TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab
Does Europe have what it takes to create the next Google?
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe is making major strides to eliminate barriers that have held back the region from developing tech firms that can compete on the scale of global giants Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc or Tencent Holdings Inc, a report published on Thursday shows.
The region has thriving tech hubs in major cities, with record new funding, experienced entrepreneurs, a growing base of technical talent and an improving regulatory climate, according to a study by European venture firm Atomico.
While even the largest European tech ventures remain a fraction of the size of the biggest U.S. and Asian rivals, global music streaming leader Spotify of Sweden marks the rising ambition of European entrepreneurs. Spotify is gearing up for a stock market flotation next year that could value it at upward of $20 billion. (reut.rs/2wYORnI)
“The probability that the next industry-defining company could come from Europe - and become one of the world’s most valuable companies - has never been higher,” said Tom Wehmeier, Atomico’s head of research, who authored the report.
Top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in the region told Reuters they are increasingly confident that the next world-class companies could emerge from Europe in fields including artificial intelligence, video gaming, music and messaging.
“What we still need to develop is entrepreneurs who have the drive to take it all the way - I think we are starting to see that now,” said Bernard Liautaud, managing partner at venture fund Balderton Capital, who sold his software company Business Objects to SAP for $6.8 billion a decade ago.
The Atomico report is being published in conjunction with the annual Nordic technology start-up festival taking place in Helsinki this week and set to draw some 20,000 participants.
STRONGER FUNDAMENTALS
Capital invested in European tech companies is on track to reach a record this year, with $19.1 billion in funding projected through the end of 2017 - up 33 percent over 2016, according to investment tracking firm Dealroom.co.
The median size of European venture funds nearly tripled to around 58 million euros ($68.7 million) in 2017 compared with five years ago, according to Invest Europe’s European Data Cooperative on fundraising investment activity.
Beyond the availability of funding, Europe has a range of technical talent available to work more cheaply than in Silicon Valley, enabling start-ups to get going with far less funding.
With a pool of professional developers now numbering 5.5 million, European tech employment outpaces the comparable 4.4 million employed in the United States, according to data from Stack Overflow, a site popular with programmers.
London remains the top European city in terms of numbers of professional developers, but Germany, as a country, overtook Britain in the past year with 837,398 developers compared with 813,500, the report states, using Stack Overflow statistics.
While median salaries for software engineers are rising in top European cities Berlin, London, Paris and Barcelona, they are one-third to one-half the average cost of salaries in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is more than $129,000, based on Glassdoor recruiting data.
PUSHING UP AGAINST LIMITS
Big hurdles remain. A survey of 1,000 founders by authors of the report found European entrepreneurs were worried by Brexit, with concerns, especially in Britain, over hiring, investment and heightened uncertainty in the business climate.
Although Europe has deep engineering talent, many big startups focus on business model innovation in areas such as media, retail and gaming rather than on breakthrough technology developments that can usher in new industries, critics say.
Regulatory frameworks in Europe put the brakes on development on promising technologies such as cryptocurrencies, “flying taxis” and gene editing, while autonomous vehicles and drones face fewer obstacles, the report says.
A separate study by Index Ventures, also to be published on Thursday, found that employees at fast-growing tech start-ups in Europe tend to receive only half the stock option stakes that are a primary route to riches for their U.S. rivals. Yet their options are taxed twice as much.
The Index report said employees in successful, later-stage European tech start-ups receive around 10 percent of capital, compared with 20 percent ownership in Silicon Valley firms.
“There is quite a gap today between stock option practices in Europe and those in Silicon Valley,” Index Ventures partner Martin Mignot said in an interview. “There are other issues where Europe is behind, but we think stock options should be at the top of the agenda.”
Another factor holding back Europe is that regional stock markets encourage firms to go public prematurely, Liataud said.
“Europe has markets for average companies. In the U.S., going public is hard. You have to be really, really good. You have to be $100 million, minimum, in revenue,” the French entrepreneur-turned-investor said. “Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have not lowered their standards.”
($1 = 0.8442 euros)
Reporting by Eric Auchard in London; Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell in Helsink; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Free Web Hosting
Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?
Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.
After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.
Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.
Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.
About the Author:
Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.
Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab
TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech
Free Web Hosting
Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?
Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.
After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.
Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.
Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.
About the Author:
Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.
Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab
TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech
Does Europe have what it takes to create the next Google?
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe is making major strides to eliminate barriers that have held back the region from developing tech firms that can compete on the scale of global giants Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc or Tencent Holdings Inc, a report published on Thursday shows.
The region has thriving tech hubs in major cities, with record new funding, experienced entrepreneurs, a growing base of technical talent and an improving regulatory climate, according to a study by European venture firm Atomico.
While even the largest European tech ventures remain a fraction of the size of the biggest U.S. and Asian rivals, global music streaming leader Spotify of Sweden marks the rising ambition of European entrepreneurs. Spotify is gearing up for a stock market flotation next year that could value it at upward of $20 billion. (reut.rs/2wYORnI)
“The probability that the next industry-defining company could come from Europe - and become one of the world’s most valuable companies - has never been higher,” said Tom Wehmeier, Atomico’s head of research, who authored the report.
Top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in the region told Reuters they are increasingly confident that the next world-class companies could emerge from Europe in fields including artificial intelligence, video gaming, music and messaging.
“What we still need to develop is entrepreneurs who have the drive to take it all the way - I think we are starting to see that now,” said Bernard Liautaud, managing partner at venture fund Balderton Capital, who sold his software company Business Objects to SAP for $6.8 billion a decade ago.
The Atomico report is being published in conjunction with the annual Nordic technology start-up festival taking place in Helsinki this week and set to draw some 20,000 participants.
STRONGER FUNDAMENTALS
Capital invested in European tech companies is on track to reach a record this year, with $19.1 billion in funding projected through the end of 2017 - up 33 percent over 2016, according to investment tracking firm Dealroom.co.
The median size of European venture funds nearly tripled to around 58 million euros ($68.7 million) in 2017 compared with five years ago, according to Invest Europe’s European Data Cooperative on fundraising investment activity.
Beyond the availability of funding, Europe has a range of technical talent available to work more cheaply than in Silicon Valley, enabling start-ups to get going with far less funding.
With a pool of professional developers now numbering 5.5 million, European tech employment outpaces the comparable 4.4 million employed in the United States, according to data from Stack Overflow, a site popular with programmers.
London remains the top European city in terms of numbers of professional developers, but Germany, as a country, overtook Britain in the past year with 837,398 developers compared with 813,500, the report states, using Stack Overflow statistics.
While median salaries for software engineers are rising in top European cities Berlin, London, Paris and Barcelona, they are one-third to one-half the average cost of salaries in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is more than $129,000, based on Glassdoor recruiting data.
