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You’re the Boss Blog: When Software Vendors Take Their Time

March 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

Susan Parker: Earl Wilson/The New York Times Susan Parker: “Too late.”

At the last meeting of the She Owns It business group, Susan Parker talked about the frustrating process of switching to new software to run her company, Bari Jay. After more than a year, the project, which was supposed to take three months, is still unfinished — although she hopes the new software will be live within a month. Although she likes the software, with hindsight she says that she would never work with this particular software development company again. But where does that leave her now?

The software company’s co-owner, she said, is “the most laid-back person” — although, she added, “he wasn’t laid back in the sales process.” The co-owner, who is based in the Philadelphia area, meets with Bari Jay at its offices one day every month or two. When he’s there, Ms. Parker said, she observes no sense of urgency. For example, he once took a 30-minute cigarette break before addressing a glitch she had called to his attention. “If he worked for me, he’d be fired by now, but I can’t do anything,” she said.

Beth Shaw, who owns YogaFit, asked whether Ms. Parker thinks the software company co-owner even understands his own system, given that he seemed more focused on sales.

“He knows his system inside and out,” Ms. Parker replied, “and I think he even knows my system pretty well.”

The group considered what, if anything, Ms. Parker could do to address the problem at this late stage.

“Some software implementations have sort of staggered payments, so you don’t make the last payment until it’s live,” said Deirdre Lord, who owns the Megawatt Hour.

“We did that with our Web site,” said Ms. Shaw, who talked about her site in previous posts.

“Too late,” Ms. Parker said. She paid in three installments during the three-month time period that the project was supposed to last. “Then, all of the sudden I was like, maybe I shouldn’t have paid them,” she said.

“Exactly,” Ms. Shaw said.

On the plus side, Ms. Parker said, the software company knows that the monthly payments she began making in November won’t continue indefinitely unless the software goes live — soon. “They’re also hoping to go after more bridesmaid and bridal companies,” she added.

“Referrals,” Ms. Lord said.

“If it’s working for my company, there are like five other companies on my same old software,” she said. The software firm would only have to make minimal modifications going forward if it took on those projects.

“The conventional wisdom is every technology project takes two or three times as long, but yours blows that,” Ms. Lord said. “I’ve heard a lot of people tell the same story with different technologies.”

Ms. Parker said she’s learned a lot from the process but doesn’t plan on switching software again for a very long time — if ever. She said it’s become “embarrassing” to give the same status report every time she attends one of her Entrepreneurs Organization meetings. Yet no one there can think of what she might do differently.

Although she stays on top of the software company, she said she must ultimately rely on them to do what they say they’re going to do.

Any suggestions? How has your business dealt with “laid back” technology vendors?

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/when-software-vendors-take-their-time/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Herald Tribune to Be Renamed The International New York Times

February 25, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The New York Times Company said on Monday that it was planning to rename The International Herald Tribune, its 125-year-old newspaper based in Paris, and would also unveil a new Web site for international audiences.

Starting this fall, under the plan, the paper will be rechristened The International New York Times, reflecting the company’s intention to focus on its core New York Times newspaper and to build its international presence.

“This recognizes our global reach and is an exciting and logical move,” said Jill Abramson, the executive editor of The New York Times.

Mark Thompson, president and chief executive of The New York Times Company, said in a statement that the company recently explored its prospects with international audiences, and noted there was “significant potential to grow the number of New York Times subscribers outside of the United States.”

He added: “The digital revolution has turned The New York Times from being a great American newspaper to becoming one of the world’s best-known news providers. We want to exploit that opportunity.”

A Times Company spokeswoman would not provide details on how the name change would affect the International Herald Tribune’s employees. Currently, half of the staff members who work in Paris are subject to French labor law, while Herald Tribune employees spread throughout the rest of the world are governed by local labor laws.

The masthead of the paper will also change, the spokeswoman said, but she declined to elaborate.

Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, publisher of The International Herald Tribune, said in an interview that the name change was driven by “extensive research” showing that there was substantial potential, under the new name, to increase the number of international subscribers to the digital editions of The New York Times. 

