Howard Kurtz writes eloquently about the media coverage of the terrorism events pointing out that the media should stop mentioning their names, stop giving the terrorists attention and focus on the victims and mock and criticize the terrorists.
Blog Categories
Why Journalism Matters
FOCM Member, Abbey Kramer wrote an excellent blog with her perspective on freedom of the press and why it is so important.
https://littletalksaboutlife.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/we-are-charlie-why-journalism-matters/
Quotes out of context
Another set of quotes from a particularly great meeting for quotes taken out of context:
Sucked in the backdraft
– Elizabeth Thiele
Selling ice cubes to an eskimo.
– Elizabeth Thiele
Slow that mustang down.
– Elizabeth Thiele
We gather up our foo foo nuts.
– Elizabeth Thiele
I’m a corn cob from the Midwest.
– Elizabeth Thiele
If you hear something, say it.
– Elizabeth Thiele
People need to follow what they need to do.
– Elizabeth Thiele
Bob.
– Fred Naids
It’s Jonathan.
– Jonathan Goldman
Charles.
– Fred Naids
Ask Sherwood Williams.
– Unattributed
To go into places we’ve never been before.
– Deb Nichols, channeling Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise
Grabbing all these balls and moving forward with them.
– Adrian Pencak
Shrink wrap that.
– Elizabeth Thiele
Paul is from Buffalo, he doesn’t know what the Super Bowl is either.
– Provided by a contributing editor
Check back for more postings. If your name is mentioned and you’d like it removed, please email me at chris@focmnetworking.com and I’ll give your request strong consideration and may even might possibly act on it. Seriously, though I will remove it if you want me to.
Background: This all started at a US Sales meeting and in order to stay focused on what was being said, I started writing down the business cliches, like “let’s circle the wagons”, “let’s table that”, “always be closing” and then count how many times they were said. As I began paying attention, I would hear a phrase that was appropriate for the context in which it was said, but wow, it sure was amusing to see the phrase just sitting there by itself. That lead me to put them into a slide show show so the phrase was seen in its purest form along with the person who said it. As this practice became known, the slide set became the unofficial and humorous wrap-up presentation, kind of a summary of the things stated over the course of the meeting.
The importance of your resume
FOCM Member shared this info on LinkedIn. Peter Newfield, the President of Career-Resumes.com and a writer/blogger on this topic wrote a very good article, see the link at the bottom of this post.
A copy of his first two paragraphs are below.
Let’s get right to the point — Yes, you really do need a resume and it better be a good one. A resume is the career version of the “Get Out of Jail” card in a Monopoly game. If you don’t have one, you may be doomed to sit in that same go nowhere job while your friends and co-workers merrily skip past you to new opportunities and brighter futures.
Too simplistic? Not really. Without a resume, companies have no idea that you exist. You may be a whiz on the computer, the best salesman who ever lived, or a dynamite CEO, but without a professional resume highlighting your accomplishments and achievements, you may as well be invisible!
Common words used incorrectly
I liked this blog by Jeff Haden entitled: 40 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Dumb. You can read the full article at:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141203134446-20017018-40-incorrectly-used-words-that-can-make-you-look-dumb?trk=object-title
A few examples are:
Adverse and averse
Adverse means harmful or unfavorable: “Adverse market conditions caused the IPO to be poorly subscribed.” Averse refers to feelings of dislike or opposition: “I was averse to paying $18 a share for a company that generates no revenue.”
Affect and effect
Verbs first. Affect means to influence: “Impatient investors affected our roll-out date.” Effect means to accomplish something: “The board effected a sweeping policy change.”
How you use effect or affect can be tricky. For example, a board can affect changes by influencing them and can effect changes by directly implementing them. Bottom line, use effect if you’re making it happen, and affect if you’re having an impact on something that someone else is trying to make happen.
Compliment and complement
Compliment means to say something nice. Complement means to add to, enhance, improve, complete, or bring close to perfection.
I can compliment your staff and their service, but if you have no current openings you have a full complement of staff. Or your new app may complement your website.
Discreet and discrete
Discreet means careful, cautious, showing good judgment: “We made discreet inquiries to determine whether the founder was interested in selling her company.”
