Category Archives: Project Management

Tips for Creating a User-Friendly Mobile App

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

The use of mobile phones for different functions, aside from communication, has become a natural habit for the average adult. In this age, millions of people shop, make payments, study, book flights, watch videos, and even perform daily work right on their phones. As a mobile app developer, a great user experience goes hand in hand with your app’s mobile-friendliness.

It is thus important to consider the aspects that will make your mobile app user-friendly. We have compiled 5 tips below for creating a great user-friendly mobile application.Continue reading→

BOOK: Innovating Like a Startup Executing Like a Corporation

Contributed article in our business series. We’re delighted to feature this book, written by our brilliant and experienced colleague Dr. Jean-Claude Junqua. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Why did I write this book?

Through the experience acquired with large corporations and working with many startups, I could understand the strengths and weaknesses of these two worlds, and also the gaps that currently exist with both types of organization to innovate and create new business. It became clear to me that the front-end and the back-end of innovation were often disconnected or had severe weaknesses that would prevent startups and corporations from effectively searching for new business and, when deciding to go forward with an opportunity, to execute it successfully. This realization prompted me to write this book and share my understanding, experience, and knowledge with the innovation and business community at large. This book will benefit innovators, entrepreneurs, founders, managers, and executives who are trying to break through innovation barriers by avoiding common mistakes and getting answers about practical challenges.Continue reading→

Make Smart Mistakes To Achieve Impossible Goals

Originally published on Forbes 14 Oct. 2014.

Author: Kimberly Wiefling

Like most kids, I was taught to avoid mistakes. Perfection was the goal, and errors were punished—sometimes with lower grades, and occasionally with a swat on the behind. Imperfection wasn’t rewarded in adulthood either, where a narrow definition of beauty left me wishing I had a supermodel figure and a more attractive face. Then came the innovation era in the business world. Suddenly we were supposed to cast off years of perfectionism and become wildly creative.

Unfortunately, a famous NASA study showed that the typical 98% creativity scores of five-year-olds falls to a mere 2% by the time these same children become adults. Creativity is messy! The creative path is dotted with imperfection and temporary setbacks, sometimes called failure. We learn to avoid mistakes, and thus stop expressing our creativity, in order to survive in our families, at school, and at work.

Here are five ways to breathe new life into the creativity with which you were born. (For the rest of this, please see the full article on Forbes here.)

Top Tips for Building Success

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Starting your own business is equal parts exciting and daunting. Not knowing whether the path you’ve chosen is the right one and if it will lead to success can be scary at times, but it’s important to stick with it and see where it takes you. There is no single trick to transforming a budding business into a successful one – it takes years of perseverance, patience and hard work to get closer to reaching your goals. However, here are a few useful tips on setting yourself and your business up for success.

Making Sales

Whatever it is you’re selling – whether it’s a product, a service, advice – you and your employees need to have the skills of a salesperson. Even the greatest product in the world won’t leave shelves if the company producing it doesn’t have a strong sense of salesmanship and convincing marketing. There are several key elements involved in making sales and here is a brief list to guide you:Continue reading→

Best Apps to Efficiently Organize Your Every Day & Get the Most Out of Your Week

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

It goes without saying we all lead busy lives. And that’s good because it means we’re doing something and pushing forward. Nevertheless, it can easily become overwhelming to do everything you simply have to do and this results in stress.

We decided to check if there are any apps that can help with productivity and after some research, we stumbled upon a website with a list of the best to-do apps that caught our attention. The list is pretty straightforward so we dug into some of the apps and decided to pick out the top 3. Here’s the list in case you want to check it later.

List of the Top To-Do Apps

But no need to check it as we filtered and tested 3 of them that we think might be helpful to you.

Wunderlist – Organize Yours and Your Family’s DayContinue reading→

How Is Internal Rate of Return a Key Element In Making Financial Decisions

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Every business aims to achieve a considerable growth rate, and it can be scaled by making the right business decisions. Growth can be expected out of a change in plan i.e. diversification of business activities. This can be achieved by investing in new projects and new developmental opportunities.

What affects this crucial decision is the Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of the enterprise. It is the effective annually compounded rate of return at which all the cash flows associated with a particular investment comes to zero. Let’s have a quick view at how IRR helps you in making life-altering business decisions.

  • Helps in choosing the best project

An organization can have several project ideas to invest in, but it’s wise to select the best fitting investment option which yields better results. IRR helps in analyzing all the project values and provides you with an idea of expected yield from it. An ideal IRR exceeds the cost of capital of the company.Continue reading→

3 Common Mistakes In Managing Virtual Teams

Contributed article in our business series. Originally posted here, and reposted with permission. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Virtual Teams are everywhere now – from home office workers to workers in offices in multiple locations and teams embedded in large global corporations.

According to Forrester Consulting 81% of Teams are distributed across multiple locations.

Often when a Projects team is dispersed they suffer delays and sometimes complete failure. International investments are put at Risk due to the intercultural issues or simply because the team members feel isolated and unmotivated.

What are the 3 most common Mistakes of managing virtual teams?

What are the 3 areas, which if addressed correctly can raise your Virtual Team performance exponentially?Continue reading→

How to Make Your Workplace More Tranquil?

If Cross Campus CEO Ronen Olshansky is to be believed then “every office space needs a space for active rejuvenation”. Why? The answer is quite simple: When your employees are working mentally and physically exhausting tasks, they need to replenish their lost energy levels. And, what’s better than rejuvenating the workspace/desk to maintain a positive and tranquil aura?

Cluttered desks ruin the positivity and often result in lowering productivity indirectly. If employees work under cluttered conditions, they kill time in looking for stationery and other stuff. In fact, misplaced items costs corporate America $177 billion annually. Messy desks don’t just cost monetary loss,  but also result in employees losing 76 hours every year.  Continue reading→

Best Products to Enhance Employee Efficiency

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

How efficient is your business? Are all your procedures and processes running in a streamlined way? If you are left wondering about the answer, then maybe it is time you reviewed your business procedures and looked at ways you can make things run better.

That doesn’t mean you have to consider reducing staff; it just means making the workers you have more efficient by removing duplication and unnecessary work. One of the ways you can improve your workflow, is to invest in better technology.

Skype

Communication between employees can take a lot of time depending on how you currently communicate. Emails, especially those between different buildings, can be difficult if one of the workers is away on leave. However, it could be easier if you could speak to someone else straight away; through modern technology such as Skype.Continue reading→