Tag Archives: diane shawe

Developing and Maintaining a Succession Plan

Posted on March 31, 2012 | 2 comments

Get qualified in days not years!

by Diane Shawe M.Ed

A 1 day Business Succession Planning  training course can be incredibly beneficial to any SME organisation.

Change is a hallmark of today’s business world. In particular, our workforce is constantly changing – people come and go, and move into new roles within the company. Succession planning can help you make the most of that change by ensuring that when someone leaves, there is someone new to take their place.

It is surprising that from a one day  workshop we could  help you learn or teach your staff:

  • The value of succession planning for successful businesses.
  • The key elements of a succession plan in terms of roles, responsibility, function, scope, and evaluation.

Introduction and Course Overview

First you will have an opportunity to identify your personal learning objectives and then we would cover the following areas.

1 day intense workshop lesson Plan:

A Need for Succession Planning

To begin, participants will explore the differences between succession planning and replacement hiring, including some of the advantages of succession planning.

Defining a Succession Plan

This session introduces the SUCCESS acronym, which defines the succession plan process that the remainder of the course will focus on.

Pre-Assignment Review

Next, participants will use information gathered in their pre-assignment to identify the critical people in their organization.

Identifying Resources and Analysing Risks

This session will give participants some tools to identify internal and external successors. We will also look at a sample risk assessment.

Defining Roles, Responsibilities, and Functions

During this session, participants will start creating risk assessments, individualized engagement plans, and succession plan profiles.

Gathering Information

This session will help participants identify ways to look within their own organizations and determine what the critical positions are.

Forecasting Needs

There are six key ingredients to being able to forecast what people you will need when. Participants will explore each item in small groups. Participants will also learn about the role of coaching and mentoring.

Putting the Plan Together

Next, participants will learn about using Appreciative Inquiry and Leadership Quality Assessments to develop a succession plan.

Putting the Plan into Action

During this session, participants will explore the idea of phased implementation. We will also look at using technology to facilitate putting the plan into action.

Evaluating and Reviewing the Plan

This session will look at the importance of evaluation. Participants will also work on modifying an evaluation check list to suit their organization’s needs.

How can you enrol?

It’s simple you can just click here and select if you would like to do the course on-line or attend one of our fast track workshops.

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Is the Accrediting Industry ready for the rise and challenge of the e-learning education?

Posted on February 2, 2012 | 5 comments

Individual online learning courses and even entire online degree programs are increasingly a part of the mainstream in higher education.

Article by Diane Shawe M.Ed.  IEBE

Steadily-improving online delivery systems and an emphasis on globalisation have encouraged more and more higher education institutions to try to reach diverse learners around the world.  In light of the growing population of learners from various cultural backgrounds engaged in online education, there is an urgent need to understand how accreditation of an online e-learning provider can reach across all cultural dimensions.

Distance Education has been around for more than a decade now. The ever changing landscape of education through technological innovations has allowed distance education in necessitating strict quality control measures to comply with. Thus, accreditation plays a primary role in ensuring quality in Distance Education system. Accreditation is a process through which institutions offering higher education are analysed by internal and external peer review.

Distance education is not a new phenomenon, and accreditors have been reviewing online courses for a long time now. Accreditation for these distance learning programs involve regional, national, and specialised bodies along with the governmental and public organisations that rely heavily on review of quality of these providers.

One such value has been to illustrate the necessity of accrediting distance education with respect to the rise in public and private education providers. Distance learning poses great challenges to the arena of accreditation mainly by transforming the traditional faculty into online faculty and diminishing the value of physical one on one interaction with students.

Distance learning represents a challenge to the accreditation agencies by modifying the meaning of “higher education institutions” by removing the brick and mortar lecture halls with web based chat rooms, and brick and mortar campuses institutes to a website. An academic provider is no longer restricted to the existence of a physical infrastructure, it can be found anywhere, anytime – all one needs is a computer or smartphone and access to internet.

Distance Education challenges the accreditation system by modifying the face of what we know as a college or a university degree. Electronic access not only encourages but also supports a more mobile form of a student behaviour through which students are enrolled in more than one institution at a time. The National Vocational Qualifications has taken a newer meaning and involves a richer blended learning of educational courses being taken by a student and delivered through multiple technological mediums.

What is Blended Learning?