Mr. Dunbar-Johnson said the name change would be accompanied by new investments aimed at enhancing the paper’s international appeal. New employees will be hired to work on nytimes.com — currently the combined Web site of The New York Times and the Herald Tribune — in Europe and Asia, he said.

The renamed paper will remain based in Paris, where it was founded 125 years ago as the European edition of The New York Herald, Mr. Dunbar-Johnson said. It will also keep its sizable office in Hong Kong where the Asian edition is edited. Mr. Dunbar-Johnson said there also would be investments in other locations. Until the fall it will continue to be published as The International Herald Tribune.

“Everyone at The New York Times thinks fundamentally that for this to be successful, the paper needs to be edited and curated for an international sensibility,”  Mr. Dunbar-Johnson said. “The core attributes of The International Herald Tribune will be retained and refined.”

After a series of ownership changes, the paper became The New York Herald Tribune, European Edition, in 1935. In 1967, it became The International Herald Tribune when The Times and the Washington Post Company invested in the paper to keep it afloat after The New York Herald Tribune folded. In 1991, the Post and Times companies became co-owners of the paper, and in 2003 The Times bought out The Post’s share and became its sole owner in 2003.

The announcement is part of the company’s larger plan to focus on its core brand and build its international presence, the Times spokeswoman said. Last week, the Times Company said it was exploring offers to sell The Boston Globe and its other New England media properties. Last year, the company sold its stake in Indeed.com, a jobs search engine, and the About Group, the online resource company.

Eric Pfanner contributed from Paris

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: February 25, 2013

An earlier version of this article published online misstated the year when a predecessor to The International Herald Tribune first bore the name of The New York Herald Tribune for its European edition. It was 1935, not 1959.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/business/media/herald-tribune-to-be-renamed-the-international-new-york-times.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Some Victims of Online Hacking Edge Into the Light

February 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Rarely have companies broken that silence, usually when the attack is reported by someone else. But in the last few weeks more companies have stepped forward. Twitter, Facebook and Apple have all announced that they were attacked by sophisticated cybercriminals. The New York Times revealed its experience with hackers in a front-page article last month.

The admissions reflect the new way some companies are calculating the risks and benefits of going public. While companies once feared shareholder lawsuits and the ire of the Chinese government, some can’t help noticing that those that make the disclosures are lauded, as Google was, for their bravery. Some fear the embarrassment of being unable to fend off hackers who may still be in high school.

But as hacking revelations become more common, the threat of looking foolish fades and more companies are seizing the opportunity to take the leap in a crowd.

“There is a ‘hide in the noise’ effect right now,” said Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, a nonprofit security research and education organization. “This is a particularly good time to get out the fact that you got hacked, because if you are one of many, it discounts the starkness of the announcement.”

In 2010, when Google alerted some users of Gmail — political activists, mostly — that it appeared Chinese hackers were trying to read their mail, such disclosures were a rarity. In its announcement, Google said that it was one of many — two dozen — companies that had been targeted by the same group. Google said it was making the announcement, in part, to encourage other companies to open up about the problem.

But of that group, only Intel and Adobe Systems reluctantly stepped forward, and neither provided much detail.

Twitter admitted that it had been hacked this month. Facebook and Apple followed suit two weeks later. Within hours after The Times published its account, The Wall Street Journal chimed in with a report that it, too, had been attacked by what it believed to be Chinese hackers. The Washington Post followed.

Not everyone took advantage of the cover. Bloomberg, for example, has repeatedly denied that its systems were also breached by Chinese hackers, despite several sources that confirmed that its computers were infected with malware.

Computer security experts estimate that more than a thousand companies have been attacked recently. In 2011, security researchers at McAfee unearthed a vast online espionage campaign, called Operation Shady Rat, that found more than 70 organizations had been hit over a five-year period, many in the United States.

“I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly) with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact,” Dmitri Alperovitch, then McAfee’s vice president for threat research, wrote in his findings.

“In fact,” said Mr. Alperovitch, now the chief technology officer at Crowdstrike, a security start-up, “I divide the entire set of Fortune Global 2000 firms into two categories: those that know they’ve been compromised and those that don’t yet know.”

