De facto Strategic Partner for The Business

                                       

Two Levers Portfolio Management Company
So now the question turns into how to build a portfolio management discipline and ensure its success. Efforts Successful portfolio management company based on two dimensions.
1. Modern Portfolio Theory (aka process) - This is what people generally think of when they think about the portfolio management company. The program consists of:
o Valuation of Investment - This includes defining what the investment is. It is useful to take a broad definition of what comprises an investment as it is not only the capital expenditure (capex), but should also include operational costs (OPEX). In general, 25-40% of the cost of the organization and therefore discretionary investment. Valuation of investment also requires consistency assessment methodology that requires the use of driver-based models to make projections and also look at the past NPV and ROI to consider strategy and other qualitative aspects that encourage investments 'value'.
o Allocation Portfolio - This requires determining investment areas / themes and related allocations. Basically, what my strategic priorities for investment and how much will go to each area? For example, 25% in customer acquisition, 20% in IT, 55% in customer retention. The allocation should also consider the risk profile of the investment, for example, 60% low risk, 30% intermediate risk and 10% high risk.
o Portfolio Optimization - It requires choosing the best investment to support the portfolio allocation and periodically rebalancing the portfolio to ensure consistency with the desired portfolio allocation. The goal is to maximize strategic and financial return per unit of risk.
o Measuring performance - a key element of successful portfolio management company is capturing actual investment returns to allow the promise vs performance. Doing this in turn allows organizations improve the sustainable investment valuations based on actual results and allow to rebalance the portfolio based on the performance achieved.
Most people with a financial background will recognize the above teaching portfolio theory. The problem with most of the discussion of portfolio management is that it assumes that people behave in accordance with the construction of the theory / rational. While many experts to offer the empty saying things like, "Just manage your company's investment as you manage your own investments," they fail to realize that many people may not even manage their personal portfolios accordingly. They may know what they should do but emotion, intuition, and other external influences releasing this way rational. That often we get lost in our personal portfolio is what leads us astray in an organizational setting - behavior. The challenge in an organization is magnified by the fact that it is hundreds or thousands of people whose behavior is to be considered. And so this is the second fundamental lever portfolio management - organizational behavior.
2. Organizational Behavior - In order to optimize one's portfolio, the behavior element must be understood:
o A data-driven mindset - Organizations often create decibel-or intuition-led decisions and portfolio management companies, such as 6-Sigma, requiring data and analytical decision making.
Silos o removed - portfolio company management success requires people to think about what is best for the organization and not just what is best for "my world" - silos and dynastic organization needs to be broken.
o Incentive alignment - People should be driven by short-term incentives and long term alike.
o Accountability and transparency - There must be a willingness to share information and effectively created a market for investment.
Moving organizational behavior is a bigger challenge and it takes time to change. At American Express, we have been actively working on changing organizational behavior and has made significant inroads from time to time, but it has not happened overnight. We have done a review of investment units of traffic, sponsoring conferences internal portfolio management companies, and even created the simulation of resource allocation to be seen showing the benefits of portfolio management company.
Bring Portfolio Management Company for your organization if you think the company's portfolio management can be implemented within a month or a quarter, not for you. Portfolio management companies did not sprint and requires the will and heart of a marathon runner. You will see the benefits along the way, but it takes time to realize the full potential of portfolio companies thrive. But once set up and running, disciplined portfolio management actively managed the company will pay dividends vary. For American Express, we can show the stock price out-performance for our benchmark index as well as our competition since adopted a portfolio management company. Effectiveness of our allocation of resources also helps to encourage our PE multiple (price to earnings multiple), which is significantly larger than our competitive counterparts.
Very tactical, disciplined portfolio management company has helped us understand what our business should be out and where we might want to invest more. This has allowed us to allocate money across business segments for the first time can be extremely challenging in large organizations. Most importantly, portfolio management companies have become part of the DNA with the financial and business organizations to talk about their investments on an ongoing basis. Financial companies led the portfolio management but with significant input and is very direct and interaction with the business. The gulf between the financial and the business has been bridged by utilizing a portfolio management company, and the benefits to the organization in terms of financial performance and strategic and employee involvement has been significant.

Partner in Construction Business

Literature Review

Business in the 21st century is increasingly conducted with shifting borders. International partnerships will become standard practice as the product life cycles shorten and immediate distribution become imperative. As business is increasing its globalization, alliances among multinational firms are becoming more popular. Cooperation between international firms can take many forms such as, cross-licensing of proprietary technology, sharing of production facilities, co-funding of research projects, and marketing of each other's products using existing distribution networks (Griffin and Pustay, 2005). Such forms of cooperation are known as strategic alliances, business arrangements whereby two or more firms choose to cooperate for their mutual benefit. A joint venture is a specific and more formal type of strategic alliance.

Startup Britain appoints former Pizza Express boss as chairman

Startup Britain appoints former Pizza Express boss as chairman

Luke Johnson, chair of StartUp Britain

StartUp Britain, the

national campaign set up by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs to stimulate

start-up growth in the UK, has appointed a charismatic new chairman.

Serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson, who chaired his first founders meeting

last week, joins at an exciting time for the year-old campaign, after

the launch of its latest initiative

Report shows catastrophic effect on customers that a data breach can trigger

Report shows catastrophic effect on customers that a data breach can trigger

Commenting on a

Ponemon Report showing that 72 per cent of consumers who have been

notified of a data breach at a company they had dealt were dissatisfied

with the communication,

Varonis Systems says that this highlights the brutal fact that people

are less likely to purchase or deal with an organization where their

data has been lost due to a breach.

David

Gibson, Varonis’ VP of

Leighmans Celebrates Ten Years of Corporate Gift and Incentive Success

Leighmans Celebrates Ten Years of Corporate Gift and Incentive Success

Specialist

promotional gifts supplier Leighmans has announced this week that it is

celebrating ten years in the industry.

Having been formed ten years ago in Bury, Lancashire, Leighmans has gone

on to become one of the leading providers in the sector. The company

helps customers to promote their brand through branded confectionery and

BullGuard offers security advice to those affected by password hacking

BullGuard offers security advice to those affected by password hacking

Claus Villumsen, CTO, BullGuard

LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.fm targeted, phishing attempts on stolen passwords begin

Internet security expert, BullGuard,

has reacted to the theft of millions of user passwords from the popular

business-based networking site LinkedIn, dating site eHarmony and now

Last.fm, encouraging individuals to be more vigilant with their online security.