Blended learning approach training is one that combines face-to-face instruction with online instruction and activities. A wide variety of methods can be used to interact with a blended learning course; technology such as mobile devices, computers, video conferencing, and other electronic media to name a few. The goal of blended learning is to provide a useful, practical way for learners and instructors to get and provide material in more ways than simple face-to-face interaction.

The online component of blended learning allows instructors and students to stay connected. Interact anytime, anywhere Distance Education and the ever changing role of education providers in this era are obviating the need for:

  • Recognizing the characteristics of distance education provision be it a traditional classroom or online chat room;
  • Altering guidelines for accreditation, strategies or principles to ensure quality within the distinguished model of distance education delivery; and
  • Paying extensive consideration to the achievement of the students and outcomes in the electronic environment of distance education whereby structured classroom facilities are not available.

As Academy of Vocational and Professional Training roles out its interactive soft skill online e-learning express courses selecting a scalable global accreditation company has become increasingly important.

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What Impression do you make? How to develop your personal brand

Posted on January 29, 2012 | 1 comment
group of people

How to develop your personal brand

Have you given much thought about the impression you make? How much leeway do you have to express yourself at work, at home, and via your social media?

By Diane Shawe, M.Ed. IEBE

If you go to the hospital, they are dressed a certain way, the staff may even speak to each other in a certain way. If you stop at most petrol stations, the salesperson is probably dressed quite differently than your physician, and yet still in a way that reflects and supports the business. You go to these people in order to receive a service or a product, and you probably go to them specifically because they have left some kind of impression on you. We refer to this impression as their personal impact.

Have you given much thought about the impression that you make? How much leeway do you have to express yourself at work, at home, or even via the social media? While the impact you have can be derived from the way you present yourself (through how you behave and what you wear), we also have to look at ways that reflect your personality and individualism. Have you considered yourself to be a brand, and have your considered how you could strengthen your brand in work, business and socially?

When you plan to take a short holiday and ask your neighbor to watch your home for you, what is it that makes you ask that particular neighbor? Are they trustworthy? Friendly? Do they consistently conduct themselves in a way that leads you to think they are a good person? If so, you are feeling some of the impact of their personality.

They present themselves in a particular way, and unless you see some demonstration of inconsistency (which may lead you to question their credibility), to you their impact seems quite clear.

What kind of impact trail are you leaving behind, What impact do you want to make and leave with others?

For more information on personal impact and how to create your personal brand, visit us at http://www.expresstrainingcourses.co.uk

Personal Branding 2 Day training course

Just click HERE to tell us what information you would like us to send you.

 

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Allowing comments on your website can aid SEO

Posted on May 18, 2011 | 1 comment

When I have reviewed some of the comments placed on youtube, I cringe. It certainly does not encourage you to  allow any type of comments to be randomly placed on your own websites or blogs.  But if you’ve been wondering whether or not you should allow comments on your business or personal blog, allow me to add some fodder for your decision making analysis.

Comments on your blog help you optimize your website and make it easier to be found for more key phrases and for the key phrases you are already targeting.    How is that?  well….

search engines love content.  I know most of us think content is dead, and that video and social media are the optimum SEO’s. But the more the content, search engines are drawn to it like bee to honey.   In other words, that 300-word blog post you wrote yesterday will get more search engine traction when it has 20 comments on it.

There are three ways blog comments help you:

a) Blog commentators will use the same key phrases in their comments that you used in your blog post. That will mean more instances of the keyword on the page and therefore you are more likely to be found for that key phrase.

b) Blog commentators will also use related key phrases that you didn’t use in your blog post. That will result in your blog post being found for key phrases that you didn’t target.

c) Thirdly, some blog posts, like forum posts, appear as separate pages in the search engines. Note that I said “some”. In order for your blog posts to appear as separate pages they’ll have to be threaded and coded just so.

Blog comments help you optimize your business website, it is particularly useful if you are trying to brand or generate interest. I strongly encourage you to allow at least permission based comments on your business blog to increase your search engine optimisation.  If someone writes something or wants to link an inappropriate website to your you can terminate or trash the link before it goes live.

With lots of websites offering back links, text links and link exchange, this is one of the quickest ways to generate the same think without it costing you anything or taking up too much of your time.