Of that group, there are still few admissions. A majority of companies that have at one time or another been the subject of news reports of online attacks refuse to confirm them. The list includes the International Olympic Committee, Exxon Mobil, Baker Hughes, Royal Dutch Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, the British energy giant BG Group, the steel maker ArcelorMittal and Coca-Cola.

David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/21/technology/hacking-victims-edge-into-light.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Media Decoder Blog: New York Times Co. Moves to Sell Boston Globe

February 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The New York Times Company plans to sell The Boston Globe and other New England properties, allowing the media company to focus energy and resources on its flagship newspaper.

The Times Company announced on Wednesday that it had retained Evercore Partners to manage the sale of the New England Media Group, anchored by The Globe, Boston.com, The Worcester Telegram Gazette and Globe Direct, a direct-mail marketing company.

Mark Thompson, president and chief executive of the Times Company, described The Globe and The Telegram Gazette as “outstanding newspapers.” In a statement, he said selling the newspapers “demonstrates our commitment to concentrate our strategic focus and investment on The New York Times brand and its journalism.”

The Times Company paid $1.1 billion for The Globe in 1993, and for years the Boston daily brought prestige and profits to the company. But recently the newspaper has suffered in an industrywide decline in circulation and advertising revenue.

The paper’s circulation has diminished by nearly half in the last decade. Monday to Friday circulation fell from 438,621 in 2002 to 230,351 in September 2012. The September figure is a slight improvement from the 205,939 weekday circulation in September 2011, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.

The Times Company is expected to seek a buyer in an auction, but in a news release said “there can be no assurance that any transaction will take place.”

Suitors have approached the Times Company about buying The Globe in the past. In 2009, after the company said The Globe was on track to lose $85 million, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the Times Company, turned down one bid of around $35 million and the assumption of pension obligations for The Globe and The Telegram Gazette.

One group of interested investors included Stephen E. Taylor, whose family had owned The Globe and sold the paper to The Times. Mr. Sulzberger later said The Globe’s finances had turned around and the offers were too low.

The Times Company has in recent years sold assets unrelated to The Times. In September, IAC/InterActiveCorp paid $300 million for the About Group, which includes About.com and CalorieCount.com. In May, the Times Company received $63 million for its remaining stake in the Fenway Sports Group, the company that owns the Boston Red Sox. Last year, the company sold its 16 regional newspapers, including The Gainesville Sun and The Sarasota Herald Tribune, to Halifax Media Holdings for $143 million.

Alexia S. Quadrani, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, said that the sale is welcome news for investors because it lets the Times Company focus on its core business and raises the possibility that investors may receive a dividend.

“It helps The New York Times in the sense that they’ve had some good successes with the core products,” Ms. Quadrani said. “The fact that circulation at the core New York Times outweighs advertising revenue is a good thing.”

Times Company shares closed down 0.4 percent to $9.03 on Wednesday, down from a 52-week high of $11.07 in October.

Globe management has for the last several years tried to shepherd a diminished newsroom into a digital future, efforts that have showed signs of success. According to the Times Company, digital subscriptions to The Globe and BostonGlobe.com grew to about 28,000 subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2012, an 8 percent increase from the end of September.

The paper has tried other creative means to make up for diminished advertising and circulation revenue. After The Globe’s longtime editor, Martin Baron, departed in December to run The Washington Post, the Globe’s publisher, Christopher Mayer, hired the popular metro columnist Brian McGrory to replace him. And as The Globe’s need for newsroom space shrank, Mr. Mayer tried to welcome new partners in the digital world by offering office space to technology start-up companies that could work with The Globe on investigative articles and ventures like The Boston Globe’s travel show.

“Our business continues to change in many ways,” Mr. Mayer said, “and this process may certainly lead to a significant one, but what isn’t changing is our commitment to our mission and our strategy of informing, entertaining and engaging our readers.”

John Janedis, a research analyst with UBS, said the announcement on Wednesday raised questions about how much or how little the Times Company would receive for The Globe today. He estimated that the paper was worth $150 million to $175 million, purely on a cash-flow basis without factoring in pension liabilities.

“Do they sell it at any price to allow them to focus solely on the flagship New York Times platform, which has a much higher probability of success?” Mr. Janedis said.

