All posts by Arjen Lentz

Dad, parallel entrepreneur, cook, gardener, explorer, philosopher, tinkerer....
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Give people the freedom of where to work

From http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/blog/give-people-the-freedom-of-where-to-work
Richard Branson writes:

To successfully work with other people, you have to trust each other. A big part of this is trusting people to get their work done wherever they are, without supervision. It is the art of delegation, which has served Virgin and many other companies well over the years.

We like to give people the freedom to work where they want, safe in the knowledge that they have the drive and expertise to perform excellently, whether they at their desk or in their kitchen. Yours truly has never worked out of an office, and never will.

So it was perplexing to see Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer tell employees who work remotely to relocate to company facilities. This seems a backwards step in an age when remote working is easier and more effective than ever.

If you provide the right technology to keep in touch, maintain regular communication and get the right balance between remote and office working, people will be motivated to work responsibly, quickly and with high quality.

Working life isn’t 9-5 any more. The world is connected. Companies that do not embrace this are missing a trick.

By . Founder of Virgin Group

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Dilbert’s Salary Theorem

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Dilbert‘s “Salary Theorem” states:

“Scientists and Engineers can never earn as much as administrators and sales people.”

This theorem can now be proved mathematically:

Given:

Power = Work / Time and,
Knowledge is Power

Substituting knowledge for power, we obtain:

Knowledge = Work/ Time

If time = money, then:

Knowledge = Work/ Money

Solving this equation for money, we obtain:

Money = Work/ Knowledge

Therefore, as knowledge approaches zero, money approaches infinity, regardless of the amount of work done.

Conclusion: the less you know, the more you make.

(I’d like to give credit to the original author of this gem, but so far the origin of this saga remains unknown – if you know, please tell!)

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Jobs’, Schmidt’s, Otellini’s shady no-poaching agreements | OSNews

http://www.osnews.com/story/26726/Jobs_Schmidt_s_Otellini_s_shady_no-poaching_agreements

A story of rather uncool corporate behaviour. It’s akin to cartels, which tend to also be outlawed in countries (as part of oligopoly-related legislation).

Companies making agreements that result in an anti-competitive environment is just not on. Interesting to see how corporations and people who profess to be all for free markets actually engage in this kind of behaviour, and the only thing that might stop them is getting caught. Not the best example of decent corporate principles and best practise, is it.

And then there’s the whole corporate extortion thing using patent portfolios and cash reserves which was also uncovered as part of the case. Yuck.

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3 Subtle Ways To Shift Your Attitude From Can’t-Do To Can-Do

John Coleman at Fastcompany.com writes:
“A friend of mine recently came back from a trip to Australia, where he simply marveled at the predominant “can-do” attitude that existed throughout the country. His enthusiasm was shocking to me only in that as I reflected on the last year, I realized how many people I had encountered who were obsessed with what could not be done in today’s world.It seems that globalism, technology, and political gridlock have convinced many Americans that the change brought on by each is making it impossible to do anything.”

http://www.fastcompany.com/3004695/3-subtle-ways-shift-your-attitude-cant-do-can-do