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US Wireless Data Market Grows 23 Per Cent Year-on-year

Posted on March 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

All I can say is WAKE-UP SME’s and start smelling the COFFEE!

by Diane Shawe

I-send was sent a recent post from the the analyst, Chetan Sharma, who released its US Mobile Data Market Update for Q4 2010 and 2011.

The report reveals that the US wireless data market grew 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter, and 23 per cent year-on-year, to reach $14.8bn (£9.1bn) in mobile data service revenues in Q4 2010. The final tally for the 2010 year was $55bn, which the analyst expects to increase by 22 per cent to $67bn in 2011.

US mobile subscriptions officially crossed the 100 per cent penetration mark in Q4 2010. The connected device category (including tablets, M2M, telematics, eReaders, etc.), registered the highest growth at 55 per cent, while postpaid subscriptions grew by only 3 per cent for the calendar year. Connected devices now account for 7 per cent of the installed base.

Smartphone shipments overtake computers
The report notes that 2010 marked the milestone of the start of a new computing and communications era. For the first time in the US, smartphone shipments exceeded the traditional computer segments (desktops, notebooks and netbooks). In 2011, the smartphone segment, along with connected devices will not only exceed the computer segment in unit shipment but more importantly, in overall revenues as well.

While connected devices ARPU is low, Chetan Sharma believes this segment will prove to be the most profitable in the coming years, due to higher margins. By the end of 2011, connected devices will be commanding double digit market share.

However, not all sub-segments are going to be successful in the operator channel, until multi-device data pricing plans are introduced. Most of the tablets and eReaders can work well with only wi-fi most of the time. Monthly data plans make sense for enterprise users but not for consumers who might use these devices occasionally. As such, the report says, tablets will be more successful in direct and traditional retail channels. Operators who start to bundle multiple devices by single data plans and data buckets are going to see a better yield in this category. Similarly, OEMs who rely on operators for sell-through of tablets/eReaders will see low volumes compared to players who have more diverse distribution channels, such as Apple and HP.

As previously noted by Chetan Sharma, the iPad and other tablets are making Netbooks irrelevant. In fact, tablets are starting to eat into the laptop category as well. As expected, the device has been a hit with many enterprises with mobile workers. Many enterprises are giving out iPads to their workforce instead of laptops or Netbooks. The analyst expects iPad to dominate the space in 2011 as competitors will find it hard to compete across all dimensions – price, performance, ecosystem, distribution, and brand power.

Data traffic more than doubles
Mobile data consumption continued to grow across all networks, increasing by 2-5 times on major US networks. While average data consumption in the US at the end of 2010 was 350 MB/month, many of the superphones introduced in the second half of 2010 are clocking 1-1.5GB/month on average. Thus, while data revenues for the year increased by 23 per cent, mobile data traffic grew by 132 per cent.

The significant rise in smartphone sales and usage in the US market – over 50 per cent of devices sold in the US in 2010 were smartphones, almost twice the global average – means that by the end of 2011, in the US, the smartphones will consume more data than data cards for the first time. Chetan Sharma also expects the US to become the number 1 nation in mobile data consumption this year, edging out Sweden.

The report notes also that the center of gravity of the mobile market has shifted back to the US, which is also the most dominant market in terms of revenue generation for the industry. While the US represents less than 6 per cent of the subscription base, it accounts for over 21 per cent of data revenues, with Verizon Wireless becoming the number one mobile data operator in 2010, edging past the decade-long leader, NTT DoCoMo. AT&T also went past China Mobile to gain its current number three ranking. By the end of 2013, the US market will account for 25 per cent of global mobile data services revenues.

Wake-up call
Chetan Sharma calls the Nokia-Microsoft announcement “a wake-up call to many in the industry who were in denial”, and praises Nokia for decisiveness, and for moving quickly under pressure. But it concludes that the impact on Nokia remains uncertain, saying: “While there were risks with Android, going with Win7 is not an assured path to resurrection either. It all comes down to execution…Nokia has significant talent and it’s a proud company, but jumping into the shark-infested cold waters miles away from the shore will require all the stamina, good weather, and skill it can muster to make landfall before thanksgiving”.

Looking ahead, the report notes that Android and iOS are completely dominating the developer and ecosystem mindshare, and says the race to become a viable third option is on, with operators keen to see another competitive force emerge in the market. Chetan Sharma will be discussing how the  industry is going to evolve in the next decade at its mobile thought leadership summit – Mobile Future Forward, in September.