Reporters and editors described the mood in The Globe’s newsroom as filled with nervous anticipation. Scott Allen, senior assistant metro editor, recalled the anxieties he and his colleagues felt back in 2009. Back then, he said, the Times Company’s former chief executive, Janet L. Robinson, visited The Globe and assured staff members that there would not be a sale.

“It makes us a little nervous,” Mr. Allen said. “We’ve been through this before. It’s not like these are wildly profitable enterprises,” he added, referring to newspapers. “There’s a feeling inside this building that we’ve worked hard to reinvent ourselves. Hopefully this is a very different time than 2009 and 2010. It certainly brings back memories that are not happy ones.”

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/20/new-york-times-company-plans-to-sell-the-boston-globe/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Bucks Blog: The Right and Wrong Way to Buy Girl Scout Cookies

February 12, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Pilar Ruiz chaperones her daughter Mary on most of her cookie-selling expeditions but does not sell cookies on her behalf.Chris Hinkle for The New York Times Pilar Ruiz chaperones her daughter Mary on most of her cookie-selling expeditions but does not sell cookies on her behalf.

In this weekend’s Your Money column, I told the story of Mary Ruiz, who sold 5,007 boxes of Girl Scout cookies last year as a 9-year-old, more than nearly any girl in the United States.

When you sell that many cookies, there are bound to be questions. Some parents in Tucson questioned whether her mother, Pilar, was pushing her too hard. Pilar and Mary Ruiz said this was not the case.

Meanwhile, several readers posted comments and sent me e-mails wanting to know how many cookies Pilar Ruiz sold herself. After all, they said, parents bring order forms to their offices all of the time and sell lots of cookies there without any assistance from their daughters.

But Ms. Ruiz said she did not sell cookies on behalf of her daughter, though she did bring her daughter to the American Airlines call center where she worked before she began working from home. And if she had sold cookies on her daughter’s behalf, it would have been against the Girl Scout rules, something that will probably come as a big surprise to all of the parents who have been selling cookies themselves for years and all of the buyers who have happily bought from them.

“We know that this happens, and we don’t approve,” said Amanda Hamaker, manager of product sales for Girl Scouts of the USA. “We actively discourage the activity, but it’s not something we can police. I don’t get phone calls in the middle of the day saying, ‘I work for so-and-so corporation, and there’s an unsanctioned order card on the break room table and what are you going to do about it?’”

So what’s a conscientious buyer to do if the parents don’t know the rules or openly defy them?

Ms. Hamaker suggests gently telling the parent that you’ll happily buy if you get a call from the girl herself. I told her I feared that in this day and age, people might wonder if potential buyers were a bit creepy if they made requests like that, but she countered that if colleagues were selling at the office, then presumably they knew your intentions were pure.

When you do get the scout herself on the phone, ask about her goals and what her troop hopes to do with its share of the money. “Make a connection with the girl,” Ms. Hamaker said. “That’s how she’s going to learn.”

How have you handled such situations?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/the-right-and-wrong-way-to-buy-girl-scout-cookies/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Media Decoder Blog: Editor of Mother Jones Menaced on Twitter After Remark on Sniper’s Killing.

February 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment

2:50 p.m. | Updated Twitter is often full of short-burst, back-and-forth argument, but Clara Jeffery, the co-editor of Mother Jones, found out that the debate can turn dark after tweeting last Saturday about the death of Chris Kyle, an ex-sniper who was killed at a gun range by a fellow veteran he was trying to help. (Hat tip to Peter Sterne for putting together a list of the tweets on Storify.)

Advocates for gun rights were enraged and immediately began tweeting outrage at Ms. Jeffery. The velocity increased after her tweet was posted on Twitchy, the Twitter aggregator run by Michelle Malkin, the conservative commentator.

Many of the tweets wouldn’t meet the language standards at The New York Times, but here are a few of the more printable ones.

@HeidiL_RN advised Ms. Jeffery to “Erase those disrespectful tweets now,” suggesting if she did not, “You will regret this.”

In general, many of the tweets accused Ms. Jeffery of politicizing a tragedy immediately after it happened, but the level of threat and misogyny in the responses surprised her.