Discrete means individual, separate, or distinct: “We analyzed data from a number of discrete market segments to determine overall pricing levels.” And if you get confused, remember you don’t use “discretion” to work through sensitive issues; you exercise discretion.
Funny Soccer Video
Received this from FOCM member Jeff Hudak
from 9GAG.TV
Goalie Gets Hit In The Face By Every Penalty Kick, But He Manages To Stand Til The End!
http://9gag.tv/p/a5BlYD/goalkeeper-gets-hit-and-faints-by-every-single-penalty-kick-soccer-shootout
The Beer Tap App
Submitted by FOCM Member Art
Views on Immigration
Saw this analogy somewhere and thought it was quite good.
“What if the owners of the New York Giants discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying? What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers were but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected. Furthermore, what if the Giants’ ownership was expected to provide those who sneaked in with complimentary food and drink? And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Giants had to provide free medical care and shelter?”
I suppose there are people who would say: oh these poor people just want to see a football game, what’s the harm, they’re fans, too. It’s not fair that they can’t afford to go.
Then it’s also not fair that they would get in free when others work hard to earn money in order to be able to go.
This is a country with laws and the laws should be enforced. If the laws are stupid/dumb/worthless then we need to demand our Congress people to change them.
Business Development Job Opportunity
WCCT Global is looking to hire a Director, Business Development for the Boston area. The job description and required qualifications are shown below along with the link to the job on LinkedIn. You can submit you resume via that link or you can email me at: chris@focmnetworking.com
Summary:
Serve as the primary point of contact with clients / accounts assigned to Director. Actively identifies, qualifies and continually promotes WCCT services in order to achieve annual sales objectives. Seeks out new business and new clients within assigned territory, therapeutic area, or Trial Phase.
Duties and Responsibilities:
- Achieve annual sales targets
- Achieve number of expected client interactions
- Maintain proper updating of all accounts, leads, contacts, and opportunities in the sales database (salesforce.com)
- Develop sales territory and gain new clients
- Present & promote the company’s services appropriately and professionally with clients and at conferences, meetings and tradeshows
- Present RFPs to the Contracts and Operations teams, supporting proposal development throughout the process
- Assist and/or prepare quotes and/or contracts, as needed
- Lead the bid defense preparation process
- Lead presentations for client TCs, WebEx, and face-to-face meetings
- Assist and/or prepare White Papers and other targeted promotional and/or educational material for clients
- Follow up on outstanding action items from client meetings, pulling together info and input from various departments and WCCT team members
- Conduct thorough and smooth handover of awarded studies from BD to the Operations teams, staying involved as needed
- Lead the contracting process (with support from the Contracts team) for awarded studies, ensuring timely contracting of trials prior to study start
- Analyze the market, present sales forecasts for his/her territory; present the clinical research market situation in terms of services, costs, delays
- Prepare & present action plans for all clients within territory
- Other duties and responsibilities as defined by supervisor
- Assist in training and supporting new BD hires
Desired Skills and Experience
Qualifications:
- CRO Business Development experience preferred but other sales/marketing or pharmaceutical industry related experience wil be consideredExperience in business development, sales, and marketing, 5 years minimum
- Travel required (up to 50% time)
- Committed to ensuring customer service along with working independently and successfully managing multiple priorities simultaneously
- Computer Programs, proficient in:
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word)
- SharePoint
- Salesforce.com
- Demonstrate exceptional skills including, but not limited to:
- Interpersonal, leadership and professional skills
- Strong verbal and written communication skills
- Excellent organizational skills, sense of urgency, commitment to deadlines and follow-through
FOCM Card Ceremonies Chicago
In late May/early June, while attending the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) convention in Chicago several people received their FOCM cards in 3 separate and unique ceremonies.
Susan Ruane, after years of evading the initiation proceedings finally relented and the joy on her face is quite clear. She regrets not having signed up and paid the $20 membership dues earlier. Well, actually she had to be threatened with extortion in order to get her to pay, but she did and as a paying member of FOCM, has the right to request certain pictures be deleted. That request was honored in this case, as she felt her arm looked fat in one of the photos.
Ed Moore was the second recipient and as you can see, he is in awe of finally, actually having the membership card in his hands.
Andrea Perrone, Ted Gastineau and Shawn Keen, received their cards while we were out at dinner at some fantastic restaurant in Chicago.