PUSHING UP AGAINST LIMITS
Big hurdles remain. A survey of 1,000 founders by authors of the report found European entrepreneurs were worried by Brexit, with concerns, especially in Britain, over hiring, investment and heightened uncertainty in the business climate.
Although Europe has deep engineering talent, many big startups focus on business model innovation in areas such as media, retail and gaming rather than on breakthrough technology developments that can usher in new industries, critics say.
Regulatory frameworks in Europe put the brakes on development on promising technologies such as cryptocurrencies, “flying taxis” and gene editing, while autonomous vehicles and drones face fewer obstacles, the report says.
A separate study by Index Ventures, also to be published on Thursday, found that employees at fast-growing tech start-ups in Europe tend to receive only half the stock option stakes that are a primary route to riches for their U.S. rivals. Yet their options are taxed twice as much.
The Index report said employees in successful, later-stage European tech start-ups receive around 10 percent of capital, compared with 20 percent ownership in Silicon Valley firms.
“There is quite a gap today between stock option practices in Europe and those in Silicon Valley,” Index Ventures partner Martin Mignot said in an interview. “There are other issues where Europe is behind, but we think stock options should be at the top of the agenda.”
Another factor holding back Europe is that regional stock markets encourage firms to go public prematurely, Liataud said.
“Europe has markets for average companies. In the U.S., going public is hard. You have to be really, really good. You have to be $100 million, minimum, in revenue,” the French entrepreneur-turned-investor said. “Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have not lowered their standards.”
($1 = 0.8442 euros)
Reporting by Eric Auchard in London; Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell in Helsink; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
3 Reasons to Hire Employees Who Are Older Than You
It"s becoming more common within the startup ecosystem to come across a company with a young millennial CEO. They may have just graduated from college or dropped out to pursue their vision full-time. Young entrepreneurs have the potential to become great CEOs and lead really successful companies -- just look at Facebook at its start, or Snap Inc.
To all of the young CEOs out there: Get ready for a wild ride. Having been in this position myself, I know the challenges and benefits of being a young CEO in the technology space.
As a young CEO, there"s so much you can learn from your older mentors--both within the organization and outside. The best way to learn from these folks is to bring them on board full time. It"s such a beneficial step that younger CEOs should not overlook.
When I founded Pinpoint Technologies, one of my first moves was to bring in someone who had been doing their job since before I was alive. While it made me feel a bit odd to have an older employee report to me, it"s been one of the best decisions in my career.
An aspect of startups I have grown to love is the abundance of unique personalities within your company. Age diversity is one factor that greatly contributes to the personality and culture of your company.
So, the next time you"re looking at a potential employee and thinking,"They"re older than me, should I hire them?" keep these three things in mind:
1. Focus on the experience gain.
Like I said previously, in one of my previous roles I hired an employee who was much older than me, but had the experience necessary to fulfill the role. As a young decision-maker, there is much to learn when surrounding yourself and your team with employees who have had a long career, and more learning experiences to go with it. After hiring this person, I learned many skills that helped shape who I am today.
2. Add a new perspective.
In today"s technology industry, there is always talk about why companies need to prioritize diversification, which leads to a more productive company. The same applies for age diversification.
Hiring employees at different ages brings a new perspective. The older employees can bring all the experience necessary to operate the day-to-day business and continue to move the needle, but hiring young executives allows leaders to come in and provide perspective on what a company needs to do in order to cater to what the younger generation taking over the workforce wants.
3. Keep a team-first mentality.
Many companies come through our accelerator program with a founder/CEO who is younger than the typical age of a founder. Focusing on a team-first perspective will allow older employees to teach the skills younger employees have yet to learn. The dynamic also teaches older employees the new ways of the younger workforce, rounding out the entire team"s view on work in the modern age.
An age diverse team can really take a new startup to new heights when experienced and driven folks get together to get more done faster.
Free Web Hosting
Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?
Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.
After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.
Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.
Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.
About the Author:
Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.
Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab
TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech
Free Web Hosting
Free web hosting can be very enticing to individuals and businesses that do not have enough money to afford good web hosting services. But is it something worth the time spent and efforts done?
Fortunately there are proven ways on how to determine the most suited web host for your requirements. First you have to do an extensive research. Gather as many information on free web hosting services. You can always do this by doing an online search at google or yahoo.
After compiling your list then decide the service that you want from a web host. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of availing the services of a particular web host. You might also want to ask around. Actually there are a lot of discussion forums on the Internet regarding free website hosting. Go around discussion boards and read. You can also ask people who have availed of free website hosting about their experiences in getting a free hosting service. This is a good way for you to learn about the pros as well as cons of getting such service.
Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting. With all these problems arising, there"s little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.
Remember, every free hosting firm will try to make money from your website. Look for a hosting firm, which is less intrusive and more reliable.
About the Author:
Learn more about dedicated hosting web and get a Free limited report on Web Hosting Insights, a popular website that provides free tips and advice on web hosting solutions.
Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab
TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
Tech
5 Simple Ways To Boost Marketing ROI 2X, 5X, Or Even 10X
Channel synergy is an amazing thing. And when you intentionally cook up some good chemistry between paid, earned, and owned marketing channels, you can multiply your results exponentially.
I recently completed extensive research on marketing synergies. (Full disclosure: I consult with TUNE as a mobile economist.)
Here are five stories from marketing experts who synergized paid, earned, and owned channels and achieved outsized results.
Social commerce: 680% boost
Sandra Rand has worked in organic and paid marketing for 12 years, and currently plies her trade for Massachusetts-based agency OrionCKB.
Mixing organic and paid social in the right proportions has helped her massively increase social commerce.
"One client saw a branding video -- one that was not product-focused or with a strong call to action to buy -- really get traction on Facebook organically," Rand says. "It resonated because it hit people at an emotional level and sold them into the importance of the company"s mission. Once we put some paid social budget behind it, it took off and sales followed."
Sales followed, yes, but ad costs went down, and return on ad spend jumped as well:
"This approach, using a video intended for organic as an ad, reduced cost-per-action by 3.6% and increased return on ad spend by 24%. With the increased level of volume, we were also able to increase the number of purchases driven by Facebook 680%!"
Organic social boosts brand .... and sales: 50%
We know that social proof matters. It"s an indicator of success, of authenticity, of longevity, and of influence. In short, it builds brand.
"If there were two Facebook pages selling the same exact product, yet one page had 15 likes and the other page had 15,000 likes, which page would you buy from?" asks Tucker Ferwerda of Zero to Hero. "We have found that the more followers that we have, the more engagement we have, and the more optimized we can make our social media channels, the more our organic and paid reach compliment each other."
The question is, however: By how much?
"Organic traffic, especially when it"s hyperactive, completes the marketing efforts. Our Instagram accounts that are above 10,000 followers work better and get better conversions than the pages just starting out by at least 50%," Ferwerda says. The longer someone follows, the more valuable they tend to be, he adds: "That"s because they are followers, have been around the block longer, and have trusted our brands. Organic traffic converts better!"