A

Confused.com to offer free breakdown cover with any van insurance policy

Confused.com to offer free breakdown cover with any van insurance policy

Confused.com is launching a

new promotion giving away free breakdown cover with any van insurance

policy purchased through the site.

The free breakdown cover includes up to two call outs for home

assistance, within one mile of a customer’s home address; up to four

call outs for road side assistance; payment for alternative travel up to

£100

H.R.H. Prince Pavlos of Greece Launches Debate Forum

On Friday The Periscope Post launch Agora,
a new opinion forum chaired by H.R.H. Prince Pavlos of Greece in which
key voices in politics, economics and culture will offer opposing, and
often controversial opinions on a range of topics chosen by Pavlos,
himself an important voice in the business community.

The first topic for debate will ask if Germany, who failed to conquer
Europe through

Vehicle computer docking available for Panasonic Toughbooks

Panasonic Computer Product Solutions launches vehicle computer docking for its rugged Toughbook and Toughpad ranges in Europe.

Panasonic has announced its entry into the
European vehicle computer docking market with the launch of a wide
range of vehicle docks and services for its Toughbook and Toughpad
rugged mobile computers. The docking stations are used to hold mobile
computers in

Online purchase experience feedback of more than 24,000 web users Focus on the differences between General Retail and Food & Grocery

Wwebsite functionality quoted by more than half of clients as the first
characteristic that has impacted their online shopping!

Digital experience specialist Yuseo recently conducted a study comparing
the feedback given by internet shoppers concerning their online
experience, across two different sectors, namely the ‘food &
grocery’ market and the ‘general retail’ market. Yuseo

UK law firms a weak link in clients’ battle to fight cybercrime?

A leading lawyer and
security expert has cautioned UK law firms that their failure to
tackle online security is leaving clients increasingly vulnerable.

The warning by London-based Seth Berman, executive managing director of Stroz Friedberg and a former Assistant US Attorney, comes amid growing concern of an escalation in state-sponsored espionage.

“The security and risk landscape is changing

Marketo CEO Phil Fernandez Tapped as Judge for 2012 CRM Idol

Marketo Will Offer Free Subscription to Winners of Industry-Leading Small Business Innovation Showdown

Marketo, the fastest-growing provider of
Revenue Performance Management (RPM) solutions, today announced its
support for the 2012 CRM Idol competition. Phil Fernandez, Marketo CEO
and author of Revenue Disruption, will be a final-round judge. Winners
of CRM Idol will receive a one-year

Vindicia launches CashBox for Salesforce

Delivers integrated Quote to Cash Process and Improved Revenue Visibility

Vindicia (www.vindicia.com/), a leading provider of digital marketing and selling automation, today announced two new Force.com applications:

· CashBox Reporting for Salesforce
· CashBox for Salesforce

The integration with Salesforce.com (www.salesforce.com)
offers digital businesses greater insights

Mother Tongue expands services to Germany

Judith Händeler, Head of MTW, Germany

Creative ad and marketing translation benefits from dual country servicing.

The UK’s largest specialist adaptation and transcreation agency, Mother Tongue Writers, is continuing its expansion programme by opening a new branch in
Germany.

This follows the establishment of headquarters in New York and Singapore over the last 18 months.

Judith

Touchline Video Announces Easymeeting.net’s Range of User Friendly Services

Easymeeting.net’s Easy to Use Videoconferencing Services Now Available to Test!
Touchline Video UK Ltd, a
UK-wide value added distributor in the audio, video and web
collaboration industries, has announced that its partner,
Easymeeting.net, is making its entire suite of new videoconferencing
services available to test drive, so users can see

KYOCERA Document Solutions launches customisable A3 MFPs

KYOCERA Document Solutions
UK Limited unveils two new ECOSYS monochrome A3 MFPs – the FS-6525MFP
and the FS-6530MFP. The reliable MFPs are very easy to install and
maintain, making them ideal in areas where service staff are not
immediately available, such as remote or highly secured locations. The
FS-6525MFP and the FS-6530MFP offer great

Workers set to avoid red card with bosses during Euro 2012 with free employment guide

As England football fans
prepare for Euro 2012 in the Ukraine and Poland and the Olympics being
around the corner, bosses are already turning up the heat and laying
down the law when it comes to watching sport.

Now a firm of solicitors have come up with the ultimate guide for workers: Summer of Sport: Top Tips to Avoid Getting the Sack.

From having a few beers watching the match on a work

3i adds €2 billion in AUM to its Debt Management business

3i Debt Management
(‘3iDM’) has signed agreements to acquire seven European Collateralised
Loan Obligation (‘CLO’) management contracts from Invesco, a global
investment manager. The seven contracts will add €2.0 billion of assets
under management.

This transformational acquisition for 3iDM increases its assets under
management (‘AUM’)

That's Technology: Minimising the Risks Associated with Change

That's Technology: Minimising the Risks Associated with Change: Announcing the itSMF UK’s second Change, Configuration and Release Management Seminar on ...

#ifadland – Outcomes of the Nairobi workshop on strengthening land tenure security

By Harold Liversage and Steven Jonckheere

Last week in Nairobi, Kenya, IFAD and the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) hosted a regional workshop on securing land and natural resource tenure to reduce poverty and enhance agricultural development. The workshop was very well attended and came up with a clear way forward. IFAD and GLTN will continue working together to develop practical tools for strengthening land and natural resource rights in IFAD-supported projects and programmes, while at the same time contributing to broader national, regional and international processes and policy dialogue.

People from 20 African nations gather for a group photo
at the land tenure security workshop in Nairobi.

GLTN is a global network that develops tools and approaches for securing land and natural resource rights. It brings together a range of practitioners, including surveyors, lawyers and representatives of civil society organisations, universities and governments. The GLTN Secretariat is housed in UN Habitat and is a member of the International Land Coalition (ILC).

As the Nairobi workshop demonstrated, GLTN is helping IFAD to strengthen lesson learning from the wealth of experience of IFAD-supported projects and programmes. In addition, it is supporting the further development of appropriate tools and approaches to strengthen land and natural resource rights for the benefit of these projects and others.

Land policy implementers

About 80 people attended the workshop, which took place from 29 to 31 May. Approximately 55 participants came from IFAD-supported projects and programmes, mainly in East and Southern Africa but also from West and Central Africa (specifically, from Ghana, the Gambia, Guinea and Burkina Faso). The rest came from civil society groups, farmers’ organisations, private sector enterprises, government departments and inter-governmental organisations more directly involved in land policy implementation.

