emerging leader interview: John Heaven, CEO of Yangaroo from John Exley on Vimeo.

May I have your attention, please! In a new emerging leader interview, I was given an opportunity I simply could not pass up: to interview the very experienced and successful entrepreneur John Heaven (thanks so much to Matt Caldecutt! Follow him http://twitter.com/mcaldecutt).  John is the President and CEO of Yangaroo, a technology company based in Canada that provides customers with its patented Digital Media Distribution System (DMDS).  Yangaroo has been making headlines recently as they were named to the Canadian Business Top 100 Tech Firms and landed a deal with The Grammy Awards!

John has quite the background too. He has started 3 successful companies and played an instrumental role in successfully taking two companies public; including the $10MM Telepanel Systems Inc. where he served as the CFO.

In the interview, John talks about the exciting evolution of Yangaroo and their awesome story, the geographic and core business expansion of his company, and the re-branding of a young start-up into an industry leading company with patented technology and The Grammy Awards as a client. I also asked John about the advantages of being involved in the Canadian start-up scene. At the end of the interview, John gives his best advice to aspiring leaders, young entrepreneurs, and Generation Y as a whole.

Many thanks to John Heaven and I hope you enjoy the interview!

John Heaven

AUDIO INTERVIEW with President and CEO of Yangaroo, John Heaven.

LISTEN HERE:

http://www.whistletree.com/public/play/4774UBZT6RTALFEV

View John’s bio here:

http://yangaroo.com/AboutUs/OurTeam/ExecutiveTeam.aspx

Company website:

http://yangaroo.com/Home.aspx

Courtesy of Talent Revolution and The ShiftAge Trend Report. We are very proud to be part of the team bringing you this very insightful and long-view thinking and a chance to plan for our future.

One of the top tools we use here at TR is the Shift Age Trend Report. In a time of constant change, companies and entrepreneurs of all ages need to be educated on the trends of the future.”
- Amanda Hite Founder, CEO Talent Revolution

SAVE $50 and get your first Shift Age Trend Report for FREE with the following code: TalentRev1 (Case Sensitive!) Click here to SUBSCRIBE HERE to the Shift Age Trend Report .

The timing is now to start planning for 2010 (and beyond). What a better tool than a trend and forecast report from the emerging futurist called “The CEO’s futurist” in America today, David Houle.

Take a sneak peak at the compelling SHIFT AGE TREND REPORT here: theSHIFTAGE_TRENDREPORT_teaser-2.pdf

listen. learn. share. repeat. ™

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Fewer people and lower morale, what’s a girl to do?

So many people are experiencing the emotional void and burden of taking on greater responsibilities in our current economy. As a result of cost-cutting, downsizings, hiring freezes or early retirements (in some cases delayed retirement), many companies may find themselves with holes in the workforce and a morale that is difficult to work around.

For example, in some cases, employees who were already assigned to a team may have been on a layoff list. In other cases, consultants or contract help who were contributing their talents to organizational efforts may have been slashed from the budget. The bottom line remains the same: fewer employees wearing more hats whether they fit or not.

If you find your self in this position and you most likely will to varying degrees either as a team member, team leader or budding business owner, there are solutions. Ordinarily, the music would swell, and the solution band would play – instead the practicality of the situation calls for behaviors and actions that you can help suggest, direct and even control your future.

When this scenario occurs, companies may want to broaden the search for internal talent in order to redirect the right people to the right projects. This is the perfect chance for you to volunteer for a new project, team, or completely new area of the business. This not only makes you a “team player” but it creates a value equation that puts you in the plus column. It also gives you a chance to shine and learn new skills.

Who knows social media and the capabilities of the virtual world better than you? This is one of those pivotal moments in history where you can set the course for yourself and quite frankly, how your business can be run. Establishing virtual teams, taking the best and the brightest from many locations can help in this situation, expanding the population of potential team members beyond those sharing physical workspace. In fact, more than two-thirds of respondents to a recent Institute for Corporate Productivity survey (2008) on teams said they see their reliance on virtual teams growing in importance over the next three years. I think this will move faster in its importance and you can be at the forefront of your company by setting the stage

For example, one way to sidestep productivity losses after downsizing is to keep progress moving on a project by using team members in different time zones. A well-orchestrated process can ensure that “handoffs” are streamlined and that “the brief overlaps in the working hours of the team members” are fully leveraged, according to Karen Cvitkovich (2008), a managing director with Aperian Global. Such “follow the sun” scheduling can allow companies to take advantage of widely dispersed talent while also providing team members with better work/life balance.

Another way to help employers corral talent located at different sites into one team is via Web conferencing live or accessible information streamed and available at any given time. You’re trying to create a sense of community … in a physically distributed environment. With technology facilitating such meetings, and assisting the leveraging of communication amongst team members, employees who survive a layoff may appreciate this sense of a larger network of colleagues rather than a shrinking one.