Organic social boosts paid and earned web traffic: 1000%
Doing better at organic social can lead to an opportunity to improve paid as well. Perhaps not always as much as TeliApp, a digital marketing firm in New Jersey, managed to achieve for a manufacturing client, however.
Not shockingly, it involves being human and not a sales machine on social.
"For two different clients of ours, one an insurance franchisee and another a home goods manufacturer and distributor, we noticed that posting about current events that are related to their products works better than merely posting about the product itself," Joshua Weiss, TeliApp"s CEO, says. "The supporting data was overwhelming, and so we modified both their respective organic and paid search campaigns. For one client, we increased their Facebook page following by nearly 1,900%, and their corresponding website traffic by over 1,000% over the same three-day period."
There are clearly multiple synergies working here.
Better organic social led to better owned media: more fans and followers. Adding paid into the mix -- with the learnings from organic social -- improved both fans and followers and a mix of earned and paid traffic to an owned asset: the client"s website.
Organic relationship management boosts paid SEM/PPC: 25%
Online relationship management includes reviews of a company and its products, among other things. Focusing on reputation can not only boost your brand, but also improve your click-through rate on paid search ads.
"We did some ORM for a client in Boston who sells medical equipment," Rahal of Little Dragon Media says. "This resulted in an overall score of 4.8 stars out of 5."
That in itself is useful, and can lead to better reputation and better organic search placement, higher organic search click-through rates, and probably even better conversion rates when potential customers arrive at your website.
But it also had an impact on paid search:
"We were then able to add the reviews as an "ad extension" on our Google Adwords ads, which improved click-through rate on our ads by over 25%," Rahal says.
Organic SEO + paid SEM/Shopping ads boosts revenue: 800%
Marketers who don"t seek and exploit synergies between paid and organic marketing channels are missing out on pure gold.
Literally.
Alison Garrison, a senior director of marketing at Volusion, an ecommerce platform for SMBs, saw a long 12 months" worth of organic search engine optimization hit pay dirt when she added Google Shopping ads.
"After kicking off a Shopping feeds campaign, the SEO work that had been going for about a year gained significant traction, and traffic from organic search increased 325% overall and more than 400% from mobile alone year-over-year," she says.
But revenue absolutely jumped through the roof as well ... including organic search revenue.
"Revenue from organic search increased by 240% during that period," Garrison says. "Shopping feeds ads were key to success here -- overall traffic increased by more than 2,500%, mobile traffic increased by more than 10,000%, revenue increased by more than 800%, mobile revenue increased by more than 80,000% -- not a typo."
Clearly, her client was starting from a small base of web and mobile revenue. Still, the results are impressive.
Channel synergy works
Intention channel synergy building is a smart strategic move for marketers that lowers costs, improves result, and generates lasting value in owned and earned from transient bursts of paid media.
My full report, with many more examples and a deep explanation of how and why channel synergies function, is available here.
5 Simple Ways To Boost Marketing ROI 2X, 5X, Or Even 10X
Channel synergy is an amazing thing. And when you intentionally cook up some good chemistry between paid, earned, and owned marketing channels, you can multiply your results exponentially.
I recently completed extensive research on marketing synergies. (Full disclosure: I consult with TUNE as a mobile economist.)
Here are five stories from marketing experts who synergized paid, earned, and owned channels and achieved outsized results.
Social commerce: 680% boost
Sandra Rand has worked in organic and paid marketing for 12 years, and currently plies her trade for Massachusetts-based agency OrionCKB.
Mixing organic and paid social in the right proportions has helped her massively increase social commerce.
"One client saw a branding video -- one that was not product-focused or with a strong call to action to buy -- really get traction on Facebook organically," Rand says. "It resonated because it hit people at an emotional level and sold them into the importance of the company"s mission. Once we put some paid social budget behind it, it took off and sales followed."
Sales followed, yes, but ad costs went down, and return on ad spend jumped as well:
"This approach, using a video intended for organic as an ad, reduced cost-per-action by 3.6% and increased return on ad spend by 24%. With the increased level of volume, we were also able to increase the number of purchases driven by Facebook 680%!"
Organic social boosts brand .... and sales: 50%
We know that social proof matters. It"s an indicator of success, of authenticity, of longevity, and of influence. In short, it builds brand.
"If there were two Facebook pages selling the same exact product, yet one page had 15 likes and the other page had 15,000 likes, which page would you buy from?" asks Tucker Ferwerda of Zero to Hero. "We have found that the more followers that we have, the more engagement we have, and the more optimized we can make our social media channels, the more our organic and paid reach compliment each other."
The question is, however: By how much?
"Organic traffic, especially when it"s hyperactive, completes the marketing efforts. Our Instagram accounts that are above 10,000 followers work better and get better conversions than the pages just starting out by at least 50%," Ferwerda says. The longer someone follows, the more valuable they tend to be, he adds: "That"s because they are followers, have been around the block longer, and have trusted our brands. Organic traffic converts better!"
Organic social boosts paid and earned web traffic: 1000%
Doing better at organic social can lead to an opportunity to improve paid as well. Perhaps not always as much as TeliApp, a digital marketing firm in New Jersey, managed to achieve for a manufacturing client, however.
Not shockingly, it involves being human and not a sales machine on social.
"For two different clients of ours, one an insurance franchisee and another a home goods manufacturer and distributor, we noticed that posting about current events that are related to their products works better than merely posting about the product itself," Joshua Weiss, TeliApp"s CEO, says. "The supporting data was overwhelming, and so we modified both their respective organic and paid search campaigns. For one client, we increased their Facebook page following by nearly 1,900%, and their corresponding website traffic by over 1,000% over the same three-day period."
There are clearly multiple synergies working here.
Better organic social led to better owned media: more fans and followers. Adding paid into the mix -- with the learnings from organic social -- improved both fans and followers and a mix of earned and paid traffic to an owned asset: the client"s website.
Organic relationship management boosts paid SEM/PPC: 25%
Online relationship management includes reviews of a company and its products, among other things. Focusing on reputation can not only boost your brand, but also improve your click-through rate on paid search ads.
"We did some ORM for a client in Boston who sells medical equipment," Rahal of Little Dragon Media says. "This resulted in an overall score of 4.8 stars out of 5."
That in itself is useful, and can lead to better reputation and better organic search placement, higher organic search click-through rates, and probably even better conversion rates when potential customers arrive at your website.
But it also had an impact on paid search:
"We were then able to add the reviews as an "ad extension" on our Google Adwords ads, which improved click-through rate on our ads by over 25%," Rahal says.
Organic SEO + paid SEM/Shopping ads boosts revenue: 800%
Marketers who don"t seek and exploit synergies between paid and organic marketing channels are missing out on pure gold.
Literally.