Some of the notable regional and international organisations in attendance were the Joint Secretariat of the African Land Policy Framework and Guidelines initiative (known as the Land Policy Initiative, or LPI), the East African Farmers Federation (EAFF), the ILC Africa Platform, the Regional Centre for Mapping Resources for Development (RCMRD) and the International Federation of Surveyors (FIGS).

Five sub-themes were chosen for the workshop:

• Mapping land and natural resources use and tenure
• Group rights
• Women’s land rights
• Land and water tenure
• Inclusive business models and land and natural resource tenure.

Various projects were asked to make presentations in both plenary and smaller group discussions. IFAD-Africa and Procasur also made a presentation on the use of knowledge management tools. On the last day, many workshop participants attended and highly appreciated a visit to the offices of RCMRD.

Follow-up actions

There was a general agreement among participants that the overall theme and topics were highly relevant for their work, and we think people were highly engaged in the discussions. UN Habitat and other GLTN partners were particularly impressed by the work being done by IFAD-supported projects and programmes.

Although the sub-themes were considered relevant, some participants proposed that the interface between micro-finance and land tenure should also be examined and that some of the sub-themes could be revised or better defined. For example, they said, the issue of group rights is not just about rangeland and forests, and the discussion of women’s land rights should be broadened to look at targeting poor and vulnerable groups, which include women and youth.

The workshop closed with a set of short- and long-term follow-up actions. Some will be undertaken by participants on their own initiative, and others will be followed up by IFAD and GLTN. A report on the workshop proceedings will be available by the end of June and will be posted on our land page in the Rural Poverty Portal, and elsewhere.

Many thanks to everyone involved in making the Nairobi workshop a success.

Harold Liversage is the regional land advisor and Steven Jonckheere is the land and natural resources associate for IFAD in East and Southern Africa.

Mar. 1943: OSS agent says 6,000,000 'Jews' will be obliterated

See:

Mar 1943: OSS agent says 6,000,000 Jews will be obliterated

in conjunction with:

The 'Holocaust' Stream of Transmission Back from Cardinal O'Connor

Pentagon's 'Yom HaShoah' 'Holocaust' Liturgy and Ritual for 2012

Also note that OSS founder (and 'Holocaust' propaganda co-founder) William Donovan received papal knighthood of various orders. Lest anyone believe it was due to service to Catholicism, he also was a knight of the British Empire and Orange Order of Nassau. No sincere Catholic would receive these honors.

Climate Conversations - Green value chains transform vulnerable farmers into entrepreneurs

By Naoufel Telahigue and Rami Abu Salman

Organic cocoa farmers in Sao Tome and Principe have benefited from
an IFAD scheme linking them with overseas buyers. PHOTO/IFAD

Next month, we will all gather again in Rio de Janeiro to work out what went wrong 20 years ago and consider solutions that we have dismissed.

Children who were 12 years old during the first Rio summit, in 1992, might now be quickly approaching the end of their life expectancy in some countries. But what if smallholder farmers had been at the centre of the debate 20 years ago?

At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) – the United Nations’ agency focused on rural development – we believe there can be no green economy without “green” agriculture.

Agriculture is a key economic and development sector in all countries across the globe, recognised by world leaders for boosting gross domestic product (GDP). If done sustainably, agriculture can provide a significant opportunity for the 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty to improve their lives, and cater to the food security needs of the world’s more than 925 million malnourished people.

In addition, climate-smart and simple technologies can help poor smallholder farmers to build their resilience and mitigate risks associated with climate change.

IFAD and its partners have been working to ensure that innovation and investment in agriculture -  and more importantly in the world’s 500 million small farms - lead to long-term sustainability.

Organic fair-trade Cocoa
In Sao Tome and Principe, for example, IFAD has helped turn around the dying smallholder cocoa sector after the collapse of world market prices in the late 1990s.

By setting up public-private partnerships with overseas buyers of organic fair-trade cocoa of high quality, the project helped small farmers establish export cooperatives and achieve stable and significantly improved incomes.

Smallholder families participating in the programme have seen their yearly income increase, on average, from a level 25 percent below the poverty line to 8 percent above it. One particularly successful producer used the profit from organic cocoa production to set up a small roadside shop that his wife runs, generating even greater profit.

This initiative was coupled with organising small farmer groups and training them in organic and conservation agriculture, solar drying, integrated pest management and other environmentally sustainable practices.

Growth potential
Smallholder farmers have untapped growth potential. The message IFAD will take to the upcoming conference in Rio is that we must explore this potential by transforming smallholder farmers into empowered business women and men.

This transformation requires adopting new approaches that are competitive, sustainable, sufficiently diversified and within the carrying capacity of natural ecosystems. By helping smallholders in integrating and developing “green value chains”, we offer them an opportunity to sustainably harvest not only food, but also economic, social and environmental benefits.

For instance, a new initiative in Sierra Leone is aiming to develop markets for high-quality organic, fair-trade cocoa. The project will rehabilitate a cocoa plantation abandoned during the war.

Prices for good-quality certified cocoa are less susceptible to market fluctuations, and this encourages further investment and assures sustainability. In addition to the extra income provided by intercropped plants, cocoa agroforestry systems will support greater biodiversity and avoid land degradation and erosion caused by slash-and-burn farming.

Smallholder farmers have immense potential to contribute to a green economy and to sustainable growth in general. To do that successfully, they need enabling environments and support such as improved access to land, water and markets, financial services, adequate technologies and technical assistance.

In this respect, promoting the role of women and youth as farm entrepreneurs is particularly crucial. We have the means, we have the knowledge, and now we need the collective will. If we don’t act now, we risk going back in another 20 years to acknowledge the failure of choices.

Originally posted on AlertNet blog

---

Naoufel Telahigue and Rami Abu Salman are Regional Environment and Climate Specialists at the IFAD. IFAD is co-organising Agriculture and Rural Development Day on June 18 ahead of the Rio+20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Under half UK’s top retailers offer click and collect service, new research shows

Under half of the UK’s top retailers offer a click and collect service, according to new research.

IVIS Group’s
first annual multi-channel maturity benchmark report found that only
44% of retailers currently allow shoppers to reserve or pay for products
online and collect in-store. While 77% of these give customers access
to the service on both their web and mobile sites, the

#ifadland – Who owns the land? Nairobi workshop tackles tough questions for Africa

On day one, participants post their hopes for the outcome ‪
of the land tenure security workshop.