“I’m used to debating and defending what I say on Twitter and elsewhere, but in this instance there were immediate threats made on me and my family,” she said in a phone interview on Tuesday. “I felt bullied, and there were times in there where I felt worried.”

It was an odd circumstance where many were using free speech to go after someone else who was engaging in the same,as James Temple points out. Ms. Jeffery said that after the initial barrage, she received vocal support on Twitter and back-channel e-mails from people she called “prominent conservatives” who told her to “keep her chin up.”

“The anonymity of social media is important and played a big role in the Arab Spring, but in this instance people hid behind their avatars to say really hateful things,” she said. “If they scare you into not participating in the debate, then there can’t really be a debate.”

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/things-get-rough-on-twitter-over-gun-debate/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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You’re the Boss Blog: Owner Gets Lesson in Managing Sales Reps

February 4, 2013 by Leave a Comment
She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

Susan Parker: Keeping the reps honest.Earl Wilson/The New York Times Susan Parker: Keeping the reps honest.

At the last meeting of the She Owns It business group, Beth Shaw, founder of YogaFit, wondered why her recently hired sales representative was not meeting expectations. As that conversation continued, Ms. Shaw came to see the importance of a good customer-relations management system. She also considered putting role-playing exercises in place for her sales representatives and setting clear goals for them — from Day 1.

During the same meeting, Susan Parker, who owns the dress maker Bari Jay, talked about her company’s approach to sales. She uses independent contractors who are paid on commission. They represent other brands as well, and travel from store to store. Additionally, Bari Jay has one salaried sales manager on the staff to oversee them.

Ms. Shaw asked Ms. Parker if she offered any sales incentives to her customer-service people.

No, Ms. Parker said, although she does give year-end bonuses when the company does well, and she also offers profit-sharing. “When you offer them a carrot, then they try to sabotage your road men to get those accounts themselves,” she said. For example, someone in customer service might report that a certain bridal shop had called, complaining about its sales representative. Seeing an opportunity, that person might then offer to handle the account.

“The other thing they do is, then they stop paying attention to some accounts because they don’t see a big commission opportunity,” said Deirdre Lord, who owns the Megawatt Hour.

Ms. Shaw asked Ms. Parker how she knew her shared sales representatives were out there actually trying to sell Bari Jay.

That is where her “phenomenal” sales manager comes in, Ms. Parker said. He was previously Bari Jay’s sales representative for the Northeast region. He retired from that role — he is in his 70s and sold Bari Jay for some 40 years — and Ms. Parker created the sales manager position for him in September.

“Good idea,” Ms. Lord said.

Initially, Ms. Parker said she wondered whether she needed him. She now says hiring him was “the best thing we’ve ever done.” He keeps the sales reps honest, she said, because they can’t argue with him.

For example, Ms. Parker thought one particular rep had a great year because his sales were up 15 percent. Her sales manager helped her put things into perspective. “He’s like, ‘Susan, he has like 100-and-something stores; he physically set foot in 30-something of them,’” she said. Those few stores were already Bari Jay customers. The others represent a huge missed opportunity. “It’s been a big learning curve for me,” she said.

Ms. Parker said her sales manager knew every angle. When he saw frequent orders for eight dresses, he began asking the reps why they were not pushing for larger orders. Stores that sell Bari Jay dresses get volume discounts. “If you buy 12, you get 40 percent; 18, you get 45 percent,” she said. “You buy the whole line, you get 50 percent off.” And the more dresses the sales reps put in a store, the more money they make. Still, they were not rising to the occasion. The manager wound up calling the stores himself. He learned from the thankful owners that they had not even been told about the discounts.

“So, he’s kind of doing their job for them,” Ms. Shaw said.

Ms. Parker acknowledged that Bari Jay needed to do some housecleaning. She let one sales rep go, but her sales manager does not recommend getting rid of everyone at once. “We kind of have to focus on one territory at a time,” she said.

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/an-owner-gets-a-lesson-in-managing-sales-representatives/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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You’re the Boss Blog: How Much Training Do Sales Representatives Need?

January 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment
She Owns It

Portraits of women entrepreneurs.