Alison Garrison, a senior director of marketing at Volusion, an ecommerce platform for SMBs, saw a long 12 months" worth of organic search engine optimization hit pay dirt when she added Google Shopping ads.
"After kicking off a Shopping feeds campaign, the SEO work that had been going for about a year gained significant traction, and traffic from organic search increased 325% overall and more than 400% from mobile alone year-over-year," she says.
But revenue absolutely jumped through the roof as well ... including organic search revenue.
"Revenue from organic search increased by 240% during that period," Garrison says. "Shopping feeds ads were key to success here -- overall traffic increased by more than 2,500%, mobile traffic increased by more than 10,000%, revenue increased by more than 800%, mobile revenue increased by more than 80,000% -- not a typo."
Clearly, her client was starting from a small base of web and mobile revenue. Still, the results are impressive.
Channel synergy works
Intention channel synergy building is a smart strategic move for marketers that lowers costs, improves result, and generates lasting value in owned and earned from transient bursts of paid media.
My full report, with many more examples and a deep explanation of how and why channel synergies function, is available here.
The Shocking Exits of Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor, and Others Give MeToo Even More Urgency in the Workplace
Have you been seeing the hashtag #MeToo on your social media feeds lately? The second half of 2017 has seen an avalanche of sexual misconduct accusations and revelations of high-powered, public figures -- in most every case perpetrated by males in the workplace. In response, women began posting on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MeToo to express that they had also encountered a personal instance of sexual assault or harassment at work, no matter which industry they came from.
Soon, the hashtag took over social media platforms as woman after woman stepped forward to offer their own poignant, personal experiences, ultimately solidifying the idea that sexual harassment and outright assault is still rampant in the workplace. The movement also revealed that a number of notable male figures in a variety of industries -- from film and media, to government, to Silicon Valley darlings -- were culprits of sexual assault, or inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.
Just yesterday, longtime NBC host Matt Lauer was fired for "inappropriate sexual conduct" in the workplace, following a complaint from a colleague. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack stated that he had read the detailed claim and had reason to believe that Lauer"s actions were not an isolated incident.
And Lauer wasn"t the only one paying the price for a crackdown of sexual assault in the workplace yesterday. Garrison Keillor, the former host and creator of famed radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" has also been fired over a complaint of "inappropriate relations" with a previous coworker. Minnesota Public Radio was informed of these allegations last month and has only recently taken that action.
In addition to the two men mentioned, Charlie Rose was accused of making crude sexual advances toward women who worked on his show (CBS suspended him) and John Lasseter, Pixar"s co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, recently announced that he too would be taking a six-month leave due to colleagues feeling "disrespected" and "uncomfortable."
All in all, the #MeToo movement has triggered a wave of important and poignant attention to the issue of sexual assault in the workplace. And companies -- and the men and women who lead them -- must act swiftly when these accusations and claims arise. If they don"t, not only are they are tacitly supporting a culture that disrespects women, but they are putting their organizations in legal jeopardy. Neither of those outcomes is a recipe for business success.
The Shocking Exits of Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor, and Others Give MeToo Even More Urgency in the Workplace
Have you been seeing the hashtag #MeToo on your social media feeds lately? The second half of 2017 has seen an avalanche of sexual misconduct accusations and revelations of high-powered, public figures -- in most every case perpetrated by males in the workplace. In response, women began posting on Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #MeToo to express that they had also encountered a personal instance of sexual assault or harassment at work, no matter which industry they came from.
Soon, the hashtag took over social media platforms as woman after woman stepped forward to offer their own poignant, personal experiences, ultimately solidifying the idea that sexual harassment and outright assault is still rampant in the workplace. The movement also revealed that a number of notable male figures in a variety of industries -- from film and media, to government, to Silicon Valley darlings -- were culprits of sexual assault, or inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.
Just yesterday, longtime NBC host Matt Lauer was fired for "inappropriate sexual conduct" in the workplace, following a complaint from a colleague. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack stated that he had read the detailed claim and had reason to believe that Lauer"s actions were not an isolated incident.
And Lauer wasn"t the only one paying the price for a crackdown of sexual assault in the workplace yesterday. Garrison Keillor, the former host and creator of famed radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" has also been fired over a complaint of "inappropriate relations" with a previous coworker. Minnesota Public Radio was informed of these allegations last month and has only recently taken that action.
In addition to the two men mentioned, Charlie Rose was accused of making crude sexual advances toward women who worked on his show (CBS suspended him) and John Lasseter, Pixar"s co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, recently announced that he too would be taking a six-month leave due to colleagues feeling "disrespected" and "uncomfortable."
All in all, the #MeToo movement has triggered a wave of important and poignant attention to the issue of sexual assault in the workplace. And companies -- and the men and women who lead them -- must act swiftly when these accusations and claims arise. If they don"t, not only are they are tacitly supporting a culture that disrespects women, but they are putting their organizations in legal jeopardy. Neither of those outcomes is a recipe for business success.
NATO mulls 'offensive defense' with cyber warfare rules
TARTU, Estonia (Reuters) - A group of NATO allies are considering a more muscular response to state-sponsored computer hackers that could involve using cyber attacks to bring down enemy networks, officials said.
The United States, Britain, Germany, Norway, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands are drawing up cyber warfare principles to guide their militaries on what justifies deploying cyber attack weapons more broadly, aiming for agreement by early 2019.
The doctrine could shift NATO’s approach from being defensive to confronting hackers that officials say Russia, China and North Korea use to try to undermine Western governments and steal technology.
“There’s a change in the (NATO) mindset to accept that computers, just like aircraft and ships, have an offensive capability,” said U.S. Navy Commander Michael Widmann at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, a research center affiliated to NATO that is coordinating doctrine writing.
Washington already has cyber weapons, such as computer code to take down websites or shut down IT systems, and in 2011 declared that it would respond to hostile cyber acts.
The United States, and possibly Israel, are widely believed to have been behind “Stuxnet”, a computer virus that destroyed nuclear centrifuges in Iran in 2010. Neither has confirmed it.
Some NATO allies believe shutting down an enemy power plant through a cyber attack could be more effective than air strikes.
“I need to do a certain mission and I have an air asset, I also have a cyber asset. What fits best for the me to get the effect I want?” Widmann said.
The 29-nation NATO alliance recognized cyber as a domain of warfare, along with land, air and sea, in 2014, but has not outlined in detail what that entails.
In Europe, the issue of deploying malware is sensitive because democratic governments do not want to be seen to be using the same tactics as an authoritarian regime. Commanders and experts have focused on defending their networks and blocking attempts at malicious manipulation of data.
Senior Baltic and British security officials say they have intelligence showing persistent Russian cyber hacks to try to bring down European energy and telecommunications networks, coupled with Internet disinformation campaigns.