NAIROBI, Kenya – For the past two days, more than a hundred people have packed a mid-sized conference room at the United Nations compound here to grapple with one of the most fundamental questions facing the world’s poorest households: Who owns the land?

Tomorrow, they will come back to grapple some more, in a dialogue conducted in both English and French to accommodate participants from 20 nations across Africa. And when the simultaneous translators stop for their mandatory breaks, bilingual volunteers will jump into the breach so that the conversation can continue. Such is the sense of camaraderie and urgency in the air.

The forum for these discussions is the first-ever joint workshop held by IFAD and UN Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Organized under the auspices of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), the three-day workshop aims to deepen understanding of land tenure issues in sub-Saharan Africa. It also seeks to identify ways in which IFAD, UN Habitat and their partners on the ground can cooperate more closely to secure land and natural resource rights for all.

That’s a tall order, to say the least. But the stakes are high, especially for women and marginalized groups whose access to the land is most tenuous. Speaker after speaker in Nairobi has stressed that land tenure security – that is, the ability to control, benefit from and transfer the rights to land and natural resources – makes people far less vulnerable to hunger and poverty.

Land tenure and poverty
Simply put, secure land tenure is the key to the future prospects of millions of impoverished families worldwide. If anyone doubted that notion, the workshop has made it abundantly clear.

Photos from the workshop on display outside the packed
conference room in Nairobi.

The agenda kicked off yesterday with remarks by IFAD’s regional economist for East and Southern Africa, Geoffrey Livingston. “Secure land and natural resources rights are essential for rural poverty reduction, agricultural development and economic growth,” he said, noting that land and its associated resources are the primary assets of the 470 million people living in rural areas in Africa.

IFAD regional land advisor Harold Liversage added that land tenure is more secure when governments’ land administration systems are accessible and transparent. However, he cautioned, the reforms needed to create such systems require sustained political will at the country level – so there is no “one size fits all” solution to securing land rights.

But it was Clarissa Augustinus of UN Habitat and GLTN who made one of the workshop’s most sobering points. Only 30 per cent of all land outside the developed world is registered, she said, leaving 70 per cent without legally recognized ownership or security. Augustinus called this “a huge political and technical challenge” with ominous implications for the poor.

A continuum of rights
Still, it’s a challenge that must be met, amidst population growth, competition for dwindling resources and rapid urbanization in developing countries. In the absence of transparent land management, conflicts over property rights can be endemic. Large-scale land grabs by powerful interests can displace people from their ancestral homes. And smallholders who lack title to their farms can be denied access to the credit they need to move from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

Unwinding at a reception after day two of the three-day
IFAD-UN Habitat land tenure workshop.

One approach to solving this quandary involves rethinking the very definition of land ownership. As UN Habitat’s Axumite Gebre-Egziabher reported at the workshop, “a global paradigm shift” on ownership is already under way. Rather than focusing exclusively on statutory tenure, she said, more and more advocates and institutions are recognizing a continuum of land rights. These may range from traditional or customary rights to communal ownership of forests and grazing lands, as well as other intermediary forms of land tenure.

Significantly, the African Union Commission, the UN Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank have endorsed just such an expansive vision of land tenure as part of their African Land Policy Framework and Guidelines, issued in 2009. The framework and guidelines also support participatory land policy processes as a prerequisite for long-term sustainable development on the continent.

Continued collaboration
Translating such declarations into effective land policy and governance is another matter, of course. Yet the participants in the Nairobi workshop – most of whom are practitioners working on development projects at the grass roots – appear determined to give it their best shot. To that end, they split up into small thematic groups, both yesterday and today, to concentrate on some of the most complex aspects of land management, including:

• Documenting small-scale farmers’ land and water rights
• Advocating for recognition of group land rights
• Strengthening women’s equitable access to land and natural resources
• Using remote sensing and mapping technology to promote land and resource rights
• Securing land and resource rights through inclusive business partnerships between small-scale farmers and outside investors.

Each of these areas warrants exhaustive study in itself. For present purposes, suffice it to say that the land rights workshop has made a solid start on tackling each of them through Africa-wide collaboration and knowledge sharing. If the charged and serious atmosphere in the conference room is any indication, that collaboration will continue long after the workshop wraps up tomorrow, and the participants return to the lands they call home.

#ifadland – Secure land and natural resource rights are essential to reducing poverty across Africa

By Geoffrey Livingston

Yesterday in Nairobi, Kenya, IFAD Regional Economist for East and Southern Africa Geoffrey Livingston opened a joint IFAD-UN Habitat workshop on land and natural resources security with remarks on the challenges and opportunities at hand. Excerpts follow.

Smallholder farmers in the Haute Matsiatra region of
Madagascar. ©Rindra Ramasomanana

Secure land and natural resources rights are essential for rural poverty reduction, agricultural development and economic growth more generally.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about 470 million people are located in rural areas, agriculture employs 65 per cent of the labour force and the sector drives 32 per cent of GDP growth. Land and the associated natural resources are among the main assets that poor rural women and men have in Africa, along with their labour and creativity.

But land is not just an economic asset. It also has great cultural and social significance. For many Africans, land is owned on behalf of their ancestors and future generations. In general, poor people and marginalised groups have less access to land and weaker land rights – and, typically, women do not enjoy the same land rights as men.

Growing recognition
IFAD has learnt that the lack of secure land and natural resource rights is often a major obstacle to economic development and poverty reduction; is often a major cause of social instability; and often undermines good land use and land management.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition in Africa of the importance of land and natural resource tenure security. There is also a greater recognition of the need for active citizen participation in the formulation and implementation of land and natural resource management policies. There is an opportunity to learn from an increasing number of experiences – both positive and negative.

The African Union Commission, UN Economic Commission for Africa and African Development Bank-led process of developing the African Land Policy Framework and Guidelines is exemplary. It provides us with an excellent opportunity for raising the profile of the importance of land and natural resource tenure security for long-term sustainable development – not only in Africa but throughout the world.

Collaboration with partners
But the real challenge now is in developing and implementing practical approaches for securing land and natural resource rights and, linked to this, building community and decentralised capacity to implement these approaches.

Often without realising it, IFAD-supported initiatives in the region have a wealth of experience in supporting local institutions to manage land and natural resources – and through this, to secure the rights of poor rural men and women. Typically, IFAD-supported projects and programmes are implemented by ministries responsible for agricultural development and natural resource management. And often, the lessons learnt on securing land and natural resource rights in these projects and programmes do not feed directly into land policy development.

