Cool Person of the Day

While there are many different types of people who are drawn to the tech sector for employment, there are only two types of leaders in the tech industry who have the ability to change the tech sector forever.  The most common industry leader is one who discovers a problem or idea within the tech sector to which they devote time, energy, capital and other resources to filling a niche or rectifying a problem.  For sure, many of these successful entrepreneurs reach a level of success where their company must diversify to continue its growth, but most leaders who change the tech sector do so by starting with a very narrow focus.  The other type of tech sector visionary is one who gets their hands into just about everything and tries to make an impact in many different ways.  Isabel Pesce Mattos is the latter type of tech sector visionary! Read more »

Quite a few creative individuals find that the art they love and skills they develop through higher education are not immediately profitable.  As a result, the current generation of would-be playwrights, painters, and photographers have largely turned to the tech sector for income while they develop the craft they are passionate about in their spare time.  As such, they end up as bloggers, digital artists and software engineers while they work in their off-time toward their “big break.”  One such artist who is leading the dual life in the artistic and tech sectors is Michael Kaplan. Read more »

No company, within the tech sector or outside it, is able to handle rapid growth without having an incredible staff in place or hiring individuals who fast become a team that achieves amazing results.  Neither the assembly of a great staff over time or its rapid development happens as an accident; it is the result of great human resources management.  Choosing personnel who will be successful and might make your company successful is a skill that is mastered by individuals who understand people, understand the specific workplace for which they are hiring, and have incredible instincts.  Michelle Lo has a great track record in staffing tech companies for exactly those reasons. Read more »

The software field has become an important marketing tool for other, seemingly unrelated, fields and businesses.  As a company finds profitability in one venue or medium, they often look to expand and, when it comes to software, that usually means synergizing a brand name with a new-to-market piece of software.  So, while there are many different software programs that allow you to play with home design, only HGTV Ultimate Home Design has the endorsement of a major cable network that specializes in such things as home repair and interior design.  The “HGTV” moniker adds a level of celebrity and consumer enthusiasm to the software and to get the name attached to the program, the software company Nova Design had to make a business arrangement (license)  with the company that owns HGTV.  Such licensing agreements are becoming increasingly important in the software market and that makes people like John Bartlett more important than ever! Read more »

The challenge many advertisers and brands continue to have is connecting with customers, especially new customers, utilizing the Internet.  Many Internet-savvy potential customers already use ad blocking software or, because of the prevalence of ads around the Internet, mentally block out all but the most inspired Internet ads.  With social networking, the challenge of connecting advertisers and potential clients is still one that experts in the industry are figuring out.  Trying to crack the formula to utilize the power of social networking for business purposes is what Josh Emert is involved with now and with GoChime, he may be on the right track! Read more »

It should not be of any real significance when one of the earliest employees for a company happens to be a woman.  However, in the tech sector – especially with Internet start-ups – there are remarkably few women working or achieving positions of real prominence.  So, it is somewhat unsurprising that of the first twenty employees Google had when it was incorporated, only one was a woman.  That woman was Marissa Mayer! Read more »

Getting individuals and corporations to think differently about technology can be a difficult thing.  Many businesses consider the bottom line and Quarterly earnings above all other factors and most consumers are not keen on taking the time for someone to educate them on the full impact of their technological choices.  But education is a key factor in the success of many technology companies, especially when it comes to consumer products.  Attempting to get private consumers to invest in products that they have traditionally associated with business and industry can be a real uphill battle.  Few executives know that like Suresh Panikar. Read more »

As privacy concerns and free speech issues become part of almost every news cycle, it is unsurprising that the relationship between technology companies and governments around the world has never been more important.  Scientific progress and the speed of social media have been growing at a far faster rate than the U.S. Government has legislated.  So, it makes more sense than ever for tech companies to hire individuals who have experience in the Federal Government.  For Twitter, that made Katie Jacobs Stanton a very smart hiring choice. Read more »

Research and development is, arguably, one of the most exciting aspects of the tech sector.  Technology firms that have diverse interests invest quite a bit of money in research into emerging technologies or fantastic ideas and development of new products.  While a Chief Technology Officer of a firm that specializes exclusively in creating niche products through an extensive research and design department might seem like an incredible job that would satisfy the tinkerer’s urge so many engineers and scientists have, it is hardly a mindset that makes for running a company with the bottom line in mind.  Such companies require management that fosters such a creative CTO, while still focusing on business interests enough to keep the company profitable.  For Raytheon BBN Technologies, the parent company of radical gadget-maker Digital Force Technologies, the executive who effectively straddles the fence between economics and pure science is Ed Campbell. Read more »

The dream story of the American worker is one where an individual with an aptitude for a skill can find work at a big company to earn a living.  Over years, with hard work and additional training/education, the dream of the worker is to someday take over management of the company they started at.  That dream comes true with increasingly less frequency as competition, mergers, and radical shifts in the marketplace have companies rising and falling faster than ever.  But one of the great success stories for the American dream came true recently when Virginia Rometty took the reins at IBM! Read more »