They believe Russia is trying to break Western unity over economic sanctions imposed over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
“They (Russia) are seeking to attack the cohesion of NATO,” said a senior British security official, who said the balance between war and peace was becoming blurred in the virtual world. “It looks quite strategic.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied any such cyber attacks.
ESTONIAN ‘CYBER COMMAND’
The United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and France have “cyber commands” -- special headquarters to combat cyber espionage and hacks of critical infrastructure.
Estonia, which was hit by one of the world’s first large-scale cyber attacks a decade ago, aims to open a cyber command next year and make it fully operational by 2020, with offensive cyber weapons.
“You cannot only defend in cyberspace,” said Erki Kodar, Estonia’s undersecretary for legal and administrative affairs who oversees cyber policy at the defense ministry.
Across the globe this year computer hackers have disrupted multinational firms, ports and public services on an unprecedented scale, raising awareness of the issue.
NATO held its biggest ever cyber exercise this week at a military base in southern Estonia, testing 25 NATO allies against a fictional state-sponsored hacker group seeking to infiltrate NATO air defense and communication networks.
“The fictional scenarios are based on real threats,” said Estonian army Lieutenant-Colonel Anders Kuusk, who ran the exercise.
NATO’s commanders will not develop cyber weapons but allied defense ministers agreed last month that NATO commanders can request nations to allow them use of their weapons if requested.
Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Peter Graff
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Tech
Europe draws in nearly half of funds raised via initial coin offerings: report
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of the cash that has poured into newly issued cryptocurrencies in recent years has been raised in Europe, research published on Thursday showed.
The report by Atomico, one of Europe’s leading venture capital firms, found European-based entities have raised $1.76 billion through so-called initial coin offerings, or ICOs, since 2014, representing 46 percent of funds raised globally.
ICOs have become a bonanza for digital currency entrepreneurs. They have provided the fuel for a rapid ascent in the value of cryptocurrencies this year that has raised fears of a bubble that could burst, with bitcoin soaring more than 1,000 percent since the start of 2017. (reut.rs/2i2zvcU)
Atomico"s research is based on data compiled by California-based TokenData (www.tokendata.io) and stretches back to 2014, although more than 90 percent of ICO activity has taken place this year, researcher Ricky Tan said.
Switzerland drew in nearly half of Europe’s total - $828 million or 47 percent of ICO funds in the region, mainly through firms registered in Zug, a low-tax region near Zurich that is also the domicile for many top commodities traders, Tan said.
By contrast, North America drew in $1.08 billion of ICOs, or 28 percent of a global market that raised around $3.8 billion through the issuance of new types of digital currency.
The report predicts that larger European venture firms will begin to participate in ICOs next year, reversing their historic resistance to what many have seen as unregulated competition to traditional venture funding.
Already, top-tier U.S. venture capital firms such as Andreesen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures have actively invested in ICO fundraisings, along with some newer European funds such as Blueyard Capital of Berlin.
“But the region’s most established funds have yet to participate,” the Atomico report states. “This will change in 2018.”
ICOs function as an alternative to traditional, regulated means of fundraising through public stock market flotations or private investments by venture capitalists or other investors.
The new fundraising mechanism has flourished in unregulated markets where investment capital is scarce. China and South Korea have banned digital coin sales, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is weighing tougher rules (reut.rs/2juaqaM).
Switzerland, along with Germany and Austria dwarf other parts of Europe with $976 million raised in terms of capital - three times the funding ICOs attracted in Central and Eastern Europe and four times greater than Britain and Ireland.
But when it comes to the number of ICO projects launched, Central and Eastern Europe are way ahead with 162 of the rest of the region, followed by 90 projects in Britain and Ireland.
Additional reporting by Eric Auchard in London; Editing by Susan Fenton
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
8 Powerful Ways to Motivate and Inspire Your Employees This Week
Whether you"ve been promoted to management recently or have been at it for ten years or longer, one thing never changes: Human nature -- as in that of your employees -- is often unpredictable. Knowing how to motivate each person on a team can be so frustrating and challenging.
But it can be done if managers have a basic understanding of human behavior -- what makes people tick. What science has already found is that positive emotions (how work and culture make employees feel) are at the root of human motivation. We are wired for it in our creation design.
Therefore, managers must acquire the knowledge of what truly inspires loyal human beings to enthusiastically perform at a high level.
Let me prescribe eight strategies to help managers create the right atmosphere for motivating others.
1. Start with scheduling more one on one time.
Get off on the right track by making consistent clear goals and expectations an operational reality. You do that through the lost art of one-on-one conversations -- a great motivational tool. Leaders thrive when they strengthen relationships with their people by spending more one-on-one time with them to hear their suggestions, ideas, problems and issues as well as talking about performance issues and their work. But first, you need to know how to structure these meetings so that it works to your advantage.
2. Find out what motivates them.
Do you know what gets your team members out of bed in the morning? What they"re passionate about -- their goals, aspirations, and interests? In other words, do you really know your team members? Great leaders show an interest in their people"s jobs and career aspirations in order to motivate them the right way. Once that"s been established, they look into the future to create learning and development opportunities for their people. They find out what motivates their best people by getting to know what desires will drive each team member. This is about emotional engagement.
3. Provide the resources they need to do their work exceptionally well.
It"s a simple question, but you"d be surprised how often it is not asked: What do you need right now to do your job better? You may be surprised, or even shocked at the answer; it could be that they need access to more information to make the right decisions, bettter equipment or even another work space. Acting on what you find out will be a huge motivational booster.
4. Praise and compliment them often.
"I don"t like to be recognized," said no human being, ever. Managers have to get into the habit of praising and complimenting their people for their good qualities and work. The companies in Gallup"s study with the highest engagement levels use recognition and praise as a powerful motivator to get their commitment. They found that employees who receive it on a regular basis increase their individual productivity, receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers, and are more likely to stay with their organization. How regular are we talking? Praise should be given once per week, according to Gallup.
5. Help co-create purposeful work.
People want meaning and purpose in their work. In the book Give and Take, Wharton professor Adam Grant says that when people find purpose in their work, it not only improves that person"s happiness, it also boosts productivity. One way to give employees that purpose, according to Grant, is to have them meet the very people they are helping and serving, even if just for a few minutes. Managers giving their people access to customers so they can see firsthand the human impact their work makes is the greatest human motivator, says Grant.
6. Help them develop new skills.
Although important, I"m not so much talking about putting them through another required technical or safety training program to keep them or the business compliant, but actually giving them meaningful new skills or knowledge in other areas that they can use to leverage their natural strengths for future roles, whether with their current company or another company. The point is to serve and value them so exceptionally well as people and workers that they have no reason to leave but use their newfound skills for new projects.
7. Actively involve them.
Great managers recognize that leadership doesn"t travel one way but is multi-directional. While it can come from the top down at critical times, the best scenario is allowing decisions, information, and delegation to travel from peer to peer or from the bottom up, where the collective wisdom and involvement of the whole team help solve real issues in real time on the frontlines.
