’m sad and deeply disappointed about. I’m disappointed with Google for getting rid of this great tool. I’m an enthusiastic reader of blogs. You can actually can find some tips about what to read if you’re interested on the same stuff than I’m. I used to follow all posts about Startups, geeks, marketing, big data, apps, Smartphone market, Chile, and so on. As you can see it’s quite difficult to get updated by just remembering all the good websites that I ever found on the Web. Thus when I realized that Google Reader existed I was a real happy guy and many times more productive. It sounds nerd: I’m a proud one!

Strategies for effective Facebook wall posts

Business presentation about marketing on Facebook by Buddy Media

10 Must Know Image Optimization Tips

A great article on shopify's blog.

Is Norway leaving its tech startups out in the cold?

An article about the tech-startup scene in Norway from a Techcrunch perspective.

Andreas Schleicher: Use data to build better schools

Presentation at TED Conference by Andreas Schleicher.

Learning to break out of our limits or management for “elasticity”

Copyright (c) <a href='
http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>

We are lazy, and idle, and inoperative, and we'd love to sleep late, and so many other worse things. So, what damned thing does human being becomes a wonderful living creature on Earth? Well, we are all potentially wonderful if we are willing and able to exploit that “magic” inside us.

That “magic” is nothing other than a powerful energy inside that motivates us to undertake activities that otherwise we’d never do, and which require great motivation and determination to be fulfilled.

Management for elasticity is the capacity of organizations to motivate and train their own people to take themselves beyond their current limits.

“To be pleased with one's limits is a wretched state.” (Goethe)

7 Key Ways To Promote Your Personal Brand

Read this article by Sean Harry on www.careerrealism.com

Why the best managers ask the most questions

Read this article by Nadia Goodman on entrepreneur

Leaders need to be connectors

Read this  article  by Naheed Mirza on HR Magazine

7 of the Most Overused Resume Words and Phrases of 2012

7 of the Most Overused Resume Words and Phrases of 2012