Beth Shaw: Why aren't you performing?Earl Wilson for The New York Times Beth Shaw: Why aren’t you performing?

During the last She Owns It business group meeting, Beth Shaw, who owns YogaFit, wondered why her new sales representative wasn’t selling what she was brought on to sell — YogaFit conference sponsorships, and the company’s branded merchandise, which includes clothing, yoga mats and DVDs. Initially, the conversation focused on compensation and learning curves. But as the discussion continued, a group member, Alexandra Mayzler, the owner of Thinking Caps Tutoring, raised the issue of training.

Specifically, she asked whether YogaFit had trained its new salesperson.

“If you’re a salesperson, I’m assuming …” Ms. Shaw began to answer.

“Uh uh,” said Deirdre Lord, who owns the Megawatt Hour.

“You’re shaking your head,” Ms. Shaw said to Ms. Mayzler, who replied that she makes no assumptions regarding the ability of new people to sell Thinking Caps’ services. She said sales at her company were relationship-driven. In fact, Thinking Caps doesn’t even use the term “sales.” Instead it describes that function as “networking and outreach.”

“We have a sales deck, we have a whole sponsor proposal,” Ms. Shaw said, protesting.

“So do we,” Ms. Mayzler said, adding that that’s not enough. For example, Thinking Caps just opened a Dallas office, which will be run by a clinical psychologist who has worked within schools. “She knows how to talk about this stuff,” Ms. Mayzler said. Still, the Dallas employee will go through extensive training designed to teach her how to have conversations that sell Thinking Caps’ services in a style consistent with its mission.

“Do you train her?” asked Susan Parker, the group member who owns Bari Jay.

“I’m not doing everything,” Ms. Mayzler said, adding, “I’m finally focusing on delegating.” One aspect of training involves learning the information in the Thinking Caps manual. Next, come conversations with three different Thinking Caps staff members. These include extensive role-playing and direction on points that must be hit when talking about Thinking Caps. Ms. Mayzler holds the final conversation with the trainee, who then shadows an experienced Thinking Caps staff member during meetings with potential clients.

“There’s a difference in how you sell sponsorships and how you sell merchandise,” said Jessica Johnson, who owns Johnson Security Bureau. For example, a deck may help YogaFit’s sales representative sell sponsorships, she said, but not apparel or videos.

But, said Ms. Shaw, the salesperson received leads for pro shops locating within health clubs and offering YogaFit trainings. “It’s not too much of a stretch to be like, ‘Hey, you’re carrying yoga mats, we’ve got yoga mats. Hey, you’ve got workout pants, we’ve got great workout pants,’” Ms. Shaw said.

Ms. Johnson said that, while Ms. Shaw’s suggestions were valid, she had to be sure the sales rep understood YogaFit’s “unique selling proposition.” A new salesperson must establish relationships with pro shops, while recognizing that they may already sell “29 different yoga mats,” she added.

“I understand your frustration because you’re responsible for your entire business,” Ms. Johnson said. Additionally she said, “You’re incenting this woman and giving her good compensation, and she’s come to you with what you think is credible experience, and you’re like, ‘Why are you not performing and what’s not working?’”

“Exactly,” said Ms. Shaw.

In terms of training, Ms. Shaw said the sales representative attended a YogaFit conference where she learned about YogaFit’s products and met several instructors. Additionally, she attended some of the company’s yoga trainings.

Ms. Johnson suggested that it might be beneficial to have the new salesperson make weekly or monthly presentations to YogaFit’s staff. These could take the form of a sales call, with role-playing.

“We’ve actually tried to get her to do that, and for some reason she’s been reluctant to even make a sales call in front of the sales team that she’s trying to train,” Ms. Shaw said.

Ms. Johnson and Ms. Lord agreed this was a bad sign. Still, Ms. Johnson wasn’t giving up. “My next suggestion would be to model to her an example sales call,” she said. “This is what a cold call looks like, this is what a warm call looks like, this is what a warm letter looks like, this is what a face-to-face looks like,” she continued. After a certain amount of repetition, Ms. Shaw could accompany the salesperson on a call to see how she does.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Ms. Shaw, who is no longer sure anything will work. “I now have given her a month and a week and the training period is up,” she said. Instead of continuing to bang her head against a wall, Ms. Shaw is ready to simply assign her salesperson to the customer service department for the duration of her contract, which is up on Feb. 18.