8. Believe in them.
The best managers delegate often and give their employees responsibility for delivering challenging work. If this doesn"t happen in your workplace, consider two hard questions:
- Do you trust your knowledge workers to do what they"ve been hired to do?
- Do they have the right competence for the job to carry out the work with confidence?
So often managers underestimate the potential and ability of their employees to use their brains! If you answered yes to the questions above, be of the mindset to always accept that they can do the work. Then, give them the room to perform and support them with whatever they need to make them even better. This is how you motivate them to the rafters.
8 Powerful Ways to Motivate and Inspire Your Employees This Week
Whether you"ve been promoted to management recently or have been at it for ten years or longer, one thing never changes: Human nature -- as in that of your employees -- is often unpredictable. Knowing how to motivate each person on a team can be so frustrating and challenging.
But it can be done if managers have a basic understanding of human behavior -- what makes people tick. What science has already found is that positive emotions (how work and culture make employees feel) are at the root of human motivation. We are wired for it in our creation design.
Therefore, managers must acquire the knowledge of what truly inspires loyal human beings to enthusiastically perform at a high level.
Let me prescribe eight strategies to help managers create the right atmosphere for motivating others.
1. Start with scheduling more one on one time.
Get off on the right track by making consistent clear goals and expectations an operational reality. You do that through the lost art of one-on-one conversations -- a great motivational tool. Leaders thrive when they strengthen relationships with their people by spending more one-on-one time with them to hear their suggestions, ideas, problems and issues as well as talking about performance issues and their work. But first, you need to know how to structure these meetings so that it works to your advantage.
2. Find out what motivates them.
Do you know what gets your team members out of bed in the morning? What they"re passionate about -- their goals, aspirations, and interests? In other words, do you really know your team members? Great leaders show an interest in their people"s jobs and career aspirations in order to motivate them the right way. Once that"s been established, they look into the future to create learning and development opportunities for their people. They find out what motivates their best people by getting to know what desires will drive each team member. This is about emotional engagement.
3. Provide the resources they need to do their work exceptionally well.
It"s a simple question, but you"d be surprised how often it is not asked: What do you need right now to do your job better? You may be surprised, or even shocked at the answer; it could be that they need access to more information to make the right decisions, bettter equipment or even another work space. Acting on what you find out will be a huge motivational booster.
4. Praise and compliment them often.
"I don"t like to be recognized," said no human being, ever. Managers have to get into the habit of praising and complimenting their people for their good qualities and work. The companies in Gallup"s study with the highest engagement levels use recognition and praise as a powerful motivator to get their commitment. They found that employees who receive it on a regular basis increase their individual productivity, receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers, and are more likely to stay with their organization. How regular are we talking? Praise should be given once per week, according to Gallup.
5. Help co-create purposeful work.
People want meaning and purpose in their work. In the book Give and Take, Wharton professor Adam Grant says that when people find purpose in their work, it not only improves that person"s happiness, it also boosts productivity. One way to give employees that purpose, according to Grant, is to have them meet the very people they are helping and serving, even if just for a few minutes. Managers giving their people access to customers so they can see firsthand the human impact their work makes is the greatest human motivator, says Grant.
6. Help them develop new skills.
Although important, I"m not so much talking about putting them through another required technical or safety training program to keep them or the business compliant, but actually giving them meaningful new skills or knowledge in other areas that they can use to leverage their natural strengths for future roles, whether with their current company or another company. The point is to serve and value them so exceptionally well as people and workers that they have no reason to leave but use their newfound skills for new projects.
7. Actively involve them.
Great managers recognize that leadership doesn"t travel one way but is multi-directional. While it can come from the top down at critical times, the best scenario is allowing decisions, information, and delegation to travel from peer to peer or from the bottom up, where the collective wisdom and involvement of the whole team help solve real issues in real time on the frontlines.
8. Believe in them.
The best managers delegate often and give their employees responsibility for delivering challenging work. If this doesn"t happen in your workplace, consider two hard questions:
- Do you trust your knowledge workers to do what they"ve been hired to do?
- Do they have the right competence for the job to carry out the work with confidence?
So often managers underestimate the potential and ability of their employees to use their brains! If you answered yes to the questions above, be of the mindset to always accept that they can do the work. Then, give them the room to perform and support them with whatever they need to make them even better. This is how you motivate them to the rafters.
Report Says Robots Will Displace 800 Million Jobs in Next 12 Years: Here Are Winner/Loser Occupations
The AI debate/phenomenon rages on.
The McKinsey Global Institute just issued a report that signals a massive pending workforce transition on the same scale as the shift from agricultural to industrial jobs in the 1900"s.
Depending on the rate at which advanced and developing countries around the world embrace the surging reality of automation, McKinsey"s midpoint estimate was between 400 million and 800 million jobs could be lost to automation, with 75 million to 375 million among the displaced needing to switch occupational categories and learn new skills.
Up to one-third of the workers in the United States and Germany and an astonishing 46 percent of workers in Japan may have to change occupations by 2030 according to the report.
First, the good news within all of this.
The report indicates that there will be enough jobs to go around for everyone:
"With sufficient economic growth, innovation, and investment, there can be enough new job creation to offset the impact of automation. We also note that if history is any guide, we could expect eight to nine percent of 2030 labor demand will be in new types of occupations that have not existed before."
OK, so out with the old (jobs) and in with the new. But there"s a catch, again right from the report:
"Unlike earlier transitions, in which young people left farms and moved to cities for industrial jobs, the challenge, especially in advanced economies, will be to retrain mid-career workers. There are few precedents in which societies have successfully retrained such large numbers of people."
So there you have it.
Automation is coming like a steamroller--even conservative estimates spell a seismic shift in occupational realities. And the key to stopping massive unemployment and wage deflation is to retrain the global workforce--something there are few precedents for on this scale.
Let"s look at the winners and losers in occupations and then we"ll come back to that retraining thorn. (By the way, most of us, regardless of occupation, aren"t off the hook as the report indicated that 60 percent of occupations have at least 30 percent of their work activities highly subject to being replaced by automation).
Occupations in the U.S. hit by automation by 2030 (percent change)
- Predictable Physical Laborers -31percent (repair workers, dishwashers, food prep workers, gaming industry workers, general mechanics). This shouldn"t come as a surprise. For example, Walmart is already testing robots that clean and scrub floors in five of their stores.
- Office support -20 percent (administrative assistants, IT workers, office support workers, data collecting and processing workers)
Occupations in the U.S. surging in the face of automation by 2030 (percent change)
- Creatives +8 percent (artists, designers, entertainers, media workers)
- Technology Specialists +34 percent (Computer engineers and specialists)
- Teachers + 9 percent
- Managers and executives +15 percent
- Builders +35 percent (including engineers, architects, construction workers, etc.)