In this regard, our collaboration with UN Habitat and other partners, under the auspices of the Global Land Tools Network, provides us with an excellent opportunity for strengthening the engagement of various IFAD-supported initiatives in sharing their experiences.

IFAD is very pleased to support this initiative. We recognise land and natural resource tenure security are key for poverty reduction and economic growth, and we welcome the opportunity to learn from others on how to better integrate measures that can strengthen tenure security into initiatives that we support.

BRP selects aPriori’s Product Cost Management platform

Power sports manufacturer will use software to reduce product costs and accelerate time to cost reduction -

aPriori,
a provider of product cost management software solutions, today
announced that BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products Inc.), a leader in
motorised recreational vehicles, has selected aPriori’s software
platform to help identify product cost savings and shorten the time it

What’s New in Business Process Manager v8?

IBM has announced that it is releasing a newer version of Business Process Manager v8 at IBM Impact 2012 in Las Vegas, NV that comes with IBM Operational Decision Management v8 for turbo changed collaboration.

 IBM has the broadest Process Portfolio products in the planet with 20 different kinds of Process Products integrated into one single offering, delivering over 300 capabilities and more than 700 people working in Research & Development across the portfolio.

Below are the highlighted key points of the newer IBM BPM V8:

IBM Operational Decision Management V8 
The new IBM Business Process Manager v8 comes with IBM Operational Decision Management that combines business rules and events management to automate and govern a wide range of operational decisions. The V8 of Operational Decision Management comes with a newly redesigned interface that is more user-friendly and provides a seamless experience.

Server Upgrade
The new BPM (Business Process Manager) V8 requires WAS (WebSphere Application Server) V8 which now has a lighter footprint and really ushers IBM to takeover space from JBOSS.

iOS Application
The new IBM BPM V8 application is now also available on Apples iTunes store for download and use with iPhone and iPad with expanded REST/JSON API for mobile application development. This way Process Applications are available to Process Participants on the go.

Integration with Tivoli Identity Manager in Process 
Phill Gilbert, VP IBM has also announced that BPM integration with Tivoli Identity Manager is in process that will ease the creation, modification, and termination of user privileges throughout the entire user lifecycle.

Following Royal Cyber will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts.

Sarah Smits Wins Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012 Award

Sarah "Entrepreneur of the Year 2012"

Sarah Smits of independent
high street broker Ashbourne Insurance has beaten off stiff
competition to win a prestigious “Entrepreneur of the Year 2012”
award.

Sarah, who is the Finance Director of Hertfordshire-based Ashbourne
Insurance, won the coveted title at the Inspiring Hertfordshire Awards
2012 on Thursday May 17th/12. Organised by

That's Technology: Open Source Open Days from Sirius

That's Technology: Open Source Open Days from Sirius: Sirius is launching an Open Source Open Day programme to educate Government, Public Sec...

With two thirds of online shoppers spending as usual in 2012, great service is vital to secure premium sales

As the UK economy slides back into recession a significant 61% of
consumers buying premium products and services say they will not reduce
their online spending in 2012, as revealed by a survey conducted by
Leapfrogg, the online retail marketing
agency. This is great news for premium and high-end brands in light of
gloomy economic reports for

Cold Calling Is Still Relevant, It Just Starts In A Different Place Nowadays - Content Marketing Is Changing The Game

Corporate investment in SEO
has increased, investment in Pay Per Click has increased but, in almost
every case, the results have begun to plateau and the quality of leads
coming from online channels is in decline.

One of the core functions of any marketing team is to increase traffic
and attract new and existing customers, typically via the corporate
website. With the increase in SEO, PPC

Joint MD at Crown Utilities on Short List for National Business Award

One of only five women
from a national field selected for the finals of the First Women in
Business awards in the built environment category, Crown Utilities joint managing director Keeley Downing is waiting for the final declaration at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London on June 28.

The prestigious competition is sponsored by Lloyds Banking

Scott Dunn Accelerates Growth Plans With New Sales & Marketing Director

Top British luxury tour operator Scott Dunn is stepping up its growth plans with the appointment of Kim Pattie as sales and marketing director.

Andrew Dunn, Scott Dunn’s founder director, says: “Scott Dunn is
achieving an exceptional performance in 2012, repeatedly smashing our
sales and booking records. However, there is so much more our team wants
to achieve and Kim is superbly qualified

Morgan Sindall Group plc implements Accounts Payable Audit Software

FISCAL Technologies forensics software protects leading construction group

FISCAL Technologies
providers of world-class accounts payable forensic software, has added
the leading UK construction and regeneration group, Morgan Sindall plc
to their expanding list of FTSE listed customers. Their financial shared
service centre processes over £2

Desarrollo rural en América Latina: preguntas, perspectivas y desafíos

Expertos internacionales resaltan nuevas oportunidades para la reducción de la pobreza rural 

Con el objetivo de discutir herramientas innovadoras para cerrar las brechas de oportunidades que afectan a los 25 millones de campesinos pobres en América Latina, reconocidos expertos internacionales se reunieron la semana pasada en Antigua, Guatemala, en el seminario “Desarrollo rural en América Latina: preguntas, perspectivas y desafíos”.

El Fondo Internacional de Desarrollo Agrícola (FIDA), en coordinación con la Asociación de Investigación y Estudios Sociales (ASIES), llevaron a cabo el seminario para crear un espacio de reflexión y debate acerca de las tendencias y retos del desarrollo rural que enfrenta la región actualmente, y el papel que distintos actores pueden jugar en su abordaje.

Todos se aproximaran al desarrollo rural latinoamericano desde diferentes temas: gasto público y equidad, financiamiento rural e inclusión financiera, política social y productiva, y procesos de innovación en intervenciones rurales.

Videos de los discursos del evento

Presentaciones

Nora Lustig - Gasto Publico, Desarrollo Rural y Equidad  

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Michael Carter, Profesor de la Universidad de California - Davis

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Karen Macours

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Desarrollo rural en América Latina - Juan Moreno Procasur

View more PowerPoint from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Share it!

That's Christmas: Prepare Now for Christmas in July Events, says Pun...

That's Christmas: Prepare Now for Christmas in July Events, says Pun...: While carols, eggnog and Santa Claus are still over half a year away, for many PR people...