I-send proximity is launching a series of workshop/expert forums to discuss the implementation and road mapping of apps into any type of business, visit http://www.i-send.co events page for more information.

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Launching marketing apps can backfire for retailers

Posted on January 27, 2011 | 1 comment

by Diane Shawe

more than just a phone

For a growing number of UK shoppers, the difference between off-line and on-line shopping will be no line at all.

What does this mean for retailers and marketing companies?

With an inundation of new smart phone apps these hand-held shopping tools are redefining the shopping experience and blurring the distinction between the in-store experience and the virtual world of information now available in the palm of your hand.

Advances in location-based technology, price-comparison apps, bar-code scanning apps and social-networking tools have turned the mobile device into a real-time third channel of commerce, empowering consumers while challenging retailers to rethink the way they do business.

The appetite for new apps seems voracious. A recent survey by comparison-shopping site Price Grabber revealed that 36 percent of consumers plan to use their mobile phones for shopping-related activities this holiday season.

Around 4.2m of us in the UK are already using our mobiles to access the internet and browse retailer’s e Commerce sites

Recession-wary consumers are embracing new tools that can instantly call up product specs, reviews, price comparisons and input from Facebook friends and Twitter followers, all while they’re standing in the aisle.

David Dorf the Director of Technology Strategy states ” The United Nations estimates about 60 percent of the world’s population has access to a mobile communications device. More Americans have a mobile phone than own a credit card, and an increasing number of those are smart phones capable of Internet access. This proliferation is so unlike that of any other modern-day consumer technology that it is difficult to fully measure the impact on consumers and the industries that serve them.

With what is effectively a computer in the palm of their hands, consumers are finding new ways to do everything from banking to managing healthcare and household services. Shopping is a natural fit, and the retail industry has emerged as a front line for innovation in mobile applications. The mobile commerce revolution has changed almost every aspect of the retail business, from the way that we think about customer relationships to the way that we manage inventory and complete transactions”

So where are the retailers in all this? Playing catch-up with their customers as fast as possible in most cases, often looking for the quick wins.

Shopping is changing, and while the urge to please customers, capture sales and compete with competitors is very hard to resist, as the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) pointed out in a recent survey of 57 retailers, only four had fully mobile-optimised websites.

Chris Brassington is CEO ofStarfish360 stated in a recent article “It ’s true that many retailers are launching apps and/or a mobile site in an effort to capture the mobile customer, but the survey showed that a tactical approach to mobile marketing is likely to backfire, as 82 per cent of consumers said that if a retailer’s website performed badly, it would dissuade them from buying goods from that organisation, on the web or even in store.

And in today’s social media-driven society, a poor, fragmented customer experience could turn off not only the customer who experiences it, but many more too, if that customer chooses to share their experience on the web. So getting the customer experience wrong on mobile carries a big risk”

Many retailers, instead of providing a joined up mobile experience that will enhance customer service and reduce costs, have instead bolted on a piece of technology that does not provide an integrated shopping experience. These are often bespoke builds from marketing agencies, with one eye on what the competition is doing and increasing revenue for themselves, rather than a clear focus on how their clients customers’ behaviour is changing.

We have all used the phrase ‘blind leading the blind’. In this case we often see no integration, no alignment to the business’ challenges; no strategy in terms ownership; and no cyber psychology lead program to customers needs. So instead of mobile potentially being a progressive channel, it has, in most cases, provided only frustration for the shopper.

Mobile marketing roadmap

Diane Shawe the Project Director for i-send proximity is passionate about helping not only retailers benefit from proximity based mobile commerce and marketing, but how to address the retail sector’s operational challenges when implementing a mobile commerce strategy which can be measured in real time and assist a wide cross section of mobile phone users.

I-send proximity is leading the way towards helping different Boroughs to build a private Bluetooth wide area broadcasting network within a geographical area that will benefit consumers and visitors. By using this low energy, green, permission based and wireless controlled broadcasting network , retail town centre management teams and local authority regeneration departments can implement a cost effective and cost neutral solution. Click to read more

Because we believe that playing catch-up will be significantly more expensive than taking the strategic approach. Adopting the strategic approach will provide the blueprint and the roadmap to ensure the successful implementation of mobile marketing as a consumer channel, from both a business and a strategic viewpoint.

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