- Care providers +30 percent (doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, pharmacists, etc.)
- Professionals +11 percent (business professionals, lawyers, scientists, academics, etc.)
- Unpredictable Physical Laborers +6 percent (specialized mechanics and repair, emergency first responders, maintenance workers, etc.)
By the way, anyone working in an occupation requiring customer interaction will be about flat in terms of percentage growth/decline. (Someone has to serve us our chicken parmigiana after all.)
The report indicates that automation will expand the labor market as long as displaced workers find work within a year. The key to that is the rate of innovation companies can muster and the quality of retraining offered.
What will the workforce need to be retrained on to ensure rapid redeployment?
Things machines can"t do silly. Like managing people, applying expertise, and communicating with others. The workforce will also need to build social and emotional skills and more advanced thinking capabilities like logical reasoning and creativity.
What role will policymakers have to play? A massive one according to the report, which notes:
"During the agriculture to industrial shift, the United States made a major investment in expanding secondary education, and for the first time required all students to attend. Called the High School Movement, this raised the rate of high school enrollment of 14- to 17-year-olds from 18 percent in 1910 to 73 percent in 1940, making the US workforce among the best-educated and most productive in the world, and enabling the growth of a vibrant manufacturing sector."
So it can be done. However, the report goes on to say that over the last few decades, public and corporate spending on labor force training has rapidly declined--a trend that must reverse with governments and corporations making workforce transitions and job creation a more urgent priority.
Net--a dramatic shift is coming. But will the Rise of the Robots mean we rise, or fall?
It"s in our (very human) hands now.
Does Europe have what it takes to create the next Google?
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe is making major strides to eliminate barriers that have held back the region from developing tech firms that can compete on the scale of global giants Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc or Tencent Holdings Inc, a report published on Thursday shows.
The region has thriving tech hubs in major cities, with record new funding, experienced entrepreneurs, a growing base of technical talent and an improving regulatory climate, according to a study by European venture firm Atomico.
While even the largest European tech ventures remain a fraction of the size of the biggest U.S. and Asian rivals, global music streaming leader Spotify of Sweden marks the rising ambition of European entrepreneurs. Spotify is gearing up for a stock market flotation next year that could value it at upward of $20 billion. (reut.rs/2wYORnI)
“The probability that the next industry-defining company could come from Europe - and become one of the world’s most valuable companies - has never been higher,” said Tom Wehmeier, Atomico’s head of research, who authored the report.
Top venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in the region told Reuters they are increasingly confident that the next world-class companies could emerge from Europe in fields including artificial intelligence, video gaming, music and messaging.
“What we still need to develop is entrepreneurs who have the drive to take it all the way - I think we are starting to see that now,” said Bernard Liautaud, managing partner at venture fund Balderton Capital, who sold his software company Business Objects to SAP for $6.8 billion a decade ago.
The Atomico report is being published in conjunction with the annual Nordic technology start-up festival taking place in Helsinki this week and set to draw some 20,000 participants.
STRONGER FUNDAMENTALS
Capital invested in European tech companies is on track to reach a record this year, with $19.1 billion in funding projected through the end of 2017 - up 33 percent over 2016, according to investment tracking firm Dealroom.co.
The median size of European venture funds nearly tripled to around 58 million euros ($68.7 million) in 2017 compared with five years ago, according to Invest Europe’s European Data Cooperative on fundraising investment activity.
Beyond the availability of funding, Europe has a range of technical talent available to work more cheaply than in Silicon Valley, enabling start-ups to get going with far less funding.
With a pool of professional developers now numbering 5.5 million, European tech employment outpaces the comparable 4.4 million employed in the United States, according to data from Stack Overflow, a site popular with programmers.
London remains the top European city in terms of numbers of professional developers, but Germany, as a country, overtook Britain in the past year with 837,398 developers compared with 813,500, the report states, using Stack Overflow statistics.
While median salaries for software engineers are rising in top European cities Berlin, London, Paris and Barcelona, they are one-third to one-half the average cost of salaries in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is more than $129,000, based on Glassdoor recruiting data.
PUSHING UP AGAINST LIMITS
Big hurdles remain. A survey of 1,000 founders by authors of the report found European entrepreneurs were worried by Brexit, with concerns, especially in Britain, over hiring, investment and heightened uncertainty in the business climate.
Although Europe has deep engineering talent, many big startups focus on business model innovation in areas such as media, retail and gaming rather than on breakthrough technology developments that can usher in new industries, critics say.
Regulatory frameworks in Europe put the brakes on development on promising technologies such as cryptocurrencies, “flying taxis” and gene editing, while autonomous vehicles and drones face fewer obstacles, the report says.
A separate study by Index Ventures, also to be published on Thursday, found that employees at fast-growing tech start-ups in Europe tend to receive only half the stock option stakes that are a primary route to riches for their U.S. rivals. Yet their options are taxed twice as much.
The Index report said employees in successful, later-stage European tech start-ups receive around 10 percent of capital, compared with 20 percent ownership in Silicon Valley firms.
“There is quite a gap today between stock option practices in Europe and those in Silicon Valley,” Index Ventures partner Martin Mignot said in an interview. “There are other issues where Europe is behind, but we think stock options should be at the top of the agenda.”
Another factor holding back Europe is that regional stock markets encourage firms to go public prematurely, Liataud said.
“Europe has markets for average companies. In the U.S., going public is hard. You have to be really, really good. You have to be $100 million, minimum, in revenue,” the French entrepreneur-turned-investor said. “Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have not lowered their standards.”
($1 = 0.8442 euros)
Reporting by Eric Auchard in London; Additional reporting by Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell in Helsink; Editing by Leslie Adler
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
8 Powerful Ways to Motivate and Inspire Your Employees This Week
Whether you"ve been promoted to management recently or have been at it for ten years or longer, one thing never changes: Human nature -- as in that of your employees -- is often unpredictable. Knowing how to motivate each person on a team can be so frustrating and challenging.
But it can be done if managers have a basic understanding of human behavior -- what makes people tick. What science has already found is that positive emotions (how work and culture make employees feel) are at the root of human motivation. We are wired for it in our creation design.
Therefore, managers must acquire the knowledge of what truly inspires loyal human beings to enthusiastically perform at a high level.
Let me prescribe eight strategies to help managers create the right atmosphere for motivating others.
1. Start with scheduling more one on one time.
Get off on the right track by making consistent clear goals and expectations an operational reality. You do that through the lost art of one-on-one conversations -- a great motivational tool. Leaders thrive when they strengthen relationships with their people by spending more one-on-one time with them to hear their suggestions, ideas, problems and issues as well as talking about performance issues and their work. But first, you need to know how to structure these meetings so that it works to your advantage.