Touchline Video Ltd Brings First HD Video Conferencing Products to the UK

Major Videoconferencing Provider, ZTE to enter UK Market

Touchline Video UK Ltd, has today launched the first of its Partner,
ZTE’s new high-definition video conferencing solutions into the UK
market. The ZTE T700 4MX and T700 8MX video conferencing systems provide
superior call quality and outstanding visual communication for small to

Genocidal Judaism Let Off Again

“when we come upon a non-Jew who is not keeping the seven [Noahide] laws, and we kill him out of concern for the keeping of the seven laws, it is not prohibited.” 

Charges Unlikely for Advocates of Killings

Haaretz

May 25, 2012

[Israeli] Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is tending toward not prosecuting the author or endorsers of the controversial book “Torat Hamelech,” Haaretz has learned.

The book, written in 2009 by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira and Rabbi Yosef Elitzur, was endorsed by two other rabbis, Yitzhak Ginzburg and Dov Lior. The authors describe it as a discussion of Jewish law on the conditions under which it is permissible to kill a non-Jew in times of war and peace.

The book’s publication led to the launch of a criminal investigation against the four rabbis for incitement to racism and violence.

According to one [of many genocidal] statement[s] in the book, “when we come upon a non-Jew who is not keeping the seven [Noahide] laws, and we kill him out of concern for the keeping of the seven laws, it is not prohibited.”

Weinstein is expected to explain that he is basing his decision on limiting the use of criminal law as a tool to deal with offenses involving freedom of expression, particularly in light of the fact that the statements were made as part of a religious tract, as general statements, and the book mentions neither the word “Arab” nor the word “Palestinian.”
http://forward.com/articles/156865/charges-unlikely-for-advocates-of-killings/

 Also see:

The REAL Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow

"Noahide" Thought for the Day

Kosher-Catholic Paulist Press Pushes "Noahide" Fraud 

Tesco Uses Nolio to Reduce Application Release Time to Hours

End-to end application
deployment automation by leading retailer is latest example of Nolio's
success in cloud and virtualised environments

Nolio, a leading provider of application release automation software today announced that Tesco,
a leading $40b global retailer, has adopted Nolio ASAP as its standard
solution for application release automation across Tesco.com. Nolio ASAP
will be

Actix’s LTE Solution Wins at Telecoms.com LTE Awards 2012

Actix, a world class leader in mobile network analytics and optimization, has won a Telecoms.com LTE Award 2012
for its LTE Network Acceptance solution. Beating 38 entrants, the Actix
solution was recognised as a unique and exceptional network product
with a proven ability to measure true LTE performance in real-world
conditions.


Actix LTE Acceptance
supports the majority of

Highly-regulated industries benefit from easy-to-access, real-time management dashboards

Award-winning business intelligence dashboard software author, Intuitive Business Intelligence, (www.intuitivebusinessintelligence.com) today announces a strategic partnership with Ideagen PLC, (www.ideagenplc.com),
a market-leading UK and USA based software company specialising in
information and compliance management solutions for

Invoice Finance and Factoring Buoyed by Recent Research

Representatives at Target Business Assist are currently revelling at the news that the invoice factoring
industry has been given a massive lift. As is being reported in much of
the mainstream media, invoice finance is becoming an increasingly
dominant source of working capital funding. Demica published their
findings last week and it has provided some rare joy for those connected
with

Another Judaic Papal Knight Joins the Ranks

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte with Dr. Victor Goldbloom, November 16, 2005. (Note Turcotte's hidden pectoral cross)

Dr. Victor Goldbloom is an executive chairman of the Canadian Jewish Congress which was exposed for having propped up phony 'Nazis' in Canada in the 1960's which Victor Goldbloom and his cronies then used to intimidate the Canadian government and justify hate legislation.

Dr. Goldbloom is a pediatrician and politician who worked as a Liberal party Member of the National Assembly of Quebec at the time that Canada's Liberal party introduced legalized abortion into North America. His wife, Sheila Goldbloom is also a strong advocate of abortion on demand.

When Canadian politician Camil Samson, outraged by the acquittal of bolshevik abortionist Dr. Henry Morgantaler, aptly noted the irony that Canadians had gone to war to save 'Jews' and that Judaic doctors thanked them by terminating the lives of Canadian babies, Dr. Goldbloom led the political lynch mob against him.

Dr. Goldbloom  is also a veteran Judaizer of Christians under the euphemism of 'dialogue.'

Pope to honour interfaith pioneer Goldbloom

Janice Arnold - The Canadian Jewish News

May 21, 2012

MONTREAL — Dr. Victor Goldbloom is being recognized by the Vatican for his lifelong leadership in promoting Catholic-Jewish relations.

Goldbloom, a pioneer in interfaith dialogue locally, nationally and internationally, will receive the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Sylvester Pope and Martyr, to be bestowed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Established in 1905, it’s one of five Orders of Knighthood awarded directly by the pope as head of the Catholic Church and as head of the State of Vatican City.

Goldbloom is among a minority of non-Catholics and small number of Jews worldwide to be so honoured, and he joins the ranks of such noteworthy and diverse members as German industrialist Oskar Schindler, credited with saving more than 1,000 Jews during the Holocaust; entertainer Bob Hope; Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, and Archduke Otto von Habsburg, crown prince of Austria and Hungary.

Goldbloom, 88, was recommended by the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism, an independent Montreal-based organization encouraging inter-church and interfaith dialogue.

“This is an extremely rare honour, normally reserved for ambassadors,” said the centre’s executive director, Anthony Mansour.

“As far as I know, Dr. Goldbloom is the first Jewish Canadian to receive the honour, and among a handful of Canadians of any faith. He is the first non-Christian in the history of the Archdiocese of Montreal and Quebec to have the papal honour conferred upon him.”

The recommendation was approved by the new Catholic Archbishop of Montreal Christian Lépine and officially announced at a reception held at his residence May 10. Also present were Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Dowd.

Announced concurrently was the awarding to Father Irénée Beaubien, 96, the centre’s founder in 1963, of the Pontifical Medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Father Beaubien and Goldbloom, a board member of the centre, are pioneers in combating misunderstanding between Catholics, especially francophones, and Jews in Quebec. They will formally be decorated Sept. 4 at a gala dinner at Federation CJA’s Gelber Conference Centre, which will benefit the centre.

The choice of award, Bishop Dowd noted, was recommended by the Vatican.
“It is appropriate, because what is an ambassador? It is someone who knows where he is from and is faithful to it, but is open to dialogue with another community.”

Goldbloom said his interfaith work began more than 50 years ago, when he was “an ordinary practising pediatrician with no experience in inter-religious relations” and came into contact with the Jesuit fathers who were then the faculty of what was Loyola College.