“Why not take until Feb. 18 to try to make her a better salesperson?” asked Ms. Parker. “Then either you have, hopefully, a good salesperson on Feb. 18, or you cut your losses,” she said.

“I agree with that,” Ms. Lord said.

As Ms. Shaw considered this, Ms. Johnson pointed out that the more important issue is, how she handles the issue going forward.

You can follow Adriana Gardella on Twitter.

Article source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/how-much-training-do-sales-representatives-need/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Boeing Says No Change in Batteries Is Planned

January 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

The executive, W. James McNerney Jr., acknowledged that some airlines had needed to replace the new batteries at a “slightly higher” rate than Boeing had expected. But he also said that the replacements were related to maintenance issues rather than safety concerns.

Mr. McNerney made the comments in a conference call to discuss the company’s financial performance.

They came a day after All Nippon Airways, which operates 17 of the new jets, said it had replaced 10 batteries from May through December last year. The New York Times reported earlier on Wednesday that federal regulators planned to expand their investigation of a recent fire on one 787 and a smoldering battery on another to seek information about why the 10 batteries had been replaced.

All Nippon had told The Times that it replaced the batteries after they showed unexpectedly low charges or failed to operate normally. Boeing officials have said that maintenance problems could include faster-than-expected aging, or errors by mechanics in improperly disconnecting the batteries or letting them drain too far.

“What we know is that the replacement cycle that we’ve been experiencing there has been for maintenance reasons,” Mr. McNerney said. “There is no incident where we’re aware of where a battery has been replaced due to any kind of safety concerns.”

Boeing officials also said that some of the batteries might have needed replacing because built-in safeguards had activated to prevent overheating and to keep the drained batteries from being recharged in a risky manner. Boeing said that if mechanics had improperly connected a battery, another safeguard would also render the battery unusable.

Mr. McNerney said he would not speculate on how long it would take to determine the cause of the battery smoke and fire on the two 787s and how much it would cost the company to fix the problems.

Aviation analysts have said the worst case could involve Boeing switching back to older and less volatile battery technologies, like nickel-cadmium, to restore confidence among air travelers.

But Mr. McNerney said, “Nothing we’ve learned has told us that we made the wrong choice on the battery technology.” He added a moment later that none of the investigative findings “causes us to question that decision at this stage.”

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board and their Japanese counterparts have said they have not found anything that could explain the two incidents on the planes.

Battery experts said they could understand why investigators would want to closely review information about how the batteries have performed on all 50 787s delivered so far and why some were replaced.

“Everybody is in favor of safeguards,” said Donald R. Sadoway, a professor of material chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “And the batteries could be fine as manufactured, and tested and perform in excess of specifications.

“But in service they could develop some weakness,” he added. “That’s hard to find out. That’s dynamics. That’s like looking at the grapes and trying to find out what the wine will taste like.”

Ralph J. Brodd, a battery industry consultant in Henderson, Nev., said lithium-ion batteries needed safeguards in cases where they were discharged too completely because materials inside the batteries are more flammable than in nickel-cadmium batteries, which contain water that can prevent overheating.

Since the 787s are the first Boeing planes that use the new technology, he said it would prudent for the airline to replace batteries about which it had concerns.

Separately on Wednesday, Japanese investigators who inspected Kanto Aircraft Instrument, the manufacturer of a unit that monitors the lithium-ion batteries, told reporters that they had advised the company to make “several improvements on quality assurance” but had found “nothing that appeared related to the recent problems.”

Jad Mouawad and Hiroko Tabuchi contributed reporting.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/business/boeing-earnings-exceed-estimates.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

Bucks Blog: Tuesday Reading: The Risks of Taking a Shower

January 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

January 29

Tuesday Reading: The Risks of Taking a Shower

The risks of taking a shower, an egg a day is O.K. for many, the drug-dose gender gap and other consumer-focused news from The New York Times.

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/29/tuesday-reading-the-risks-of-taking-a-shower/?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Your Money Tagged With: , ,
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