2. Find out what motivates them.
Do you know what gets your team members out of bed in the morning? What they"re passionate about -- their goals, aspirations, and interests? In other words, do you really know your team members? Great leaders show an interest in their people"s jobs and career aspirations in order to motivate them the right way. Once that"s been established, they look into the future to create learning and development opportunities for their people. They find out what motivates their best people by getting to know what desires will drive each team member. This is about emotional engagement.
3. Provide the resources they need to do their work exceptionally well.
It"s a simple question, but you"d be surprised how often it is not asked: What do you need right now to do your job better? You may be surprised, or even shocked at the answer; it could be that they need access to more information to make the right decisions, bettter equipment or even another work space. Acting on what you find out will be a huge motivational booster.
4. Praise and compliment them often.
"I don"t like to be recognized," said no human being, ever. Managers have to get into the habit of praising and complimenting their people for their good qualities and work. The companies in Gallup"s study with the highest engagement levels use recognition and praise as a powerful motivator to get their commitment. They found that employees who receive it on a regular basis increase their individual productivity, receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers, and are more likely to stay with their organization. How regular are we talking? Praise should be given once per week, according to Gallup.
5. Help co-create purposeful work.
People want meaning and purpose in their work. In the book Give and Take, Wharton professor Adam Grant says that when people find purpose in their work, it not only improves that person"s happiness, it also boosts productivity. One way to give employees that purpose, according to Grant, is to have them meet the very people they are helping and serving, even if just for a few minutes. Managers giving their people access to customers so they can see firsthand the human impact their work makes is the greatest human motivator, says Grant.
6. Help them develop new skills.
Although important, I"m not so much talking about putting them through another required technical or safety training program to keep them or the business compliant, but actually giving them meaningful new skills or knowledge in other areas that they can use to leverage their natural strengths for future roles, whether with their current company or another company. The point is to serve and value them so exceptionally well as people and workers that they have no reason to leave but use their newfound skills for new projects.
7. Actively involve them.
Great managers recognize that leadership doesn"t travel one way but is multi-directional. While it can come from the top down at critical times, the best scenario is allowing decisions, information, and delegation to travel from peer to peer or from the bottom up, where the collective wisdom and involvement of the whole team help solve real issues in real time on the frontlines.
8. Believe in them.
The best managers delegate often and give their employees responsibility for delivering challenging work. If this doesn"t happen in your workplace, consider two hard questions:
- Do you trust your knowledge workers to do what they"ve been hired to do?
- Do they have the right competence for the job to carry out the work with confidence?
So often managers underestimate the potential and ability of their employees to use their brains! If you answered yes to the questions above, be of the mindset to always accept that they can do the work. Then, give them the room to perform and support them with whatever they need to make them even better. This is how you motivate them to the rafters.
Report Says Robots Will Displace 800 Million Jobs in Next 12 Years: Here Are Winner/Loser Occupations
The AI debate/phenomenon rages on.
The McKinsey Global Institute just issued a report that signals a massive pending workforce transition on the same scale as the shift from agricultural to industrial jobs in the 1900"s.
Depending on the rate at which advanced and developing countries around the world embrace the surging reality of automation, McKinsey"s midpoint estimate was between 400 million and 800 million jobs could be lost to automation, with 75 million to 375 million among the displaced needing to switch occupational categories and learn new skills.
Up to one-third of the workers in the United States and Germany and an astonishing 46 percent of workers in Japan may have to change occupations by 2030 according to the report.
First, the good news within all of this.
The report indicates that there will be enough jobs to go around for everyone:
"With sufficient economic growth, innovation, and investment, there can be enough new job creation to offset the impact of automation. We also note that if history is any guide, we could expect eight to nine percent of 2030 labor demand will be in new types of occupations that have not existed before."
OK, so out with the old (jobs) and in with the new. But there"s a catch, again right from the report:
"Unlike earlier transitions, in which young people left farms and moved to cities for industrial jobs, the challenge, especially in advanced economies, will be to retrain mid-career workers. There are few precedents in which societies have successfully retrained such large numbers of people."
So there you have it.
Automation is coming like a steamroller--even conservative estimates spell a seismic shift in occupational realities. And the key to stopping massive unemployment and wage deflation is to retrain the global workforce--something there are few precedents for on this scale.
Let"s look at the winners and losers in occupations and then we"ll come back to that retraining thorn. (By the way, most of us, regardless of occupation, aren"t off the hook as the report indicated that 60 percent of occupations have at least 30 percent of their work activities highly subject to being replaced by automation).
Occupations in the U.S. hit by automation by 2030 (percent change)
- Predictable Physical Laborers -31percent (repair workers, dishwashers, food prep workers, gaming industry workers, general mechanics). This shouldn"t come as a surprise. For example, Walmart is already testing robots that clean and scrub floors in five of their stores.
- Office support -20 percent (administrative assistants, IT workers, office support workers, data collecting and processing workers)
Occupations in the U.S. surging in the face of automation by 2030 (percent change)
- Creatives +8 percent (artists, designers, entertainers, media workers)
- Technology Specialists +34 percent (Computer engineers and specialists)
- Teachers + 9 percent
- Managers and executives +15 percent
- Builders +35 percent (including engineers, architects, construction workers, etc.)
- Care providers +30 percent (doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, pharmacists, etc.)
- Professionals +11 percent (business professionals, lawyers, scientists, academics, etc.)
- Unpredictable Physical Laborers +6 percent (specialized mechanics and repair, emergency first responders, maintenance workers, etc.)
By the way, anyone working in an occupation requiring customer interaction will be about flat in terms of percentage growth/decline. (Someone has to serve us our chicken parmigiana after all.)
The report indicates that automation will expand the labor market as long as displaced workers find work within a year. The key to that is the rate of innovation companies can muster and the quality of retraining offered.
What will the workforce need to be retrained on to ensure rapid redeployment?
Things machines can"t do silly. Like managing people, applying expertise, and communicating with others. The workforce will also need to build social and emotional skills and more advanced thinking capabilities like logical reasoning and creativity.
What role will policymakers have to play? A massive one according to the report, which notes:
"During the agriculture to industrial shift, the United States made a major investment in expanding secondary education, and for the first time required all students to attend. Called the High School Movement, this raised the rate of high school enrollment of 14- to 17-year-olds from 18 percent in 1910 to 73 percent in 1940, making the US workforce among the best-educated and most productive in the world, and enabling the growth of a vibrant manufacturing sector."
So it can be done. However, the report goes on to say that over the last few decades, public and corporate spending on labor force training has rapidly declined--a trend that must reverse with governments and corporations making workforce transitions and job creation a more urgent priority.
Net--a dramatic shift is coming. But will the Rise of the Robots mean we rise, or fall?
It"s in our (very human) hands now.
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Facebook hires prominent artificial-intelligence expert to open Montreal lab
TORONTO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc plans to open an artificial-intelligence laboratory in Montreal, which will be run by prominent AI researcher Joelle Pineau, two people familiar with the plan said on Friday.
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