“It challenged me to know my own religion better and to talk about it with those who did not know it,” he recalled.

Early on, Goldbloom advocated that the Jewish community must dialogue with the majority in Quebec, and must be able to do so in French. Among the many friendships he made, one Goldbloom cherishes is with Cardinal Turcotte, who retired as archbishop in March.

Goldbloom remembered the archbishop’s participation in a Yom Kippur service at Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom some years ago.

Turcotte sat between Goldbloom and Rabbi Leigh Lerner. As is customary, they placed a tallit over the shoulders of their guest as an amicable gesture.

“That was one of the most moving moments of my life,” Goldbloom said.

Venerable David Oliver, the Anglican chair of the centre’s board, noted the historical significance of a Christian and a Jew being honoured at the same Sept. 4 event. It marks the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, which radically transformed the Catholic Church’s relationship with other faiths.

“Leading up to the Council, it was men like Father Beaubien and Dr. Goldbloom, often working against opposition from within their own religious communities, who paved the way,” Oliver said.

“They are two Quebecers, two Canadians, two men of faith who helped shape the open and tolerant society we enjoy today. Every generation that follows owes them a debt of gratitude for their courage, perseverance and unwavering commitment to dialogue as the path to peace and reconciliation.”

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?q=node/90063

Also see:

The Vatican's Knight Defenders of the Talmud 

One More Papal Knight Defender of the Talmud Joins the Battalion 

B'nai B'rith Papal Knight Rabbi Leon Klenicki Recommends 'Noahide' Tome

Papal Rabbi-Knight David Rosen Wants to Change What Christians Believe About the Pharisees

H.R. 4133, the United States-'Israel' Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, Passed 411 Yeas, 2 Nays

See:

House Passes Stealth Legislation

The Senate version of this legislation (S. 2165) is sponsored by Barbara Boxer and Johnny Isakson.

Also see:

"Netanyahu is More Powerful than the President." "The Congress has Sold Out to AIPAC"

The Rabbinic Foundation of Netanyahu's Messianic Lunacy Further Revealed 

Wall Street Mob Bankrolls Netanyahu Apprentice, "Representative" Eric Cantor

Hillary Clinton: Liberate the economic potential of rural women to fight hunger and poverty

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been speaking out about gender equality in the international arena since at least 1995, when she delivered a forceful message on women’s rights as human rights at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. So it was no surprise that the rights of rural women figured prominently in her remarks last week at the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security.

Webcast image of Hillary Clinton speaking at 18 May
symposium in Washington, DC.

Organized by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and held in Washington, DC, the symposium preceded this year’s G8 summit of world leaders. It provided a forum for high-level discussions of sustainable agricultural development and the setting for President Barack Obama’s announcement of a G8 initiative – the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition – which aims to reduce hunger and lift 50 million rural people out of poverty in the next decade. 

Secretary Clinton’s speech at the event covered a range of issues on investing in global agriculture to solve the problems of malnutrition and extreme poverty. Perhaps its most passionate section dealt with the largely untapped potential of rural women to help feed the world, a topic that is also central to IFAD’s recently adopted gender policy. Excerpts from the Clinton speech follow.


I’m sure it’s no surprise to anyone that I am convinced women are critical to our success in every field of endeavour. And this is not a matter of sentiment or personal interest on my part. This is also actually a fact-based, evidence-based statement. It has been said that the modern face of hunger is often a woman’s face, because in many parts of the world, women still eat last and eat least.

The face of a farmer is often a woman’s face as well. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, women comprise nearly half of the agricultural workforce across Africa. So if we want to support farmers, we also have to support women farmers. And that is not something that happens automatically. It has to be part of a deliberate, determined strategy that takes gender equality into account across everything we are doing.

And the results speak for themselves. The FAO estimates that if women farmers had the same access to productive resources as men – seeds, credit, insurance, land title, and so on – they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 per cent. And that, in turn, could raise total agricultural output so much it could reduce the number of hungry people worldwide by up to 150 million.

Now the obstacles that stand in the way of women’s equal access to resources in agriculture or anything else are, unfortunately, formidable. They include laws, deeply held traditions, lack of information, plain old inertia, and we have to overcome each and every one of them. We can’t just hope that women get the support they need as a side effect of our work. We have to push for it. And it’s not optional. It’s not marginal. It’s not a luxury. It’s not expendable. It happens to be essential, or we will never reach our goals….

When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of communities, nations and the world.

Commercial Printers Backing England in Euro 2012

There’s even more reason now
to cheer on England in Euro 2012 after Graphics and Print, the award
winning Telford based commercial printers, announced a special offer to
its customers. If England win the championships which begin on Friday, 8
June 2012, the commercial printers are offering refunds on orders
placed during June, subject to certain terms and conditions.

Managing Director,

First-Ever World Risk Day June 26 Attracts Industry-Leading Supporters

The June 26th awareness day
will include a global Virtual Summit with risk experts to address best
practices and real world examples for CFOs, risk professionals and
project professionals

World Risk Day,
the first-ever awareness day focused on how taking smarter risks drives
corporate strategy, improves business confidence, and grows profits,
has received the support of several leading

Freedom to Achieve Your Application Potential: IBM Impact Day 3 General Session

It was another fun filled day 3 in Las Vegas NV at IBM Impact. The general session began at 8:30am Pacific time and the host of the show was Don McMillan who holds a diversified portfolio, he is technology comedian and engineer who engages the audience by telling them about IT terms in the funniest way.

He then invited Rod Smith, VP Emerging technologies at IBM to talk about the next wave of computing and how it’s changing the way we live and work. Smith said that Emerging technologies are enabling new types of applications for multiple channels including mobile, social and cloud. He mentioned that in IBM alone there are 12000 employees using mobile to access different applications

. 

“Every month people send one billion tweets and post 30 billion messages on Facebook. Mobile Application have become fluid and can be adjusted to user context based on device, time and location” said Smith emphasizing on faster applications development saying time to value is the key factor.

Professor John Taplin from University of South California came next on stage and talked about his team collaboration with IBM and LA times. He mentioned Arab Upspring and how an Egyptian student used IBM software to find which words are being tweeted.

Jane Mcgonial, technology expert talked about her research on gaming and its huge impact on our lives. She said that there are over 1 billion gamers on the planet playing at least one hour every day. Mcgonial also shared part of her research saying that games have positive impact on children battling cancers. She also engages participants in multi player thumb wrestling game which broke the record with 8000 participants.

