Improper vetting of Data on a Resume leads to Resignations at Yahoo!

As mentioned in a couple of earlier blog posts, making sure that the references check out and information on Resumes/c.v.'s is accurate before hiring someone, is critical and essential. This impacts the corporation on multiple levels:

1) Making sure that there is good "Job Fit" by contacting people who have worked with the individual before and how they have performed, and in "assessing" behavioral traits that fit with the position's benchmark, based on top performers.

2) Ensuring that the Ethics and Moral values of the person are consistent with the company's values, as this person's interaction with all levels of the company's personnel will have some effect, regardless of position within the company, from sanitary engineer on up.

3) Finding a replacement can take time and interrupts strategies or activities being handled by the individual in question and can set back the initiatives, by months to even years.

4) It affects the morale of of the company and personnel. The higher the position of the person or people in question, the broader the impact and negative affect on the company. In this most recent case at Yahoo!, which has been struggling to compete against Google, it casts ongoing credibility issues for the company, both internally and with shareholders. Morale and Credibility Issues follow Yahoo!

And:
5) In this case, it has affected not only the career of the individual who embellished his credentials, but also, regrettably another Board member.

Have all the shoes fallen yet? Only time will tell! There should be policy changes put into place to prevent a occurrence, that is clear.

Scott Thompson CEO of Yahoo! Resigns

Patti Hart of Yahoo! Resigns Over CEO's botched Academic Records

Top Job Positions in Decline and Hot

In a recent WSJ article at:

5 Sectors Slowing Job Growth & Increased Growth 

It shows the following industries currently in decline for this year;
1) Retail - Department Stores
2) TV, Movie and Music
3) Travel
4) Amusement & Gaming
5) Child Care

Industries doing well this year are:
Military and Legal and then: 
Social Media
Accounting and Human Resources
Engineering and Geologists
Health Care Professionals
Hospitality & Retail (Food & Leisure)

Good luck to all of us! Keep moving forward regardless of the challenges!

In 2012 the Top 20 Countries for Business per a recent Bloomberg Study

In a recent Bloomberg study, they came up with the Top 20 Countries for doing business. While with large companies, when we looked at making investments and acquisitions, part of the screening/strategic planning process is country risk and business climate, and they were, and are, to be given major weight, followed by competitors, and market opportunity and growth. Before, it was hard to come up with this kind of information and we assimilated the information internally. However, now, these kinds of studies can help speed up the process in developing good investment screens.

The big surprise is that out of the BRIC countries, only China come in at 19th. Russia, India and Brazil were ranked 48, 49 and 50th, respectively, due to less developed consumer markets and  "intangible costs."

The 2012 list ranked the countries in this fashion around the parameters of: Economic Integration, Business Start-up Cost, Labor/Material Cost, Transport Cost, Less Tangible Cost, and Local Consumer Base (note the scale used is below the country rankings) [link to the original article is at the end of this artice]:

1)  Hong Kong
2)  Netherlands
3)  USA
4)  United Kingdom
5)  Australia
6)  Germany
7)  Japan
8)  France
9 & 10) Singapore & Austria (tied)
11) Switzerland
12) Canada
13) Belgium
14) Sweden
15) Luxembourg
16) Finland
17) Denmark
18) Norway
19) China
20) Italy

Top 20 Countries for Business: Best Countries For Business