I get a zen feeling just talking about it. Wanna have a web conference? It’s good for me. You?

listen. learn. share. repeat.™

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This weekend I was doing a lot of research on Creativity, and the origins of… Well my search landed me on the TED site which I simply adore, and while there I was picking up on an overall theme that is really resonating with me… Collaborative Creativity. We talk about Social Media and how it’s disrupting virtually every industry – however; UNLESS you are doing your research, one would not think to equate the Ideation process into the fold of change. WELL things are changing, and for the better… Here is what I am thinking about…

1. The ability for people to connect and rally around a central cause is easier that it has ever been – spawning a new creative process for coming up with solution based ideas.
2. The collective mining of content is simplified. It’s much easier for individuals to share content, and it’s a LOT faster… This is critical to the “idea formation” process.
3. Corporations are going to have to be able tp take a different road to innovative greatness – Consumers are no longer waiting for industry to think of, produce, and distribute goods and services, they are taking the “bull by the horns” and doing it themselves…

So as Creative People, “Thinkers”, we have to begin to posture ourselves differently. In the very near future (if you own some type of creative, thinking, development company) the ideation process will not be reserved to a select few people… It will be “Open Source Ideation” – and the companies who can adapt to this will win.

listen. learn. share. repeat.™

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In another life, I interviewed at least two people a week to support the growth of our business. Some weeks, even if I didn’t have positions opened, I still believed in interviewing top-level talent because you never know when you will run across that perfect fit and superstar. Aside from the obvious advice of looking your interviewer in the eye, dress appropriately, spit out your gum and being friendly – I thought I would provide a few pointers of things that most successful job-seekers are able to do in a job interview:

   1. Live up to your promised skills. Chances are, you got an interview because someone already thought you had the skills they were looking for. So the challenge in the interview isn’t to outline all the things you can do or list them out verbally, it’s to give as much proof as you can about all the things you said you could do and prove that you were not just exaggerating. Be specific. Use both qualitative and quantitative support.
   2. Be part of the culture. The most important part of any interview is usually what you could call a “chemistry check.” It’s no surprise that people hire others that they like and feel they (or their teams) can work with. So do your best to understand their culture and show authentic ways that you might fit in – because ultimately, you’ll likely be hired based on far more than your skills alone. So, as I have said before, know what music they are playing before you walk in the door.
   3. Have ideas about their business. Nothing is worse than interviewing someone who has no idea what a business does, or what the products are. Don’t make that mistake and do your homework – use the web, your social network, ASK QUESTIONS. Walk in with ideas about their business, but be careful not to cross the line and give an impression that you think you know more about their business than they do.
   4. Demonstrate you’ll contribute quickly. No one wants to hire someone who will take 3 months to learn the business before doing anything – especially in this environment. However you can do it, you need to show the ways that you can hit the ground running and make an immediate impact. You can talk about similar situations or why certain attributes you have give you the capability of being a team player a contributor.
   5. Make the person hiring you look smart. Anytime you are hired, the person who does it puts their personal reputation behind you. So you need to make them comfortable that they will look smart within their company for hiring you. Remember, it’s about the team from the very start.
   6. Leave them with something shareable. If you managed to impress your interviewer enough for them to consider you seriously for the job, the first thing they will usually need to do is convince several others within the organization to either bring you back for a second interview, or hire you right away. So be sure to point them to a website or a blog or some sort of content online that introduces you to those you didn’t meet, and reinforce your interviewer’s view that you may be good for the job. Just make sure your web presence is in “good shape”. Or simply leave them with strong evidence of your accomplishments that the hiring manager can correlate to the position they are filling.

These are basic pointers, but if you nail these six, you are more than half way there.

listen. learn. share. repeat.™

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THIS POST COURTESY OF VINCENT HUNT

One
of the most profound things I learned about Social Media when I was
first getting involved was from Scotch Tape™ – Nothing “deep” just
authentically… Relevant. Scotch Tape™ has two MAJOR characteristics…

1. Transparent 
2. Sticky

Social Media, especially Twitter, is much the same way… The more “transparent” you become, the “stickier” your presence.

listen. learn. share. repeat.™

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]]> http://www.nextvoice247.com/blog/2009/05/stick-to-you-like-white-on-rice/feed/ 0 http://www.nextvoice247.com/blog/2009/05/soshs-and-dweebs-reconcile-high-school-safe-again/ http://www.nextvoice247.com/blog/2009/05/soshs-and-dweebs-reconcile-high-school-safe-again/#comments Sun, 03 May 2009 01:56:02 +0000 Gilbert Melott http://www.nextvoice247.com/blog/?p=33

This past week I had the great pleasure of watching the ultimate social anthropological experiment come to life. It wasn