Breth Smith, VP IBM talk about new era of messaging. Smith said that phones have become personal ids and would soon become corporate ids that would tell us where we are and that one device will soon become everything. She emphasized on need for a collaborative lifecycle for faster response time which she says require new processes and business models for a new era.

Jerry Cuomo, CTO Websphere then came on stage to show the principles of SOA and its new capabilities. He mentioned the case of Acme Airlines and how did they have collaborated with IBM for extending APIs to developers and expand mobile apps to be engaging.

Breth Smith VP IBM then made announcements about the latest versions of DataPower, MQ and WAS 8.5. She said that DataPower new version offers extended security exercises over the enterprise level and that the latest version of MQ provides managed file transfer and advanced messaging security. The new WAS 8.5 has built in application management capabilities including, intelligent routing and dynamic clustering. She also said that IBM is 16% faster than Oracle in equivalent hardware.

Kevin Steele, Senior Director Technology at Cars.com introduced his company starting with a short documentary. He said that his company employs 1000 people nationwide including 140 IT professionals. Steele said that his company was facing frequent outages and issues regarding system monitoring capabilities and hence they worked with IBM. Omnibus solution helped Cars.com get data from logs and fix system performance management tools. IBM technology enabled his company to improve scalability, speed and reliability.

In the end IBM Fellow and CTO Jerry Cuomo invited other presenters to play a virtual game with their handheld devices. Later on Don McMillan ended the session with announcements about the coming impact sessions.

Following Royal Cyber on Twitter and Facebook will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere Commerce. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts. Know more about Royal Cyber Fusion 

Engage, Extend, and Succeed: IBM Impact Day 2 General Session

It was a fun filled day two at IBM Impact 2012 general session here in Las Vegas. The show began at 8:30am Pacific time, the host of the show was Katie Linendoll who is an Emmy award winning tech expert, Tech show host at Spike TV and a regular CNN guest commentator.

She began the show with a brief documentary and later introduced Mr. Johan Gerber Senior Business Leader of Fraud Management Solutions for MasterCard Worldwide. Johan told the audience about his company and said that MasterCard does not actually issue the cards but they are a technology company providing network link to consumers, businesses and card issuers. They provided powerful endorsement to IBM saying that they have implemented IBM Decision Management and message handling platform within their network for fraud detection.  

Gerber left the stage with an innovative video about the future of shopping.

The second speaker of the session was Steve Mills who focused on transaction processing and said that IBM has a long history in managing transactions, helping corporation worldwide manage structure and execution of transactions in complex environments. He also provided the examples of Marriott Hotel, China Mobile and Sprint who are using IBM platform for faster delivery.

Steve also introduced the audience to IBM Websphere Transaction Cluster Facility v1.1 with scalable transaction processing capabilities built keeping in view the criticalities of millions of transactions that occurs every day. Steve also called this server facility as nothing else like it in the world today.

Steve said that IBM continues to invest in its transaction processing capabilities so companies can take gains of modularity and agility of SOA. He also sees a meticulous focus on integrating mobile, big data and in-line analytics to the cloud deployment and social media. In the end of his speech he announced Ace Award Program winners and thanked customers, business partners and the audience for their business.

Katie Linendoll introduced the next story, The Ottawa Hospital where they have implemented mobility with iPad devices and unifying processes in health care through a single console providing doctors with all the patient history for better patient management.

The next speaker was Phil Gilbert, the VP of BPM and Decision Management at IBM who presented the demonstration IBM Decision Center and Business Process Manager Version 8 showing the new collaborative, social, redesigned decision management interface. He said that BPM mobile application is also available on iTunes store.

BodyMedia came up next to talk about their new body sensing device and the associated decision management system. The solution involves an arm band with four embedded sensors reading 5000 data points per minute.

Bob Suter of IBM came next to introduce IBM Mobile Foundation suite. He discussed that mobile buzz is everywhere and that people are incorporating mobile into their business for secure transactions, manageability and security. He said that services are available to help companies get started in 60 days.

Lastly VP IBM Global Bridget Van Kralingen, one of 50 most powerful women in business talked about IBM social business and concluded the session.

Following Royal Cyber on Twitter and Facebook will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts.

Dynamics of Technological Business from the eyes of Walter Isaacson: IBM Impact Day 1 General Session

IBM Impact 2012 opening session begins here in Las Vegas at 8:15am Pacific time in the midst of scattered clouds. The session started with an introductory video on IBM Pure Systems, a new IBM product helping people globally improve their lives with the power of IT.  Power Systems can access, deploy and manage applications.

 The first speaker of the session was Walter Isaacson who is the is the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy studies institute based in Washington, DC. He has been the chairman and CEO of CNN and the editor of TIME magazine and is the author of several biographies on Steve Jobs, Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger.

Much of his speech was inspired by Steve Jobs and his passion for innovation. The presenter shared many of the sayings by Steve Jobs, he shared that once steve told him that most important thing is not making a great product but creating a great company. He described innovation, creativity, inspiration, and imaginative people as the ones who change the world.  “There are lots of smart people but not so many innovative people; and innovative people change the world” Isaacson said.

He added that for Steve Jobs, the greatest lesson was that you need to have passion for your product.

Steve Jobs had extremely strong leadership skills and throughout his career he motivated his team to achieve what was not achievable by them. “Anybody can make things complex; only a genius can make it simple” Isaacson quoted Steve Jobs. iPod was created with the same idea to make it simple for the consumers to hear music. If you want to be innovative you need to have passion for curiosity.

The second speaker of the event was Alan Douville from Whirlpool who begins his session with video and introductory words about his company, he shared how whirlpool innovate and collaborate with IBM for effective consumer and customer engagements. Other speakers include Steve George from Huntington Bank, Chief architect of Pure Application System Jason and Peter Haffernan from Ireland.

During the session, IBM launches six new products in the Websphere family including Websphere Application Server version 8.5 which it named Liberty, IBM Mobile Foundation suite with Mobile End point’s manager that can support up to 250,000 end points, Business Process Manager, MQ and Cast Iron Live that allows developers to create new APIs in few clicks.

IBM also launches Pure Application System that can be up and running in 4 hours.

In the end, IBM thanked its customers, sponsors and 1300 business partners who have attended the opening session of Impact 2012. They have also awarded best business partners, award finalists and best of show award winner.

Following Royal Cyber on Twitter and Facebook will keep you plugged, into the latest news & happenings about WebSphere. You can also keep a check on this blog for more posts by our WebSphere experts.